Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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In a meeting held virtually, the Dayton School Board met to discuss a few items including the impact of the health crisis on the schools. When discussing the budget, board members noted that district costs have gone down with travel out of district being cancelled, and there being no substitute teacher costs to pay. The key date for the Dayton School Board is April 27. That is currently the scheduled date that all students are expected to return to school following Governor Inslee’s mandatory school closure. The return date is important to s...
Thursday's Dayton-Waitsburg Winter Awards Banquet had a bittersweet atmosphere, while laughter rang out throughout the Waitsburg Elementary's multipurpose room there was also the realization that this might be the last athletic celebration for D-W for some time. It was shortly after this meeting that word got out that Walla Walla and College Place had shut down athletic events and then on Friday, March 13, Governor Inslee announced that Washington State schools will close for six weeks,...
The Eastern Washington Athletic Conference, which is at the 2B classification level, announced its all-league selections for its East Division. The Dayton-Waitsburg girls received three selections. Junior forward Sadie Seney was named to the first team, while junior guard Mackena Culley and freshman forward Claudia Benavides were named to the second team. The EWAC named Columbia-Burbank's Jadyn Johnson as player of the year. They also named DeSales coach Tim Duncan as coach of the year. Duncan...
As adults we sometimes get way too involved in our kid's athletic events. I know I have fallen down that rabbit hole a few times with my own kids and now again recently with my semi-adopted kids, the ones I cover as a member of the Waitsburg Times writing staff. I have had to remind myself that I need to be more neutral and objective, but it can be difficult when you really care about the players doing well. Most of us have seen the stories with the out-of-control parent or the overly...
A normally low-key Dayton School Board meeting took a turn for the serious Wednesday Mar. 4 when talk of the coronavirus and the naming of the Dayton-Waitsburg athletic combine mascot came up after not being on the initial agenda. With it being the overwhelmingly consuming news topic, it only seemed appropriate to discuss how the Dayton school district is handling the potential of threat of an invading illness. Currently the district has not seen an impact on attendance. Superintendent Doug Johnson wanted to reassure the board and the public...
While there were a number of items on the docket for the monthly Dayton-Waitsburg Athletic Combine Committee (DWACC) meeting on Feb. 24, over an hour was spent discussing the recent procedure used in choosing a new team mascot, concluding with the choice of the DW Wolfpack by Dayton and Waitsburg high school student bodies at the Feb. 14 election. The committee chose to put the adoption of the mascot on hold. This came after the high schools had voted for DW Wolfpack and both the Dayton and...
On Feb. 25 coaches, parents, athletes and administrators gathered in the Waitsburg high school auditorium to discuss procedures on how athletes can join teams and what paperwork the parents would need to sign to make that official. Participation packets were handed out and explained by Athletic Director Nicki Luper to a full crowd of high school and middle school athletes and their parents looking to get involved in baseball, softball, golf and track and field. Baseball will have two co-head...
WALLA WALLA-The Blue Devils came up just short of moving on in the postseason as Wa-Hi's Diego Jaques off-balanced three-point shot clanged off the front of the iron as the Ferris Saxons left the building with a heart-breaking win 65-62. "It is a shame we wound up on the short side, and we don't get to play any more basketball," Head Coach Adam Berg said. "We have worked hard enough to deserve to be playing more." The Greater Spokane/Mid-Columbia Conference District 8 lost concluded Wa-Hi's...
While they didn’t achieve all their season goals, one of them making the playoffs, it was a season for the history books for this newly combined program between Dayton and Waitsburg and its boys basketball program. After a winless 2018-2019 basketball season, D-W’s boys basketball team picked up its first victory for the combined programs against Prescott in December and then proceeded to earn league victories against DeSales and Liberty Christian as well as a second non-league victory against Pomeroy for a 4-16 season record and a 2-10 league...
GRANGER—The Dayton-Waitsburg girls basketball team put its entire heart and soul into its final contest of the season in a difficult loss to DeSales 60-43 at the 2020 Eastern Washington Athletic Conference tournament. Part of the difficulty was coming off a brutal loss to Tri-Cities Prep Jaguars the night before and having to face the DeSales Irish for the second time in a week. “The D-W ladies went down fighting and played with a lot of heart,” said Assistant Coach Desirae Jones. “We got within six in the third quarter, but the Irish pulled...
WALLA WALLA—The largest crowd of the season got more than its money worth in the roller coaster of a ride as Wa-Hi boys basketball took its foot off the gas pedal in the fourth before hitting it again in overtime for the 68-61 first round of the Greater Spokane League/Mid-Columbia Conference playoff win. In the end the game came down to clutch free throws. Mead’s Sam Wenkheimer, who lead the Panthers with 14 points, hit two big free throws with 15 seconds in regulation to close the Blue Devil’s lead to 56-55. Sophomore Diego Jaques was foule...
WALLA WALLA—In clearly their best game of the season, Dayton-Waitsburg’s boys basketball team avenged an early home loss to the DeSales Irish on a last second three-point shot by sophomore guard Dylan Bledsoe to win, 49-46. As the clock wound down Tuesday night amid a snowstorm, things heated up in the gym at DeSales and one couldn’t help but wonder if a win at the buzzer could happen a third time for D-W. The Irish took advantage of some cold shooting by Dayton-Waitsburg in the third quarter and stretched what would be their biggest lead...
