OXFORD, OHIO — After a nine-month season stretching from September to June, the Kitsap Water Blossoms Synchronized swim team finished its this season in style, competing at the ESYNCHRO Age Group National Championships in Oxford, Ohio from June 22-30. The team advanced in team routine, trio and duet portions after a strong performance at the West Zone Regional Synchronized Swimming Championships on May 19 and 20 in Portland, Ore.
KINGSTON— Kingston High School has selected its first girls head basketball coach in school history.
North Kitsap School District officials announced the hiring of Kevin Strozier Tuesday afternoon. The school board has yet to formally approve the hiring, but is expected to do so at a July 12 school board meeting.
POULSBO — After finishing second out of 18 teams in the Pacific Northwest qualifying AAU Tournament in mid-April, members of the Puget Sound Elite girls basketball team (14-16 year olds) have been preparing for the most prestigious tournament of their basketball lives — the AAU National Tournament in Orlando, Fla. from July 8-14.
POULSBO — Kitsap Water Blossoms synchronized swim team head coach Lynn Hovde wishes she could have caught the flight to Ohio with her squad on Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately for Hovde, she wasn’t able to make the trip to nationals with her team.
“I really wanted to go,” she said. “I just couldn’t get the time off.”
Hovde is a teacher at Olympic College.
POULSBO — Most kids don’t learn how to ride a bicycle until they’re 5 years old. When Poulsbo’s Caleb Start was 4, he was riding a dirtbike in his backyard. By the time he was 5, he had already put his motocross racing career into high gear.
Now, at age 9, he’s competed in more than 200 motocross races throughout Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma.
POULSBO — Summer’s finally arrived. To celebrate the end of an arduous school year and the beginning of summer, the North Kitsap Pool unveiled a school’s out diving meet invitational Sunday afternoon. Students from Bainbridge Island and Anacortes joined North Kitsap School District students in the water for a friendly competition amongst athletes.
By Kitsap News Group Sports Writers Despite being double-teamed by his opponents for much of the 2007 season, sophomore Zach…
Teamwork. The North Kitsap Vikings fastpitchers were the epitome of a unit and it showed mightily during the 2007 campaign. The Vikings finished with an overall record of 15-6 and advanced to the West Central District Tournament in Tacoma.
But every great team has its leaders and the trio of Jenneke Oostman, Jordan Jewett and Josie Ball were just that as each earned AKC first-team honors at their respective positions.
The North Kitsap Vikings baseball team will most certainly look back upon its 2007 season with the fondest of memories.
North advanced to the first round of the state regional playoffs before being knocked off by Redmond 16-2 in its first contest.
Despite the loss at state regionals, the Vikes finished as one of the top 16 Class 4A teams in Washington.
POULSBO — Poulsbo Parks and Recreation is looking to score teamwork and a lifelong love of sports with kids as it kicks through its annual Grass Stain Gang soccer program.
The program, offered to children from preschool to 5 years of age, is an introduction to sports, using soccer as the medium to involve kids in working as part of a team — and having a good time doing it.
POULSBO — It was exactly the kind of start the BU-14 NK Explosion soccer squad envisioned when it began preseason practices in March.
The Explosion put forth a perfect 2-0 record, finishing in one of the top eight slots out of 29 teams at the league placement tournament in Snohomish June 2-3, guaranteeing the team a spot in the Premier 1 Division, the highest level youth soccer league in Washington, for the rest of the season.
POULSBO — The sound of numerous basketballs bouncing, swishing and being dribbled in the North Kitsap High School gymnasium was music to the ears of Vikings boys basketball coach Tony Chisholm and his staff on Monday afternoon.
Nearly 50 players were in attendance prior to the beginning of the first day of spring basketball prep camp. It was a good place to start as Chisholm and company help the group hone their hoops skills through Friday.
SILVERDALE — The finale. Nothing is better in the sport of track and field than when teams bring their premier athletes together for the last meet of the season.
North Kitsap School District schools Poulsbo Junior High and Kingston Junior High along with Cedar Heights, Central Kitsap, Ridgetop, Fairview, Marcus Whitman, Oakland Bay, Sedgwick and Bremerton junior high schools converged May 31 for the Olympic League Junior High Championships in Silverdale.
SILVERDALE —Â North Kitsap pitcher Kelly Wells had a hard time removing the smile from his face Friday.
Wells was selected to start the first game of the 2007 Senior High School All-Star Games, which he dubbed the perfect ending to his remarkable senior season.
“It’s just been great. I just love it. It’s been a great year,” Wells said. “I’m just happy with everybody. I’m just a happy guy.”
POULSBO — Track and field season is winding down for junior high athletes, but the final district meet looms on the horizon for many Poulsbo, Kingston and Bremerton junior high sprinters, throwers and jumpers.
The district finale meet is usually dominated by ninth graders who are more physically mature than their fellow teammates in the seventh and eighth grades.
POULSBO — Despite a sunny, picture perfect day for fastpitch a black cloud descended on the Poulsbo Junior High Panthers in the form of Marcus Whitman Tuesday afternoon.
The offensively-minded MWJH defeated the Panthers 20-2 in just three innings of play.
Even so, PJH coach Cheryl Foreman was proud of the way her team battled regardless of being clearly out matched early on in the contest.
POULSBO — Parking spots were scarce near practically every sizable patch of grass in North Kitsap last weekend.
Soccer enthusiasts undoubtedly had the time of their lives in Poulsbo for four days as the 23rd annual Viking Cup took center stage in Poulsbo and Kingston during Memorial Day weekend.
PASCO — It couldn’t have been a better time for Michelle Lloyd to match her personal record in the javelin.
Lloyd tossed the javelin 117 feet, 1 inch in her first throw at the Class 4A State Track and Field meet in Pasco, resulting in a sixth place finish overall. The throw was the exact distance she achieved at the Narrows League Championships May 11.
POULSBO — Since 1969, the Joe Shandera Award has been the most prestigious honor bestowed on any student athlete at North Kitsap High School.
Now, 37 years later 11 candidates are vying for the prize.
POULSBO — Bainbridge Island’s Jimmy Savage ran the fastest five-mile in recent memory May 19 as the 29th annual Viking Fest Road Race marked its best turnout ever.
Savage finished with a time of 26:16 — about one mile every 5 minutes and 23 seconds.
“That’s the best time someone’s ever had since I’ve been keeping records,” said Poulsbo Parks and Recreation programmer Joe Schiel, who’s been doing so since 2001.