Category Archives: Alumni

Saturday: Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Tournament and Benefit

The 2012 Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Tournament kicks off Saturday morning at 8:45 AM at South Sound Stadium and surrounding soccer fields at Chinook Middle School. Soccer alumni of Black Hills, Capital, North Thurston, Olympia, River Ridge, Shelton/Yelm, Timberline and Tumwater High Schools will come together for this unique tournament in honor of Mia Deligeannis with proceeds going to families fighting childhood cancer. The day culminates with the championship game at 4:15 PM at South Sound Stadium and then moves to Faith Community Center for a post tournament party and benefit auction.

The schedule of games looks like this…

Pool Play

8:45 AM: River Ridge vs Timberline, Black Hills vs Olympia, Capital vs Tumwater, North Thurston vs Shelton/Yelm

10:15 AM: Tumwater vs Olympia, River Ridge vs North Thurston, Black Hills vs Capital, Shelton/Yelm vs Timberline

11:45 AM: Timberline vs North Thurston, Tumwater vs Black Hills, Capital vs Olympia, River Ridge vs Shelton/Yelm

Following pool play, there will be two semifinal games with game one starting at 1:15 PM and game two at 2:15. The finals kick off at 4:15 PM. The semis and final will all be played at South Sound Stadium.

Following the championship game, the party moves over to Faith Community Center at 7075 Pacific Ave. SE for the post tournament party and benefit. Everybody is welcome for a night of drinks, desserts, pizza available from Ricardo’s Wood Fired Express, dancing and a silent and live auction with proceeds benefiting Friends of Mia.

Oly Sports will be at the tournament all day and will be tweeting results and pictures, so please follow @OlySportsBlog for all the highlights from the inaugural Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Tournament.

Baseball alumni update: Conley still dealing

20120513-215711.jpgOlympia High School graduate and second round pick Adam Conley has been impressive in his first full season in professional baseball. Conley has made seven starts for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, single-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, and has posted a 3-0 record with a 2.23 ERA. More impressively, Conley has only given up earned runs in three of his seven starts and his ERA is only that high because of one bad outing on April 28th against the West Virginia Power when he gave up six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. Otherwise, Conley has given up just three earned runs and has struck out 43 batters in 36 1/3 innings.

In Appleton, River Ridge alum Seth Harvey has emerged as the Wisconsin Timber Rattler’ primary closer saving seven of the 13 games in which he has appeared. He is 2-0 on the season with a 2.40 ERA and has struck out 22 batters in 15 innings and has allowed just three walks for the Milwaukee Brewers’ single-A affiliate.

20120513-220614.jpgOlympia’s Kramer Champlin has pitched in eight games of relief for the Lansing Lugnuts, single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, and has posted a 2-1 record with a 3.72 ERA. In 19 1/3 innings, Champlin has struck out 17 batters and walked five. Unfortunately, he has also given up 21 hits and has allowed an earned run or more in all but three of his eight games and is currently on the seven day disabled list.

Two more alumni kick of their seasons this week in the independent Frontier League. Joash Brodin is in his fourth Frontier League season with the brand new London Rippers. The switch hitting first baseman out of North Thurston travels to Marion, Illinois to take on the Southern Illinois Miners on Friday night.

And Tumwater’s Ryan Bean recently signed to pitch for the Florence Freedom. The Freedom open at home against the Traverse City Beach Bums on Thursday. Bean was a 17th round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants in 2010 but was released in Spring Training.

Photo credits:
Adam Conley – Dano Keeney/MiLB.com
Kramer Champlin – Flickr user whitecapwendy

Also tonight (5/11): Reign host Soldiers

The Olympia Reign return to the Skookum Creek Events Center at Little Creek Casino to face the Salem Soldiers. The Reign are 1-4 on the season while the Soldiers are 1-1.

The Soldiers’ Chehales Tapscott leads the International Basketball League in scoring with 30 points per game and Cory Largent is fourth with 22.5 ppg. The Reign are led by River Ridge grad Giovanne Woods and former Evergreen guard Mike Ward who are each scoring 18.4 points per game.

Tip-off is at 7:00 PM.

Quick links: Klemm, Brown, Weyand, Fairchild, Bean and O’Connell

Morgan Klemm named All-West region second team – SMUSaints.com

Meet Olympia’s Tyler Brown, 15 years-old and playing hockey in Canada – ThurstonTalk.com

Really interesting profile of Tumwater’s German soccer sensation, Kevin Weyand – The Olympian

Oly’s Michael Fairchild honors Crandall Field namesake – The Olympian

Tumwater’s Ryan Bean signs to play baseball for the independent Florence Freedom – Florence Freedom

Emmett O’Connell has an interesting look at Olympia’s minor league baseball stadium in the early 1900’s – Olympia Time

Tumwater’s Matt Johnson drafted by Cowboys

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2007 Tumwater High School graduate Matt Johnson was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round of the NFL Draft today. The safety out of Eastern Washington is the first player from Tumwater to be drafted. Meg Wochnick at The Olympian has the full story with reaction from Johnson himself.

Here is what Twitter had to say…

https://twitter.com/#!/dallascowboys/status/196297495763095553

https://twitter.com/#!/Matt_Johnson5/status/196328792602591232

https://twitter.com/#!/TBirdFootball/status/196301478028251137

https://twitter.com/#!/Tbird_boysbball/status/196394502649430016

https://twitter.com/#!/BigIrishman16/status/196349747815129088

https://twitter.com/#!/gstoney23/status/196389788771815424

Congratulations to Matt and you can bet that Oly Sports will keep you updated on his progress.

