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La Conner Schools served up a dinner menu that included food for thought during the district's winter open house last Wednesday. As the over 200 attendees finished a community ham-and-potato meal served by school staff, the district's administrative team outlined the status of on-going programs and its recipe for student success and achievement going forward. Superintendent Will Nelson, hired in 2021, shared with the public the building blocks of a major five-year plan: social-emotional...
After losing last second heartbreakers to Coupeville and Orcas Island, the La Conner Braves flipped the script and won a hard-fought 58-54 non-conference hoops battle with Tulalip Heritage at Landy James Gym Saturday night. Ivory Damien scored a game-high 23 points and Braden Thomas added 21 to assure a happy ending for the Braves and their fans. But Tulalip provided plenty of drama before the curtain fell. The Hawks, trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half. They pulled to within...
After being eclipsed by one of the state's budding shooting stars, the La Conner High School Lady Braves brightened their prospects for a deep post-season run with a stellar 81-77 win at 4A Skyview in Vancouver, WA. Saturday afternoon. La Conner (13-4 overall) rebounded from a 79-54 setback Friday night to 4A Union High and its freshman phenom Brooklynn Haywood, who at 14 already has scholarship offers. Haywood poured in a Union school record 50 points – including seven three-pointers and a p...
The La Conner Braves went from heartache to heartened in 48 hours last week. The high school team (7-7) rebounded from a tough 57-56 home loss to Coupeville Wednesday with a 64-14 blowout win over Darrington at Landy James Gym Friday night. With the two-game split, La Conner was 3-2 in NW1B/2B play before last night's conference action at Orcas Island. The lopsided Darrington triumph helped take the sting out of the last-second setback to the Wolves, which was no ordinary one-point defeat. It...
There was plenty of highlight reel material when the La Conner High School girls' basketball team swept conference foes Coupeville and Darrington at home last week. The Lady Braves routed Coupeville 72-16 Wednesday and romped past Darrington 69-9 Friday, extending their winning streak to four games and improving to 11-3 going into Tuesday's action at Orcas Island. "Those two games gave us the opportunity to get playing time for everyone," said head coach Joe Harper. "It was also a chance for us...
Rachel Haley, a senior at La Conner High School, is the January Honored Student of the Month for Soroptimist of La Conner. Rachel is a member of the McCauley family and attributes much of her artistic leanings to her family. The late Curt McCauley, her grandfather, was an artist and was very involved in MoNA, the Museum of Northwest Art, as both a docent and a supporter. Gretchen, her grandmother, served on the board. Her aunt Eve is an accomplished painter. Rachell wants to represent all of...
When the La Conner and Mount Vernon Christian basketball teams tip off next Tuesday, winners will have already been determined. They being the La Conner High senior class and lucky raffle ticketholders. The seniors will be raffling over $1,000 in donated items at Landy James Gym that night to raise funds for their graduation trip in the spring. Tickets will be sold during the boys’ game, which gets under way at 5:15 p.m., with drawings held at halftime of the girls’ game that follows immediately afterward. Ticket prices are $5 each or five for...
A sudden shortage of bus drivers at La Conner Schools is forcing daily routes to be combined while threatening cancellation of student field trips and overnight travel to athletic events. Randy Swift of the schools short-handed transportation department apprised school board members of the troubling situation during their two-hour meeting Jan. 9. Swift said one driver retired over winter break. In November supervisor Kim Pedroza left for a similar post with the Stanwood School District. “We don’t have enough drivers to do our regular rou...
They had to shuffle their lineup, but a league hoops triumph was still in the cards for the La Conner High School Lady Braves at Friday Harbor Saturday afternoon. Minus two starters, including Skagit County leading scorer Ellie Marble, the visitors dealt the hosts a lopsided 76-31 NW1B/2B defeat. Seniors Makayla Herrera and Josie Harper each matched Friday Harbor's team point total with career best 31-point outings. Herrera's point production included her first two perimeter treys of the...
There's no doubting Thomas regarding the La Conner High School boys' basketball team's resurrected post-season hopes. Senior transfer Braden Thoma confirmed that in a big way at Friday Harbor Saturday, scoring a game-high 19 points to pace La Conner in a key 61-45 NW1B/2B win at Turnbull Gym. Thomas, making his sixth start after transferring from Anacortes, delivered two of the team's nine outside treys as they won their third straight game and squared their season mark at 6-6. La Conner has...
In a fast-paced, often physical non-conference home hoops clash with Clallam Bay Saturday afternoon when several players were flung to the floor – and one even crashed into the scorer's table – the La Conner Braves continued to raise the ceiling on their '22-23 campaign. The boys high school team recorded its second straight blowout win with a 67-22 romp past the Bruins, a nearly identical outcome to the previous night when the Braves posted a 67-27 triumph at NW1B/2B rival Concrete. With the tw...
The ending of La Conner High School's home girls' basketball game with Neah Bay last Tuesday is one fans would just as soon forget. But what happened at halftime will remain a fond memory for years to come. Several decades of Swinomish Indian Tribal Community members who played basketball at La Conner were honored during intermission of the much-anticipated non-league matchup, which the Lady Reds won on Amber Swan's no-look, over-the-head shot in the paint off an inbounds pass as the final...
