Prep notebook: Gardenhire says he'll take gamble with UW football
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John Gardenhire is gambling on himself.
The Kentwood running back is willing to put down a year's worth of college tuition to prove he's worthy of a football scholarship from the University of Washington. He passed on a full-ride offer from the University of Idaho in order to walk on as a Husky.
It's the kind of challenge Gardenhire savors. Because the way he sees it, it's no gamble at all.
"I'm going to work hard enough to get one (a scholarship)," he said.
The Huskies were hot on Gardenhire (6-0, 210) after his junior season, when he helped lead the Conquerors to the Class 4A state championship game, finishing with 1,561 yards on 179 carries (8.7 yards per carry) and 14 touchdowns. But the interest cooled last fall, despite another outstanding season that ended in the semifinals (1,897 yards on 232 carries, 8.2 ypc, 23 TDs).
While Pac-10 recruiters continued to woo teammates Will Conwell (who signed with Washington) and A.J. Mitz (Oregon), Gardenhire seemed to be the forgotten all-star. Kentwood Coach Tom Ingles was baffled.
"I think he does all the things you look for in a back," Ingles said. "He put up some great numbers in what is thought of as one of the best leagues in the state. I just thought he was the no-brainer of the group."
The slight by the Huskies particularly bothered Gardenhire's father, John Sr., who was a UW lineman from 1978-82. Coaches eventually explained they were concerned about the younger Gardenhire's straight-ahead speed. So, he ran track this spring and clocked a 10.7 in the 100 meters.
"To me, it was a minor setback," John Jr. said of not getting an offer from Washington. "It will make me work even harder. One of my pet peeves is someone telling me I can't do something."
Pass the plate
Jon Manthey's screwdriver loosened the license-plate frame.
His sense of sportsmanship prompted him to give the frame to Curtis' Courtney Jaworski, who won the Class 4A boys 800-meter race on Saturday at the state track meet.
Manthey was the defending champion in the event and the frame proclaimed, "State 800 champion." After he placed third in the 800 final on Saturday, he returned home and took one look at his car.
"Something just didn't fit anymore," Manthey said.
He unscrewed the frame and gave it to Jaworski, a junior who set a meet record with a time of 1 minute, 51.26 seconds.
The meet ended happily for Manthey, who anchored Federal Way's 1,600 relay, which won the final event of the Class 4A boys meet. The Eagles finished third in the team standings.
Girls decathlon added
Girls have more options than ever before at the state's annual high-school heptathlon/decathlon championships at Lake Washington High School this weekend.
It is believed to be the first decathlon for high-school girls in the country. They will run the 100-meter hurdles and all field events will use standard girls implements.
The meet begins tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Second-day events start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.
All-state feeder games set
Dozens of the area's top senior baseball players have been invited to participate in a variety of all-star feeder games this week as part of the selection process to determine rosters for the annual all-state series, which is June 9-10 at Eastmont High School in East Wenatchee.
Nominations to the all-state series, generally made by coaches involved in the feeder games, is based on three criteria - performance in the feeder games, season performance and career. The all-state selections are announced early next week.
The top players in the all-state series will be selected to represent Washington in the Washington vs. Oregon all-star series set for Saturday, June 16, at Prostra Stadium (Hudson's Bay High School) in Vancouver.
Area leagues and their feeder-game schedules:
• Metro League vs. Seamount League: Tomorrow, doubleheader 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., at Mosier Park (Burien).
• South Puget Sound League: North vs. South, Saturday, doubleheader, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., at Kent Memorial Park.
• WesCo 3A: Saturday, noon, one nine-inning game, at Husky Ballpark.
• WesCo 4A: South vs. North, Saturday, 11 a.m., one nine-inning game, at Everett Memorial Stadium.
• KingCo: KingCo 4A vs. KingCo 3A, today, 4 p.m., doubleheader, at Bannerwood Park (Bellevue).
Notes
• The annual Oregon-Washington Meet of Champions track meet is Saturday, starting at 5 p.m. at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore. The meet involves four athletes per event from each state.
A panel of high-school coaches will select the rosters from among the athletes nominated for the Meet of Champions and the top finishers at the state meets from each state. Oranizers said an effort will be made to include one athlete per team per event from the smaller school classifications.
• David Smart, Lakeside first baseman who batted .481, was left off the All-Metro all-star team submitted to The Times. He was a first-team selection.
• O'Dea's Thomas Donlin, who placed second in the discus and fourth in the shot put at the Class 3A state meet last weekend, will throw the hammer next year for the University of Nebraska. Ex-Irish sprint star Charlie Green, an Olympic Gold Medal winner who now is an administrator at Nebraska, helped recruit Donlin.
• Nicole Taylor, a standout on this year's Franklin High School volleyball team, will play for Seattle University next fall.
Seattle Times staff reporters Danny O'Neil, Craig Smith and Jose Miguel Romero contributed to this report.