Lakes High School’s Andre Wintson Jr., a 6-foot-1 guard, has given a verbal commitment to play basketball at James Madison University, Lancers coach JoJo Rodriguez has confirmed.

“He had a few other schools after him, but James Madison was the first and they were the only school to give him an offer,” Rodriguez said. “They wanted him.”
Washington State, Eastern Washington, Portland State, Nevada and Montana State showed interest in Winston, the coach said.

Winston averaged 19 points, 5 assists and 4 steals per game for the Lancers in the 2008-09 season. This summer, he played on the Seattle Rotary Select team with Kentwood center Joshua Smith, Kentridge guard Gary Bell and Garfield guard Tony Wroten Jr., among others.

“Andre is going to be a super player,” Rodriguez said. “He’s going to be really good and the schools around here missed out on this.”

James Madison, which is located in Harrisonburg, Va., plays in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Dukes reached the semifinals of the conference tournament and finished the 2008-09 season with a record of 21-15.

Tacoma Baptist alumni Jeremy Lebow has been hired as the boys basketball coach at his alma mater.

Lewbow played at Western Baptist College and has previous coaching experience. He was the head coach at Willamette Valley Christian High School and led the Tacoma Baptist junior high program.

Lebow, who is the youth paston at Portland Avenue Evangelical Free Church, replaces former coach Rich Hamlin.

Kentwood senior-to-be Josh Smith has been selected to play in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 basketball game August 21 at Rucker Park in New York City. The event will be televised on ESPNU AT 4 p.m. August 22.

Smith, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound center is one of the nation's top recruits in the Class of 2010. He has scholarship offers from Washington, UCLA, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and others.

Garfield guard Tony Wroten, a 6-foot-5 junior-to-be, will also play.

A pair of South Sound basketball standouts have made verbal commitments to play at two Pac-10 schools.

Vashon High's John Gage, a 6-foot-10 center, has selected Stanford and Auburn Riverside guard Mercedes Wetmore will play at Washington. Gage, who picked the Cardinal over Cal and Washington, helped the Pirates win the Class 1A state title in March. Wetmore has been a mainstay in the Ravens' lineup the last two seasons, helping Auburn Riverside win the Class 3A title in 2008 and place fourth at the 4A tournament this year.

Gage and Wetmore were selected to The News Tribune's All-Area boys and girls first teams.

Here they are, The News Tribune's 21st Annual All-Sports Championship tabulations.

The winners are:
Class 4A: Mead
Class 3A: Seattle Prep
Class 2A: Burlington-Edison
Class 1A: King's
Class 2B: Colfax
Class 1B: Almira/Coulee-Hartline

To see the complete standings, click below.

=> Read more!

If basketball's your thing, you'll want to be at Wilson High School on Saturday, June 13. Some of the best players from the NBA, WNBA, NCAA and local high schools are coming together for a series of "rivalry" games and a showcase all-star contest.

According to one of the event's organizers, Chris Davis, the lineup includes Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Jason Terry, Marcus Trufant, Shawn Kemp, Will Conroy, Tre Simmons, Marcus Williams, Isaiah Thomas, Justin Dentmon, Peyton Siva, Abdul Gaddy, Avery Bradley and Tim Ellis.

An autograph session starts at 5:30 p.m. and the all-star game will begin at 6:45 p.m., Davis said. Tickets are $10 and children under 6 will be admitted free.

Earlier in the day, alumni from three Seattle high schools -- Garfield, Rainier Beach and Franklin -- will take on three Tacoma schools -- Lincoln, Mount Tahoma and Foss -- in a series of games.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Motivating Our Children 2 Honor Academics organization. Davis said he wants to raise enough money to take 10 kids to visit the campuses of Morehouse College and Louisiana State University in August.

Here's the rivalry games schedule:
1:30 p.m. -- Franklin vs. Lincoln
2:15 p.m. -- Garfield vs. Mount Tahoma
2:45 p.m. -- Rainier Beach vs. Foss
3:15 p.m. -- Dunk contest
3:45 p.m. -- Franklin vs. Foss
4:15 p.m. -- Garfield vs. Lincoln
4:45 p.m. -- Rainier Beach vs. Mount Tahoma

Former Lake Washington coach Terry Johnson has been hired as the girls basketball coach at Auburn Riverside.

“I’m excited and looking forward to it,” said Johnson, 31. “There is a great support system in place (at Auburn Riverside) and I want to build off the expectations.”

Johnson, who led the Kangaroos’ boys team for the past six seasons, becomes the Ravens’ third coach in 11 months.

