Yakama team wins Thorpe title
June 16, 2012 by YH-R Sports
OKLAHOMA CITY — They’re back at it again.
The Yakama Nation’s 19-and-under all-star boys basketball team, which won tournaments in Arizona and Hawaii last year, captured the Jim Thorpe Native American Games basketball title this week.
Capping a 6-0 run in the three-day tournament, Yakama Nation defeated the Seminoles from Florida 37-34 in the championship game.
As with last year’s squad, the team consisted of Wes Williams, Jacoby Howe, Shannon Isadore, Randy Isadore, Joel Yellow Owl, Lawrence Fiander, Nathaniel Fiander, Clifton Smiscon and coach Everette Howe.
“That title game was back and forth and tense the whole way,” Everette Howe said. “They held the ball some and were big boys and we couldn’t get our fastbreak going. But we made some big shots at the end.”
The Jim Thorpe tournament was going on at the same time as the first two games of the NBA Finals in Oklahoma City. “It was a fantastic time to be here,” Howe said, “so much was going on. The kids loved it.”
RUNNING
Prosser grad setting records
Mike Blackmore, a 1980 graduate of Prosser, has turned 50 years old and he’s making a big impact on the U.S. masters track and field scene.
Blackmore, a Class AA state champion at 3,200 meters for the Mustangs in his senior year, nearly broke the American record for the 50-54 mile last week, clocking 4:27.67 in Portland.
In late April, Blackmore did set the 50-54 American masters record for 5,000 meters, running 15:16.77 to lower the previous mark by 25 seconds, but it was narrowly broken a week later.
The U.S. Masters Championships will be held Aug. 2-5 in Illinois.
COLLEGES
Davis grad tabbed NN coach
NAMPA, Idaho — Rich Wagner, a 1994 Davis graduate, has been named head fastpitch coach at Northwest Nazarene University.
Wagner, who played baseball at NNU and graduated in 1999, has 10 years of college-level coaching experience, having served as an assistant with the Crusaders’ baseball program from 2001 to 2005 and as a head coach in the Boise Summer League from 2007 to 2011.
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