Eagles will retire number of Cox
Ron Cox, who came out of Coulee City to earn All-America recognition all four seasons he played basketball for Eastern Washington University from 1973-77, will have his No. 30 jersey retired by the school on March 8 at Reese Court in Cheney.
The ceremony will take place prior to EWU’s Big Sky Conference home game against Weber State, which starts at 2:05 p.m.
Cox received NAIA All-America honorable mention as a freshman and sophomore, was named to the third team as a junior and was a first-team NAIA All-American as a senior.
He had record totals of 1,741 points, 1,273 rebounds and 62.9 percent field-goal shooting in leading Eastern to a 77-30 record and three Evergreen Conference championships. All three still stand as school records. The first of the three titles, his freshman year, ended a 21-year title drought for the school. The other two came his junior and senior years.
Cox was taken in the sixth round of the 1977 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, but did not play in a regular-season NBA game because of reconstructive surgery on his left ankle.
That launched him on a highly-successful high school coaching career. He coached the Tekoa-Oakesdale boys to the 1992 State B championship before becoming a graduate assistant coach at EWU for the 1994-95 season. Cox returned to teach and coach at T-O prior to moving to Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls. He was 280-199 in 19 seasons at T-O, and was 87-57 in six seasons at Lakeside. He was also 21-8 in one season as coach of the girls team at T-O.
Bowling
Shelby Snyder turned the Junior Bowlers Tour stop at Cheney Lanes last Sunday into Ladies Day.
Snyder bowled a 641-868 four-game series in the first qualifying session to stand first and followed with a 698-899 in the match-play qualify block to hold the top spot going into the five-person finals.
In the first roll-off, Nik Gosselin defeated Dylan Young, who had bowled an 857 for his first four games but fell victim to Snyder in the match-play qualifying, 224-170. But Gosselin was defeated 203-189 by Garrett Boyce, who went on to beat No. 2 qualifier Raymond Worthey, in his first JBT of the season, 256-173, and earn a shot at Snyder for the championship.
Snyder’s scoring slipped a bit in the title match, but her only game under 200 all day was good enough for a 182-158 victory over Boyce and her first JBT championship. Worthey finished third; Gosselin, fourth; and Young, fifth.
Patti Dudley, JBT tournament director, said Snyder was the first girl to win “since I can’t remember when. It’s been quite a while.”
Snyder had high game of the day for the girls, a 246. Young’s 265 led the boys.
Next JBT will be at Zeppoz in Pullman on March 2.
College scene
Six Community Colleges of Spokane athletes received an Academic Leadership Award from the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges for fall 2013.
The league’s highest academic honor is given to student-athletes who are at least sophomores, have a minimum grade-point average of 3.5 and have earned at least 45 credits. CCS had more award winners than any other conference school.
Award winners by sport:
Men’s soccer - Corbin Bronsch, Shadle Park.
Women’s soccer - Emily Moscrip, Lewiston; Kayleen Oliver, Medical Lake; and Laura Seymour, University.
Women’s cross country - Vanessa Church, Federal Way; and Jessica Mildes, Riverside.
• Ruby Roberts, a Washington State senior distance standout, and the Cougars women’s team have received academic honors from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Roberts, a fine arts and human development major from Kingston, Wash., with a 3.97 grade-point average, was named to the 2013 Division I All-Academic team. And the Cougar, with a 3.48 team GPA, is an All-Academic team. Roberts is one of 129 women from 79 schools, and one of 15 from the Pac-12, honored. WSU is one of nine Pac-12 teams among the 217 women’s teams to receive the award.
Horse racing
Jim Price of Spokane, former longtime track announcer and publicist at Playfair Race Course, will be honored by the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association at its annual awards presentation and dinner on Feb. 22 at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash.
Price, a retired former Spokesman-Review sports writer who worked at Playfair from 1968-78 and 1992-94, will receive the Mark Kaufman Media Award. He is the third former Spokesman-Review sports writer to receive the award named in honor of a late longtime publicity director at Longacres. The late Bruce Brown received the award in 1985 and Dan Weaver in 1999.
Price continues as a contributing correspondent for The Spokesman-Review. On April 28, 2013, he wrote the article “Sport of Kings ruled in Spokane for years,” which remembered the track’s more than 100 years as the 10th anniversary of its demise approached. Playfair hosted its last race meeting in 2000 and the grandstands, barns and offices were demolished in 2004.
A no-host social hour at 5:30 p.m. will start the WTBOA event with dinner at 6:45 and awards to follow. For further information or reservations, contact the WTBOA at (253) 288-7878 or e-mail maindesk@ washington thoroughbred.com.