MLCA/CSS girls bring experience, build teamwork
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 12 months AGO
Brooklyn Dorsing, left, keeps her eye on the ball as SanTahna Ferguson bumps it into the air at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
From left: Sasha Veresko, Rebecca Wiser, Kayla Piper, SanTahna Ferguson and Brooklyn Dorsing pass the ball around at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30. Team cohesion is something they’re working on this year, players said.
From left: SanTahna Ferguson, Rebecca Wiser, Kayla Piper, Brooklyn Dorsing and Sasha Veresko keep moving as the ball crosses the net at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30. Head Coach Dean Spurbeck said aggressive movement is a focus of this year’s training.
Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School Head Coach Dean Spurbeck, left, addresses his squad at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | September 6, 2024 10:05 AM
MOSES LAKE — Keeping players in motion is an important goal for the Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball team.
“(We’re working on) being very aggressive,” Lions Head Coach Dean Spurbeck said at practice Aug. 30. “Hit the balls, and then movement. I want everybody to be moving and I want them to smash the ball all the time.”
The Lions went to state two years ago, but then lost six seniors to graduation, Spurbeck said, and last year they lost at districts.
“Last year we were very young,” he said. “We had one senior and the girls were a couple of years into it, barely. So now we’re into our third year and the experience is much better.”
This year Spurbeck’s squad includes four seniors, one of whom transferred from out of state and has shown some skill, he said.
“Our setters are three freshmen and one senior,” he said. “They’re getting to where they’re decent.”
Team cohesion and communication were issues the players felt they needed to address.
“(I think we need to work on) good communication and making sure my team is lifting each other up and not bringing each other down,” said senior Brooklyn Dorsing, who said this is her first year at MLCA, but she’s been playing since she was 5. “Making sure each set is better every time, getting my feet to the ball and putting up a good set.”
“I think that the team needs to work on more teamwork and working together and not getting mad,” said senior Angela Ferguson. “And personally, I feel like I need to work on communicating with my team and learning from each other.”
Players sometimes have personal issues with each other that they air online, Ferguson explained, and that hurts the whole team’s ability to bond.
“They get upset to the point that they don’t care about the game anymore,” she said. “As a team, I think we need to work on communicating to the point where we can talk through it and get past it as a team, not one person individually, because that doesn’t make the game fun. Volleyball is supposed to be fun; it’s fun if you win, but like (Spurbeck) always says, it’s better to be a hot winner than a hot loser.”
From left: Sasha Veresko, Rebecca Wiser, Kayla Piper, SanTahna Ferguson and Brooklyn Dorsing pass the ball around at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30. Team cohesion is something they’re working on this year, players said.
From left: SanTahna Ferguson, Rebecca Wiser, Kayla Piper, Brooklyn Dorsing and Sasha Veresko keep moving as the ball crosses the net at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30. Head Coach Dean Spurbeck said aggressive movement is a focus of this year’s training.
Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School Head Coach Dean Spurbeck, left, addresses his squad at Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School volleyball practice Aug. 30.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.