Prep Sports Blog

Liberty coach Steve Valach gives us some keys to the Patriots’ Thursday-night showdown with Mercer Island:

- Defensively Liberty is facing a spread offense for the second week in a row. The Islanders’ head coach is Brett Ogata, who was an assistant with Skyline the past two years, so the pedigree for a good spread offense is certainly there.

Liberty needs to tighten things up in the secondary to stop Mercer Island’s sophomore quarterback Jeff Lindquist (five TD passes in two games).

- On offense, it’s about taking care of the ball. The Patriots have five turnovers in the first two games.

Details: Thursday, Sept. 17 at Liberty, 7 p.m.

Hazen coach Drew Oliver gives us some keys to the Highlanders’ Thursday-night showdown with Foster:

- Get off to a quick start. Hazen has started slowly in both games so far this season (seven total points in the two first halves), so putting together a complete four quarters is important.

- Create more turnovers on defense.

- Improve offensive timing. The Highlanders’ are still getting into the swing of things with the new Wing-T offense. The system is built on precision timing and Hazen still needs fine-tuning at all levels (backs, QB, linemen).

Details: Thursday, Sept. 17 at Hazen, 7 p.m.

The Hazen football team has a unique chance to win two games in one night. The Highlanders’ scheduled opponent, Evergreen, forfeited Friday’s game because of a lack of eligible players. Hazen had penciled in a scrimmage against Mount Rainier, but Hazen coach Drew Oliver was able to get a last-minute game against Interlake.

Interlake had a similar situation with tonight’s scheduled game against Ingraham.

So Hazen already has a league win thanks to the forfeit by Evergreen, but now the team will get a chance for another win when it plays at Interlake at 7 p.m. tonight.

The Highlanders’ JV team will scrimmage against Mount Rainier at Highline Stadium at 7 p.m.

There’s a lot of change around Hazen football this year. Drew Oliver takes over as head coach and he’s intalling a new offense, the Wing-T.

Most of you have probably heard of the system, most famously run by Bellevue High.

Hazen’s success will depend on how quickly the team can make their misdirection moves perfectly so that the offense invokes the synchornized deception of Bellevue instead of a jumbled mess in the backfield.

I visited Hazen practice in the summer, then again last week, and they seemed much more comfortable the second time around. Oliver said the difference between the spring and now is “night and day.”

Hazen has talent with James Holland, Jordan Bumgarner, etc. so it will be very interesting to see where they line up in the Seamount this year.

*Full-blown season previews will be coming in the next few weeks, but here are some first impressions and thoughts on some area fall teams. If you’re wondering about the order, it’s simply based on which coaches I have been able to reach.

With two returning league swimmers, one of them also a returning district swimmer and some promising youth, is this year the turning point for Renton swimming?
The team went 1-5 and finished sixth in the Seamount last season with just 10 girls on the team. Coach Diane Pavelin said there is hope and that the team is starting to become “cool” again.
Taylor Mattheisen and Cindy Bautista swam at the league meet last yaer, and Mattheisen made the district meet in the 100 breast. Renton’s 200 freestyle relay also qualified for districts.
Pavelin seemed hopeful about freshman swimmer Eloisa Bautista’s chances at state this season. If Bautista did make state, it would be a first for Renton in 13 years.

*Full-blown season previews will be coming in the next few weeks, but here are some first impressions and thoughts on some area fall teams. If you’re wondering about the order, it’s simply based on which coaches I have been able to reach.

The Lindbergh boys cross country is coming off of a fourth place finish at state, but could the Eagles be primed for even better things this year?
The Eagles lost their top state runner in Matt Miland (10th), but return senior Trevor Thompson, who finished 14th. The team also lost varsity runner Joseph Patti (45th at state), but that’s it.
So with five of seven varsity runners back and all seven top JV runners back, the team should continue its success.
Don’t forget how the boys JV team ran at the Seamount League meet last year: Had it been permitted to compete in the varsity race, the group would have placed fourth and qualified for districts.
On the girls side, six of the team’s top seven are back. That includes sophomore Sarah Reiter, who led the Eagles at state last year.

The Lindbergh football team featured an explosive offense that took them to the state tournament last season (the Eagles lost to eventual state champ Bellevue), but there is a big question mark behind center this season.

The team lost long-time starter Jacob Allie at quarterback. Allie set pretty much every school record for yards, completions and touchdowns.

Having said that, the Eagles do welcome back a bunch of playmakers in Diondre Toms, Derek Herley and Frank Cange.

With that type of talent, I think the team will be solid no matter what. Whether they will return to state depends on how they replace Allie at quarterback.

Hazen soccer coach Ken Matthews takes us into the WIAA-mandated blackout (from now until August 24 for soccer) with some interesting notes on the Highlanders’ summer workouts.

• 51 girls signed up to play fall soccer
• 32 of those 51 came to at least one summer practice
• 8 attended more than half of the practices
• 12 attended at least 10 practices (there were 24 total)
• Average attendance by class: seniors – 7.9 sessions, juniors – 8.0, sophomores – 8.4, freshmen – 1.5
• Largest practice: 22 on June 9
• Average practice: 12

Matthews laid out his two main objectives for the summer sessions in an e-mail:

· for players and parents to have an opportunity to see what I’m all about

· for me to get an idea of where the players and program are physically and mentally as we prepare to battle for one of 16 openings in next fall’s state championship tournament

Check here for more Highlander soccer news.