The North Kitsap Wrestling team lost its first two matches of the Thomas Jefferson High School tournament Saturday but regained its footing for its first two wins of the season as well.
POULSBO — Talk about starting out on the right foot.
The North Kitsap boys’ swim and dive team hasn’t even started its season yet one of its swimmers has likely already achieved a state berth.
POULSBO — Last year, the North Kitsap wrestling team faced an uphill battle every match, coming out 12 points behind versus every team due to forfeits. Such was life for that squad, which had only 19 grapplers to its name.
That shouldn’t be a problem for this year’s Vikings, a team whose sophomore class of 20 wrestlers is bigger than its entire 2003-2004 team.
POULSBO — Playoffs, it is said, often bring out a team’s true colors — what they’re made of, and what they’re willing to do to go all the way.
For the North Kitsap Babe Ruth 14s All Stars, that meant a change of strategy.
POULSBO — When Poulsbo resident Bernice Phillips gets in the pool, she doesn’t like to lose. In fact, she doesn’t like anything less than a first place finish.
KINGSTON — Many aspects of North Kitsap High School’s upcoming volleyball season will serve as fresh starts — new equipment, a new gym in which to play and even a new coach.
Well, he’s kind of new, anyway.
POULSBO — Olympic Outdoor Center camper Andrew Taylor, 8, had a bit of a revelation on Friday, his last day of Peter Puget Seafarer Club Camp.
“I never really knew anything about a kayak before I came here. Now, I could easily go out beyond the pilings over there,” Taylor said, pointing in the distance beyond the Poulsbo docks.
POULSBO — Rose Rice has certainly lit a fire under the Piranhas’ swimming club of late.
The distance swimmer, who recently competed in the 2004 United States Swimming Open Water National Championships, is preparing for an English Channel swim. POULSBO — Rose Rice has certainly lit a fire under the Piranhas’ swimming club of late.
The distance swimmer, who recently competed in the 2004 United States Swimming Open Water National Championships, is preparing for an English Channel swim. POULSBO — Rose Rice has certainly lit a fire under the Piranhas’ swimming club of late.
The distance swimmer, who recently competed in the 2004 United States Swimming Open Water National Championships, is preparing for an English Channel swim. POULSBO — Rose Rice has certainly lit a fire under the Piranhas’ swimming club of late.
The distance swimmer, who recently competed in the 2004 United States Swimming Open Water National Championships, is preparing for an English Channel swim.
POULSBO — Board games and professional car racing are two things not often mentioned in the same sentence.
KINGSTON — The Kingston Cavaliers girls’ basketball team continued its Cinderella season Monday, beating cross-town rivals the Poulsbo Panthers 46-33.
North Kitsap fastpitch team’s biggest strengths this year would be its mix of experienced seniors and talented sophomores.
POULSBO — Cooperation. Teamwork. Patience. Composure.
These are just a few of the words that North Kitsap’s winter senior athletes used to describe competing for their respective teams.
North Kitsap wrestling team knew it was fighting an uphill battle against the Wolves of South Kitsap last Tuesday.
POULSBO — The first battle between Cougars and Vikings on the wrestling mats was a hard-fought fight to the finish but when the dust cleared, it was Central that walked away victorious.
By JOSH FARLEY
Staff Writer
OLYMPIA — Despite a pair of forfeits that put it 12 points in the hole before the grapplers even hit the mats, the North Kitsap wrestling team made seven pins and beat the Olympia Bears 44-27 Thursday.
“This is very exciting,” said Vikings Coach Jon Cooke. “We were in better shape and we attacked well. It worked out for us.”
The win is also Cooke’s and assistant coach Mike Derda’s first for the purple and gold. But more importantly, said Cooke, is the fact North simply needed experience on the mat.
“What the (North Kitsap) kids needed was some confidence,” Cooke commented. “They went out tonight and won it with hard work.”
The Vikings went down early, after a forfeiture and a loss at the 215-lbs. weight class. But the Vikings bench was fired up after Matt Grimes, wrestling in the 103-lbs. class, pinned Bear Josh Brodie in the third period.
After two additional forfeitures, the Vikings went down 24-12. But Tim Beckwith came back with a pin at the 119-lbs. class and Corey Maxwell pinned another Bear in the 135-lbs. class with one second to go in the first period to knot things up at 24 apiece.
In the 140-lbs. class, Jerrell Smith put the Vikes up with a pin over Bear Peter Gorgas, and Danny Harris bested his opponent, Bear Jason Honton, with a regular decision 10-5 to give the Vikes three more points in another 140 lbs. match. After Corey Bast made another pin at the 152-lbs. class and Will Wrapp lost only by a regular decision at 160-lbs., a Viking victory was immanent.
But Viking Curtis Travelstead, knowing his team had sealed a win, came in for the final match of the evening wanting another pin.
“I always think you should try your hardest even when you don’t need to,” said Travelstead, who wrestled in the 171-lbs. class.
With two seconds to go in the third, Travelstead put his Bear opponent on his back for another pin — the seventh and final on the night.
“We’re very pumped,” Travelstead added. “We’re going to keep up the intensity and conditioning and work on the moves.”
The win was hard fought and showed discipline — a discipline formed out of conditioning that assistant coach Derda insists upon.
“It shows the fact that although they get mad at my warm-ups,” Derda explained, “Every single (Viking wrestler) came up and said they now understand why we do it.
“When they come out (on the mat), they aren’t going to give up,” Derda added.
Bears coach Rocky Isley agreed North Kitsap was too tough on the mats in the duration of the match.
“NK is in better shape than we are,” Isley said. “We were ahead early, but we just got gassed out there.”
Coach Cooke said he believes that now, the team can build on its never-say-die attitude with better technique for the rest of the season.
“With the combination of hard work and technique, this will be a great team,” Cooke said.
The grapplers will face Lincoln in the team’s first home match of the season at 7 p.m. Dec. 9.
POULSBO — As the last remaining North Kitsap fall sports athlete competing this season, you’d think that senior swimmer Jacklene Salwei would feel the weight of the world on her shoulders.
POULSBO — Jon Cooke has looked into the crowds at wrestling matches and seen fans leaning one way or the other — mimicking the action on the mat without realizing it.
SILVERDALE — When North Kitsap and Central Kitsap played each other in volleyball for the first time this season Thursday night, both were fine tuning for the upcoming league season.
POULSBO — So far this season, the North Kitsap wrestling team has faced teams that were deeper and teams that were more experienced.
POULSBO — Students from Victor Solier’s taekwondo studio recently came back to Poulsbo with fistfuls of medals, which isn’t unusual.
