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When facing Mount Vernon Christian, it’s usually a case of La Conner High’s volleyball team having to weather the storm. But not this time around. La Conner swept the Lady Hurricanes in a blowout last Tuesday, then crushed Concrete in similar fashion two nights later to remain undefeated in conference play. The Lady Braves routed Mount Vernon Christian 25-4, 25-8, 25-8 behind a strong service game. Our serving was tough for them to handle,” La Conner head coach Suzanne Marble said of the Lady Hurricanes afterward. “Mount Vernon Christi...
La Conner High was more than a cut above the Darrington Loggers on Friday. The Braves were actually well past the tree line – in uncharted territory, so to speak – as they stumped many longtime sideliners as to whether La Conner’s 75-0 home drubbing of the rebuilding Loggers set new school football marks. The hosts, with Killer B’s Budda Luna and Brady Nelson leading the way, were credited with 503 yards rushing on the night’s initial stat sheet. That total could be a new La Conne...
Home sweet dome. That’s the atmosphere the La Conner High volleyball team has come to expect from its frequent visits to the Yakima Sun Dome. Last weekend was no exception. The Lady Braves returned from the site of many of the program’s biggest triumphs having won invaluable confidence going forward as result of placing in the Top 12 of a hyper-competitive early season tournament. The Yakima bracket featured teams from the 2A through 4A ranks in addition to La Conner, which placed second in the 2B State tourney at Yakima last November. “It...
The La Conner Braves are now truly a 50-50 team. In a good way, that is. La Conner topped the 50-point mark for the second time in as many games by drubbing non-conference foe Coupeville 53-6 in an impressive home debut at Whittaker Field on Friday. The Braves were coming off an equally convincing 56-14 victory at Friday Harbor the week before. The two non-contests followed a similar pattern. In each case, La Conner dominated play up front — able to impose its will in the run game while on...
It was smooth sailing to Friday Harbor last week for the La Conner High football team. Once there, things also went swimmingly well for the Braves. La Conner opened its 2016 grid season with a convincing 56-14 league triumph over the hosts, making a winner of new Braves head coach Peter Voorhees in his NW2B debut. “We played real physical,” Voorhees told “La Conner Weekly News” afterward. “We dominated the line of scrimmage, and our kids played with a lot of passion.” That passion, said Voorhees, surfaced at Friday Harbor, even on rare occasion...
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s the mantra of the silver medalist La Conner High volleyball team, which despite the loss to graduation of six seniors — Skagit Valley College newcomer Kamea Luna, among them — is again part of the State 2B title conversation. A big part, it turns out. The buzz this time around is about La Conner’s power game at the net, one the Lady Braves unveiled during a whirlwind summer camp and tournament schedule. “We have some big h...
The La Conner High football team will have its work cut out for it on Labor Day weekend. The Braves, under new head coach Peter Voorhees, open the 2016 grid campaign on the road against NW2B rival Friday Harbor. Kickoff for the much-anticipated Sept. 2 pairing is set for 6:30 p.m. Voorhees previously served as offensive coordinator under former La Conner mentor Johnny Lee, who stepped down last summer after having led the Braves to five straight post-season appearances. Lee compiled a 50-19 mark at La Conner. He left to accept a teaching post...
The games haven’t begun, but one La Conner High team has already made its point. And quite effectively, at that. The school’s cheer squad is ready — more than ready, actually — to work the sidelines this fall and winter. The key word here is work. This, after a busy, rather than lazy, summer in which La Conner cheerleaders scored points with judges during fast-paced training sessions on the Central Washington University campus. Two team members — captain Zanetta Cayou and Emma...
As she slides into her role as La Conner Schools interim superintendent, Peg Seeling has one final task to tackle as district athletic director. She must conduct interviews to fill a slew of new coaching vacancies at La Conner High. Including her own. Seeling, who has held various coaching posts here since the early 1980s, last month announced she was stepping away from the helm of the Lady Braves softball team, a stint highlighted by a string of State 2B Tournament berths through 2015. Seeling was honored on her “retirement” with an out...
