in the Feb. 29, 2012 issue

Big news that didn't make it to print:

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, announced last night that the State Senate's proposed budget includes $750,000 in bond funding to go towards the first phase of La Conner's boardwalk.

The first phase of 2,700-foot-long boardwalk along the town’s waterfront will connect Gilkey Square with the Palmer’s Restaurant building.

Next: The State House of Representatives, will consider this plan before a final budget makes its way to the governor's desk to be signed. (Our Reps are Barbara Bailey, 360-786-7914, and Norma Smith, 360-678-3604.)

 Photo by Bill Stokes

Look at the monster that washed up with high tide – La Conner’s Public Works crew had to work on Sunday using a backhoe and a loader to pull this huge stump from under the gangway at the town’s public boat launch off Sherman Street. When the tide went out, the walkway was high in the air, and in danger of being damaged.

Photo by Adrian Sharpe

This is "Brush Pile" one of 7 new sculptures in the La Conner's new Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, which will open on Saturday with a guided tour by Mayor Ramon Hayes and some of the artists starting at 11 a.m.  This wood sculpture, depicting giant artist’s brushes and a pen is on display near La Conner Town Hall and the town parking lot. Created from logs by artist,  Stephen Rock, the sculpture was installed on Monday by Rock and his brothers, who are loggers.

Smelt Derby drew fish and fishers

Young anglers didn't leave disappointed on Saturday. There were actually smelt in the channel  for the Rotary Club's 47th Annual Smelt Derby. For years the schools of the little silver fish have been elsewhere during the fishing derby. Though there weren't buckets full of them, there were enough to keep the fishing interesting.

Photo by Don Coyote

This happy fisher is Ashleigh Mason of Bayview

Photo by Don Coyote

Sporting fashionable fishing attire is Abigail Adams of Burlington

Photo by Don Coyote

Smelt weren't having much fun, though. They were stapled to cedar shingles to be measured as the La Conner Sea Scouts did the judging.

Photo by Don Coyote

New artist co-op opens at Pier 7

Writer Adrian Sharpe has the story on the brainstorm of Lisa Judy, granddaughter of the La Conner’s Pier 7 buildings owner, Jerry Blades, to open an artist's co-op in the historic building. Artists can share expenses and have gallery as well as work space. Here fabric and tattoo artist Akasya VerSoy, with her fur buddies Boodah and Chyna, stand outside the new co-op with Lisa.

From the police blotter:

6:43 p.m.: Auto yelling – Often, people will yell out their window as they drive by, but a man on Morris Street in La Conner decided to give car hollering a new twist. Intoxicated, the man stood in the roadway yelling at the traffic.

or how about this one...

9:37 a.m.: Squatter – A complaint was lodged about an unwanted lodger on Maple Avenue and Hill Street in La Conner. Deputies responded to a tip that a tent was set up on private property. The owner of the humble abode told officers that he had moved to the location after being evicted, but has since found four walls to call home and will remove his pop-up. No charges were filed.

Find all this and so much more in today's La Conner Weekly News, on sale in the usual places and in the quarter-eating red news stands. Or stop by our office and have a piece of chocolate with your paper.

Braves Sports, Feb. 29, 2012

Photo by Karla Reynolds

Braves to battle Colfax in state tourney

By Bill Reynolds

La Conner High Basketball Team head coach Scott Novak believes you've got to play the best to be the best.

That's why he slated tough non-league games during the holiday break at Adna and Toutle Lake, where the Braves earned a hard-fought split four hours from home.

Novak's scheduling now seems brilliant, in hindsight.

La Conner, 22-2, makes a seven-hour trip this week to Spokane, where the Braves will face one of the state's top 2B players in Colfax star Brandon Gfeller.

Gfeller, a versatile 6-3 guard, leads Colfax against La Conner in tomorrow's first round of the 2012 State 2B Boys' Basketball Tournament, with tipoff at the Spokane Arena set for 3:45 p.m.

Gfeller scored 18 points, three above his season average, in Colfax's recent 76-38 Regional romp past Oroville.

He also grabbed six rebounds and dished off five assists for the Bulldogs, whose 13-3 league record was good enough for second place in the Bi-County loop.

Brady Ellis led Colfax, 19-5 overall, with 20 points, while three-point specialist Kyle Johnson hit three straight first period treys to help bury Oroville early.

