Okay, I had fun

I sometimes think that I am way too busy at my age but that can also be my fault. When a person retires they are supposed to do this or do that but whatever you do don’t sit around and do nothing. So I’m at least not doing nothing.

This was a much anticipated weekend for some time now with the Invitational track meet on Saturday but also the EWU spring football game on Friday. My buddy Kenny G. came to town on Friday and we drove to Cheney for a reception pre-football with the school president Dr. Shari McMahon, Director of College Athletics Tim Collins and Head Football Coach Aaron Best. As we came into the reception area we met President McMahon and she is a delight and full of energy and a great leader for EWU academics and athletics. We felt very welcomed by the president. Kenny received the invite and I was his guest so it was much appreciated for sure.

As we chowed down on some burgers and German sausage Collins talked about the hiring of Dan Monson for basketball. He said that with the success that Eagle basketball coach David Riley had he knew it was only a matter of time that he would need to fill those shoes. Collins had only been on the job for nine months when Riley became the new WSU head coach. He was excited to be able to hire someone with the experience and ties to the Cheney-Spokane area that Monson has. He believes that the Monson hire will be beneficial to the continued success at Reese Court on the EWU campus.

Coach Best talked to us about a pretty decent spring camp. He told everyone that in a perfect world they would have been able to draft two teams of equal talent in order to be able to play a more normal game for spring. However, the depth at some positions didn’t allow for that to happen. For instance with four running backs it would mean two for each team and that wasn’t a good scenario. When he said that there would be twenty freshmen coming in this fall you realize that the depth for a game like this is a few months away.

Some of the concerns that most Eagle fans had was the defense and on Friday night the defense looked very tough. Granted starting QB Kekoa Visperas only played a series or two and anytime a QB was touched the play was blown dead so there was a chance that one or two QBs could have broken away for a huge gain or even a TD but no one needs to have a valued position like a QB get hurt in a scrimmage. We saw several good offensive plays but we came away more impressed with the defense and in order to win games we need the defense to play lights out and there are a few of those kids that aren’t afraid to hit somebody. Since the last time we watched football live was in November it was great to see the Eagles on the red turf again.

We’ve had our disappointments the last two seasons but if we can stay healthy and get a couple more defensive stops a game it could propel the Eagles back into the FCS playoffs. And yes it only takes two or three stops more a game in order to keep the other team from scoring and get our offense chances to get into the end zone. Go Eags!

The Undeberg Invitational went off without many hitches on the track side of things. For some schools there might have been issues such as the Republic bus breaking down near Keller Ferry. We made sure that their long and triple jumper got in his jumps.

Because of the FBLA State Convention a couple of teams had to cancel which is a shame since having good competition for the meet is important and getting the kids another big meet to get their timing down will only help when league, regional and state meets take place.

We met some really good athletes and will miss Tomeko Cates from Springdale next year as he will be graduating and taking his talent to the college level.

It was a busy weekend and my legs are letting me know it. But I had a lot of fun working with the Meyer boys and will be looking forward to another Undeberg Invitational on April 26th, 2025.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].