Category Archives: Olympia Rise
Another one bites the dust: Olympia Rise relocate to Tacoma
Fresh on the heels of the Olympia Reign’s announcement to forgo the 2013 season, the Olympia Rise, a semi-pro basketball team competing in the ABA, announced today that they will be leaving Olympia and will compete as the Tacoma Rise next season. Here is the statement from their Facebook page…
“March 15, 2013 – Olympia, WA – After some long thought, research, and approval from the league, the Olympia Rise has decided to move the team to Tacoma. Evergreen State has been a gracious host and an awesome court to play on. But, due to majority of our players coming from the north and many of our supporters traveling south to see the games. We believe the team may be more successful in Tacoma and everyone would not have to travel so far to see us play. On April 13th, we will travel to the PacNW Championships in Salem representing Olympia. In the next few weeks we will be making some changes and transitioning from the Olympia Rise to the Tacoma Rise.
For those south end supporters that has followed us this year, we do appreciate you and hope that you will still follow us north.
More info coming soon! The Olympia Rise finished our (inaugural)regular season at 6-8. We are headed to the PacNW tourney as the #2 seed. Not bad for our 1st year! Stay tuned…”
The move of the Rise comes as no big surprise. General Manager Chris Reynolds told me before the season that they originally wanted to play in Lakewood but were beaten to the punch by another owner that eventually started the Lakewood Panthers. Without the home they wanted, they had to scramble to find another available market and settled on Olympia. But the Rise practiced in Tacoma, had their fundraiser dinner in Tacoma and for all intents and purposes were a Tacoma based team except for their name, logo and home venue.
Honestly, I cannot say that losing the Rise to Tacoma is much of a loss. They made no attempt to really be a part of the Olympia market, drew small crowds and were generally anonymous in the Olympia area. Most people would be surprised they even existed.
Also, given the ABA’s extremely poor track record in other cities, it’s remarkable that the Rise will leave Olympia without doing any damage. They will leave with the bills paid, assuming Evergreen got paid for the gym rental and no major sponsors or ticket holders left behind because of their move.
What is disappointing is that yet another semi-pro team comes and goes from the Olympia landscape without ever really giving an effort to promote or ingratiate themselves to this city or attempt to develop any kind of following. Will there ever be somebody in Olympia that can actually operate a minor league franchise? That remains to be seen.
I personally know someone that can or at least will give it everything he has to be successful: he can be reached at olysportsblog@gmail.com.
Sunday scoreboard: Saints drop pair of twinbills; Sabres stop Rise
College baseball
Montana State Billings 10, Saint Martin’s 1
Montana State Billings 5, Saint Martin’s 3 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
College softball
Western Oregon 6, Saint Martin’s 2
Western Oregon 4, Saint Martin’s 3 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
American Basketball Association
Salem Sabres 122, Olympia Rise 114
Today (3/10): Saints baseball hosts Yellowjackets; Rise home finale
College baseball
Saint Martin’s vs. Montana State Billings (DH) – SMU Baseball Field – Noon
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise vs. Salem Sabres – CRC Gymnasium – 4:00 PM
Sunday scoreboard: Two walk offs and a buzzer beater
College baseball
Saint Martin’s 6, Concordia 5
Saint Martin’s 1, Concordia 0 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
Lucas Besel and Alex Bielaski each drove in the walk off game winning run to give Saint Martin’s a two game Sunday sweep over Concordia for their first wins of the season.
Chandler Tracy went 4-for-4 with a pair of RBI in game one while Bobby Twedt went 1-for-3 and scored the game winner in game two.
Anthony Klonitsko got the win in game one pitching two scoreless innings of relief work. Brendan Jeffers combined with Chase DeCoito for the shutout in game two. Jeffers pitched six innings giving up just six hits but the decision went to DeCoito.
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise 113, Kitsap Admirals 112
Marcus Whittaker’s buzzer beating three pointer gave the Olympia Rise a 113-112 win over the Kitsap Admirals at the CRC Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon.
The Rise have now won four straight games.
Today (3/3): Beautiful day for baseball; Rise face Kitsap
College baseball
Saint Martin’s vs. Concordia (DH) – Saints Field – 11:00 AM
Olympic vs. Grays Harbor (DH) – The RAC – 12:00 PM
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise vs. Kitsap Admirals – CRC Gymnasium – 4:00 PM
Sunday scoreboard: Shock win title; Rise knock off Gymrats; Saints baseball falls in Arizona
PASL Northwest Division championship
South Sound Shock 7, Kitsap Pumas 4 – Photo gallery
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise 115, Shizuoka Gymrats 78
College baseball
Grand Canyon 5, Saint Martin’s 4 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
Today (2/17): Shock play for title; Rise host Japanese squad; Underground Derby love
PASL Northwest championship game
South Sound Shock vs. Kitsap Pumas – Gig Harbor Athletic Club – 1:00 PM
The Tacoma based South Sound Shock, who split their regular season home games between Gig Harbor and Tumwater this season, take on the Kitsap Pumas with an opportunity to head to San Diego to play for the PASL title on the line. You can follow the action on the Oly Sports Twitter feed.
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise vs. Shizuoka Gymrats – CRC Gymnasium – 4:00 PM
Roller Derby
Underground Derby Battle of Love – Skateland! – 6:00 PM
Sunday scoreboard: Rise stop Rampage
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise 121, Washington Rampage 113
Patrick Lewis scored 34 points and Justin Artis added 22 in the Olympia Rise’s 121-113 win over the Washington Rampage at the CRC Gymnasium. Marcus Whitaker added 19 points for the Rise.
Today (1/27): Rise and Rampage
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise vs. Washington Rampage – CRC Gymnasium – 4:00 PM
Today (1/20): Rise host Mountaineers
American Basketball Association
Olympia Rise vs. Seattle Mountaineers – CRC Gymnasium – 4:00 PM
Oly Sports 