Inside the Huddle

Apparently some 12-year-olds get a kick out of dodging kicking livestock. Central Valley Road resident Wyatt Grahn does, anyway.

Grahn, who will become a teenager next month, is the featured clown for this weekend’s Thunderbird Pro Benefit Rodeo, returning to the Kitsap County Fairgrounds for the sixth year Friday through Sunday.

Little Grahn is quite the cowboy, a youngster who enjoys the comedy skits and implied risk of  being a rodeo clown. He comes from a rodeo family, with both his father and older sister having participated in rodeo events. Raymond, his father, was a clown for a brief time before becoming a firefighter.

Lot’s of cool angles on this story, which you can read here.

And here are some photos I took at his family’s ranch home Wednesday:

This just in from Olympic High School Athletic Director Nate Andrews:
Nicole Buhl, who graduated from Olympic in 2008, has signed with Oklahoma Panhandle State University to continue her basketball career.  The NCAA Division II school IS located in Goodwell, Okla. Buhl played two seasons at Seattle Community College after being named Olympic League MVP her senior year of high school.  She will receive a scholarship, amounting to about 83 percent of the cost to attend the university.

In 1998, I turned out for the eighth grade basketball team at Woodward Middle School on Bainbridge Island, convinced my smooth jump shot would make up for what in hindsight was clearly an inability to pass, rebound, defend or run up and down the court more than twice without breaking into a messy sweat.
The coach told me to take a hike before I’d opened my first Gatorade.
In a strange sort of way, that day came to define my high school career. I spent four years on the sidelines, literally — never tried out for basketball again — and was envious,  jealous, of the kids who got to play the game I loved.

At the time I considered basketball my “best” sport. Every day I played alone on the cracked court outside my childhood bedroom, providing play-by-play and commentary for the birds and whoever or whatever else was around and would listen. I’d play for hours, shouting in glee over game-winning jumpers, made possible by the imaginary game clock I could rewind because I was the referee, too. All I ever wanted to be was a basketball player, and when that eighth grade coach told me otherwise, I threw in the proverbial towel.

Now, when I think back to my biggest hardship over those four years, that’s it. I didn’t play basketball.

I was incredibly lucky.

There are teenagers in our community who have been through far, far more. Yet they persevere and step up to the same podium, on the same stage, the night of high school graduation. They should be commended, congratulated, because their journeys went beyond jump shots and buzzer-beaters. They overcame  illness, homelessness, neglect, depression and others.

Read about two incredible soon-to-be-graduates, Kandyce Alvear and Cathy Dang, as part of a special feature in Friday’s Bremerton Patriot and Central Kitsap Reporter.

Central Kitsap High School senior Drew Vettleson has been selected No. 42 overall by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2010 Major League Draft.

The second-round selection was right around where scouts and experts projected the senior would go. I talked to Central Kitsap coach Bill Baxter about an hour ago, and speaking like he knew the future, he told me he had an inkling Vettleson would go to either the Rays or Florida Marlins.

Baxter said a scout, calling from Florida, asked about Vettleson’s character for about 25 minutes this morning. The scout didn’t say which organization he was working with, only that he was calling from Florida.

The scout must have liked what Baxter said.

Vettleson is the second Central Kitsap player to go pro, the other being 1998 grad Todd Linden, who was picked No. 41 by the San Francisco Giants in the 2001 draft. Linden’s career never got off the gorund and he bounced around from team to team, eventually going to Japan.

Now, Vettelson is faced with a big decision: Go pro, or go to college? He has committed to Oregon State University, a baseball powerhouse.

We’ll have more later.

The first round of the 2010 Major League Draft is almost over, with 28 selections in the books, and Drew Vettleson has yet to be selected.

Some draft experts had Vettleson going to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who with the 28th pick selected right-handed pitcher Zach Lee, a high school senior who has committed to Louisiana State University.

The Los Angeles Angels are next up, holding the 30th pick.

We’re 19 picks into the 2010 Major League Draft, but Central Kitsap’s Drew Vettleson has yet to be selected.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, because the senior has been projected by many to go either in the late first round or early second.

One player from Washington state, Josh Sale of Bishop Blanchet High School, has already been chosen. The power hitter was selected 17th overall by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Updates to come.

Wesley Remmer/staff photo

It’s the big day for Central Kitsap High School senior baseball star Drew Vettleson, who is expected to be drafted in the 2010 Major League Draft, beginning at 4 p.m. today and running through Wednesday.
Multiple reports project Vettleson will be drafted late in the first round, 28th overall, by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Both Jim Callis of baseballamerica.com and Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus say Vettleson is headed to Los Angeles.

The ambidextrous slugger, who has committed to play at Oregon State University next season, said earlier this season he wasn’t sure whether he’d go pro if given the chance. Central Kitsap coach Bill Baxter, however, said last week he believed Vettleson would skip college if the circumstances were right.

“I think if he goes high enough he will probably lean toward going,” Baxter said. “He’s in a nice position because he has a backup plan.”

Check back later for updates.

Photo by Wesley Remmer

As promised, here’s a story on three Japanese ballplayers who will spend the summer in Kitsap playing for the Kitsap BlueJackets. One of the men, Masaki Kitamura, 29, is actually a bullpen coach. He’s also the only one who speaks English and will double as a translator as the two players learn the language.

