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It was a case of less is more when the eight-man La Conner High School football team closed out its season at Lummi Nov. 1. The Braves (2-6) exceeded their prior season point total with an explosive 56-6 non-conference victory. La Conner, which normally plays an 11-man format, had just four days to prepare for this contest. Looking to end a rebuilding year on a positive note, the Braves had little trouble adjusting to the quick turnaround and eight-man game. "It was a fun game to be a part of,"...
The road to a seventh state volleyball championship may well go through Manson. If so, the Lady Braves will have to bypass the speed bumps they encountered during a two-day Eastern Washington swing last week that saw La Conner drop matches to 2B Manson and 1A Chelan. The defending state volleyball champions rebounded from those setbacks with a convincing straight-sets home triumph over 2A Squalicum on Friday, Oct. 28. This was the kind of win that bodes well for post-season, which opens...
By Bill Reynolds Ilwaco High School did a victory jig with a 23-0 non-league triumph – the Fishermen's first of the season – when its relentless run game finally wore down the Braves for two fourth period touchdowns Thursday, Oct. 27. Leading 8-0, Ilwaco doubled its margin when running back Dylan Pelas dashed in from five yards out and Sam Needham caught a two-point conversion toss from Ethan Hopkins with 9:40 to play. The Fishermen added an insurance score with 6:03 remaining on a 10-yard Kyl...
At its meeting Oct. 24, the La Conner School board heard reports from middle school and high school students who attended Cispus Leadership Camp in Randle, near the base of Mount Rainier, last summer. The students reported enjoying the experience, saying they had been introduced to problem-solving and leadership skills, gleaned new fundraising ideas, were encouraged to brainstorm and received instruction in how to promote inclusion, kindness and empathy. “I think we all grew a lot,” said high schooler Hadley Shears. La Conner was the sma...
This year, raising a glass to the artists featured in the annual Art's Alive! festival will be a cinch. Instead of sipping your wine or beer outdoors in a tent – a measure taken in 2021 to keep the unseen but ever-present COVID-19 virus from crashing the party – you can offer your toast face to face with the artists during the Friday night opening gala Nov. 11. Add in some scrumptious appetizers and the 38th Art's Alive! weekend will start with "a more traditional gathering of townspeople to...
She was the definition of a quick study while a senior at La Conner High School, simultaneously earning an associate-in-arts degree from nearby Skagit Valley College before enrolling in fall 2000 at Western Washington University as an 18-year-old junior. But over the past two decades Louisa Firethorne has also shown great patience and perseverance by nurturing her college senior project to fruition from its start as a mere sketch on a napkin. Firethorne, a professional webpage designer, is first...
Ellie Marble is well known in regional volleyball circles and at Central Washington University, where the La Conner High School standout is a prized recruit for veteran head coach Mario Andaya's program. The 6'-0" senior outside hitter and reigning Washington State 2B Player of the Year is also getting plenty of national recognition. Marble was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week for Oct. 3-9 after having led the Lady Braves to key conference net triumphs and...
La Conner High School senior Thomas Kitchen and his Braves teammates unleashed heat that Providence Classical Christian defenders couldn't handle during conference boys' home soccer action Friday night. Kitchen delivered a laser shot into the net at the 6:33 mark of the first half to break a scoreless tie and give La Conner a lead it wouldn't surrender enroute to a 2-1 Senior Night triumph in cold and wet conditions at Whittaker Field. "We've been playing a lot better," Kitchen said afterward. "...
Congratulations to Soroptimist Honored Student for October, Samantha (Sammy) Davidson. Sammy is a senior at La Conner High School. She plans to study biology in college and go on to medical school, specializing in OB/GYN. She has earned college credits through running start at Skagit Valley College and is currently taking calculus online Sammy has had a long history of involvement in scouting. She received her first scout handbook as a birthday present when she was 11 years old and went on to...
You are reading about last weekend's 10th annual Friday Harbor Film Festival in part to get nudged to click on and watch on demand over 30 films through Oct. 30. They are worth your time. For $75 you can gorge on them all or start with one for $12. In Friday Harbor the Film Festival lit up four theaters Oct. 21-23, gloriously in person after two years of films online only, imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. Starting Friday morning at 10 a.m., 27 feature and 13 shorts were shown over three...
La Conner High School volleyball fans were in the mood to celebrate Thursday night. And that was before the defending state 2B champions knocked off 4A Glacier Peak in straight sets in front of a supportive home crowd at Landy James Gym. It was a festive mood that filled the arena Oct. 13 as Washington Hall of Fame Coach Suzanne Marble was formally honored courtside on her 30-year career here, a tenure marked by six state titles, three academic state championships, 17 state tournament trophies...
A long dry season has been a mixed blessing for local farmers. Back in June, when the Skagit Valley was so cold and drenched some fields could not even be planted, Dean Swanson thought we would never hit 80 degrees. “Farmers asked for a warm dry fall to recover from the late start,” he said, “but we forgot to ask for a couple of timely rains.” Fortunately, copious spring rains gave plants a good start. A deep snowpack kept river levels high all summer, making more water available for irrigating corn, pasture and potatoes. Heat helped. While Swa...
The La Conner High School homecoming football game last Friday was full of bright shining moments. Not so much in the final score, but certainly during isolated moments of a 67-18 grid loss to league foe Friday Harbor and at intermission when the royal court led by King Jacob Pommels and Queen Makayla Herrera was introduced to a large Whittaker Field crowd. While the homecoming royalty could not decree a second straight Braves win a week after the team broke a lengthy scoring drought in a...