Country star Johnny Lee sings about looking for love in all the wrong places. Not so for the La Conner High head football coach of the same name. Braves mentor Johnny Lee has loved his six-year run on the local campus, a stint most agree has been a case of him being the right man in the right place at the right time. Which has made it all the more difficult for coach Lee, 33, to accept a teaching post with the Sedro-Woolley School District starting next fall. “It’s very hard to leave,” Lee,...
The La Conner High girls’ track team made a strong run for the State 2B title in Cheney last week. And freshman Matty Lagerwey, who earlier this year made great strides for the Lady Braves volleyball and basketball teams, was — by leaps and bounds — a top competitor at the Eastern Washington University campus. Lagerwey easily won the gold medal in the long jump at 17’-11”, more than a foot longer than runnerup Maggie Nelson of Liberty-Spangle. And then she ran legs of La Conne...
The La Conner softball team hosted rather than visited league rival Darrington last week, but the day was marked by a splendid Tripp nonetheless. As in Lady Braves pitcher Elizabeth Tripp, who scattered seven hits en route to a tidy 6-5 NW2B triumph for the youthful La Conner club. Tripp was backed by a potent La Conner attack led by third baseman Chloe Fullington, who was two-for-two at the plate with a triple, one run scored, and an RBI. Fullington also made her presence felt on defense. She recorded three putouts and the same number of...
La Conner High thinclads didn’t just compete against bigger schools at the Skagit County Track & Field Championships last week. They also competed against themselves. And came out winners on both scores. The La Conner boys and girls combined to post more than two dozen personal records and win two county titles — and that was just in the first day alone. By meet’s end on Friday, both the Braves and Lady Braves had topped the Century Mark in team points, highlighted by a nice haul of medals from the two-day event at Burlington’s stori...
In a week where La Conner was minus several starters, the Braves still managed to develop pitching depth for the NW2B League title run. Riley Stewart tossed a com-plete game six-hitter in an 8-0 non-league loss Friday to Coupeville that in the strange parlance of baseball can be termed a win-win situation for the Braves. Not only did Stewart eat innings on the hill, giving the top of the La Conner rotation a well-needed rest, but he showed excellent poise and solid potential as a third mound option going forward, La Conner head coach Jeremiah...
La Conner High split a twinbill at Orcas last week but won the game that mattered most. La Conner, behind a three-hit, route-going effort from starting pitcher Max Miller, blanked the hosts 4-0 in the opener of a league doubleheader in which only the results of the first game count in NW2B standings. Orcas came back to win the nightcap 6-2. The Braves on Thursday improved to 2-0 in league action with a second shutout victory, this time by a football-like final score of 29-0. The win at Orcas was indeed a gem. The two clubs were locked in a scor...
Casey at the bat faltered mightily in the famous Ernest Thayer poem. But, in a case of poetic justice for the La Conner High Lady Braves, it was Kahneesha Casey who delivered a big win from the pitcher’s circle in the team’s NW2B opener at Orcas last week. Casey struck out seven Orcas batters while scattering seven hits as La Conner forged a 10-7 triumph in the league game half of a Tuesday afternoon twinbill. Chloe Fullington ignited a La Conner attack that would post double digits three times last week. Fullington was a perfect fou...
Tradition dictated that green be worn, but blue was still the dominant color when La Conner High hosted its first league track meet of the season on St. Patrick’s Day. Blue-clad La Conner teams won both sides of highly competitive NW1B/2B trials, giving head coach Peter Voorhees a distinctly sunny disposition going into the spring campaign. Paced by co-Athlete of the Week Budda Luna, the Braves outdistanced Mount Vernon Christian 173-118 to earn top honors in the boys’ half of the meet. Friday Harbor claimed the team bronze medal with 74 points...
