Summer Beat -- Seafirst Softball Reunion Turns Into Tourney Winner

Members of the former Seafirst fastpitch softball team reunited last weekend at Hidden Valley Park in Bellevue as hosts of their annual tournament and try to figure out how to find a sponsor for next season.

Winning wasn't on their mind. It certainly wasn't expected. Most of the players hadn't played softball all season. But win they did, taking five of six games to win the Seattle Invitational.

"We just didn't think we were going to have much of a chance," said Ed Bomber, who played and coached. "It's the first time we've been together all season."

Seafirst Bank pulled its sponsorship after last season, ending an eight-year relationship. The team was unable to find a sponsor during the offseason and didn't field a team in the NorWest League this year for the first time since 1955.

Team members are hopeful their tournament performance will help them attract a new sponsor. Trevor Kern was named Most Valuable Pitcher - the same honor his father, Stan, won in 1976 with Victoria Bate Construction - and catcher Randy Cline was named Most Valuable Player. The team won two of three games during pool play, then won three consecutive games Sunday to win the championship.

Kern held national power Miller Toyota of Salt Lake City to one run in a 2-1 victory in the title game. The former Seafirst team beat Knoll Lumber Legends of Everett 5-3 in the semifinal, scoring five runs off ex-Seafirst pitcher Jimmy Moore, who pitched Seafirst to three world tournament championships.

Kern had a 4-1 tournament record with a 2.89 earned-run average, totaling 28 strikeouts in 29 innings. Cline batted .600 (9 for 15).

The main reason players assembled, however, was to work on securing a sponsor for next season. Six people, including Bomber and former manager Tom Wagner, who managed the team to three national championships and two world titles in the 1980s, formed the primary sponsor-search group.

"I think (the tournament) really created some enthusiasm amongst our loyal fans and our group of players," Bomber said. "We really do have a quality program."

Metro players at soccer camp

Five Washington high-school soccer players, including two from two-time Class AAA champion Eastlake, are competing in the first Adidas Elite Soccer Program this week at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.

Striker Matt Flynn and midfielder Chris Gradilla, who will be seniors at Eastlake in the fall, are among 150 of the nation's best prep players attending the six-day camp.

Jeremy Proud, who will be a junior at Auburn Riverside; Cameron Reith, senior-to-be at Garfield, and Gabe Provenza, senior-to-be at Franklin, are the other Washington players attending the camp. They were selected by a pool of Major League Soccer, college and high-school coaches. The program is designed to offer high-school sophomores, juniors and seniors the opportunity to compete with the best players in the country as well as aid the college recruiting process.

Players also will take academic classes related to preparation for the Scholastic Assessment Test, psychology, math and creative writing while at the camp.

Tumwater hires Sheets

The father of a University of Washington basketball recruit is the new girls basketball coach at Tumwater High School.

Ron Sheets, who starred at Elma High School, Grays Harbor Community College and St. Martin's College, has been selected to fill the coaching vacancy at Tumwater, where LeAnn Sheets helped lead the Thunderbirds to four consecutive Black Hills League titles before signing with the Huskies.

Sheets replaces Dale Reeves, who left to join the staff at Tumwater's Black Hills High School, which opens in the fall. Sheets has coached summer all-star teams in the Olympia area for eight years.

Another Sheets, Kayce, will be a junior at Tumwater this fall.

Kennewick joins rotation

The East-West All-State football game will move to Lampson Stadium in Kennewick next June. The game, for graduating seniors from Class AAA and AA high schools, has alternated between Everett and Spokane the past two summers.

Lampson Stadium is the home field for Kamiakin and Kennewick high schools.

"If we do a good enough job, we'll have it once every three years," said Kamiakin Coach Craig Beverlin. "It will rotate to Everett, Spokane and then ourselves."

Notes

-- Gary Moore of Issaquah, Fran Rish of Richland and Bob Colleran of Clover Park recently were inducted into the Washington State Football Coaches Hall of Fame.

Moore's teams compiled a 137-72-3 record in two stints totaling 21 years at Issaquah, including a second-place finish in 1980. He retired in 1984, then returned as head coach in 1988, retired again after the 1990 season, then returned in 1995 and worked two seasons as an assistant coach.

-- Gary Patterson, basketball assistant at Mercer Island High School the past two seasons, has accepted an assistant coaching job at San Jose State University. Patterson, who helped Mercer Island win the Class AAA state championship last spring, coached the Islander junior-varsity team to a 34-6 record in two seasons.

Patterson played for the Redmond High School basketball teams that won the 1988 and 1989 Class AAA state championships.

-- The Seattle Magic, a girls select basketball team that includes Sheila Lambert of Chief Sealth and Enjoli Izidor of Roosevelt placed fourth in the AAU national championships at Chattanooga, Tenn., which concluded Sunday. The team reached the tournament semifinals before losing.