WALLA WALLA—Dayton-Waitsburg’s girls basketball team got off to a great start against league foe DeSales Irish last Tuesday in its final league game of the 2019-20 season but a quiet third quarter led to an Irish victory of 40-24 heading into the post season. Neither team played well in the first quarter that ended in an 8-8 tie. Junior MacKenna Culley looked like she was going to get D-W going with a three-pointer to take the lead 11-10 with five minutes left in the first half. But DeSales put out that fire with a bucket by Morgan Thomas who...
DAYTON—The Dayton-Waitsburg Combine Committee met Jan. 27 to discuss mascots and athletic codes as well as go over the new league alignments. Four mascot names have been chosen by the Associated Student Body (ASB) leaders to be considered for adoption: Valley Vikings, Valley Wolfpack, Birddogs, and the Giants. Students and the members of the community have an opportunity to weigh in on the names and even suggest other name possibilities to the two school’s ASBs for their approval. Input for nam...
The Dayton School Board formally announced three finalists have been chosen to move forward in the search process to replace retiring Superintendent Doug Johnson. The three candidates selected are Effie Dean, Guy Strot, and Andie Webb. The chosen candidate would begin their duties on July 1. All three of the candidates are also currently working in the state of Washington. The three candidates will participate in final district interviews with Dayton’s administrative staff and school members all day on Monday Feb. 10. The public portion of t...
Dayton-Waitsburg’s Freshman phenom Claudia Benavides scored a career high 25 points Wednesday in leading her team to a 69-43 victory over Liberty Christian in an Eastern Washington Athletic Conference contest. Her effort also nabbed her the $100 bill her Grandfather Sal Benavides has been holding onto until she finally scored 20 points in a game. The results also moved D-W up in the standings, giving them a shot at playing in the district tournament, a tournament they weren’t even thinking abo...
Freshman Monte Pettichord tried heroically to repeat his miracle shot from last week against Pomeroy, instead his 3-pointer for the win clanked off the rim. However, one person's miss is an opportunity for another. His teammate, Junior Mason Finney grabbed the rebound and dribbled backwards out to beyond the three-point line to launch another buzzer-beating winning shot for the D-W win over Liberty Christian 50-49. Historically it was the combined program's first Eastern Washington Athletic...
Early into the contest the Patriots rushed out to a 7-2 lead and one of the D-W's top two scorers, freshman forward Claudia Benavides, fell hard to floor two and half minutes into the game with an apparent twisted ankle. Without their offensive threat and defensive presence in the middle, Liberty Christian made it 19-10 midway through the second quarter. However, a healthy Benavides returned just before Head Coach Tamira Culley called a full time out, and that was the beginning of things...
POMEROY-Dayton-Waitsburg held a 20-point advantage at the intermission, with a score of 28-8, however a pesky Pirate team led by 6-foot-2 sophomore guard Trent Gwinn, battled all the way back to tie the score at 40 on his three-pointer following a Pomeroy timeout that left 5.5 seconds on the clock. With the game tied, junior Colton VanBlaricom inbounded the ball with a pass with five seconds left, to junior Sean Evans who then passed it up to a streaking Pettichord, who launched a prayer over...
Turnabout is fair play. It only seemed right Thursday night that the Dayton-Waitsburg girls basketball picked up its first victory of the season over visiting Walla Walla Valley Academy, 52-33, because last week in College Place, WWVA earned its first win of the season over visiting D-W, 47-34. After their last meeting and D-W’s last game, it was hard to gauge what the outcome might be. But after WWVA nabbed the opening tip and then promptly turned the ball over that’s when the first glimmer of hope at a first victory appeared. One of WWV...
The number one issue facing the school board continued to be the oversight of the monies collected from previous levies and how they are spent on various prioritized projects. And accordingly, how they are being held accountable to the public for the choices they make. At its January monthly meeting Superintendent Doug Johnson presented an update regarding the 2016 and 2018 capital project levies. He said over $1.5 million will have been collected by October 2020 in order to address various facilities issues. As of the end of 2019, the asphalt...
The Dayton-Waitsburg's boys basketball team took a step closer to picking up its first league win in a 51-37 loss that was a low scoring battle against the visiting White Swan boys on Saturday night. After a tough road loss on Tuesday, D-W worked harder and better as a team, as Head Coach Roy Ramirez was heard saying from the sideline," it was right there," referring to the just missed baskets. It was also evident that he saw the progress of the team as well and continued to encourage his...
Saturday night felt like the Dayton-Waitsburg girls basketball team took a big leap forward despite a setback to the visiting White Swan Cougars 64-39. Oftentimes this season things have gotten away from D-W early, Saturday was different. The team stayed close for the entire first half after a 9-6 deficit after one quarter they were still in it at the intermission 20-15. One of the huge differences was the existence of a defined team unity. "Our team has come a long way and we will continue to...
COLLEGE PLACE—The script of the Dayton-Waitsburg boys basketball team played out almost identically to their female counterparts against Walla Walla Valley Academy in a league loss last Tuesday 67-32, only there were more 3-pointers involved. In the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference contest D-W got off to a slow start with its first bucket coming from Junior guard Mason Finney three minutes into the contest. Finney would score five more of his team leading 13 points in the first quarter as the team finished only two points behind the Knigh...
Dayton-Waitsburg's boys basketball team came out firing with two three-pointers and a quick lead but in the end D-W couldn't maintain the wild, fast, and physical play from DeSales in the league loss 63-40. Sophomore shooting guard Dylan Bledsoe, sporting a new haircut, scored D-W's first six points. He would finish with only eight for the game. Junior guard Mason Finney scored the teams other five points of the first quarter with a great shot off an inbounds pass and then with 45 seconds left...
