National association honors Cheney alum Eric Hisaw as Washington coach of the year

Eric Hisaw, a Cheney native who directed Walla Walla to the 2019 State 4A championship in his 19th season as Blue Devils coach, was named the Boys High School Coach of the Year for Washington by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The USTFCCCA release said “the honor is based upon the performance of the Walla Walla High School team throughout the 2019 season.” The Blue Devils went unbeaten against 4A schools in the Mid-Columbia Conference – their only loss was to State 3A champion Kamiakin – and won several invitational meets and the MCC championship.

A 1991 Cheney graduate, Hisaw has been on staff at Walla Walla since 1997 as a physical education teacher and track and field and football coach. After an earlier stint as a football assistant, he was appointed head football coach in 2011 and served for eight years before stepping down following the 2018 season.

Hisaw was a football and track standout at both Cheney High School and the University of Idaho, receiving a full-ride scholarship to UI.

He won State 2A track championships in the 110 and 300 hurdles his senior year at Cheney and the Big Sky Conference indoor 55-meter hurdles in 1996. He was also the Vandals’ starting football quarterback in 1994 and ’95, earning All-Big Sky honors his senior year.

Basketball

Doug Novsek, who worked alongside Idaho interim men’s head coach Zac Claus from 2006-15 on the University of Nevada staff, has been hired as an assistant coach for the Vandals, Claus announced.

Most recently, Novsek spent one season as a quality control consultant at Southern Illinois, his alma mater. Prior to that, he coached for three seasons at Evansville following nine seasons at Nevada. He began his time at Nevada as an assistant before being elevated to associate head coach his final six seasons.

College scene

The 2019 NAIA National Indoor high jump championship won by Amanda Chan, a rising junior from Mead, was called “a runaway selection” as the No. 1 moment in sports at Vanguard University during the 2018-19 school year.

It was the first women’s national championship for the Costa Mesa, California, school and came with a school-record and personal-best jump of 5 feet, 7 1/4 inches by the 5-7 Chan. The old school mark was 5-6. Chan was tied for 20th among 33 jumpers who qualified for the indoor meet.

Chan, who earned NAIA All-America honors along with her title, also was named the school’s co-women’s track and field athlete of the year in the spring after repeating as Golden State Athletic Conference outdoor high jump champion at 5-4 1/2.

• Ten athletes with area ties, including two each at Point Loma Nazarene and Concordia University Irvine, have received 2018-19 Academic All-PacWest Conference honors with GPAs of 3.0 or higher.

Those honored by school and their 2018-19 academic standing:

Point Loma: Hailey Haakenson, junior, 3.78 GPA, Coeur d’Alene HS, women’s track and field; Rachel Schlect, freshman, 3.71, The Oaks Christian Academy, volleyball. Concordia: Michael Ervin, fr., 3.31, Ferris, men’s t&f; Kjersti Strandness, jr., 3.60, Ferris, women’s tennis.

Dominican: Josie Walser, sophomore, 3.95, Shadle Park, volleyball. Azusa Pacific: Max Damon, so., 3.64, Lewis and Clark, men’s t&f. Hawaii Pacific: Maia Angell, jr., 3.08, LC, women’s soccer. Chaminade: Caitlin Perry, so., 3.01, Mt. Spokane, women’s soccer.

Holy Names: Elle Burland, so., 3.45, East Valley, women’s basketball. Biola: Jessica Shill, sr., 3.11, University, women’s basketball.

Golf

Austin Meng of Spokane is among the longest amateur drivers of a golf ball in the world.

A member of the MeadowWood men’s club, Meng won the Amateur Long Drive Championship Series Last Chance Qualifier on Thursday in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to claim a spot in the 47-man Open Male field for the 2019 Amateur Long Drive World Championship at the same site.

Meng’s winning drive of 315 yards in his first long-drive competition was two yards better than the best of the runner-up, Canadian champion Will Cashin, one of the world’s top-ranked amateurs.

In Friday’s first round, in which a competitors’ best of two shots was used, Meng’s second drive of 307 yards got him a tie for seventh and a spot in the 16-man field advancing to Saturday. The top qualifier hit 330.

But rain played havoc on the Barefoot Resort & Golf facility on Saturday, forcing the competition indoors.

Hitting into a video screen on an indoor driving range, and getting only one drive in the round of 16, Meng got off a drive of 352 yards. That left him in 10th place, 10 yards shy of eighth, and a spot in the quarterfinals. The leader hit 395.

• Billy Bomar of Prairie Falls Golf Club in Post Falls came within a shot of earning a chance to play in the Boeing Classic Champions Tour qualifier.

Bomar shot a par 71 in the pre-qualifier on Thursday at High Cedars Golf Course in Orting, Wash., to share in a five-way tie for sixth. The top five advanced to the qualifier to try and earn a spot in the Champions Tour Greater Seattle Boeing Classic Aug. 23-25.

Wrestling

The Inland Empire Officials Association would like to invite anyone interested in officiating wrestling to contact either John Sisser at (509) 990-6119 or Rich Tschirgi at (509) 448-5734. Training meetings will start in October at West Valley High School.