What's the latest with BHS sports?

MARCH 2019
In This Issue
From the Athletic Director
Strength & Conditioning Update
Team News
Baseball Fundraiser
Ballard Pride!
Ballard Athletics Blast Wrap-Up
Running of the Beavers
ABC FAQ                   
Important Dates
Mar 18: Academic Spirit Week
Mar 30: Running of the Beavers
Apr 8: Spring Break
Jun 11: Senior Awards Night

BHS at Metro League: links to individual team schedules
From the Athletic Director
Hey Beaver Fans,

I just finished my second season as athletic director and what an incredible winter we had! As a Ballard graduate, former student athlete and boys’ basketball assistant, it has been both an honor and privilege to work with our outstanding coaches and watch our athletes compete. There certainly was a lot to celebrate!

Gymnastics had one heck of a season! After cruising through the regular season, the team went into Districts as one of the favorites. The post season gave our gymnasts an opportunity to shine and that they did! At the state tournament, sophomore Lianne Kistler took home several individual medals including 3 rd overall and our team finished 4 th in the state (see more below)!

In basketball, both our boys and girls were hit the hardest by Snowmageddon 2019. Our boys worked hard all season, competing as a young team in the toughest league in the state. After league play the boys earned a first round playoff game that unfortunately was canceled and their season came to an abrupt end (see more below). There’s a lot to be excited about for the future though as the team graduates only one senior. Our girls had another outstanding season, finishing second in their division with a chance to battle for the league championship and gain momentum going into Districts. Unfortunately, the snow got us again and the Metro tournament was canceled. In the end the girls were knocked out of the District tournament early but still, a great job by our girls team this year! The Lady Beavers graduate four seniors who have been huge contributors to the program and will definitely be missed next year.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to walk by the commons after school during the winter season, you probably noticed a group of exhausted young men and women working their tails off! It was that work ethic that brought a great deal of success this year. At the state tournament Kayla Rogers made Beaver Nation proud, finishing 4 th while several other wrestlers finished in the top ten.

Cheer was on a roll again this season bringing home another state championship – two actually! The Red team finished first in state in the non-tumbling division while the Black team took home the crown In the tumbling category. In addition, The Black team earned their bid back to Florida to compete at Nationals for the second year in a row (more details below). Way to keep the keep the streak alive and make us all proud!

Ballard Pride!
Eric Ensign
Strength & Conditioning Update
I cannot believe I’ve been running this program for over a year now! This program has grown immensely over the past year and none of it would be possible without you!

The strength and conditioning program at Ballard High School (Beaver Strength) is built on fundamentals. The hip hinge, squat, lunge, pull and push are the fundamental movement patterns we train and everything is built off them. Once the fundamental patterns are trained we get more advanced. Keeping athletes safe and building functional strength are our top two priorities. It is important to keep in mind this is a program for ALL LEVELS! If your student is a beginner it’s natural to be intimidated but it is a safe learning

Winter Sports:

Winter sports flew by with much success for many of our teams. It was really cool to have a majority of those teams participating in in-season lifting. This was by far the most in-season lifting we’ve had in any season thus far. Wrestling lifted twice a week and had a very successful year, finishing 18th in state overall, sending 4 competitors to state and having the first female wrestler to place in state! Kayla Rogers finished 4th in state!

Cheer’s Red team finished 1st place in State for the non-tumbling large champion for 2A/3A/4A, while Black got the top score for the Medium Tumbling division at State. Another great year for cheer! They trained all season two days a week!

Gymnastics had a fantastic season, taking 8 girls to state and accomplishing a record high score which was good enough for 4th in State! Lianne Kistler took home 1st place on the bars AND the vault. This group seemed to improve every week! They trained once a week.

Snow put a halt to both of our basketball teams. The Metro Division decided to cancel the Metro Basketball tournaments due to the snow. The varsity boys didn’t get a chance to compete while the girls had a tough loss against Bainbridge in the playoffs to end the season. Both JV teams enjoyed winning seasons, the future is bright for Ballard Basketball! The girls lift once a week as a team while the boys had a group the voluntarily lifted once a week.