Novak considers Johnson, a 5-11 guard who averages 13 points per game, a consistent deep threat.

Colfax, which placed fifth at last year's State tourney, also returns 6-3 lunch bucket forward Justin Berarducci, who regularly scores 11 points per outing.

"He's a skilled, hard-nosed player," Novak says of Berarducci, who pretty much symbolizes head coach Reece Jenkin's Colfax roster.

Many, including Novak, compare Colfax's style to that of La Conner's.

"They're very similar to us," he said Sunday, following the WIAA tourney draw, "in that they are very guard oriented."

The Braves' three primary perimeter shooters – Landy James, Spencer Novak, and Mike Wilbur – all scored in double figures during La Conner's Regional triumph Friday over Mossyrock.

From the Braves' perspective, there should be few surprises at this year's tourney.

The field includes both Adna and Toutle Lake, whom La Conner played during the regular season, and Northwest Christian, winners of five of the past six State crowns.

Photo by Melissa Reynolds

Tradition trumps new State format; Braves enter elite eight

By Bill Reynolds

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When the La Conner Braves in 1947 earned the first of their more than three dozen State Tournament berths, they featured a high scoring frontliner named Landy James.

Fast forward to 2012 and La Conner is again going to State and again will be led by Landy James – this time the namesake grandson of the iconic Hall of Fame coach for whom the Braves' gym is named.

The current James scored a game-high 22 points, including four straight perimeter treys, as La Conner, 22-2, advanced with a 67-60 Regional comeback win Friday in Mount Vernon over Mossyrock.

One thing that has changed is tomorrow's state tourney format.

An eight-team bracket has replaced the former four-day, 16-team tournament.

The Braves qualified for this year's elite eight by downing a club whose top player ironically bears the name of another storied La Conner hoops family.

Mossyrock's Riley Alvord recorded an impressive double-double – 14 points, 11 rebounds – including an offensive putback that gave the Vikings a seemingly safe 23-12 lead midway through the second period.

"Alvord is probably the best player in District Four," Braves' head coach Scott Novak acknowledged, "and Mossyrock is a really great team."

But, as things turned out, Mossyrock was not quite good enough to best a refocused La Conner squad coming off its poorest outing of the campaign, a double-digit Bi-District title loss to Bear Creek.

After a quiet opening frame, James helped trigger a 21-13 second quarter La Conner run that allowed the Braves to lead Mossyrock by four,  29-25, at the break

James hit three treys during the spurt, which was triggered by back-to-back acrobatic driving bank shots by La Conner point guard Mike Wilbur.

Wilbur, another third generation Braves' standout, was nothing short of sensational. He joined James in double-figure scoring, finishing with 19 tallies, and dished off three assists.

One of those was a pinpoint Wilbur pass to Sean Hulbert for the bucket that enabled La Conner to reclaim the first half lead at 24-23. 

Backcourt partner Spencer Novak added 17 points for the victors, including three treys---two coming in the decisive second half.

The Braves, who were stymied a week earlier by Bear Creek's length and double-teams out of an active two-three zone, rebounded with perhaps their finest outside shooting effort of the year.

La Conner drained 11 of 16 shots from beyond the three-point arc.

That allowed the shorter Braves to yield post-ups down low to Mossyrock, which found itself on the short end of three-for-two exchanges while trying to make up a deficit that reached 10 points (52-42) when Wilbur hit his last trey early in the final stanza.

As has become a recent pattern, Bobby Poulton, Sean Hulbert, and Jared Fohn emerged as unsung heroes for La Conner.

Poulton scored seven points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

He also erased Mossyrock's initial 2-0 lead, countering an Alvord jumper with a three-pointer that set the tone for La Conner's hot shooting the entire night.

"Bobby definitely does the blue collar work for us," said coach Novak, who also praised the work of Hulbert and Fohn inside against Mossyrock's bigger frontline. "We were undersized against Mossyrock, but our guys really battled."

The Braves also helped themselves at the charity stripe, converting 12 of 15 foul shots.

That was another factor helping La Conner offset Mossyrock's 35-24 edge on the boards.

But the number that ultimately mattered most Friday night was 39 – the amount of times in school history the Braves have now been part of the state tourney field.

Photo by Melissa Reynolds

Pe Ell pulls plug on Lady Braves' season

By Bill Reynolds

You couldn't blame the La Conner High Girls Basketball Team for being in a foul mood Saturday night.

