Timberline High School Graduate, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, claimed the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics as an aerielist. Visit his website at www.jeretpeterson.com

Ali Thompson signed with Washington State University on Wednesday November 12th to play golf for the Cougars on a full ride scholarship.  Ali has been a member of the 2006 District Champions, 2006 State Champions, 2007 District Champions, and 2007 State Runner-up teams.  She has placed 2nd at State twice.  She still has one more season with us this coming spring.  We want to wish you the best of luck in Pullman next year. 

Four Timberline High School athletes signed with colleges this past week to continue playing at the next level.  On Tuesday January 27th, 2009.  Duece Kerns signed to play baseball with the College of Southern Idaho.

Chris Kerns

On National Letter of Intent Day, February 4th, three Timberline Girls Soccer players signed.

Carlee Norquist signed to play soccer at Seattle University.

Kayla Bigelow signed to play soccer at the College of Idaho.

Andi Rowan signed to play soccer at Willamette University.

Congratulations and good luck to these athletes!

Andi Rowan, Carlee Norquist, and Kayla Bigelow

 

Carissa Simmons, a freshman at the University of Montana, helped the Griz place 4th by shooting a 2 under par 70 in the final round.

Griz Article

Carissa graduated from Timberline in 2007 after winning a state title in Lewiston last year.

News Release: Friday, February 29, 2008

LINK TO THE SEATTLE TIMES ARTICLE

#3 Drew Vachal        Northwest Christian College
6-0          Freshman            Guard
Boise, ID (Walla Walla CC)

Walla Walla CC: Was a redshirt with the Walla Walla during the 2006-2007 season.

High School Experience: Played one year on varsity at Timberline High for coach Alan Thornsberry...earned Second-Team All-SIC honors...hit 29 of 30 free-throws in the state tournament...named team MVP...was an SIC All-Star and was a candidate for the Wendy's Heisman.

Personal: Born on January 31, 1988 in Scobey, MT...son of Julie and Jeff Vachal...enjoys listening to Jazz and hanging out with friends...aspires to become a High School Counselor and a basketball coach...majoring in psychology/counseling.

Micky Pingree, UIC

Jr. * OF * Boise, Idaho

-- Hit .422 with 30 RBI in League play

-- Ranks fi fth overall with 16 doubles, 40 RBI

-- Recorded 16 multi-hit games, with fi ve

three-hit efforts

-- Sixth Flame to win top Newcomer honors

HORIZON LEAGUE RELEASE

 

After taking 1^st place in Regionals, Shay Craig and Kristen Burtch finished the 2007 NJCAA season 2^nd in the nation.  The national championship was played in Tampa, Florida, May 17-19.  NIC opened with a 2-1 loss in game one.  They never looked back, stringing seven straight wins back to back over a 3 day period.  NIC took the #1 softball team in the country to the “what if” game losing 6-3 in the 8^th inning.  NIC was as close to a National championship as anyone would care to be.  Kristen was named to the All Region 1st Team while Shay earned 2^nd team honors.  The following are the overall stats in Region 18.

 

Season Stats

News release date: Wednesday, Jan. 31 2007

Hazel Brings Artistic Touch to Basketball Floor, Art Studio

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Aaron Hazel, a 6-foot-5 senior center on the Whitman College men’s basketball team, knows his way around the "paint," the area on the basketball floor closest to the hoop.

      That much is obvious to fans of Whitman basketball. Strong, quick and athletic, Hazel works the paint like an artist, taking passes on the low post and brushing past or soaring over defenders for quick scores.

      There are reasons other than the obvious to say that Hazel plays his position like an artist. What fans might not realize is that Hazel is, in fact, an artist – a painter, to be more precise.

      Hazel, a studio art major who graduates from Whitman in May, will have several of his paintings on display this Friday and Saturday in Sherwood Center as the Missionaries host men’s and women’s games against George Fox and Linfield.

      Basketball fans can view Hazel’s paintings at any time either evening. The games start at 6 p.m. Friday and at 4 p.m. Saturday.

      While Hazel has been sketching and drawing for as long as he can remember, his serious interest in painting developed after he came to Whitman. By the time he was finishing his first painting class, "I felt like I had found my groove, and I’ve loved it ever since."

      "I enjoy painting a variety of things, including landscapes and portraits," Hazel says. More recently, his interests have wandered into the more abstract realm of depicting contemporary pop culture. "I enjoy exploring shapes and colors, and how they interact with one another, as well as focusing on the surface and texture of the painting."

One of the larger paintings Hazel plans to display is a mixture of deep cadmium reds with a hint of green, orange and yellow covered in black circled outlines. Another painting shows three adult beverage containers lined up against a red background, which he says "represents my coming of age and the realization of my passion for contemporary pop-art."

      Other works in the exhibit will include a self portrait as well as a small pop-art painting of Muhammad Ali in reds and yellows.

