SPORTS
by Jack Kintner

Blaine drops three, ties one at Lynden jamboree

“We’re going to have a good stiff workout Monday, that’s for sure,” said Blaine girls basketball head coach Rob Adams after last weekend’s Lynden Jamboree, an eye-opener for the new faces on both Blaine teams and their coaches, who got their first look at this year’s players in the lights and noise of the Lynden high school gym.
The results were mixed at best. There were some definite bright spots, especially the play of the veterans, but both Blaine varsity teams dropped three of the four 10-minute exhibition contests they played and tied a fourth.
The girls opened against a triple-A Sehome team that’s a consensus pick to lead and probably win the northwest league. Blaine seemed tentative and found themselves badly outplayed in the paint, but began to set up more effectively and pass less erratically toward the end of the brief contest that Sehome won 28-10.
The boys were pushed just as hard by a good if not spectacular triple-A Sehome team, losing the ball on turnovers several times before they seemed to get their bearings. They were whistled for twice the fouls as Sehome (8 vs. 4) but again, as with the girls, the level to which the excellent Sehome squads pushed Blaine began toward the end to get better play out of the Borderites in terms of ball handling but not shooting. Sehome won 17-2.
The girls then met triple-A Lynden and led for most of the 10-minute one-period game, committing only four fouls versus 10 for the Lady Lions. Guards Ainsley Nix and Nicole Riddle both played tough, and along with the other veterans showed the new faces on the team this year that the team can win if it’s focused and pays attention to the task at hand.
With Nix’s hot hand at the free throw line, Blaine worked its lead up to a three point margin at 9-6 only to lose it when Lynden’s Rhonda Zandstra nailed a three-point shot from the corner with less than a minute to go. Blaine had the last shot but was unable to convert for the win and ended up tied with Lynden 9-9.
The boys closed out Blaine’s part of the evening with their only look at a league opponent as they faced the Lynden Christian Lyncs led by stand-out forward 6'8" Kyle Coston. Lynden got off to a quick start and held Blaine scoreless for almost three minutes until Lync guard Greg Burgers smacked Blaine senior guard Doug Goldsby on the arm as he was shooting. Goldsby’s shot rolled around the rim and then gently rolled off the side without going through, but he sank the free-throw to ruin LC’s shut-out. With the score 9-1 with seven minutes to go, Blaine had spotted LC nine points before scoring at all, but then played them even for seven tough minutes before losing 20-10.
Toward the mid-point of the contest Blaine’s lanky and flashy Ryan Goodwin was called a second time for elbowing. The Lynden defender caught Goodwin’s elbow squarely in the jaw with an audible pop heard all over the gym and was sent reeling, but the call was clearly unwarranted (a player is allowed room to free the ball from an opponent as long as his elbows don’t move faster than the ball itself).
Head coach Dan Rucker protested briefly, but the better reaction came from Goodwin himself, penetrating and hitting from the outside with a new-found energy, as if awakened from an afternoon nap, as if he were Clark Kent after a quick visit to a phone booth. He dominated the game toward the end with a caliber of finesse and deception that bodes well for the future.
Even though the jamboree games are exhibitions and don’t count, the season has begun, and for both teams, especially for those players new to the lights and the noise, the future is now.

Boys win season opener

The Blaine boys home season began with a win Tuesday, November 30 as they defeated Earl Marriot Secondary of Surrey, B.C. in a non-league contest 56-47. Junior Ryan Goodwin was high scorer for the evening with 18, and sank the Borderite’s only successful three-point shot out of 13 attempts. Alex Sylvester had 11 and Doug Goldsby had 10 and provided the only real scare of the evening in the second half when he went down hard after a fast break and thumped his head on the floor. He eventually returned to the bench only to get bopped again with an errant Blaine pass that somehow found his aching noggin. He returned to the game a few minutes later seemingly none the worse for wear.
Aside from their difficulties from outside the three point line, the Borderites shot well both from the floor (66 percent) and the free throw line (54 percent).
Their next game is at home Thursday, December 2 in the first of four varsity double-headers this season in which they’ll play the same opponent as the Lady B’s. This first match is against a traveling select team from Australia. The girls play at 5:45 followed by the boys at 7:30.

'

SYC election

The Semiahmoo Yacht Club has a brand new slate of directors for 2005-2006. Elected as commodore was Jimmy Johnson, vice-commodore, John Baldwin; rear commodore, George Culbertson, fleet captain, Al Amman; port captain, Pat Soll; judge advocate, Carol Myers; treasurer, John Oliver and secretary, Yvonne Schaff.
The club held its annual Commodore’s Ball on Saturday, November 13 at Loomis Trail golf club. The annual ‘member of the year’ award was presented to Candi Johnson.
The club has approximately 160 members and was started in 1981. It is open to power boaters, sailors, and non-boaters interested in the club’s reciprocal arrangements. For more information, contact John Baldwin at 371-0120.