SPORTS
By Neil Macdonald

Hard-fought football honors awarded
Danny Le, Blaine’s diminutive running back/cornerback, was named both the Borderite football team’s Most Valuable Player and Most Inspirational Player for 2002.
The 5-foot-6, 120-pound Le, Blaine’s premier ball-carrier, rushed for 614 yards in 161 tries for a 3.8 yards per carry average. Much of the acreage Le gained took him through the interior lines of opposing teams into places well packed with super-sized people with muscles most menacing. That daring Danny ended the season without serious injury was amazing enough, that he was the sixth leading rusher in the county was astounding, a feat of remarkable dimension and considerable courage.
Blaine’s final home game, a 14-7 loss to Lakewood, was a typical Le game. He accounted for 70 percent of his team’s success on the ground, carrying the ball for 65 of the 93 yards Blaine gained rushing. On defense, one of his four tackles was of the TD-saving variety. This was the stuff that put “Most” before “Valuable” and “Inspirational” in the awards that Le won the old fashioned way – he earned both of them.
Senior tight end and inside linebacker Kevin Farmer and senior wide receiver/defensive back Rhyan Lopez won honors as Blaine’s 2002 captains. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Farmer spent the season doing what TEs and LBs are supposed to do and doing it well. This included turning would-be tacklers into spectators with well-placed blocks, catching retain possession passes and bringing opposition ball-carriers to earth.
Lopez made 16 receptions for 262 yards and three TDs on offense and used his superior speed at defensive back to make more than his share of tackles.
Eleven of Blaine’s undergraduates – five freshmen, three sophomores and three juniors – joined nine seniors in being awarded their varsity letters..

Neil's Notes
Blaine’s boys and girls teams open the 2002-2003 season on November 30 at Bellingham High school as part of a 20-team basketball fest.
The get-together pits 3A against 2A schools with the girls’ games starting at noon and the boys’ at 4:30 p.m. The fest is sponsored by the B’ham Raider Basketball Booster Club. It features a spaghetti feed from 1 to 7 p.m., a silent auction and a canned food drive.
Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, $2 for children under 10. The spaghetti dinner prices are $6, $5 and $3.

Wrestling Jamboree
The Borderites start the ’02-’03 wrestling season at the 3A Lynden Lions jamboree on December 4. Grappling starts at 5 p.m.

Schedule Addition
A Blaine-Lynden match has been added to the Borderites wrestling schedule, the Double B’s travelling to Lynden for a 6:30 p.m. meet on January 28, 2003.

Soccer Correction
The Northern Light erroneously reported the Borderites losing 1-0 in State quarterfinal action to Meridian on November 15 at Civic Stadium in sudden death overtime. The loss was in regulation time. The sudden death was Blaine’s elimination from State.

Ridnour on Broadway
The November 25, 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated notes that a giant size billboard heralding Oregon basketball and featuring Blaine grad and UO point guard Luke Ridnour will soon be looming from the side of Manhattan’s W Hotel on 47th and Broadway.
SI places Oregon 13th in its ranking of the nation’s basketball teams. The only Pac-10 team above was Arizona, who got SI’s numero uno ranking. Predicting UO’s quack attack will be led by strong forward Luke Jackson and point guard Luke Ridnour, SI quotes an opposing coach’s view of UO as saying, “Unless you’re on your guard, you will get nuked by the Lukes.”.

Taylor named NCC defensive player of the year
Six members of coach Dan Steelquist’s Lady B soccer team have been awarded North Cascades Conference soccer honors for 2002.
Senior defender Linsey Taylor, the Lady B’s mix of animated adrenaline, athletic skill and uncommon competitiveness, was named NCC Defensive Player of the Year, marking the second straight year that a member of Blaine’s blockade bunch has won the honor.
Blaine’s goalkeeper Shela Robertson was last year’s Defensive POY and Taylor was an All-NCC first team choice in 2001. This year Shutout Shela, who blanked the opposition 10 times in 21 games, was named All-NCC first team goalkeeper.
Junior midfielder Kristina Francis, another key member of the Lady B blockade bunch, was named All-NCC first team defender.
Sophomores Ainsley Nix and Andrea Harmening were All-NCC second team forwards and junior Kimberly Harmening was named All-NCC second team midfielder. Unofficial stats have Andrea Harmening, who scored 12 times in 21 games, as the Lady B’s top goal-getter. Same stats show Kimberly H got four goals and an assist and Nix added five assists to the Borderite cause. The data doesn’t include shootout scoring.
In other soccer news, the Whatcom County Youth Soccer Association announced that Taylor will represent Blaine in the WCYSA Senior Cup all-star game on May 28, 2003 at Civic Stadium.

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