Photo credit: EWU Athletics

Quick links: Bryant to UW; Rise to Oly; More

Tumwater’s Jaimie Bryant verbally commits to play football for the Huskies. – The Olympian

New semi-pro basketball team scheduled to play in Olympia. – ABA Live

The always energetic Anne Larson has a profile of Olympia soccer players Evan Munn and Jamison Corbin – Thurston Talk

Washington State University coaches Mike Leach and June Daugherty and athletic director Bill Moos will be at Saint Martin’s tonight. – Register here

Miami Marlins fan blog gives their take on Olympia’s Adam Conley – Fish Tales

Speaking of Conley, his wife Kendall has a blog about their time in Greensboro this season – Kendall Conley

Friday scoreboard: Slam spoils Reign’s casino opener

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International Basketball League

Bellingham Slam 133, Olympia Reign 104

Saint Martin’s alum Blake Poole scored 15 points and brought down 13 rebounds and the Saints’ Jeremy Green added 15 points to help the Bellingham Slam to a 133-104 spoiling of the Olympia Reign’s debut at the Skookum Creek Events Center at the Little Creek Casino. Three former Evergreen Geoducks – Mike Ward, Marcus Wright and Nick Moore – led the way for the Reign scoring 20, 13 and 12 points respectively.

The two teams battled back and forth for the first seven minutes of the game and Ward’s field goal at the 5:06 mark gave the Reign a 15-12 lead. The Slam then went on a 17-2 run to close out the first quarter and never allowed the Reign to get within eight points again.

Up 63-51 at halftime, the Slam reeled off the first seven points of the second half to take a 19 point lead. The Reign had one breath of life left cutting a 22 point lead to just 12 in the third quarter but the Slam outscored the Reign 46-29 over the last 13 minutes of the game to give themselves the easy victory.

Bellingham was led by Ira Graham’s 27 points and six rebounds. Morris Anderson added 26 points and seven boards. Paul Hafford chipped in 18 points and Michael Duty scored another 15.

Ward scored 18 points for the Reign in the first half but was held to just one basket in the final 24 minutes of play. River Ridge’s Giovanne Woods scored 11 points while Chris Weakley and Jacob Manning added ten points each for Olympia. Ex-Timberline Blazer and Geoduck superstar Nate Menefee looked rusty in scoring just six points on 1-for-8 shooting after arriving part way into the first quarter. The NAIA All-American averaged over 26 points for the Reign last season.

The Olympia Reign have over a week to work out the kinks and will travel to the 212 Sports Complex in Clackamas, Oregon on Saturday, April 28th to take on the Portland Chinooks. They return to Little Creek on Tuesday, May 1st when they play host to the Vancouver Volcanoes at 7:00 PM.

High school baseball

Tumwater 1, Aberdeen 0
Black Hills 4, River Ridge 3
Gig Harbor 6, Capital 3
Ocosta 5, Northwest Christian 4

High school softball

Tumwater 7, Aberdeen 0

Today (4/20): Reign open against Slam

The 2012 International Basketball League season kicks off tonight when the Olympia Reign hosts the Bellingham Slam in their new home at the Skookum Creek Events Center at the Little Creek Casino.

The game features a slew of former Saint Martin’s and Evergreen basketball players including the Geoducks’ Nate Menefee, Mike Ward, Marcus Whitaker and Nicholas Moore for the Reign and former Saints Blake Poole and Jeremy Green for the Slam.

Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 Players Club members and children 12 under are free. And the Skookum Creek Events Center will feature something that the Reign have never been able to offer before at their home games, a beer garden open for fans 21 and over.

Read more about the Reign’s opener in The Olympian’s preview. The Olympian also had a feature about Blake Poole yesterday that is worth a read.

Quick Links: Saints, Saints and more Saints (and some other stuff too)

Capital baseball coach Eric Stark to resign after the season. – The Olympian

Good read about Saints softball sensation (aliteration!) Morgan Klemm. – The Olympian

Another really good read about the set of sisters playing for Saint Martin’s softball. – SMUSaints.com

And another Saint Martin’s athlete, thrower Sam Washington, is featured on SMUSaints.com

Tumwater’s Carly McIsaac has signed to play hoops for Oregon Tech. – Cascade Collegiate Conference

Two Central Kitsap athletes are heading to Saint Martin’s. Krista Stabler was the 4A Narrows League MVP in basketball and Josh Sontag will play baseball. – Kitsap Sun Prep Beat Blog

You can vote for Saint Martin’s Blake Poole to be the ProB League player of the year by just clicking like on his photo on the league’s Facebook page. – ProB League Facebook

Alumni update: Conley off to a dominant start

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Olympia High School’s Adam Conley picked up the win for single-A Greensboro yesterday, pitching six innings, allowing just one unearned run on two hits while striking out eight and walking only one Lakewood BlueClaws batter. The 2011 second round draft pick by the Miami Marlins out of Washington State is now 2-0 and hasn’t allowed an earned run in his two starts for the Grasshoppers. Minor League baseball has taken notice and Conley was featured in this story on MiLB.com yesterday.

River Ridge’s Seth Harvey has made one scoreless relief appearance for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers this season. Milwaukee Brewers blog Reviewing the Brew has an interview with Harvey that is a pretty good read.

And Olympia’s Kramer Champlin is 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in two appearances for the Lansing Lugnuts. Champlin got the win on April 7th against the Great Lakes Loons pitching two scoreless innings but gave up two runs to Dayton last night in a 7-4 Lugnuts win. Despite the runs, Champlin got the hold and struck out three in his two innings of work.

Photo credit: Dano Keeney/MiLB.com