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  • Cannon working overtime

    Paul Delaney, Cheney Free Press|Updated Nov 20, 2024

    The ROTC cannon that loudly proclaims touchdowns scored at Eastern Washington football games at Roos Field worked overtime last Saturday. At times it seemed like the cadets might have even been challenged to load ordinance fast enough as the Eagles rolled to a 77-42 Big Sky Conference win over Idaho State. In a record-setting offensive explosion for EWU’s 37 seasons in Division I football, the Eagles scored on EVERY possession during Senior Day. The game concluded the six-game schedule of home games for Eastern on Roos’ red...

  • Closing in on lofty goal

    Paul Delaney, Cheney Free Press|Updated Nov 11, 2024

    The Cheney boys cross country team came into the 2024 season driven by both experience and history. And on Saturday, Nov. 9 in Pasco they'll reach the finish line at the state 3A championships. "They have aspirations to be the first (Cheney) state champion team since 1989," head coach Derek Slaughter said prior to the season. The Blackhawks arrive with that goal within reach following what might be considered an upset team title Nov. 2 in the District 6 championships at Vetera...

  • Second chance success

    Paul Delaney, Cheney Free Press|Updated Oct 31, 2024

    Garret Johnson candidly admits he let a college wrestling career slip away and with it the opportunity to shine as he once did at Medical Lake High School. Johnson's doing his best lately with the second chance he's been given by wrestling - and winning - on the world stage for Team USA. He just returned from a couple of weeks in the Adriatic Sea community of Porec, Croatia. There Johnson won his 130 kg weight class in Freestyle at the Annual Veterans World Championship. In no...

  • Driving baseball dreams

    Paul Delaney, Cheney Free Press|Updated Oct 9, 2024

    Stacy Ashcroft took her first “driving test” with the West Plains Little League by becoming a board member a decade ago in 2015. By 2017, the keys to the car were in her hand, and Ashcroft was at the wheel as the organization's president and traveling new roads. "We do not regularly do fundraising, but after last year our board is getting a little bit more active and we're getting more ideas flowing," Ashcroft said. The effort to raise at least $8,000 — but more is always welcome — will fund a variety of field improve...

  • Time for a needed break

    Paul Delaney, Cheney Free Press|Updated Oct 3, 2024

    Eastern Washington emerged from a pair of fights with relative football heavyweights cut, battered physically — and maybe bruised mentally? Last Saturday, Montana survived a furious comeback to return to Missoula with the school’s first-ever win over seven tries on the red turf at Roos Field by a 52-49 score. This comes on the heels of a thorough pummeling 49-16 at Nevada, Sept. 21. “We bounced back from a game we didn’t play so well in last week,” Eastern head coach Aaron Best said in a post-game interview. These two losse...

  • Sowing new seeds for football success

    PAUL DELANEY, Cheney Free Press|Updated Aug 28, 2024

    The local West Plains high school football fields over the past few years might best be considered fallow. That means having been “plowed and left unseeded for a season or more.” In other words, wins have not at all been plentiful. Consider that over the past five seasons, Cheney has but one winning season. That came in 2019, the Blackhawks’ final campaign in the 2A Great Northern League and prior to their elevation to 3A play in the Greater Spokane League with former coach Bobby Byrd. The drought has been much longer over...

  • 'Big-Play V.A' is lighting up CFL

    PAUL DELANEY, Cheney Free Press|Updated Jul 17, 2024

    It was just 10 years ago that Vernon Adams Jr. was skittering around the red turf at Roos Field at Eastern Washington University making a name for himself. As the head mechanic of the Eagles’ high-powered offensive engine, Adams helped lead the Eagles to three consecutive Big Sky Conference championships and as many Football Championship Subdivision semifinal playoff appearances. Adams was passing and running his way to earning the nickname of “Big Play V.A.” with highl...

  • Old-fashioned sound of bat

    PAUL DELANEY, Cheney Free Press|Updated Jul 3, 2024

    The old-fashioned sound of the crack of wood baseball bats will echo across the area starting today, July 4. The Wood Bat Classic American Legion Baseball tournament will take place between Independence Day and July 7. This means American Legion baseball will be right around the corner virtually everywhere from Coeur d’Alene to Hillyard and Millwood and of course Medical Lake. “They are playing on 15 fields at 14 different sites,” Legion Baseball official Glen Reser noted. “Post Falls has two pods/fields,” he added. Se...

  • Stanley what? Stanley who?

    PAUL DELANEY, Cheney Free Press|Updated Jun 20, 2024

    The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competed for by professional teams in North America. It is competition most sports fans could care less about who wins, let alone who is playing. It’s been battled for since 1892, a gift from Canada’s Governor General at the time, Lord Stanley of Preston. And only twice since, in 1919 due to the influenza epidemic and a lockout of players in 2005, has a winner not been crowned. By the time you read this there’s a significant likelihood that the Florida Panthers from Miami will have become...

  • Dirt Dawgs filling the gap

    Paul Delaney, Cheney Free Press|Updated Jun 5, 2024

    There are several cogs in the machine that propels baseball’s recent success in the area, most notable the West Plains Little League. But a new addition arrived in 2020 that has helped fill the middle school gap, that being the Medical Lake Dirt Dawgs. The idea of a program that reaches primarily ages 13 to 15 jumped into founder Lance Michaud’s mind after he arrived in Medical Lake with the U.S. Air Force in 2019. A former college player, Michaud landed at Fairchild as its Food Superintendent and was surprised at what he...

  • My oh my, the Owyhee!

    PAUL DELANEY, Cheney Free Press|Updated May 23, 2024

    Its name comes from the most unlikely source. The solitude that surrounds it is immense. And the ever-changing river corridor scenery is, perhaps, unparalleled? A just right El Niño winter weather pattern where the storm track punishes California sometimes rewards whitewater rafters with both perfect water and weather on Oregon’s Owyhee River. Flowing 280 miles, the headwaters of this river originate in northern Nevada with the Owyhee’s name derived from an original spel...