      Philip Miner, a visiting assistant professor of art at Whitman, sees an athletic side to Hazel’s paintings. "Aaron manages to leverage his talents on the basketball court into the field of visual art," Miner says. "His athleticism is evident in the physicality of his painting technique. He uses squeegees, trowels, blades and large brushes to scrape, drag and spread paint across the surface of his paintings."

      Noting that Hazel takes inspiration from "structures of advertising and cultural signs of identity," Miner says his student’s approach "plays with the idea of the grid as a pictorial convention of 20th century abstraction . . . invoked to consider the significance of his personal experience."

      "Abstraction and representation commingle in paintings where Aaron layers color in vibrant combinations," Miner adds. "Circles and geometric shapes are repeating motifs that manifest as icons describing his curiosity of color relationships, movement, and the emotive potentiality of paint."

      Hazel, a native of Boise, Idaho, draws on different sides of his family gene pool for his athletic and artistic talents. His father Michael played point guard at Boise State, where he met Aaron’s mother Becky. "My uncle on my mom’s side is an amazing artist," Hazel says.

      His uncle, Dan Barsness, lives in Twin Falls, Idaho, where he operates his own framing business and sells his paintings and prints to a variety of customers. "He is extremely gifted at painting realistic portraits, something I am still trying to improve on," Hazel says. "I have always wanted to have the same artistic ability as him. I really believe he played a key role in my amusement and passion for art."

      Hazel, a senior co-captain on the men’s basketball team, missed this season’s first game in late November when he traveled to New York City for an annual weeklong excursion of Whitman art majors.

      In his first game back, Hazel made up for lost time, scoring a game-high 21 points while grabbing eight rebounds. He added a “double-double” in his next game, combining 12 points and 10 rebounds. His run of impressive early season games was snapped in December when a broken left hand sidelined him for all or parts of six games.

      A lefty on the basketball floor and in the art studio, Hazel says the broken hand was a "very humbling time for me. I still had use of my fingers, so I was able to paint my abstract fashion, but basketball was a little more difficult. Once the hand was healed, it took me awhile to have confidence in coming in contact with other players. Now it’s not a problem."

      Just as he was catching his second wind in January, however, back spasms added another round of tribulation. Hazel is thankful that his back is feeling better this week. The injuries, he says, have "made me appreciate life, basketball and my health even more."

      After a hit-and-miss season with injuries, Hazel is deserving of a strong finish to his senior season, Whitman basketball coach Skip Molitor says. "When Aaron is healthy, he finishes plays at the basket as well as anyone in our conference."

      Over the past three seasons, Hazel has connected on 207 of his 330 shot attempts, an extraordinary shooting percentage of nearly 63 percent.

      "Aaron has a chance to finish with a career shooting percentage of over 62 percent," Molitor says. "That’s a remarkable number at any level of basketball."

      After graduating from Whitman, Hazel plans to take his artistic traits to work for an advertising firm. If all goes well, that first step into the working world will only be temporary. He's already working on plans for two Internet-based companies and a reality TV show.

      "There's a lot of things I'd like to do," he says with a chuckle.

CONTACT:

Dave Holden, Whitman Sports Information, (509) 527-5902
Email: holden@whitman.edu

 

Having fun on the flip side

At 23, Peterson is on top of the freestyle world

By Tony Chamberlain, Globe Staff  |  November 24, 2005

What he does is soar 55 feet in the air doing flips and twists in a dizzying acrobatic spin so on the edge that his mother can't watch, then drops with a thwack on the snow and keeps his balance down the outrun ramp.

 

When all this goes right, Peterson pumps his fists in triumph as the crowd cheers.

Last March in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, it all went right. In the last event of the season, Peterson stuck a perfect landing for a second-place finish that won him the season World Cup title in freestyle aerials.

 

''It was the most amazing moment of my life," said Peterson at lunch last week. ''It took a while to sink in, but then it sure did sink in." He was referring to the round of celebrity appearances, including stops on the ''Late Show with David Letterman" and ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

''I remember just how intense it was," Peterson said. ''A lot of guys were jumping pretty well, but Steve [Omischl of Canada] came out with his game face on. It was really exciting."

Omischl provided the only challenge to Peterson, and in one of his jumps he had a shaky landing, giving Peterson a clear shot at the overall title.

 

He's not in the Bode Miller end of the sport -- ski racing -- so, where did the nickname come from? In his first training camp at age 11, he explains, ''The coaches called me 'Speedy' because of the way I used to zip around the splash pool at the aerials camp in Lake Placid. I mean I was just this little guy with a checkered life jacket and big helmet, and I'd take my jump, get out of the pool, and then I'd run back and cut in line. I wasn't too clear on the concept of waiting my turn. And the coaches started calling me 'Speedy' and it stuck. I like it."

