POULSBO — One young fan couldn’t wait.
“Only three minutes to go!” she squealed, staring intently at the North Kitsap High School field only moments before the Seattle Sounders were due.
Unfortunately, her enthusiasm bounded over the laws of time and space; the clock revealed three and a half minutes until the professional team from Seattle faced the Seattle Pacific University Falcons.
But the girl’s love for soccer wasn’t hushed; in fact, it was encouraged. North Kitsap fans love soccer like snooty Frenchman love cheese, and nowhere was that love more apparent than NKHS Saturday night, where the Sounders and Falcons clashed in an exhibition match that raised money for North Kitsap soccer clubs.
POULSBO — The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Master Victor Solier, the head instructor at Solier’s Taekwondo in Poulsbo, has been a busy man lately; he has been named as the head coach of the Washington State taekwondo team, and has been orchestrating a move for Solier’s Taekwondo from its current location on Viking Way to the former home of Liberty Bay Dance Works, also on Viking Way.
POULSBO — Several years ago, when John Townsend and Victor Solier were learning taekwondo under a Korean grand master named Hak Tok Yun, they learned that Yun was a two-time national champion in Korea, so they knew he possessed skill; they learned Yun had been Gerald Ford’s personal bodyguard when the then-president had visited the country, so they knew he possessed toughness; and they learned how Yun could slam his forearm into a barbell 1,500 times when one strike would injure a normal man, so they knew he possessed strength.
POULSBO — A depleted North Kitsap soccer team tied the rejuvenated Port Townsend squad Saturday afternoon 3-3.
The Vikings were without several players due to sickness, travel and academics; Port Townsend had added several players since the Vikings saw them last, when several basketball players were involved in the 3A playoffs.
POULSBO — The North Kitsap fastpitch team built a 5-1 lead against South Kitsap Monday afternoon, then watched the Wolves’ Cathy Kniess slash the lead to 5-4 with one swing of the bat.
Don’t say they weren’t warned.
POULSBO — If the sneak previews are any indication, this year’s North Kitsap High School fastpitch team could be a blockbuster.
But head coach Dan Kolda is cautioning fans and players that the real film has yet to start rolling.
POULSBO — The Poulsbo Panthers opened the first quarter of Thursday’s game versus Marcus Whitman Junior High with a 10-2 run.
The second half of that quarter was no slouch, either. The Panthers reeled off a 13-2 run to end the quarter — and the Blazers.
The Panthers, who so far have struggled on offense in the early season, reversed that trend against Marcus, beating their rivals from South Kitsap 66-18.
KINGSTON — Sick of the Olympics?
Why don’t you go to the Olympics instead?
More than 100 North-Kitsap based Girl Scouts will gather from 1 to 4 p.m. tomorrow to play their own version of the Olympic Games.
POULSBO — The Kingston Junior High wrestling team will start its season tomorrow.
The Cavs will face Bremerton at 3 p.m.
POULSBO — The North Kitsap Vikings had several athletes travel to state competition this year, and a pair of them finished among the top 10 athletes in Washington.
It will be a pair of firsts for two Viking wrestlers this week.
Senior wrestlers Jordan Andersen and Jerrod Jennings have both qualified for the Tacoma Mat Classic state finals this week.
POULSBO — Norman Livers has heard the stories before: How Eric Bergoust would climb onto his parents’ roof in Missoula, Mont., and fling himself to a waiting pair of mattresses before. How Bergoust wanted to be a stuntman, until he and a bunch of friends piled into a car and drove to Calgary to watch the 1988 Winter Olympics, and his plans changed. How Bergoust trained maniacally to become the U.S. World Cup champion in aerial skiing, then earned gold in the Nagano Olympics four years ago.
PORT ANGELES — The North Kitsap boys’ basketball team was hoping to end its slide Friday afternoon against the same team it started against: Port Angeles.
It was the Roughriders who erased a nine point fourth-quarter deficit last month and handed the Vikings their first league loss. The Vikings, who before the loss had been ruling the Olympic League with three straight wins, tumbled by losing four of the next five; and the Roughriders shot up the charts by culling a 7-2 league record.
But after a close, defensive game, the Roughriders again ended the Vikings’ hopes.
This time, they didn’t have to come back from nine down to do it.
Commissioners’ Cup play continues this weekend.
Four NKHS sports driving toward playoffs.
The Central Kitsap wrestling team has lost only two meets this year, and Tuesday night they showed North Kitsap why.
The Cougars’ sophomore-heavy team overcame an early North Kitsap lead to win 10 of the 14 matches of the night (including a pair of forfeits) and win 48-18.
Poulsbo Junior High basketball team nets perfect 12-0 season.
POULSBO — The North Kitsap Vikings had two opponents Friday night: foul trouble, and the Central Kitsap Cougars.
The foul trouble helped drag the Vikings to the edge of the cliff, and the Cougars nudged them over
POULSBO — Tuesday night, the North Kitsap wrestling team took advantage of something it hasn’t had all year: an even start.
The Vikings, plagued by injuries all year and often lacking wrestlers to fill some of the weight classes, forfeited only one match Tuesday night against their rivals from the south, the Bremerton Knights.
POULSBO — Two very different teams, and two very different scorers, were on display in North Kitsap Wednesday night.