Talk is usually cheap but for the La Conner High School girls' basketball team it paid huge dividends ahead of the Lady Braves' 79-2 NW1B/2B blowout win at Concrete Friday night. Coming off a tough two-game slide – close losses to 1B powers Mount Vernon Christian and Neah Bay – La Conner (8-3) amped up its defensive energy against the Lady Lions. "We had a pretty honest meeting Tuesday with the girls while watching our game film of Neah Bay," head coach Joe Harper said, referencing a hea...
The two-sport college athlete is a rare bird these days. But Skagit Valley College boasts one in Sarah Cook, who has excelled at both volleyball and basketball in her first year as a Lady Cardinal. An All-State selection in both sports at La Conner High School, where she graduated in 2022, Cook has seamlessly transitioned to collegiate athletics. At 5'-8", Cook was versatile enough to be listed as both an outside hitter and libero for the SVC volleyball program last fall. Her season highlights...
The Kiwanis Club of La Conner has chosen its November students of the month. Kendall Lee is the high school student for November. Her parents are Jason and Dawn Lee. Kendall is a sophomore at La Conner High School. She is her class ASB treasurer. She plays the flute in pep band and recently joined the knowledge bowl team. Kendall plays soccer and tennis both in school and outside of school. After graduation she would like to study emergency medicine. Kellie Cayou-Lockrem is the November middle school student. Her parents are Josh and Va...
When it came time for state officials to choose a Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Athlete of the Week for girls’ 2B basketball, the decision was pretty much a slam dunk in mid-December. La Conner’s Josie Harper was the clear choice. The senior point guard helped lead the high school Lady Braves to convincing wins against three larger schools, opening the ’22-23 campaign with an impressive 7-2 record despite playing a tough early non-conference schedule. Harper scored a game-high 30 points in a home triumph over 4A Jacks...
During her three decades at La Conner Schools, Suzanne Marble has established a level of excellence unrivaled satewide. Now the entire nation is aware. Marble, a member of the Washington State Coaches Association Hall of Fame who has guided La Conner teams to seven state volleyball titles---four since 2018---has been named a 2022 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Co-Coach of the Year. She shares the national honor with Diana Kramer of New Bremen High School in Ohio. Kramer’s teams have captured three Ohio state crowns in the p...
La Conner Schools Transportation Supervisor Kim Pedroza is leaving the school district for a similar post with the Stanwood School District. School Board President Susie Deyo formally recognized the many contributions Pedroza has made at the panel’s monthly hybrid meeting Friday morning. Pedroza will be hard to replace, a point underscored by transportation staff member Randy Swift, who juggles driving, maintenance and classroom instructional assignments. “Our coach has gone to Stanwood,” Swift lamented, “and we’re in the process of finding s...
'Tis the season to put-up Christmas trees. At school, it's also the time of year to remove diseased trees and trim back others that are intruding on campus buildings. La Conner School District staff will take out "five sickly trees" plus trim several more over the upcoming winter break. "Three of these sick trees will be removed from the front of the high school," district staff stated in a release last week, "and four others will be limbed back in that area. One tree will be removed from...
Mount Vernon Christian played well but needed an almost miracle to edge La Conner 65-61 in boys' hoops action at their home court Saturday. The Braves (3-5) had seemingly won the game when Isa Gonzales-Rojas sank two of three free throw attempts for a 56-55 lead with two seconds remaining in regulation. He had been fouled on a desperation three-point heave from midcourt. The winds of fortune then shifted in favor of the Hurricanes. Referees nixed the second of Gonzales-Rojas' made free throws...
Big school programs on the La Conner High School girls' basketball schedule have posed few issues for the Lady Braves. Not so with nearby small school rival Mount Vernon Christian, however. The Lady Hurricanes overcame a five-point halftime deficit to hand La Conner a 46-45 NW2B/1B setback at DeKok Court Saturday afternoon. La Conner was playing its third road game in three nights, having bested 4A Kamiak 68-45 Thursday and 2A North Kitsap 52-40 Friday. Mount Vernon Christian, the defending...
Just a handful of games into its schedule, the high school girls' basketball team is already in mid-season form. La Conner passed crisply, defended and rebounded tenaciously, repeatedly scored in transition and executed its high post-low post half-court offense to near perfection in an impressive 73-57 non-league triumph over 4A Skyline at Landy James Gym Saturday. Ellie Marble scored a game-high 25 points, Makayla Herrera registered a double-double and Josie Harper tallied 17 points – i...
The La Conner High School state championship volleyball team is truly in a class of its own. The netters were selected the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Team of the Month for November among all 2B athletics programs in the state. "It's an incredible group that worked so hard to improve every day and their hard work and determination paid off by capping their 2022 season with a state title," said head coach Suzanne Marble. La Conner captured league, district and state crowns...
Another week, another slew of post-season honors earned by the state 2B champion La Conner High School volleyball program. As expected, senior outside hitter Ellie Marble, who led the Lady Braves to their fourth state title in five years, was named the 2B Player of the Year. The 6'-0" Marble is a top Central Washington University volleyball recruit. She dominated play at the 2022 State 2B Tournament in Yakima last month, totaling 92 kills and 101 digs and was 68 of 72 on serve receive over four...
They took silver, but La Conner Middle School players in the Skagit-Whatcom-Island-Snohomish-Hoops league girls' basketball tournament here Saturday were good as gold in the eyes of coaches Robert Hancock and Jamie Lam. The local team, comprised of seventh graders, advanced through a double-elimination bracket before falling to an eighth-grade entry in the finals of the SWISH championship tourney. La Conner got off to a strong start with a convincing 42-20 win over Sedro-Woolley. "I think this...