Issaquah girls basketball team bolts out to 5-0 start
December 11, 2012
Jozie Crisafulli, Issaquah junior forward, is double-fouled taking a shot during the first quarter by Garfield’s Aireonna Davis (right) and Cierra Levias. By Greg Farrar
The Issaquah High School girls basketball squad has compiled a 5-0 overall record in its first five contests and is the frontrunner in the Crown Division of the KingCo 4A.
Juanita basketball team is too physical for Liberty
December 11, 2012
Delane Agnew, Liberty High School’s senior forward, is fouled from behind by Juanita’s Tayler Lloyd during their Dec. 7 game. Juanita beat Liberty, 52-37. By Christina
Corrales-Toy
For the first time this season, the Liberty High School gymnasium was buzzing with excitement, filled with an energetic student section ready to cheer on its girls basketball team in the Dec. 7 home opener against the Juanita Rebels.
But nerves, and the enthusiasm that comes with the first home game of the season, may have gotten the best of the Patriots, who fell to Juanita, 52-37, Liberty coach Randy Leifer said.
“I think part of it was nerves. You know we’re a pretty young team and it was our first home game, so they were excited,” he said.
The Patriots put themselves in a hole early, with poor shooting to begin the first half, sending the team into halftime down 23-13 to the Rebels.
But an energized Patriots team emerged for the second half, going on a run in which Liberty outscored Juanita, 14-10, in the third quarter.
With six minutes left in the game, Liberty had cut the deficit to just four points, with the Rebels leading, 36-32. But the short comeback was not enough to turn things around against the physical Juanita squad.
“We couldn’t make a basket early in the game, and then we settled in and shot a little bit better, and we got back in it and it looked like we were going to have a shot, and then we just missed a couple of opportunities,” Leifer said.
Issaquah Eagles stand tall, tested on basketball court
December 4, 2012
If there is one thing even the casual observer notices right away about the Issaquah High School boys’ basketball squad, when its players come jogging out onto the hardwood for warmups, it is the fact that it looks like a basketball team.
In basketball, as in other sports, sometimes the intimidation-through-imagination factor is worth its weight in gold, but with the Eagles you don’t have to peruse a roster to easily surmise you could be outrebounded by these guys — it is clearly visible and obvious the Eagles possess great overall team height.
Coach Jason Griffith guided the Eagle hoopsters to the promised land as a crescendo to the 14-10, 2011-12 outing and is heading into his third campaign as the man at the helm for the Issaquah program.
Liberty boys basketball team fall to rival from Renton, 50-44
December 4, 2012
Liberty High School’s Robbie Thomas is fouled by a Hazen High School defender as he goes for the basket in the fourth quarter of the Dec. 1 nonleague game. Hazen defeated Liberty, 50-44. By Christina Corrales-Toy
New Patriots coach hopes to bring ‘spark’ to program
Only 3 miles, or less than 10 minutes, separate Liberty and Hazen high schools.
So it was a short drive for the Patriot boys basketball team, which traveled to Hazen to take on the Highlanders on Dec. 1.
It may have been a nonleague game, but it had all the intensity of a playoff match, as the Renton rivals battled it out.
Liberty won the rivalry game last year, but this year, Hazen held off a second-half surge by the Patriots to win, 50-44.
Liberty’s first-year coach Omar Parker said he was pleased with his team’s determination, especially in the second half, despite the loss.
“You know this is their kind of battle on the hill, the king-of-the-hill game, and so I think it brought something out of our guys to really compete, and I was proud of them,” Parker said.
Liberty Select Basketball program holds tryouts
September 11, 2012
Liberty Select Basketball will hold tryouts Sept. 16 and 23 for boys and girls in third through eighth grades.
Times and locations for the tryouts can be found on the program’s website at www.libertyselectbasketball.com.
Players must register online prior to tryouts. Registration can be found by clicking the “Register Now” icon on the home page.
The Liberty Select Basketball program is a competitive program focused on providing future Liberty High School basketball players a fun, constructive and rewarding basketball experience.
The Liberty Select Basketball vision includes bringing together competitive players with strong basketball skills to participate in youth basketball at the highest level.
NBA player Nate Robinson brings hoops camp to Issaquah
August 14, 2012
He knows how to play basketball. He knows how to play coy.