Former coach Adam Barrett unexpectedly resigned last August after guiding the team to back-to-back Class 3A state titles. Ed Rosin took over in an interim role last season and the Ravens won the 4A West Central District title and placed fourth at the state tournament.

Auburn Riverside athletic director Doug Aubert said Johnson’s experience coaching in the KingCo Conference should pay off.

“Competing in the tough KingCo Conference should be good preparation for competing in the tough SPSL North,” Aubert said.

Johnson doesn’t expect much to change in his coaching style in making the switch from coaching boys to girls.

“From what I’ve gathered from coach who have done both, basketball is basketball,” he said. “There will be some adjustments in way of communication, but that’s probably it.”

Johnson said he and his wife – the couple is expecting its first child in October – had been planning a move to Bonney Lake to be closer to family.

Auburn Riverside’s new boys basketball coach won’t need to be versed in the competitiveness of the South Puget Sound League North Division.

Shawn Kilgallon has already coached in the league and he’s one-for-one in the league titles category. The former Kentwood coach was announced as the Ravens’ coach on Wednesday and met with the players.

“I’m excited,” said Kilgallon, 45. “When this job became available I was interested right away.”

Kilgallon inherits a team that has reached the West Central District playoffs in each of the last three seasons. In his only complete season leading the Conquerors, Kilgallon guided the team to a 17-7 record and the district playoffs in 1998. He was forced the leave the team halfway through the next season after being diagnosed with cancer.

“I got sick and had to undergo chemotherapy,” he said. “That’s a sad story from a long time ago.”

Since then, Kilgallon has been a stay-at-home dad, raising four children while his wife worked. With all the kids in school, Kilgallon sought out a coaching position.

“My wife and I, we wanted one of us to stay home with the kids until they got to school,” he said. “Now that they’re all there, I want to get back into coaching and teaching.”

Kilgallon replaces Tom Adams, who left after eight seasons to coach at his alma mater, Gig Harbor.

Just heard that Graham-Kapowsin has hired Frank Parker as its boys basketball coach, according to athletic director Bryan Streleski.

"He's got good basketball knowledge and experience," Streleski said. "He's a strong leader and focuses on academics."

Parker was previously an assistant coach for the Auburn Riverside girls program.

Gig Harbor alumn Tom Adams has been hired as the Tides boys basketball coach.

Adams resigned last week from his head coaching position at Auburn Riverside. He coached the Ravens for eight seasons. He led Auburn Riverside to the postseason four times, including each of the last three seasons.

This might signify that Facebook has jumped the shark, but The News Tribune's Preps Blog now has its very own corner of the social media giant's site.

You can find the TNT Prep Sports group right here.

Most of the information that we will post on the Facebook page will be the same as what you will find here. Some will be different. My hope is that the Facebook platform encourages more discussion and reader interaction than this blog.

Give it a look and try it out. It's free!

In this tough economic climate, school districts are looking everywhere to save money. In Florida, that includes reducing the number of regular season games.

On Monday, the Florida High School Athletic Association took the drastic measure of shortening the regular seasons of all sports except football. The FHSAA -- Florida's version of the WIAA -- voted to cut varsity seasons by 20 percent and sub-varsity seasons by 40 percent through the 2010-11 school year.

Here's an excerpt from an Associated Press story on the matter:

The rule change was designed to cut costs for Florida high school athletic departments, which are facing tough budget constraints.

"These are unprecedented times," board president Greg Zornes said. "People are losing their jobs as schools are cutting millions and millions of dollars from their budgets. Our job is to look out for all the schools."

At the WIAA Rep Assembly on Friday, executive director Mike Colbrese spent a considerable amount of time exploring cost-saving measures with the principals, athletic directors and coaches in attendance at the Spirit of Washington Events Center in Renton. Trimming games from the schedule was one option. But Colbrese made the point that while cutting games does reduce costs, it also eliminates opportunities for schools to make money through ticket and concession sales.

Let's be honest, at the vast majority of schools, football games bring in the most money. That's why Florida isn't cutting any football games. But that's not an excuse to slice and dice the schedules of non-revenue sports or JV and C-teams.

Under an experimental rule, some schools in districts 4 and 9 have been allowed to play more than one JV basketball game in a day in the last two seasons. This reduces travel costs for schools, saving them money. It's no coincidence that the Rep Assembly passed an amendment on Friday that would allow all schools to do this.

School districts are taking serious looks at their budgets and deeming what is expendable. I won't be surprised to see some schools forgo traditional rivalries and join or create leagues that will reduce travel expenses.

If expenses must be trimmed, what cost-cutting measures do you want to see implemented first?

Click below to read the complete story on Florida high schools trimming their schedules:

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