Robertson to call selected Indians games in 2012

SPOKANE - Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Robertson will serve as a guest announcer for select Spokane Indians games throughout the 2012 season.

Robertson retired as the full-time announcer of the Indians at the end of the 2010 season but teamed up with Mike Boyle to call 20 games last year. Robertson will once again join Boyle in 2012, starting on Opening Day, June 15 for a five-game homestand against the Vancouver Canadians. Robertson will also call the majority of road games against Salem-Keizer, Eugene, Everett, and Vancouver.

Robertson is currently calling Monday home games for the Tacoma Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League, and will return to Pullman in the fall for his 46th season of Washington State Cougars football.

Bender named girls hoops coach at Sandpoint High

SANDPOINT - Bill Bender was named the new girls basketball coach at Sandpoint High by a school interview committee.

Bender, 63, will succeed Lance Bruce, who was fired after the season.

Bender has been teaching and coaching in the Nine Mile Falls School District in Washington, where he was the girls basketball coach at St. George's in Spokane for four years and was an assistant at Lakeside High in Nine Mile Falls for eight years.

Boise State slated for 10 football games on TV

The Boise State football team will in the national spotlight early and often in 2012, with 10 nationally televised games - the most in the Mountain West Conference.

A likely Top 25 contender when the first polls emerge, BSU will kick off its season on ESPN on Aug. 31 at Michigan State, play host to BYU on Sept. 20 on ESPN and play at Nevada on Dec. 1 on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

Boise State is scheduled to play five games on the NBC Sports Network - vs. Miami-Ohio on Sept. 15, vs. Fresno State on Oct. 13, vs. UNLV on Oct. 20, at Hawaii on Nov. 10 and vs. Colorado State on Nov. 17.

BSU is scheduled to play two games on the CBS Sports Network - Oct. 27 at Wyoming and Nov. 3 vs. San Diego State.

Fiala tops Chiefs' picks in WHL Bantam Draft

The Spokane Chiefs made 10 selections in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft, including defenseman Evan Fiala with their first round pick, 14th overall. The 6-foot-2, 171-pound rearguard scored five goals and 32 points in 23 games last season with the Valley Vipers of the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League (SBAA). He also added 87 penalty minutes.

Curtis Miske, a 6-1 center from Beaumont, Alberta, went in the second round, 36th overall. Goaltender Tyson Verhelst, who went 15-4 in 23 appearances last season with Bantam AA Brandon Wheat Kings, was Spokane's third-round pick.

Defenseman Jordan Henderson from Surrey, British Columbia, was taken with the first of two fourth-round selections. Teammates from British Columbia's Pursuit of Excellence (POE) Bantam team, center Jordan Kawaguchi and defenseman Tyson Helgesen, were selected with the next two picks.

In the seventh round the Chiefs took Marcus Vela, a 6-1 center from the Burnaby Bantam team of the PCBHL.

Ben Hanley, a 6-3 left wing from Kelowna, B.C., was the first of three eighth round picks, 159th overall. Defenseman Nick Lenius from Weyburn, Saskatchewan, was taken with the very next choice while right wing Darien Craighead from Surrey, B.C., was selected with the 168th overall pick.