The presence of all three gives the collegiate baseball team some international flair during a time when the organization is scrambling to fill the seats. This certainly won’t hurt.

During an interview before practice Tuesday, I asked all three about coming to America — for the players, 19 and 21, this is their first visit — and also about playing across the Sound from Ichiro, one of the most legendary baseball players Japan has ever produced. We talked about living with a host family and sampling the food, as well as many other topics.

Check the story out here.

The Kitsap Sun picked up on the angle, too, and wrote a story. See it here.

The buzz is back.
That’s right, the Kitsap BlueJackets, the county’s summer collegiate baseball team, open the regular season at home June 4.
It should be an interesting season for the Jackets, who struggled to a last-place finish in the West Coast League West Division in 2009. But sixth-year coach Matt Acker, with whom I spoke to Friday morning, is optimistic as the season approaches.
One of the main reasons? The arrival of stars Koji Hamaguchi and Hiroto Ohmachi, both of whom are from Osaka, Japan, and play for Riseisha College. Ohmachi is a 5-foot-10, 187-pound catcher, and Hamaguchi is a 5-11, 154-pound pitcher.
In an area where there already is a large Japanese influence on baseball — Ichiro, anyone? — it will be fun to watch Hamaguchi and Ohmachi right here in Kitsap.
Acker said it’s such a big deal for the two players to be here, that their Riseisha College teammates will make a week-long trip to Kitsap to watch them play.
Look for a feature story on them in the June 4 editions of the Central Kitsap Reporter and Bremerton Patriot. Neither player speaks English, Acker said, but they have a translator in Kitamura Masaki, a baseball agent who has made the trip over and also will serve as an assistant coach this season.
I’ll ask both players about playing across the water from Ichiro, one of Japan’s most legendary ballplayers, and also about adjusting to the American style of play. And how might the language barrier affect their roles on the team?
We’ll have this and much more next week with the 2010 season preview story.
In the meantime, let’s play ball.

The 2010 All-Olympic League baseball team was released Monday.
Olympic High School outfielders Blake Johnson and Chris Campbell and third baseman Jordan Halstead were named to the first team. Olympic first baseman Chris Groat, second baseman Keith Davis and pitcher Riley Crow were named to the second team.
Klahowya Secondary School shortstop Brandon Neet earned a position on the second team.
Here are the honorable mentions from Olympic and Klahowya:
Joe Valley, Klahowya; Patrick Middleton, Olympic; Patrick McGuire, Klahowya; Bradley Harstad, Klahowya; Seth Green, Klahowya; Zach Bird, Olympic; Joe Stevick, Olympic; and Clark Rose, Klahowya.

And here is the entire team, including MVP, first team, second team and honorable mention selections:

League champ: North Kitsap
Sportsmanship: Sequim
Coach of Year: Jay Hultberg, North Mason
MVP: Daniel Jewett, North Kitsap

First team (name, grade, school)
1B    Daniel Orr    12    KHS
2B    Austin Abrahamson    12    NK
3B    Jordan Halstead    12    OLY
SS    Brandon Neet    12    KSS
C    Nick Benish    11    NK
DH    Justin Williams    12    PA
Utility    Isaac Yamamoto    11    SQ
OF    Cody Sullivan    11    PA
OF    Chris Campbell    11    OLY
OF    Blake Johnson    12    OLY
P    AJ Konopaski    11    PA
P    Alex Smith    11    NK
P    Josh Herrera    11    KHS

Second team
1B    Chris Groat    12    OLY
2B    Keith Davis    12    OLY
3B    Jordan Halstead    12    OLY
SS    Kasey Bielec    11    NM
C    Curtis Wildung    11    KHS
DH    Matt Rief    12    SQ
Utility    Kaden Tomlinson    9    BHS
OF    Zane Minder    11    NK
OF    Stephen Gorman    11    KHS
OF    Alex Gillis    12    SQ
P    Riley Crow    12    OLY
P    Ryan Unbedacht    12    PT
P    Matt Ramstead    12    KHS

Honorable Mention
Joe Valley    11    KSS
Alex Smith    11    NK
Cameron Robinson    12    PT
Skyler Jensen    12    NM
Conner Wales    10    BHS
Drew Rickerson    11    SQ
Garrett Ramstead    12    KHS
Dillon Douglas    12    NM
Zac Smit    11    NK
Easton Napiontek    10    PA
Rico LeMay    12    KHS
Patrick Middleton    11    OLY
Conner Wales    10    BHS
Patrick McGuire    11    KSS
Kevin Woodral    12    KHS
Bradley Harstad    11    KSS
Devin Garcia    11    BHS
Berkley Nilles    12    NK
Augie Konopaski    12    PA
Seth Green    12    KSS
Zach Bird    12    OLY
Joe Nys    12    NM
Preston McFarlen    11    SQ
Brett Johnson    12    PT
Joe Stevick    11    OLY
Eli Fultz    9    BHS
Clark Rose    10    KSS
Matt Bereiter    12    SQ
TJ Reitan    11    NK
Josh Fisher    12    BHS
Chris Campbell    11    OLY
Brandon Neet    12    KSS
Chris Groat    12    OLY
Nick Torento    11    KHS