Meet the Vikings

The North Kitsap High winter sports season “Meet the Vikings” night is tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the NKHS gym. This is an opportunity for parents, community members and school officials, to meet the athletes and the coaches for the winter sports seasons. Teams and coaches being introduced include, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls wrestling, gymnastics, and boys swimming.

The Vikings welcome a new wrestling coach

The North Kitsap Wrestling team will start this year with a new head coach, Joseph Amick, who replaces long-time coach John Cook.

Amick comes to NK with an extensive background and experience in the arena of high school and college wrestling.

He was an assistant at North Mason High School for three years. Amick graduated from North Mason in 1998 and made two trips to the state tournament, placing fourth his senior year.

Amick wrestled for Yakima Valley Community College and competed in the Junior College Nationals. Amick is finishing his masters in teaching through Heritage University, and will finish his student teaching at Poulsbo Middle School in December.

OPSU preps for spring

The Olympic Peninsula Sports Union (also locally known as the Kitsap Rugby Football Union) is preparing for its spring season. OPSU is the tax exempt nonprofit organization that supports local rugby union football for Kitsap and Mason counties. Currently OPSU is supporting five teams- active duty

military, club side-men, club side-women, youth (high school)-men and youth (high school)- women.

Club teams are open to any person over the age of 18. Teams play in the Pacific Northwest Rugby Football Union. The high school teams are for players between the ages of 14 and 19 and compete in the Washington State Youth Rugby Association. This is a rebuilding period for the organization, so any support in terms of new (or old coming back to the fold) players, trained coaches, and helping meet logistical requirements is greatly appreciated. Those who desire to play on the military team should contact Chief Petty Officer Mike Bannock at michael.bannock@navy.mil. All others please contact Scott Kirvan at scott_kirvan@kitsaprugby.org.

Swimming at state was season highlight

Over the weekend Vikings swimmers Bethany Aban, Stephanie Longmate, Ingrid Reeves and Andrea Coyle competed in the state tournament at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Head coach Greg Braun wrote in an e-mail competing at state took its toll, but just qualifying was the major highlight of the season.

“Making it to the state meet with a great group of girls was one of the highlights of the season,” Braun wrote. “I think just the fact we made it this year and had such a large number of kids on deck, including alternates, gave the kids a taste of what is possible if they dream big. the door was opened.”

Longmate finished 17th in the 200-free and 22nd in the 500-free. Aban finished outside the top 24 in the individual medly and tied for 12th in the breaststroke. The 400-free relay finished 24th, well off their record-setting times the weekend before, and 200-free relay moved up two notches to finish 20th.