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October 31, 2012
community
SAMMAMISH REVIEW
Students pound the pavement for Walk to School Month By Lillian O’Rorke
It’s a chilly Friday morning at Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary School and while the parking lot is pretty quiet, the sidewalks are pretty busy. It’s Fast Feet Friday and many of the students are walking to school. “I walk to school every single day,” said Abby Bacon, who is out welcoming her fellow students as they make their way across the crosswalk. “It is fun but not when it is snowing.” Luckily for Abby, Sammamish has been free of snow all October, which is International Walk to School Month. Every year Blackwell’s PTA marks the occasion by encouraging families to strap on some comfy shoes and leave the car in the driveway. “I think it’s incredibly important that kids focus on good health, and also…taking a few moments as they walk to school to get ready for the day.” said Julie Kotler, member of the PTA. “I think it makes a huge difference in the conversations and the time the family have together, so it’s good family time.” The PTA encouraged families
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
Linoy Levin, left, and Abosh Upadyhya make their way to school with the help of crossing guards. to walk to school for several reathe environment. September explained that walksons, like promoting healthy habAnother reason is connecting allows neighbors to meet and its, reducing traffic congestions, ing the community. A letter sent connect, and knowing each other saving money on gas and helping home to parents at the end of better helps build safer commu-
nities. “More for us I think it is about our community being connected,” said Kotler. “When you walk to school, then, parents are standing and talking on the sidewalk and seeing their children off for the day, and we can’t all do that all the time, but it gives us a month to think about that being important.” At the end of September, students were sent home with a “walking calendar” to keep track of all their walking, scooter or bike trips to school throughout the month of October. In the end, those calendars can be turned in for the chance to earn prizes. Two classrooms, one from kindergarten through second grade and the other third through fifth grade, with the most students walking to school get a class party. But Katie Kotler didn’t need the extra incentive. She was just happy to get to walk to school with her friends. “You get exercise and it’s fun,” she said. “You also get the chance to ride your bike or walk or do anything to not go in a car to See WALK, Page 13
Activity buses: catching a ride home when staying late By Lillian O’Rorke
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
Fresh from sports practice, clubs and homework help, Pine Lake Middle School students catch a ride home on one of the district’s extended day activity buses.
Monday through Thursday around the four o’clock hour, long after class has let out, 10 yellow school buses chug along area roads, helping middle school students with extracurricular activities get home. “This is a bad time of the day for parents to pick their kids up,” said Don Crook, who drives one of the two late buses at Pine Lake Middle School. “For all the kids that stay after, whether it’s for chess club or track…the activities buses provide them a means to get back to home or at least close to it.” Extended Day Activity buses, which are better known unofficially as activity buses, operate at all five of the Issaquah School District’s middle schools. Director of Transportation, Jo Porter, estimates that around 250 sixth, seventh and eighth graders ride those buses. They stay after school, she said, for sports, clubs or just extra study time in the library. And of course, as the activities change with the seasons, so do ridership numbers. “So, if they have a lot of sports going, or a lot of other extracurricular activities, then we usually
get pretty full busses taking them home,” said Crook. Unlike regular buses, which drop students off at their door, these 10 buses more closely resemble metro transportation, offering riders anywhere from two to nine neighborhood stops. Crook explained that he has an average route with four stops, dropping students at places like the Renaissance Ridge and Wesley Park communities. The whole loop, he said, takes about 20 minutes. “They are very quick. The more stops you make the more fuel you use. The longer the route the more driver hours you are paying,” said Porter. The price tag for the activity buses is $92,000 a year. The district has more than 600 regular routes, explained Porter, so if those buses operated door-todoor, then that cost would be much higher. The district began offering the service more than two decades ago when PTA parents demanded Issaquah provide transportation for those that do after-school activities. It used to look much different, See BUS, Page 13
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October 31, 2012
sports
SAMMAMISH REVIEW
Undefeated Skyline wins KingCo title By Lillian O’Rorke
