MLCA/CSS girls bring experience, build teamwork
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 1 month 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
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”