The defending state 2B La Conner High School volleyball team is used to posting big numbers when it takes the floor. But none bigger than last Wednesday at Landy James Gym. The Lady Braves swept Mount Vernon High School in straight sets Oct. 12 and raised more than $1,000 for breast cancer research as part of their annual Dig Pink/Senior Night match. The Dig Pink effort shows head coach Suzanne Marble's commitment to providing public service projects for her players. As for Senior Night, fans...
Early morning fog and mist lent a magical twist Thursday to streams of students hauling books from the old to the new La Conner Swinomish Library. The rumble of wheels along Morris Street from carts packed with books began three days of magic – the spell of the written word. Though not part of the Skagit River Poetry Festival itself, it seemed a fitting start. The festival, canceled twice due to COVID-19, brought in dozens of poets from as far away as Argentina and Scotland, hundreds of s...
It's so important to know how our legislators have voted when we are deciding whether to re-elect or re-place them. That is really important in our 10th legislative district this year. Clyde Shavers is running against incumbent Greg Gilday. With that in mind, you need to know that Gilday voted: “No” to prohibit carrying firearms on school property or school transportation, government buildings or government property, voter registration office or ballot counting. “No” to prohibit sale of high capacity firearm magazines. “No” to expand and...
Betty May Jackman Wilson left La Conner, Washington for her next adventure on her 95th birthday, September, 23, 2022. She was born at home in Dayton, Oregon in 1927 to May and Walter Jackman. Her family moved to McMinnville so she could attend school. They lived in the Methodist Parsonage until her father built them a house (hand digging out the basement at night after work). Betty loved music and was always singing; she sang in the school choir, played in the band and also played piano. Later...
The La Conner High School volleyball team turned in another capital performance last weekend. Facing teams from larger schools, including undefeated 4A power Puyallup High School, the defending state 2B net champs placed first in the silver division of the Capitol City Invitational Volleyball Tournament in Olympia last Saturday, Oct. 8. La Conner went 1-2 in pool play, including a two-set defeat to Puyallup, before rebounding to sweep three straight matches in the tourney's silver bracket,...
It’s never too early to plan for a special event. That includes Halloween, even as an unseasonably warm start to fall saw temperatures reach the upper 70s throughout Puget Sound when the calendar flipped to October. Despite the summer-like conditions, there was no cold shoulder toward preparations for what has long been a favorite La Conner holiday. The La Conner Parent Teacher Student Association members are organizing this year’s downtown costumed Halloween parade. This year’s Oct. 31 parade is scheduled from 12-1 p.m. and coincides with an 1...
It wasn't yellow flags that dotted dry and brownish Whittaker Field Friday morning. It was instead the orange shirts worn by La Conner students and staff that colored the school district's football field on Sept. 30 in honor of Native American youth who, over generations, suffered cultural trauma while attending residential campuses in the U.S. and Canada. La Conner Schools is one of the first districts in western Washington to observe Orange Shirt Day, which in Canada is a national day of...
Because Jean Markert has always enjoyed reading and books, the next chapter in her career could not have been better scripted. Markert, previously an instructor at Skagit Valley College and manager of the Northwest Workforce Council, has been named the new director of the La Conner-Swinomish Library set to open on Morris Street in mid-October. The La Conner resident had served for just over a month as interim library director. That interim label is now lifted from Markert's job title, library bo...
La Conner High School volleyball players have given their fans plenty of reasons to celebrate over the past three decades – starting with six state titles. Now the La Conner community has an opportunity to celebrate the Hall of Fame coach who since 1993 has been the program's guiding force. Suzanne Marble, who topped the 500-career win mark two years ago, again has her team aiming for top state honors in her 30th and final net campaign. In recognition of Marble's many contributions here as a t...
The Coupeville High School football team needed just one score and 16 seconds to post an NW2B shutout win over La Conner at Whittaker Field Friday, Sept. 23. Coupeville's Scott Hilborn returned the opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown that opened the floodgates to a 46-0 Wolves triumph. Hilborn reeled off a 10-yard scoring jaunt that edged Coupeville 13-0 less than a minute into the game, following one of five La Conner lost fumbles. Coupeville capped its scoring onslaught when quarterback...
The La Conner High School volleyball team split a pair of matches last week but literally won the one that counted. The defending state 2B net champs were edged in three sets at 1A Nooksack Valley Sept. 20 before sweeping Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in La Conner’s NW2B/1B debut on Thursday, Sept. 22. The Lady Braves (3-1), who typically play a challenging non-conference schedule, had earlier defeated 2A Anacortes and Sehome at home. “Nooksack is a very solid team,” La Conner head coach Marble said after the team’s 22-25, 19-25, 23-25 s...
Some of the 37 guest poets and artists participating in this year’s Skagit River Poetry Festival are crossing oceans to reach La Conner. Others just have to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Canadian poet Karen Solie, flying in from St. Andrews, Scotland, is coming the farthest. Katherine Paul of the band Black Belt Eagle Scout can just stroll down the street. Her dad Kevin Paul can commute from Swinomish Village. Father and daughter will open the festival’s Thursday, October 6 program, “Welcome to Indian Country: A Reading to Celebrate our First Natio...