Boys swim was up and training at 6 AM Mondays and Wednesdays before practice! These boys took a huge step going 6-1 in the regular season and moving up one spot in Metro.

Spring sports : This group did an amazing job this off-season! I was really happy with the additions of boys soccer (3 days), softball (2 days a week) girls (2 days) and boys lacrosse (3 days). Track had a large group lifting two days a week all winter. Baseball lifted 3 days a week, really excited to see all of our spring sports perform in the coming months.

Fall Sports : Football is lifting Monday, Wednesday and Friday after school. Girls swim is beginning their off-season training starting this week Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Most of the cross country team competes with track. I’m working with the Volleyball team to get them started training two days a week. I would love to get girls soccer involved! Seniors Emma Inge and Rachel Howell are going to help me with this after their respective spring sports have concluded!
Check out the schedule attached to see the schedule for Spring! Every session is open to any athletes and workouts are designed for them. The specific times are to keep structure and also put ownership on the students to come but they don’t HAVE to come to the allotted time.

I believe that athletes should be training year round with a 2-3 week break after each sport. I believe out of season training should be done 3 times a week but it’s all about sustainability. If two days is more realistic that is totally fine and one is better than zero! Weight training is not required but it will help with performance and has been shown to decrease the chances of injury!

Weight Room Hours:
  • Monday-Friday 7-8am and 3:45-4:45pm
  • Wednesday afternoon 2:30-3:00pm due to early dismissal

Stay current with information, videos, awards and photos on social media.

Thanks for your support! Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, comments or concerns: colinmatthiesen@gmail.com, cjmatthiesen@seattleschools.org, or (206)972-9441

Thank you for your support!

Coach Colin Matthiesen
TEAM NEWS
Boys Basketball
The Boys' Basketball team overcame a number of injuries to post their most league wins since re-entering the ultra competitive Metro league. Led by All-League Honorable Mention selections Tycho Striegel and Justin Burceag , the Beavers' high-water mark came against rival Nathan Hale in a 35-point victory. While the team will miss their lone senior, Lucas Waters , the Beavers look forward to returning the majority of a young team and call up members of the 14-win Junior Varsity squad. 

The Boys Basketball program is in full swing with open gyms and conditioning to keep helping our players build their mind, body and skills. Also put the Battle in Ballard high school tournament on your calendar for June 7 th , 8 th  and 9 th  to see top teams from the region right in our gym.  

Finally, any players/parents interested in the Beaver's summer basketball program should email Head Coach Mike Broom ( mrbroom@seattleschools.org ) for more information.

Thanks as always to our players, parents and coaches for their support and commitment to Ballard Basketball. Ballard Pride! 
Cheer
Ballard Cheerleading had another wonderful season and we are so excited to be adding one more State Championship banner to our gym! 

Ballard  Black  (Tumbling) finished their season undefeated in State Competition. They were the top score across all divisions at all local competitions and finished first place in the Medium Tumbling division at WIAA State. Black also had the opportunity to travel to Orlando, FL to compete for the second year at UCA High School Nationals in the Medium Varsity category. Unfortunately, our team caught the sick bug at very inconvenient timing and didn't quite have the performance we were hoping for. The girls did have a blast in Disney World and we are looking forward to a return redemption trip next year! 

Ballard  Red  (Non-Tumbling) has won their first WIAA State Championship in the Large Non-Tumbling division! We couldn't be more proud of them or their first year coaches, Cassie Buchholz & Christa Dakers. This team took home two first place trophies in local competitions and had an incredible season. This is a very young team and we are looking forward to all they will accomplish in the years to come. 

