3 Eastsiders Headed For National Tourneys

Twelve boys basketball players from the Eastside, including three from Mercer Island High's Class AAA state champion, have earned spots on three state Basketball Congress International teams that will play in national tournaments this month.

Mercer Island's Jason Cooper, the most valuable player of the 1993 Class AAA state tournament, joins Redmond High's Josh Folsom, Issaquah's Bjorn Magnussen, Newport's Brad McKnight and Interlake's Donald Watts (the KingCo Conference scoring champion last season) on the state BCI Blue team coached by Mercer Island's Ed Pepple.

Mercer Island teammates Terik Brown and Jeff Knoll, two juniors-to-be, join Juanita's Matt Halverson and Newport's David Oswell on the Seattle BCI team for juniors-to-be and sophomores-to-be. Juanita's Jim McDonald is an assistant coach for that team.

Newport's Jason Maners, Lake Washington's Sam Feather and Eastside Catholic's David Britt will play for the BCI White team coached by Cascade's Charlie Cobb.

The White team opens play in the Great Western Shootout in Huntington Beach, Calif., July 13-16. All three teams then play in the Summer Prep Slam 'N' Jam in Long Beach, Calif., July 17-22. Team Blue and Seattle BCI then play in the BCI Prep International tournament in Tempe, Ariz., July 24-31.

Washington State BCI rosters:

BCI Blue - Lovell Brown, Garfield; Jason Cooper, Mercer Island; Jeff Daly, Roosevelt; Mike Dickerson, Federal Way; Jeremy Eaton,

Richland; Josh Folsom, Redmond; Bjorn Magnussen, Issaquah; Brad McKnight, Newport; Tony Norman, Decatur; Michael Sims, Seattle Christian; Donald Watts, Interlake. Coaches: Ed Pepple, Mercer Island; Al Gleich, Olympic; Frances Williams, Rainier Beach.

BCI White - Roberto Bergersen, Decatur; David Britt, Eastside Catholic; Sam Feather, Lake Washington; Jevon Green, Hale; Jovan Hollins, Decatur; Jason Maners, Newport; Carl Schreck, Wenatchee; Mark Stottlemyre, Richland; Chris Thompson, Edmonds-Woodway; Jesse Walter, Eisenhower. Coaches: Charlie Cobb, Cascade; Eric Hjort, Blanchet; Jo Jo Rodriguez, Garfield.

Seattle BCI - Jerry Boston, Garfield; Terik Brown, Mercer Island; Matt Halverson, Juanita; Jeff Knoll, Mercer Island; David Mott, Wenatchee; David Oswell, Newport; Andre Pleasant, Decatur; Jimmie Rainwater, Sealth; Tywrone Still, Hale; Jason Terry, Franklin. Coaches: Ed Boyce, Decatur; Jim McDonald, Juanita.

Barashkoff gets chance

Eight years of patience finally paid off for Andre Barashkoff, who has been hired to replace Daun Brown and Art Snoey as the head boys basketball coach at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

It's the first high school head coaching job for Barashkoff, 27, who was an assistant coach the last three seasons for the Warriors.

Brown and Snoey were co-head coaches since Edmonds and Woodway combined student bodies - and athletic programs - three years ago.

"All good things come to those who wait," said Barashkoff, who had applied for head coaching jobs at Blanchet, Franklin, Lynnwood and Shorewood high schools in the last four years.

"I was out there throwing my name out there, but the age factor just kept coming up," he said. "They're just not going to give a 25-year-old the job. Which I understand.

"That's good. I think I've learned more the last two years. . . . I feel a bit more comfortable now."

Despite the messages he received to the contrary, Barashkoff sees his relative youth as an asset.

"I want to highlight that," he said. "I think that's a positive. I can relate to the kids. That's a definite advantage these days."

Another advantage is his familiarity with a program that returns all but four players from last season's 12-12 Western AAA Conference team.

"The program's going to be the same essentially," Barashkoff said. "We're going to run a lot of the same things. All the kids are returning.