Nate Robinson, point guard for the Chicago Bulls, demurred when he was asked to specify where in Issaquah he lives during the offseason.
“Just put around Issaquah, in the city,” he said by phone from the Windy City, his fifth NBA stop in a seven-year career.
Robinson will direct an Elite Youth basketball clinic in his offseason hometown this summer. The camp will occur at the Issaquah Community Center Aug. 18 and 19.
JAMFEST basketball tournament to take over Eastridge Church
July 17, 2012
Eastridge Church will be filled with hoop dreams next month as it holds this summer’s JAMFEST Aug. 11.
JAMFEST will include a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, a kid’s bicycle show and other family activities.
“We’re just wanting to create a fun family event with a great cause attached to it,” Executive Team Pastor Steve Jamison said. “And our plan is to kind of create a fun festival feel with a lot of different activities going on during the day.”
The main event of the day will be the basketball tournament, which will have brackets ages 9 and older, along with brackets for different skill levels, including Top Gun, Competitive, Recreational, Older Than Dirt and Below the Net.
Lioness seventh-graders bring home hardware
July 10, 2012
A pride of lionesses roared in the desert.
The EBI Lioness AAU girls basketball team won the Reno Jam On It Championship’s seventh-grade division in June. The team included Skyline High School’s Gina Grossi, (back row, first from the left); Liberty High School’s Samantha Kelderman, (back row, third from left), Kadi Cooke, (front row, first from the left), and Megan Kirschner, (front row, fifth from the left); and Eastside Catholic High School’s Bailey Haner (front row, fourth from the left). Contributed
The EBI Lioness team, composed of teenage players all over the Eastside, earned first place at the Reno Jam On It Championship’s seventh-grade division in Reno, Nev., in May.
The team, part of AAU competition, “were determined to win it for their coach” Felicia Johnson, an email from one of the team’s parents stated.
Johnson fainted while at the tourney, so the team had to play on its own the first two games.
“I don’t even remember even having to call a timeout,” Johnson said.
Lioness center/forward Kadi Cooke, from Issaquah, agreed.
“It was stressful at first but then all of our teamwork paid off for the team and it was fun at the end,” she said.
The team spent a lot of time together off the court, shooting guard Bailey Haner said.
“We went go-karting together, we went on roller-coasters, we ate ice cream a lot,” she said. “It was really fun.”
All the fun stuff makes the team more cohesive, she added.
The level of competition was all over the place, Johnson said, but it got tough once they reached the semifinals.
Skyline, Liberty high schools hire new basketball coaches
July 3, 2012
Skyline High School announced the hiring of new boys basketball coach Maui Borden.
For the past four years, Borden was an assistant basketball coach for Eastlake High School and also spent time as a member of the football staff.
“Coach Borden has a thorough understanding of the role of athletics in the lives of our students and how to push them to get the most out of the student-athlete experience,” Skyline Athletic Director Ryan Gilbert said in a press release.
Borden works in the Xbox division of Microsoft and is a national speaker with Proactive Coaching.
Liberty High School has hired Omar Parker as the boys basketball coach.
A graduate of Mercer Island, Parker played on a state championship team, and later was a member of the Mercer Island coaching staff for two more championships. Most recently, Parker was the director of player development at the University of Missouri.
“I’m excited to coach at Liberty High School and be the face of Patriot basketball for Liberty and the community,” Parker said in a statement.
Former Issaquah basketball star’s University of Washington Swagga looms large
June 12, 2012
Jon Brockman, former University of Washington basketball player, models the Swagga Suit, a onesie devleoped by Issaquah High School graduate Gillian Pennington. By Gillian Pennington/SWAG
For Issaquah High School grad and soon-to-be University of Washington grad Gillian Pennington, there is no such thing as a lack of enthusiasm.
Her approach to everything in life seems to be one where going full speed is not fast enough, and there’s never a time where fun will be sacrificed.
This work hard, play hard attitude has brought her — and business partners Josh Brewer and Elaina Tursi — great success recently, as their start up company SWAG (also known as Sweet Washington Athletic Gear) has become what seems like an overnight success.
But like success, there were plenty of bumps in the road.
Pennington is a senior at the UW and as an entrepreneurship major, one of the final classes she must take is the two-quarter course Creating a Company. Within the first two weeks the students must assign themselves groups, come up with a company idea and start the process of getting it off the ground.