First, they learned technical difficulties had nixed the previously scheduled webcast of their Regional Tournament contest five hours away in Longview.

Then, once the game got under way, La Conner couldn't seem to catch a break.

The Lady Braves were forced into 13 turnovers and earned just one trip to the free throw line in a tough, physical 45-31 elimination loss to Pe Ell, abruptly ending upset-minded La Conner's season with a fine 17-8 mark.

Pe Ell had come into the game having lost 48-46 to Adna (22-2), a club coached by La Conner alum Jeff Beasley and 48-40 victors over La Conner in a late December non-league test at James Gym.

La Conner was hopeful Saturday the Adna game had taken something out of the Lady Trojans.

It hadn't.

Pe Ell played aggressively on the defensive end, and a loosely called game worked in its favor.

The Lady Trojans held La Conner to 14 of 43 – 32 percent – shooting from the floor, and just three of 16 from beyond the three-point arc.

Katie McKnight, who led the Lady Braves with nine points, was one La Conner player who managed to break free of Pe Ell's defensive vise.

McKnight hit four of seven field goal attempts and meshed one of La Conner's three outside treys. 

Aubrey Stewart added eight points and 10 rebounds to continue her string of solid post-season outings for the Lady Braves.

Nikki Finley (5), Anna Cook (4), Kelley McClung (3), and Priscilla Ponce-Venegas (2) also landed in the La Conner scoring column.

Finley and McClung each drained three-pointers for the Lady Braves, while the versatile Ponce-Venegas was awarded the team's one and only foul shot attempt on the night.

Ponce-Venegas, McKnight, and Cook also dished off assists for La Conner – not an easy task as Pe Ell defenders were able to quickly seal off passing lanes.

Lady Braves' head coach Scott Novak, who had hoped to take two La Conner teams to State this week, consoled players and fans afterward.

Among those was his daughter, Katie, a freshman shooting guard among the deep nucleus of players returning next year for La Conner.

Coach Novak could, however, take solace in knowing the Braves' boys team had secured a State berth tomorrow, Thursday, at 3:45 p.m. in Spokane opposite the Colfax Bulldogs.

As for the La Conner girls, Novak knew beforehand their potential route to Spokane would be much tougher – and longer.

Both figuratively and literally.

"We knew going in," he conceded last week, "that it wasn't going to be an easy road as far as getting to State."

As a third seed to Regionals, the Lady Braves were sent Saturday to Longview. That meant the team had to bus Friday night, immediately after the boys' Regional win in Mount Vernon over Mossyrock, to the Centralia-Chehalis area in an attempt to cut down Saturday's travel time.

In the end, though, La Conner fans preferred focusing on how far the team had come since November in terms of its development.

The Lady Braves finished a surprising second in Northwest 1A/2B standings to Friday Harbor before enjoying its two-week playoff run.  

Breaking News!

Green light for La Conner boardwalk!

Official word came from Olympia last night:

Haugen announces proposed funding for major district projects

            OLYMPIA – The Senate’s proposed capital budget funds a number of projects of major importance to the 10^th Legislative District, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen said today.

“These projects will improve our communities and at the same time provide jobs that are dearly in demand,” Haugen said. “They not only promise a better future for our community, they will provide real jobs and wages that our residents and our communities need today in these difficult economic times.”

One project preserves and opens to the public a 60-acre property owned by Seattle Pacific University on Whidbey Island...

...Another key project in the proposed budget provides for the first phase of a project to transform the La Conner waterfront with a 2,780-foot-long boardwalk that travels over existing structures, on uplands and across new areas over the water.

“This is a 30-year dream that wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Sen. Haugen, and it’s finally going to be realized,” said La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes. “I’m at a loss for words almost. La Conner has been talking about the boardwalk for 30 years.”

“The commitment that Sen. Haugen has had over the years to the district and the Town of La Conner is just amazing,” Hayes said. “She has been a friend of La Conner, and we appreciate it.”

Hayes said the project will create family-wage paying jobs and boost tourism and the level of economic activity exponentially. “The folks of the town of La Conner also benefit in a huge way, gaining waterfront access, but this is first and foremost about jobs and economic activity.”

In contrast to the state’s operating budget, which uses tax revenues to fund the operation of state government, the capital budget uses bonds to pay for physical improvements to buildings, facilities and public lands.