"We're not tall, and we're not athletic. We just work hard and play together."

Before his stint as an assistant coach at Edmonds-Woodway, Barashkoff spent three seasons under Ron Bollinger at Blanchet of the Metro League and two seasons coaching a middle school team.

The Edmonds-Woodway job opened when Brown was transferred to another school in the Edmonds School District and then resigned the coaching post. Snoey then turned down an offer to take over.

"I just felt I wanted to spend more time with my family," said Snoey, 48, who has coached for 26 years and was the head coach at Edmonds High School before the merger.

Barashkoff has asked Snoey to remain in the program as an assistant coach, and Snoey said he will think about it over his vacation this summer before deciding.

Dreams of turning pro

Bill Colello is in no hurry to make a big impression in the Mexican First Division professional soccer league.

Colello, a 1989 graduate of Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines and two-time All-American at Seattle University, leaves Friday for a 10-day tryout in Mexico City.

"I'm real excited about it," said Colello, a center-midfielder who has been the assistant boys soccer coach at Mount Rainier the past two seasons. "I don't know what to expect. All I want is to go down there and hope I make it. The big thing is I hope to make it to training camp.

"I figure the longer I'm there, the better I'll do, considering the type of player I am. I'm not a big goal-scorer and I'm not 6-4. The longer they give me, the better they'll like me."

Colello, 22, is just 5 feet 8 and 150 pounds, but has been a huge contributor on every team he's played on. Mount Rainier won three straight Class AA state titles in his final three years. Colello said his long-range goal has been to play professional soccer.

"It's something I've always wanted to do," he said. "I just want to see if I'm good enough to do it."

Soccer tradition?

The Class AA all-state high school boys soccer game 7:30 tonight at Shoreline Stadium is only the first of what Shorecrest Coach Teddy Mitalas hopes to be a long series of annual games in the same tradition as the all-state football, baseball and basketball events.

"We know what we're doing now," Mitalas said. "Next year we're planning to do girls all-star and boys all-star games the same evening in a doubleheader. The girls should be just as involved as the boys."

And Class AAA, A and B should be just as involved as AA, but Mitalas can't do it all. Until coaches from those classifications step forward, Mitalas will try to build his event within the AA ranks, adding to the largely Northwest League, Western AA Conference, Seamount League and Metro League participation he has so far.

"All of us coaches, especially with the World Cup coming next year, want to see more soccer around here," said Mitalias, who's already working on securing sponsorship for next year's event.

As it stands now, players pay $31 each to play in the all-state game, and they get to keep their $21.50 uniforms.

No admission will be formally charged for tonight's game, but organizers are asking for donations to help pay for stadium rental.

60 Acres of soccer

A youth soccer tournament started in 1979 with 22 local teams has grown to a 110-team tournament - 35 of them from out of state, including two teams from Nigeria and another from Taiwan.

The 14th-annual Diadora Cup at the 15-field 60 Acres complex in Redmond opens tomorrow at noon (opening ceremonies start at 11 a.m.). Sixteen separate tournaments will run simultaneously - boys and girls in eight age groups from U-12 to U-19.

Semfinals, consolation and championship games all will be played Sunday with all consolation games starting at 11 a.m. and all title games starting at 1 p.m.

First games start at 8 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.

Storm travels

The Seattle Purple Storm will play at the national AAU 15-under boys basketball tournament at Kingsport, Tenn. The tournament starts Saturday.

The Storm earned a berth at nationals by winning the Pacific Northwest qualifier tournament in April in Seattle.

The Storm, 47-6, won the Seattle City League championship, six Pacific Northwest Classic tournaments and the Champion of Champions tournament this season.

The Storm is made up mostly of ninth and 10th-graders-to-be from the Shoreline area, with other squad members from Ballard and Mercer Island.

Seattle Times staff reporters Sandy Ringer, Gordon Wittenmyer and Victor Yoshida contributed to this report.