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Grove finishes three

shots short

of qualifying for

PGA Championship

North Idaho College golf coach Russell Grove finished three shots off the cutoff for the PGA Championship, finishing with a four round total of 294 at the 51st PGA Professional Championship at Bayonet Black Horse in Seaside, Calif., on Wednesday.

The top 20 finishers in the event qualified for the PGA Championship in August at Bellerive in St. Louis.

Nine players finished tied at 291, the cutoff for qualification.

Grove, in his fourth year as NIC coach, shot a 77-70-71-76—294, and was 21st heading into the final round.

Ryan Vermeer won the tournament with a 70-70-70-73—283.

Stewart takes reigns of

Priest River girls basketball

Priest River Lamanna High School named a new girls basketball head coach recently, with former Spartan standout athlete Morgan Stewart taking over stewardship of the program from Christina Leonard.

There is no blueprint for success or a state championship, but anyone who has ever played on one knows there are certain key ingredients that up any team’s chances to win one. Morgan, 25, knows what some of those ingredients are, having played on the lone Spartans’ state championship girls hoops team in 2010, under the tutelage of her dad and coaching mentor Gary Stewart.

Stewart, who grew up in Priest River, is hoping to return the Spartan program to the upper echelon of the 3A Intermountain League, which has been tough as nails the past couple of years and routinely sends a team to the state 3A title game.

“My top goals for the future are to get more wins, get back our spot in the league and also go to state and hopefully bring home a trophy,” said Stewart, who assisted Leonard last year. “I also helped my dad when he was coaching with camps, practices, open gyms and team workouts since I was in college.”

Stewart is currently a fifth grade teacher at Priest River Elementary School.