Prep notebook: Darrington’s Powell commits to play volleyball for Idaho
Published 11:11 pm Monday, October 13, 2008
Part of a Washington-to-Idaho volleyball pipeline, Mandy Powell is bound for Moscow.
Powell, a senior at Darrington High School, verbally committed Friday to play volleyball for the University of Idaho next year. She took a two-day recruiting trip to the university’s campus in Moscow.
After meeting Vandals coaches and players — and even Idaho’s athletic director — Powell made her decision. Idaho has already received commitments from three other Washington state Class of 2009 prep players, Powell said.
“The (Idaho) team is phenomenal. I really enjoyed hanging out with them. I think the program is going to go really, really far,” said Powell.
Idaho has an NCAA Division-I program that competes in the Western Athletic Conference. The Vandals won their fifth consecutive match Saturday and improved to 12-6 this season.
The 5-foot-6 Powell plays outside hitter for Darrington, which is ranked sixth in the state coaches’ Class 2B poll. But Idaho wants her to be a defensive specialist or a libero — positions more suited to her height at the collegiate level. Powell said she is excited for the challenge. The first time she tried libero was two summers ago and it went very well. One of 10 players selected to play on the Puget Sound Region High Performance Volleyball Team, Powell and her teammates won the Global Challenge youth division tournament in Salt Lake City in July 2007.
M-P football team off to best start since 1975
With a 28-0 victory over Lake Stevens Friday the Marysville-Pilchuck football team improved to 6-0, its best start since 1975, according to M-P assistant coach Bill Hodgins. The Tomahawks finished 9-1 that fall, when Marysville High and Pilchuck High merged. M-P won the Northwest “AA” championship and lost to Sumner in a first-round state playoff game.
Reader poll results
In the most recent Double Team prep sports reader poll, people answered this question: Which fall high school sport is the most exciting to watch? Picking from boys tennis; cross country; football, girls and small-school boy soccer; girls swimming; and volleyball, readers overwhelmingly picked cross country. It received 453 of 560 total votes (81 percent). Agree? Disagree? Have suggestions for future reader polls? Visit cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.
A perfect present
Annie Sittauer had plenty of reasons to celebrate Oct. 7. First off, it marked Sittauer’s return to action for the Everett girls soccer team. In July she broke the fifth metatarsal bone in her left foot after getting tackled while playing for her select squad. The injury kept her out 12 weeks, but she returned in time to help Everett beat Arlington 4-0 last week — on her birthday. Sittauer, a junior forward, said she was nervous before her season debut but it ended up being a great birthday present.
Mike Cane, Herald Writer