The second half was La Conner’s better half at Shoreline Christian last Friday. The Braves wed clutch perimeter shooting with tough defense after the break to escape with a hard-fought 66-54 NW2B road triumph. Scott Lindeman buried three deep treys and knocked down four free throws in the final stanza en route to a game-high 24-point effort. Lindeman keyed a 20-9 closing spurt for the shorthanded Braves, who played without starting front-liner Budda Luna, sidelined by the flu. Cameron Hansen also finished in double digits for the Braves, t...
Shoreline Christian knew going in that it was a long shot to defeat league-leading La Conner Friday night. Even at home. The odds swung yet further in favor of the Lady Braves when it was La Conner that had its long shots drop both at the start and finish of what turned out to be a very competitive pairing. The Lady Braves, minus injured point guard Kamea Pino, ultimately prevailed 43-27. “We didn’t play our best,” La Conner head coach Scott Novak conceded afterward, “but we came out of it with a win in a tough place to play, and that’s...
She came to La Conner in the 1980s to build upon the foundation laid here for girls athletics. Since then, Peg Seeling has helped raise the roof for all La Conner sports teams. Her work hasn’t gone unnoticed, either locally or around the state. Seeling, who has coached multiple sports while at La Conner Schools, was recently named District One Athletic Director of the Year and will be formally honored during ceremonies in Spokane in late April. District One is a sub-group of the Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association and is composed o...
Lack of depth didn’t keep La Conner High wrestlers from reaching lofty heights in Sultan on Saturday. Two-thirds of La Conner grapplers entered at the elite Sky Valley Invitational Tournament, which drew top wrestling programs — both large and small — from around Puget Sound, returned home with bronze medals. Of course, by two-thirds, we quite literally mean two of three. “We only took three wrestlers down there,” said Braves head coach Barry Harper, “but they all did really well.” Especially Sam Smith and Elijah Adams. Both plac...
School's out for Winter Break, but La Conner High basketball players are still doing their homework. Make that away-from-home work. Most notably, in geography. Since students were dismissed for the holidays, La Conner hoop teams have visited Mount Baker andLangley. They return toWhidbey Islandtoday, Wednesday Dec. 30, for a non-conference twinbill at Coupeville. The Lady Braves tip off at 5:15 p.m. The Braves follow at 7. La Conner has been on the road much of December and won't return to Landy James Gym until Jan. 5 opposite NW2B rival...
The La Conner High girls’ basketball team put on a lot of miles last weekend before stalling out at Nooksack Valley. Fueled by an impressive 62-39 road win over Cedar Park Christian on Friday, the Lady Braves sped to a 24-21 halftime lead Saturday against 1A Nooksack before sputtering late in a 47-40 non-league loss. “I think it was a case of how hard it is to get back-to-back wins on the road as we develop our depth,” La Conner head coach Scott Novak said after the Nooksack game. “We ended up running out of gas a little bit in the second...
It’s never easy winning back-to-back games on the road. Some might call it a longshot, in fact. For the La Conner Braves, that proved doubly true at 1A Nooksack Valley on Saturday. Coming off a near flawless 68-13 romp of NW2B foe Cedar Park Christian the night before, La Conner was poised to pull off that longshot. Trouble was, the Pioneers got there first, thanks to a Hail Mary three-quarters length trey that closed out a wild, wacky first half. The hosts built upon the momentum generated from the desperation heave by Connor Beard — a...
In the end, her players were smiling. And that’s what counts most for NW2B Coach of the Year Amy Freeto, whose Lady Braves placed fourth in State tournament action in Sumner last weekend. La Conner dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 semifinal match to Crosspoint Academy, whom Freeto calls La Conner’s “forever foe,” before falling 6-0 to pre-tourney favorite Adna in the consolation round. “It was not what we intended,” Freeto conceded, “but we’re proud we got there just the same.” She was referring to...