 

Peterson was in town for the Snowsports Expo last weekend, appearing with other luminaries such as the 1994 downhill Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe and moguls legend Donna Weinbrecht (Olympic gold, 43 World Cup wins). Knowing well that ski racing is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sport, he has begun taking his first step toward the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

 

In the opening World Cup event in Australia in September, he hit a series of near-perfect jumps to win the event and set himself up as a clear choice for the US freestyle team. Last season he won three Cup events on his way to winning the overall championship. He said he is looking forward to wearing the leader's bib next month in China and plans to wear it the whole season.  ''Yup, that's my plan," said Peterson. ''I want to keep the yellow bib all season. And then I want to medal in the Olympics. I think I look good in the yellow bib. It kind of has a golden color in it."

 

Peterson, who likes to joke and flash his thousand-watt smile, turns serious when the conversation turns to competition. He talked of a frustrating season in 2003-04, when he learned the lesson that turned his career around. In those days he talked about winning it all, but he turned in a sputtering string of third- and fourth-place finishes.

 

''I know I hadn't done my homework," he said. ''I really wasn't ready to win as much as I wanted to. I had set myself up for failure, but then I got serious the [next] summer. I made sure I was ready for the season, and it paid off. I learned that you have to do your homework, otherwise you're only kidding yourself -- and cheating yourself."

 

Peterson, who turns 24 Dec. 12, has always been in the freestyle end of skiing. He started skiing in an after-school program at Bogus Basin in Boise, Idaho, and unlike many of his friends who stuck with Alpine competition, Peterson landed his first back flip at 12. ''I just felt comfortable in the air," he said.

 

What aerial fans will see this year is far evolved from that simple back flip. Peterson is working on a new trick that, if successful, pushes an aerialist's sport to the breaking point.

 

''It's a three-flip, five-twister," he said, ''and it has the highest degree of difficulty ever tried in competition. I've been working on it this summer in training. So far, I've landed one and crashed one. If I nail it this year, this is as far as anyone will be able to go for a long time. I came close to a six-twister but it's just impossible to land. I know I sure won't be around -- in competition anyway -- to see anyone land a six-twister."

 

Whether he uses his new trick is a matter of strategy. If such a high risk move is not needed in whatever competition he's in, the new move may never appear.

 

''It's a very calculated thing," said Peterson, ''and it depends on a lot of things -- the snow, weather, how my body is feeling, and whether I need it to win a competition. But if I really need to take a huge risk, and it's the Olympics, you know I'll be going for it."

 

© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

Emily Florence is sparking the Huskies this season.

Dec. 12, 2005

SEATTLE - Sophomore guard Emily Florence may stand just 5-foot-5, but the Boise native has been coming up big in key moments all year.

On Monday, with her team trailing cross-state rival Eastern Washington early, Florence was at it again, jumping into the lane to steal defensive rebounds away from taller post players, and sparking the UW with repeated drives to the hoop on the offensive end.

Florence finished the game with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, plus a career-high eight rebounds and three assists. Five of Florence's eight rebounds came in the first 13 minutes of the game, helping the Huskies overcome early shooting woes.

It was Florence who helped spark the Huskies early, setting up a Cameo Hicks jumper at the 16:47 mark of the first half, then nailing a couple of jumpers of her own to launch the Huskies on an 18-2 run that put the Eagles away for good before halftime.

Florence later helped push the Husky lead to 14 points with a steal and a breakaway lay-in midway through the second half, before putting an exclamation point on a career night with a three-pointer at the four-minute mark.

After averaging 3.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game as a freshman in 2004-05, Florence is up to 6.4 and 3.6, respectively, in 2005-06, and has already matched or better her career-highs in points, rebounds and assists.

Florence will have her hands full when Pac-10 play opens next week, as Washington welcomes Cal and defending Pac-10 champion Stanford on Dec. 20th and 22nd, respectively.

Winning in the Pac-10 will be no small task, but this year, even the smallest Husky is coming up big.

 

Mike Pellegrini is a junior at Pacific Lutheran University, majoring in business administration and minoring in Legal Studies, he is a second year starter on the offensive line for their football team.  He is expected to graduate in the winter of 2006. 

Mike graduated from Timberline High School in 2002 and was a team captain for both varsity basketball and football.  Along with these leadership roles, he also earned All Conference for both sports his senior year.  He credits his athletic experiences at Timberline with giving him skills to motivate and help others.

Along with football and his studies, Mike also takes part as a volunteer at United Way and at Lister Elementary School, where he has the chance to speak with the children and create lessons that they are able to comprehend and apply to their own lives.  This has also prepared him in creating effective oral presentations and becoming a better public speaker as well as listening to others.

Mike has been a program specialist at the Boys and Girls Club since June of 2004.  Here, he plans and coordinates daily activities and special events.  Here he feels his leadership skills are used to motivate, teach, and appraise the children. 

           
Mike has been a part of the PLU football program for the past three years.  Here he has not only earned a starting position, but has also learned teamwork and committing oneself to excellence through the act of giving up oneself for the sake of something bigger. 

            To learn more about Mike go to http://www,plu.edu/~pellegmb/