1
If you want to be an Olympian from our state, one way to go is play against the Prairie girls basketball team.
Our friend Carl Click, a basketball coach and a TV news anchor, noticed an interesting tidbit: There are three present-day Olympians who all lost to the Prairie Falcons in basketball.
The first one is easy. Kara Patterson of Vancouver. The American record holder in the javelin played basketball at Skyview. In her final game against Prairie in 2004, she scored 14 points in a four-point loss in the district championship game.
Before goalkeeper Hope Solo made huge saves for the U.S. women’ soccer team, she played basketball for Richland. Prairie beat the Bombers on a buzzer beater in the 1998 state semifinals. Solo scored eight points in that game.
Then there is Courtney Thompson, who will be trying to help USA to gold in volleyball Saturday. But first, she had to lose to Prairie in the 2002 state semifinals playing for Kentlake. She scored 16 points in that game.
Thanks Carl. Great stuff.
2
Jim Mora said what?
The UCLA football coach went on a radio show and proclaimed “We don’t have murders a block from our campus.”
Of course, UCLA’s biggest rival, USC, had high-profile murders of two graduate students near the USC campus in the spring.
Shockingly, Mora’s comments did not go over so well in the land of Troy.
But again, Mora said he meant no disrespect to any other college. He was just overcome with joy that UCLA is so safe.
Wonder if that will be his next recruiting pitch: “If you don’t want your son to be murdered, come to our program.”