We are graduating 10 outstanding Senior athletes this year. We would like to thank:  Bethanne Atkinson, Eva Brazil, Jesa Chiro, Ellie Ingraham, Alena Luke, Freeman Marshall, Avery Miller, Maddie Musafia-Corwin, Mandy Risley & Haley Stroud  for the incredible contributions they have made to this program and for the dedication they have had to their teammates and coaches. You have truly helped shape Ballard Cheerleading into what it is today and we couldn't be more grateful for you. 

Tryouts for the upcoming season will be held April 15-19th. More detailed information and tryout packets will be available soon in the Main Office. The Ballard Cheer Instagram ( @ballardcheer ) will always have the most up to date information. We would love to have you join our program! 
Football
On February 6th we were able to celebrate three of our Seniors as they signed their Letters of Intent to play football at the college level.

Left to right: Kade Queen will play at Valley City State University in North Dakota, Ian Crocker will be playing at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver B.C., and Devin Thibodeaux will be playing at Concordia University Wisconsin. 

Our program is anxious to start our Spring practices in June! Until then nearly half of our players are competing for Ballard in a Spring Sport! The rest are working hard in the weight room as a team.

If you haven’t already, follow us on Facebook ( Ballard Beaver Football ), Twitter ( @BallardHSPride ), and Instagram ( @ballardbeaverfootball ). Ballard Pride!
Gymnastics
An exciting season for the gymnastics team has come to an end - and what a fantastic end it was!
Due to snow, the Metro League meet was combined with the District meet, and we had great results from both:

  • Sophomore Lianne Kistler was both Metro and District vault champion, Metro floor champion and 4th on floor at Districts, 2nd all around at Metro and 6th all around at Districts
  • Senior Celyn Stermer was 2nd on vault at both Metro & Districts, 3rd all around at Metro and 7th all around at Districts
  • Junior Ava Alvord and sophomore Cosette LaChance tied for 4th on beam at Metro and 9th at Districts

In addition to the individual accomplishments, Ballard was the 2nd place team at Metro and 3rd at Districts - qualifying to State in a very tough field.

The State meet perfectly showcased a season of hard work. It paid off big time, with the most consistent competition of the season and a program record high score of 177.825, good for 4th place! The energy and momentum built throughout the whole meet and the feeling on the floor was one of relaxed, positive confidence. And fun! In addition to the team success that day, Lianne placed 3rd all around and qualified for event finals on vault, bars and floor, Celyn was 11th all around and qualified for finals on vault, and Cosette qualified for finals on bars. 

The momentum continued in event finals with Cosette placing 11th on bars, Celyn placing 10th on vault and Lianne making history winning both vault and bars and placing 3rd on floor. With her two wins, Lianne becomes only the 6th gymnast ever from Seattle Public Schools to win any event, and the 1st gymnast from SPS to  ever  win two!
We're sad to see this season end, but already excited about all the possibilities for next year! To stay up to date, follow us on Instagram - @ballardgymnastics , or Twitter  @ballardhsgym.
Boys Soccer
The season has officially started for Boys Soccer! We had over 100 players at tryouts and have added a Freshmen team to the mix! Having four teams will allow us to give as many players as possible the chance to play for BHS.

We expect great things from all four teams this year. The Varsity and JV teams started the season with a trip to Sequiam, with the JV winning 5-1 and the Varsity tying 0-0 in a hard fought game.

Circle March 26th on the calendar as it will be the introduction of the JVC-Freshman rivalry game! We expect a tough match among friends and peers!
Ultimate
Girls Season   
The BUF Girls season is already underway with practices starting the last week of February. We are a little bit lower on numbers this year with 16 committed players so we are only fielding a Varsity team this year. Additionally we have added a new coaching staff for our girls program. Nicole Cramer (for UW captain and current club team captain) is our new head coach.  Evan Hoover and Ximenna Hofsetz who have coached both our Boys and Mixed programs round out our staff.  If you have any interest in playing for our girls team, we take all experience levels (including none) and you just need to contact us via email at  BallardUltmate@gmail.com  or visit our website  https://www.ballardultimate.org    
 
