Cheney High School acknowledged for athletics and scholarship

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

Here in the dog days of sports — meaning all we have for team excitement is baseball — might be a good time to look back on the high school sports year just completed.

But before I go on, not that there’s anything wrong with baseball. I love it!

It’s just it’s made that much sweeter when it’s coupled with football. And football is sweet when coupled with basketball and hockey, etc.

Back to high school, at least metaphorically. On June 12, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association released its list of the annual WIAA Scholastic Cup champions and standings.

According to a news release, the Scholastic Cup is a year-long competition that recognizes the top school in each of the six state classifications based on results in academic, athletic and sportsmanship excellence. Four of the champions are here in our backyard: Mead (4A), Freeman (1A) and Northwest Christian (2B) while the 1B champ is just a little over an hour’s drive out west on U.S. Highway 2 — Almira–Coulee–Hartline.

Cheney School Board Director Mitch Swenson presented the information at the board’s June 14 meeting, and not without a little pride from the CHS alum. Cheney High finished 15th overall in the 2A classification, which is its highest finish among the 63 member schools in the five years of records on the WIAA site.

I know this is the sports section and this is a sports column, but it’s worth mentioning here because of its focus not only on accomplishments on the field, court, track and pool but also in the facet of high school sports — scholastic. High school, and college, students balance bookwork with athletic work while at the same time being the public face of their respective institution.

They have a responsibility others do not have. If they don’t keep their grades up, they aren’t — or shouldn’t be — eligible to compete. If they don’t keep in shape and strive to improve their skills, they aren’t contributors to the team’s success.

In both cases they let their team, school and community down. Not an easy position to be in.

Cheney was helped with its 15th-place finish through good seasons by several teams. In the fall, the Blackhawk boys placed fourth at state in cross country while the girls swimming team was eighth overall at Federal Way competition.

Spring was even better, led by the Blackhawk boys track and field team tying Ridgefield for a state title, with the girls team in a tie for fourth with Ellensburg. Cheney also got activity points from the baseball, volleyball and boys swimming and soccer teams.

Scholastically, six Cheney teams placed in the top 10, led by girls basketball which was fifth overall. Softball, boys tennis and volleyball each placed sixth with boys soccer and gymnastics seventh.

Cheney’s finish, garnering 560 points, was second overall among fellow Great Northern League schools, 140 points behind ninth-place Pullman. Sehome High School in Bellingham was the 2A Scholastic Cup state champion with 1,490 points.

Northwest Christian had the highest point total of all six state champions, with the Colbert-area school scoring 1,720 points.

In comparison, Cheney’s score may not seem like much, but it is an indicator that there is still an emphasis on keeping the correct perspective among student-athletes — making sure the mind is just as much in shape as the body.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].