Roosevelt's '97-'98 girls top of the crop
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Q: Do you know of a girls team in any sport that produced a higher percentage of college athletes than the 1997-98 Roosevelt girls basketball team that won the KingCo Championship?
A: No. That team had 10 athletes who went on to play college basketball or soccer.
There were four future Division I basketball players — Enjoli Izidor, Stanford; Lindsey Wilson, Iowa State; Jade White, Portland State (got injured and now is at Edmonds CC) and Devon Crosby-Helms (Fresno State, now helping coach Roosevelt C team). Future Division II players were Rose Bresee (Seattle Pacific and Seattle U.), Emily Watson (Humboldt State) and Piper Nims (Western Washington and now Whatcom CC). Rachel Nord played for awhile at Division III Whitman.
The future Division 1 soccer players were Meghan Miller, Kansas goalkeeper, and Tammy Hartung, Montana forward.
The team, which had talent spread through four classes, just missed getting to state. Roosevelt got to state in 1999 and 2001.
Q: Do the very best gymnasts in the state compete in high-school gymnastics or limit themselves to club gymnastics?
A: We are told that usually the best eight or so gymnasts in the state in most years are club-only kids.
Some of the most talented gymnasts on good high-school teams are girls who dropped year-round, 20-hour-a-week club gymnastics at some point but liked the sport enough to continue at the high-school interscholastic level.
The defending 4A all-around champion, Liz Grajewski of Kentwood, is a club gymnast.
Some gymnastics clubs (private gyms with paid staffs) don't want their gymnasts on high-school teams. Three reasons are usually cited: 1) Gymnasts lose quality training time in the non-elite atmosphere of high-school gymnastics, where part-time coaches deal with an assortment of girls ranging from beginners to accomplished athletes; 2) Concern that too often high-school coaches don't have necessary experience safety spotting elite girls; 3) Equipment worries, primarily that most high schools practice and conduct the floor-exercise event on wrestling mats instead of a spring floor. Also, some clubs say that the landing surfaces for other events, such as the vault and uneven bars, tend to be better and safer at private gyms.
Some clubs try to accommodate high-school gymnastics because of the success and recognition girls receive competing for their schools. Club gymnastics is basically ignored in the media. High-school championships receive coverage because a lot of people who may not care about gymnastics are interested in the schools involved.
Q: What's one of your favorite quotes from a high-school coach?
A: Jim Jolgen, the late Lake Washington football coach and administrator, once was telephoned by a mother who indignantly asked, "Why did my son get an F in history?"
Jolgen calmly replied, "Because, ma'am, that's the lowest grade we give here at Lake Washington."
Q: What's up with KingCo 3A? The Mount Si girls basketball team had defeated Newport twice in the regular season and then finished tied with the Knights at 6-7 in the standings for the final berth for the league tournament. I thought head-to-head always broke ties, but a playoff game was ordered and Newport won. Why was that game ever played?
A: Good question. We always thought that head-to-head records were a sports postulate for breaking ties, a "given" as much as home teams batting last in baseball. We hear there was a lot of pressure from coaches at various schools calling for that Newport-Mount Si game on grounds that the rules were "ambiguous" and that the Newport girls somehow thought they were entitled to a playoff game and their feelings would be hurt without one.
Ambiguous? This is America — we drive on the right-hand side of the road and head-to-head records settle ties. What's KingCo 3A got in store for us this spring? Four outs in softball? Track races run counter-clockwise?
Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice-mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111), or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com.