The LEAP Student Blog
East Valley (Spokane) HS - Taylor Watkins
11/21/2011 12:00:00 AM
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Author: |
Taylor Watkins |
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| Grade: |
Junior |
| School: |
East Valley (Spokane) HS |
| Mascot: |
Knights |
| League: |
Greater Spokane |
| Classification: |
2A |
 Hello, my name is Taylor Watkins. I attend East Valley High School in Spokane - home of the Knights. I am currently a junior and play football, baseball and wrestle. I’m involved in Washington Drug Free Youth (WDFY), Spanish Club, and Link Leaders (which mentor the underclassmen around the school and welcome them to a new exciting year). Our football team is coached by Adam Fisher, son of the all time great Ed Fisher who won state championships at South Kitsap High School. Our team would love to earn our coach a championship for his resume. I started playing quarterback for our football team last year as a sophomore half way through the season. Last year we started off the year 1-5 and 0-2 in league. We were very close to winning those games but we just turned over the ball too much. After our sixth game our coaches thought we were out of a shot at making the playoffs so they decided to look to the future to get our young guys some experience for the upcoming years. They changed our defense from a 3-3-5 to a 4-3, and switched our starting tailback and quarterback and that’s where I found my opportunity. We won our last three league games and earned the third seed from the Great Northern League (GNL). As underdogs we upset Ellensburg, Clarkston, and Prosser all on the road and found ourselves in the 2A state Semi-Finals. Up next was Tumwater- we were ecstatic after beating those teams all on the road we finally had a home playoff game in front of all our fans at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane. The night before the game I was watching the news in Spokane. The Tumwater football team had already arrived in Spokane and spent the night here. Both teams were informed that the field was covered in snow and it wouldn’t be playable on. I was shocked. Who would’ve thought of a football game being canceled? That night we were told that the game was postponed to Monday at the Tacoma Dme, which was far from home. We lost that game which earned us a third place trophy, the first football trophy for our school in 29 years. Tumwater ended up the 2A State Champions.
This year we started off the season great but then lost some league games that we shouldn’t have, including an overtime thriller at Cheney’s homecoming game when we had the game won with 45 seconds to go but fell short. We missed the playoffs for the first time in 7 years. This year was very disappointing for us but we have a very bright future ahead of us in the fall of 2012. We’ll have many seniors and will do what it takes to get back to the Tacoma Dome. Our girls’ soccer team has had a fantastic year, winning the GNL and is in the semi-finals for the 2nd time in 2 years. They are in Seattle
This last Monday I started wrestling season. At EV, we always have a strong and hardworking wrestling team. We’ve had many teams place at state in the past and win some state championships. Our Coach is Craig Hanson and has been coaching for seventeen years here at EV. Wrestling runs in the blood of that family and his son, Clete Hanson, wrestled at EV and placed third, second, and first place during his time here. Clete currently wrestles at Simon Frasier University in Vancouver Canada and placed 7th and 8th at the national tournament. This year we are looking to be pretty strong and hope to compete for a league title and to place at state. I also look forward to playing baseball this spring because last year I was unable to finish wrestling season or play baseball due to an elbow injury.
East Valley is a fun and unique place. I have enjoyed my past two years here and look forward to what the future has in store for me. I’m very excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas break. I hope you all have safe and Happy Holidays this winter!
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November 2011
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