Morrow's Musings
- By Jeff Morrow
509-582-1507
Big Unit's turn to enjoy Safeco Field
Kamiakin football coaches get chance to scout NFL staffSome little tidbits to get us through the middle of the week:
- The National Football League is full of up-and-down stories.
Here's an "up" story:
Kamiakin coach Craig Beverlin ran into a San Diego Chargers scout a few months ago, and the two men got into a conversation.
"He told me that (general manager) Bobby Beathard and (owner) Alex Spanos like having high school coaches at their camp," Beverlin said.
The scout offered them a front row seat with the Chargers coaches for a few days.
Beverlin took him up on the offer, and nine Kamiakin coaches are paying their own airfare to San Diego, where from
July 28-Aug. 1 they will sit in with the Chargers' coaches, eat meals with the team - basically live their life for a few days.
At the same time, the Kamiakin coaches get a peek at the Chargers' 4-3 defense, ranked No. 1 in the NFL last season. Kamiakin runs the same type of defense, Beverlin said.
"We're intrigued with what they do," Beverling said. "They have Junior Seau in the middle linebacker spot, and we're just interested in how they do it."
- Now the down side of the NFL.
Pasco High graduate David Andres finished his college football career at Eastern Washington University last fall.
And although the offensive tackle didn't get drafted by an NFL team in April's draft, Andres signed a free agent contract with the Indianapolis Colts.
But Andres' excitement was quashed by a phone call Monday morning.
"I was going to leave for camp Thursday," Andres said. "But Jim Mora called me and said they were trying to sign all of their draft picks."
The Colts will have eight tackles in camp. Mora told Andres there was no room for him on the roster.
Although disappointed, Andres isn't giving up.
"My agent has a whole bunch of calls out to teams who were interested in me," he said.
- Speaking of the Seahawks, it's about that time of year when training camp opens in Cheney.
The team holds its first workout under new coach Mike Holmgren on Aug. 1, with an 8:45 a.m. practice and a 2:45 p.m. workout.
They'll do that roughly for the first seven days of camp. A team scrimmage will be Aug. 8, and the camp breaks Aug. 27.
The Denver Broncos still might be the favorite to win the AFC West this fall, but everyone is leery - including Denver coach Mike Shanahan - of what a deep Seahawks team will be like with Holmgren running the show.
- Wish I could have seen the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association alumni games a few weekends ago in Yakima.
Then I could've watched ex-Richland High standouts Mike Neill and Brian Kellerman play. Ex-Pasco High star Lilton Green was there, even though he was hampered with a walking cast.
Kellerman scored 13 points. Ex-Southridge High boys basketball coach Brian Paine, now an assistant at Wenatchee Valley Community College and a Cashmere High grad, scored 12 points.
Brian Quinnett, a former Cheney High star who also played some with the Tri-City Chinook, scored 18 points.
- Kristin Black inadvertantly was ommitted from the Washington Junior Golf Association district tournament results last week. Black, who lives in Richland, won her girls 12-13 division with a two-round total of 221.
She plays in the state tournament, along with a number of other area youth golfers, next weekend in Yakima.
- There is a certain Mid-Columbia flavor to the Yakima Chiefs, a semi-pro baseball team that plays all around the Northwest.
Among them are Connell's Stefan Bailie, Moses Lake's Cory Thaut and Pete Doumit, Richland's Brian Barton, Benton City's Josh Eick and Royal City's Levi Meseberg.
The Chiefs are 12-14.
NOTES: Former Atlanta Hawk and Seattle Sonics guard Craig Ehlo is the new boys basketball coach at Rogers High in Spokane. ... Pasco boys soccer coach Sean Esterhuizen reports that Andy Duvall played so well in the state championship match back in May that the coaching staff for NAIA Concordia offered him a scholarship to play soccer for them. ... Connell's Neil Warr is on a Mormon mission in South Dakota. But the 1997 high school graduate was impressive enough two years ago in throwing the javelin that he has a scholarship waiting for him from Utah State University when he gets home in October. Warr may compete in both the javelin and the decathlon.
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