Wishing him the best in his academic and basketball endeavours at TWU!

On the volleyball court Hailey Harris she seems like your normal team captain with her powerful serves and confident swagger. But, Harris also has something unique abut her hidden under her tough skin. She’s from Idaho and she’s one of the best ropers in the country.
Now what is roping? Roping is one of many events that make up the sport of rodeo. Breakaway roping and team roping are the two events Harris competed in as a kid growing up.
Harris’s knack for roping comes from her parents. Her mom and dad both grew up on farms next door to each other and both loved the sport of rodeo.
“When my parents got married it was only natural for their kids to do rodeo,“ said Harris. “It’s a family tradition for sure.”
As a little girl her parents took her to jack pot barrel races and would lead the horse so she could get the experience. She was competing competitively by the age of five all on her own.
In High School Harris made it to state four years in a row and nationals two years. . The winning came naturally until Harris’s junior year, when something unexpected happened that would change her rodeo career forever. She hit the first brick wall in her athletic career that posed a major decision on what she would do after high school. Her favorite horse had to be put down.
“I always had horses to use, but loosing this one broke my hear,“ said Harris.
With her options open, Harris had a backup plan. She decided to go to college in the direction of another sport, volleyball. Harris was a high school volleyball all-star along with rodeo.
The time arrived for Harris to get herself known at the college level.
“I tried out at many different colleges and four of them said I wasn’t good enough to play at that level,” said Harris.
Being denied by so many places is quite the mental letdown. But, Harris persevered.
“I found Sue’s program here at EVCC and when I talked to her she was excited about my interest so I went for it,” said Harris. “I did get an offer from the University of Idaho to do rodeo for them, but by then I had already signed my letter of intent to come here.”
“It was a big decision for her to go that far, but there wasn’t another college that wanted Hailey as a hitter in volleyball,” said Shannon Harris, Hailey‘s mother.
Harris lived in Soshone, Idaho her whole life in a population no more than 2000. Moving all the way to a city fifty times the size would be overwhelming for most people, not just Harris.
“I’m used to being able to look out my window and seeing a long ways, but now all I see are houses, streets, and more houses, I don’t like that,” said Harris. “I still hear the police sirens at night and jump out of bed thinking something bad is happening, but all of this has been a good change and made me a tougher person.”
Harris’s coach Sue Snow has helped her tremendously with the adjustment, being her second mother when it comes to advice and having someone to talk to. Harris feels that her and Sue have gone through some tough times together, but always manage to work things out.
“Sue will get after me as a player, but at the end of the day she’ll still be there to take care of me,” said Harris.
“Sue is my life line to Hailey if for some reason I can’t get in touch with her,” said Shannon Harris. “Sue is also so kind to pick us up and tack us back to the airport whenever we come to watch Hailey play.”
Harris is now in her second year on the volleyball team and has assumed the position of captain. Harris feels that her role as captain is also shared by another teammate Summer. Summer doesn’t have the title that she does, but because of her leadership ability and communication skills she is co-captain in Harris’s eyes, helping to keep her and Snow on their toes.
When college is over Harris wants to move back to Soshone to be with her family and have fun at the sport she loves, rodeo.
“I will definitely go back to rodeo because you don’t have to be young to play,” said Harris. “Volley ball is really hard on your body physically, but in rodeo you just keep your arm in shape and you can still ride a horse and compete at any age.”

Kas Lisoskie
Clipper Sports

“If we’re going to run we’re going to run like hell.” EVCC’s number one men’s runner Nigel Neaves pretty much summed up a year to remember for the Trojans.
The girls ran fast. The guys ran faster. And their coach became king of the league.
On Oct. 27 the EVCC cross country team hosted the Northern Regions Championship in Bellingham where they took the crown in the men’s and women’s races. Following the race head coach Matt Koenigs earned NWAACC’s women’s cross country coach of the year and men’s co coach of the year based off of his teams performance in this race and throughout the season.
“It’s satisfying for sure to win the awards, but my runners are more important to me than an award. I’m not coaching to win awards, I’m here to build a good program with a strong team that can compete year in and year out,” said Koenigs.
The Northern Region Championship was most important to him the weekend of Oct. 27. In 2007 it counted as an actual race and wasn’t determined by default. Last year, the league officials took each teams score from the previous weekends meet, the Bellevue CC Invitational, and used that to determine the winner. So basically, the men won without having to run a race at all. This is where Koenigs wanted something more.
“This year we hosted the race(Northern Region Championships) to exclude outside competition and to make it a real meet that we could compete in,” said Koenigs.
Going into the race the men were favored to win, but the women, on the other hand, were more of the underdog type.
“1989 was the last year worth noting for the girls team where they took third to last in the league,“ said Koenigs. “Even this year they were expected to take third.“
In 2006 the girls team had four runners on their roster, but in cross country five are needed to post a score. In the off-season Koenigs did some recruiting and was able to expand his girls roster to nine. At the Northern Region Championships six of those nine finished in the top ten, giving them a strong victory by over 30 points. Freshman Taneal Detschman won the race with a new meet record of 20:28 seconds.
“The women had a fantastic race. Everyone placed where they should have,” said Neaves, who finished second in the race for the men.
On the men’s side seven out of their 12 runners finished in the top ten, with three being in the top five.
“The whole men’s team really stepped up for this race,” said Koenigs.
“TJ Horn had his best race of the year considering he was fifth on the team all season and got second place(on the team) in this race. It seems like every time he races he pr’s(sets a personal record).”
The men buried the competition with a final score of 22 points, 21 points ahead of second place Whatcom CC. In cross country the lowest score wins.
“We have a potential to place higher at NWAACC. Overall I think our performance was 50 50 for the men at regionals,” said Neaves.
“Winning at regionals isn’t the race that matters, wining at NWAACC is where it truly counts.”
Tomorrow the Trojans head to Clark College at Battleground for the NWAACC championships. Ten community colleges from around the state will be competing including Spokane CC, who is expected to take first place with ease.
According to Koenigs the goal on the men’s side is to take second place and to do so everyone needs to have a strong race. He also feels that Spokane is out of reach this time, but next year his team should give them more of a run.
“Spokane is so good they could compete at a national level and still come out on top,” said Koenigs.
“Our goal is to beat Clark and Lane, Spokane is kind of out of the question. Lane can be beat but it all comes down to me having a smarter race then I did at regionals because I went out too fast,” said Neaves.
Koenigs expects the girls to perform fairly well with a finish of at least third if not better.
“The girls can take third if they stay healthy and no one gets injured because there really isn’t another team that can take them from below the top three,” said Koenigs.

Kas Lisoskie
Clipper Sports

Coach Tim

Coach Tim