Northwest Notes October 6, 2010
NIC coaches to
serve at Beverly’s
North Idaho College head coaches, athletic director Al Williams and NIC Booster Club board members will be guest servers at Beverly’s Restaurant at The Coeur d’Alene Resort on Wednesday, Oct. 20 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Meals at the restaurant will be regularly priced, with a portion of the proceeds going toward NIC athletics.
Vandals to host Aggies
on national TV tonight
After back-to-back conference home wins, the Idaho volleyball team will look to continue its winning ways tonight in front of a national television audience against Utah State starting at 7 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to wear black to the match for “Black out the Gym” night at Memorial Gym, with the match to be shown on ESPNU.
The Vandals (8-8, 3-2 WAC), enter the match with a four-game home winning streak. Utah State is 13-3, 1-2.
The match is the Vandals’ first home volleyball match to be broadcast on national TV.
Taylor named WAC volleyball
player of the week
DENVER — Idaho senior Kelsey Taylor, a former Moscow High standout, was named the Western Athletic Conference volleyball player of the week for her work in matches against Boise State in the week of Sept. 27 to Oct. 2.
Taylor hit .439 on the week, with 19 kills and only one error on 41 attempts in two matches against the Broncos. She also led the Vandals with 18 blocks.
Vandal boosters to meet
Thursday at Resort
COEUR d’ALENE — The North Idaho Chapter of Vandal Boosters will meet from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.
Head football coach Robb Akey will be calling in with a team update, along with a question-and-answer session.
A no-host lunch will be available and the meeting is open to the public.
Companies team up to raise
funds for Post Falls High
Ford Motor Company and Lake City Ford are partnering to help raise $6,000 in support of Post Falls High School as part of the Drive One 4 UR School program.
Community members can raise money by test-driving a Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury vehicle on Saturday, Oct. 16 at Post Falls High.
The companies will donate $20 to Post Falls for every person who test drives a new Ford vehicle.
Each test drive lasts approximately five minutes and participants must be 18 or older with a valid driver’s license.
Horizon Air adds plane
with Vandal theme to fleet
Idaho athletic director Rob Spear’s flight options may have just opened up.
It’s been almost a year since Spear declined to board a Horizon Air plane painted in rival Boise State colors, vowing that he would board the plane only after the company painted an aircraft for the Vandals.
On Monday, Spear finally got his wish.
Horizon Air has announced that a Q400 aircraft will be painted in Idaho silver and gold colors. The plane will be available for service in November, a year after Spear made headlines for declining to board the Boise State plane.
In a statement, Spear called the Vandal plane a “bold recognition of Idaho’s flagship university.”
Mathews wins two golds
at Senior Olympics
LAS VEGAS — George Mathews of Hayden Lake took first in the men’s hammer throw and 20-pound weight throw at the Nevada Senior Olympics held over the weekend on the campus of UNLV.
Mathews won the 5k hammer throw with a 65-foot, 9-inch throw and the weight throw with throws of 146 feet and 56-11 1/2. He also placed second in the pentathlon with an all-around score of 3,588 and the shot put at 37-10 1/2.
Gray, Harris on Wooden
Award Watch List
LOS ANGELES — Gonzaga men’s basketball players Steven Gray and Elias Harris have been named to The John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 list, announced Monday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Gray, a senior from Irondale, Wash., and Harris, a sophomore from Speyer, Germany, give the Bulldogs 10 nominees in the history of the award. The Bulldogs have had two John R. Wooden Award top-five recipients: Adam Morrison in 2006 and Dan Dickau in 2002. Blake Stepp was a top 10 All-American in 2004 and Casey Calvary received the same recognition in 2001. Matt Santangelo (2000), Cory Violette (2003-04), Ronny Turiaf (2004-05), Jeremy Pargo (2008-09) and Matt Bouldin (2010) are the other Bulldogs to receive nominations.
The Wooden list is comprised of 50 student-athletes, based on last year’s individual performance and team records.
GU’s Vandersloot named
to Wooden Watch List
Gonzaga University senior Courtney Vandersloot was named to the preseason Women’s John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 30.
Vandersloot becomes the second Bulldog in school history to be nominated for the award in back-to-back seasons as she also made the list in 2009. Former Zag Heather Bowman is the only other player to make the list twice, earning the nod in 2008 and 2009.
The West Coast Conference Player of the Year for the past two seasons, Vandersloot ended her junior season as the nation’s assist leader at 9.4 per game, and fourth in steals at 3.6 and 12th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.2.
Last year Vandersloot helped lead Gonzaga to its first NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen appearance.
Sirianni will not return
to Shock next season
The Spokane Shock announced that defensive coordinator Alex Sirianni will not return for the 2011 season.
“I had a great run in Spokane and enjoyed my four seasons with the Shock,” Sirianni said. “I feel like I have accomplished everything I can do at this level and it’s time for me to work toward fulfilling some of my other career goals.”
Spokane head coach Rob Keefe anticipates taking over Siranni’s duties for the upcoming season.
King joins Shock
roster for 2011
The Spokane Shock announced linebacker Micah King has been added to the 2011 roster.
King (5-11, 240 pounds), has spent the last two seasons as a member of the Iowa Barnstormers. Last season, King registered 43 tackles with 5.5 sacks and one fumble recovery for a touchdown.
The previous season, King recorded 27.5 tackles with one sack and four fumble recoveries in the af2.
King is the 24th addition to Spokane’s 2011 roster.