The FHHS postseason continues….

FHHS head coach Eric Jangard keeps the girls fired up against Meridian last Saturday. The girls won 60-41 to set up tomorrow's playoff game at Coupeville.

This week, the Wolverines begin postseason play with both basketball & wrestling…here’s the scoop:

• Today, the boys basketball team heads to Lynden Christian to begin their journey in the playoffs, playing at 5:30pm. The guys ended up second in league this year with a steady performance over Mount Vernon Christian Friday night, and got there by taking care of business. “We don’t have to do anything spectacular,” noted head coach Rod Turnbull, when we touched base on Saturday. “We just need to play solid, and then see what happens. We’re looking forward to Tuesday’s game.”

With a win, the boys play again at Kings on Thursday; a loss ends their season.

Maggie Anderson (32) crashes the boards Friday night against Mount Vernon Christian....

• Meanwhile, the high-flying Lady Wolverines never looked back in beating Mount Vernon Christian Friday, and survived a little scare with Meridian on Saturday (with FHHS ahead by 20, the Trojans hit four threes to pull within ten, but junior Maggie Anderson hit two baskets with two & a half left to ice it.)

The league champs take their playoff show on the road at Coupeville tomorrow. They got where they are with four quarters of hustle, strong play inside (Kayla & Kelsey & Maggie are hard to score on, and rebound hard), and have developed a reliable press-breaker that not only gets the ball upcourt but makes ya pay at the other end.

This is a fun team to watch, and one of the stronger Friday Harbor girls’ squads we’ve seen in a couple of decades.

• Highs & lows in wrestling, as the Wolverines head to the Tacoma Dome this weekend: When I visited with Coach Neil Saturday night after he & the guys got back from regionals at Bellevue Christian, he reviewed the high points of the day, set off by deep disappointment.

It was cool to hear that four Wolverines earned a trip to Tacoma’s final – Shawn Cutting will attend as an alternate (which means he’ll wrestle if someone doesn’t make weight or is hurt or something), while Michael Davis & Calen Mehrer & Willie Dunn took second in their divisions to earn the chance to compete this weekend. Heavyweight Dunn’s victories are especially gratifying, as the soph shed over 40 pounds throughout the season to weigh in at 279 on Saturday.

One of my favorite people on the planet is Justin James, captain of the team, who ran into a major, season-ending setback last weekend. Coach Neil told me he won his first match easily, but in his second was thrown to the mat & blacked out for a moment when he hit his head. The state association has pretty strict rules about head protection, and ended the match, and said he couldn’t wrestle for another 24 hours, effectively ending his bid for going to state. The kid who took the division was a wrestler who JJ had beaten earlier in the year whenever they met. A frustrating end to a great four years for the FHHS team captain.

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