Northwest Notes
Spokane Shadow Men’s
First Team joins the NPSL
The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) announced the Spokane Soccer Club Shadow has joined the league as an expansion team. The club will compete in the West Region’s Northwest Conference.
“We are very excited to see our Northwest Conference continue to grow,” NPSL Chairman Joe Barone said. “The Pacific Northwest has always been a hotbed of American soccer and we’re excited to have Spokane Soccer Club Shadow leading the way in the region.”
Other teams (so far) in the Northwest Conference include the Kitsap Soccer Club, the OSA Football Club of Seattle, and the Portland Spartans.
The Shadow played the past three seasons in the Evergreen Premier League. The Shadow will still have a team in that league, but the primary men’s team will be in the NPSL.
Spokane Shadow is led by technical director Abbas Faridnia, president Barrett Scudder and head coach Chad Brown.
Faridnia oversees the entire club, from U9s to senior teams, which includes over 1,200 players and 85 teams. Scudder is an officer on the club’s board of directors. Brown is the head coach of the NPSL first team.
“Our team has won two of the last three championships in our current league,” Faridnia said. “After winning the championship there is not another step. We are ready to take the next step. The opportunity, if we are lucky enough, to play for a national title and also compete in the U.S. Open Cup is exciting.”
SSC Shadow serves Spokane’s premier, select, and recreational youth soccer players and senior men and women adult teams committed to advancing their skills and love of soccer by striving to achieve the highest standards training, instruction, and competition in an atmosphere of teamwork, respect, and professionalism. Shadow is the only Inland Empire member of the Regional Club League (RCL), which consists of the top 20 clubs in Washington Youth Soccer.
“We are looking forward to a raise in the completive level and are hopeful that we will be competitive in the NPSL,” Faridnia said. “We do want to provide our area of players and fans the opportunity to watch soccer live at the highest level we can provide. We are a small market team that has a great fan base in one of the hotbed areas of the United States.”
Home matches will be played at Spokane Falls Community College.
Carlos Daniel to be inducted
into Pac-12 Hall of Honor
SAN FRANCISCO — Former Washington State men’s basketball player Carlos Daniel, is one of 12 honorees that will be inducted into the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Hall of Honor as a part of the 2016-17 class, the conference announced Thursday.
The induction will occur March 10 during a ceremony prior to the semifinals of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament.
The 11 other individuals to be inducted for the 16th annual Hall of Honor class are: Bob Elliott (Arizona), Tarence Wheeler (Arizona State), Jerome Randle (California), Chauncey Billups (Colorado), Stu Jackson (Oregon), Ray Blume (Oregon State), Mike Montgomery (Stanford), David Greenwood (UCLA), Ralph Vaughn (USC), Andre Miller (Utah) and Quincy Pondexter (Washington).
Daniel played at WSU from 1995-98. Daniel still holds six spots in the top-15 of WSU’s career record book, including blocked shots (third, 136), blocks average (fifth, 1.2), rebounds (eighth, 775), points (15th, 1,285), rebounding average (15th, 6.9 rpg) and minutes played (15th, 3,162).
A native of Louisville, Colo., Daniel remains the only Cougar to lead the team in rebounding all four of his seasons. He is one of just three WSU players to earn Pac-10 All-Academic First Team honors all three years he was eligible for the award.
Daniel is currently an applied sports scientist at University of Texas/St. David’s Hospital where he works on the use of technology to return to play and performance protocols.
Coeur d’Alene High alum
Tackett earns Frontier honor
Brittany Tackett, a 6-foot junior forward from Coeur d’Alene High, was named Frontier Conference women’s basketball Player of the Week after helping the Warriors improve to 19-0 with wins over Montana Tech (96-57) and Carroll College (57-42).
Tackett, who leads the NAIA in field goal percentage, went a combined 19-of-21 in the two games, finishing with 25 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot and steal against Carroll, also finishing 10-for-11 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line against Montana Tech. Against Carroll, Tackett had 20 points, five rebounds and three steals, finishing 9-of-10 from the field. It is the second time that Tackett has won the award this season.