After plowing through the regular season undefeated, the Skyline football team kicked off what it calls the “second season” Oct. 25 with a blowout over Bothell for the KingCo 4A title. “To win a league championship and put another banner up in the gym is something these kids will never forget,” said Mat Taylor. The head coach for the Skyline Spartans was surprisingly dry considering other members of this coaching staff had celebratory coolers of ice water dumped over them in the game’s last seconds. The score on the board lit up 34-7 and the Spartan sideline erupted with cheers. “It’s all about going 1-and-0, that’s the only focus,” said Taylor. “Then once we get 1-and-0 we cross it out and the goal is 2-and0. That’s our thought process this week — is just going 1-and-0. It’s the second season.” The Spartans distanced themselves from the Bothell Cougars
early on, going 20-0 in the first quarter. Max Browne completed a pass to Stromgren for the game’s inaugural touchdown and Sean McDonald put the ball between the posts to score his first of four extra points. Browne ran it in for Skyline’s second touchdown. Then, with a minute and a half left in the first quarter, Stromgren scored again for the Spartans’ third touchdown of the night. The kids just played lights out today, and I had this feeling we were going to play very well offensively and defensively tonight,” said Taylor. A reason for that feeling, he explained, was the excitement of playing in Pop Keeney Stadium, whose 2010 renovation included the state’s second only replay-capable scoreboard. “How we played at the beginning of the year — we played on ESPN and traveling to Idaho — and I felt like kind of getting away from Skyline and coming to this venue the kids really thrive on it.” A little over three minutes into
Photo by Jim Nicholson
Cedric Cooper gains a little ground before being tackled in the Oct. 25 game against Bothell. the second quarter Jack Valencia caught a 15-yard pass from Max Browne in the end zone. The kick by McDonald was good for 27-0.
Later, with just 16 seconds left in the first quarter, Nic Sblendorio caught a pass in the end zone, 34-0.
“It’s not necessarily just the opponent you are playing, you See FOOTBALL, Page 15
Discipline on the golf course and classroom pays off for Li Wang By Lillian O’Rorke
When the Eastlake boys golf team sat down earlier this year to pick a captain Li Wang rose to the top of the list. “He embodies our core,” said head coach Pat Bangasser, explaining that the four pillars of the team are discipline, class, integrity and the drive to compete. “He is mentally tough; he is a gentlemen in every sense of the word; he is a hard worker…He is polite. He is the first one to throw a compliment.” Wang happily accepted the role of captain, often staying late after matches to help someone out at the driving range and leading the team through its second consecutive undefeated season, which was capped off with the KingCo Championship title. On the first day of the tournament, Wang grabbed the lead by shooting a 66 on the par 72 Willow Run course. He went to hit par the next day and walked Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
Li Wang watches his shot at the KingCo Championship.
away with the individual league title. “He really tore up that competition on the first day,” said Bangasser. “Li is just rock solid. I’ve got story after story of shots where I’m thinking ‘he is going to get a double bogie’ and he will par the hole…he will scramble around the golf course if he needs to.” Bangasser has known Wang for the last six years, but said he knew of him long before that. About 10 years ago he noticed the young golfer at Sahalee Country Club. “It seemed like every time I was there,” he said, “there was a kid on the chipping green and putting green.” Wang got his start on the course early, going along with his dad for some father-son time. “I remember when he was little,” said Wang’s mother, Grace Wang. “He would practice every day. Even in the rain, he didn’t mind at all.” It wasn’t long, she said, until her son was shooting 80s. “My husband said ‘Oh, he needs a professional.”
From then on, the budding golfer worked three days a week, all year round with PGA professional Jim Pike, who is now the general manager at Sahalee. “He really had an unbelievable hand-eye coordination and a great short game,” said Pike. “Basically, for an instructor, it’s a dream come true. With Li, he is has been very diligent and taking lessons, with his practice schedule and workout schedule. You can just see he is a wellgroomed kid.” Even when it wasn’t Pike’s day to work with Wang, he said he could count on his student hitting the links without him. “I just really had a passion for it and I wanted to see how good I could get,” said Li Wang. Now at age 18, Wang has several American Junior Golf Association tournaments under his belt, including a second-place finish at the ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior where he shot 69-73-70. With a little over six months left in his senior year at Eastlake, Wang is preparing See LI WANG, Page 15