Winter Coed  
We just ended our Winter Coed season with our playoffs wrapping up at the end of February. The snow this year put a wrench in most schedules and our Varsity team didn’t have time to make up our gap in pool play so ended up playing in the 9th place bracket which we won over Nathan Hale and then Bainbridge Island. Our JV team was able to win their final game this year as well and made some great strides throughout the season. Now the Varsity team is preparing for the annual Spring Reign Tournament in April which is the largest Youth Coed Ultimate tournament in the world, held in our own Burlington, WA and organized by  DiscNW.org  which is our local Seattle based Ultimate organization. More info about that tournament here -  https://www.discnw.org/spring-reign-information  
 
Boys Club  – for any boys that want to continue to play in the Spring, there is Boys Club. We will not be organizing a BUF specific team but rather you can sign up Individually to play as a free agent. All sign ups can be done here -  https://discnw.usetopscore.com/e/2019-spring-hs-boys-club-team-and-free-agent  
 
Youth Club Championships Teams  – We have several BUF players that are trying out for the Seattle based YCC teams represent Seattle and Washington State at the Youth Championships in Minnesota in August. Seattle YCC teams have historically performed extremely well winning multiple national championships. Ballard HS has had multiple players over the years representing Ballard and Seattle on these teams that have won national championships and placed very highly. 
 
To learn more about the Ultimate, you can visit  http://www.usaultimate.org  or if you want to know more about Ballard Ultimate, just contact us at  BallardUltimate@gmail.com  and you are interested in playing you can just visit our website https://www.ballardultimate.org  or email us. 
Support BHS Baseball While Watching the Pros!
The BHS Baseball M's Fundraiser is back for a 7th year with a goal of selling 1,000 tickets to the  M's vs. Rangers game on April 26

Tickets are just  $20 each , with a percentage going directly to the BHS Baseball budget, allowing the team to buy new uniforms and equipment and pay coaching salaries. If the team reaches their 1,000 ticket sales goal, they'll be playing a game against West Seattle at T-Mobile Park on Saturday, April 20!

Purchase tickets by directly contacting Head Coach Doug Montgomery at  ballardbeaversbaseball@gmail.com  or by  clicking here to fill out our online order form . See you in the stands!
Ballard Pride!
For a behind the scenes peek at how hard our cheerleaders worked this year, check out this short Road to Nationals video by BHS senior Jasper Laur.
Thanks for another great Ballard Athletics Blast!
The BHS Athletic Booster Club would like to send a huge thank you to everyone who helped make this year's Ballard Athletics Blast a success!

With fantastic support from the teams (the dessert table looked amazing!) and enthusiastic participation from the attendees, we had a great time and raised about $9700, which means the ABC is in terrific shape to continue our work for Ballard Athletics during the next year.

The breakdown :

  • 150 guests, representing 18 teams
  • 20 coaches from 10 teams
  • Wrestling won the Team Raffle, winning $500 for a team party!
  • Volleyball won the Coach Raffle, winning $500 for the team budget!
  • Congrats to Keven W. and Missy S., our corn hole champions; Mark R., our Heads or Tails winner; and Kelly E., our raffle winner!

Big thanks to :

  • All of our volunteers, with a special shout out to John Tipping and Jen Boget for running the corn hole tournament!
  • Our great new bartenders Andrea and Brian Marshall and Jim Campbell.
  • The Angelos family for donating beer from Rosalyn Brewing Company, the Laur/Penta family for donating Sounders tickets, and Carmen Hudson for donating Seahawks tickets.
  • Our top notch check-out crew: Barb, Karolyn and Melissa.
  • The organizing committee: Lauren, Frances, Daria, Sarah, Marilyn, and Barb.

We look forward to seeing you again next year!
It's almost time for Running of the Beavers!
The  Ballard High School Foundation 's 3rd Annual  Running of the Beavers 5K Fun Run/Walk is almost here! Are you signed up?

Don't miss out on this great opportunity to run (or walk) in support of Ballard High School -- we hope you'll grab your family and friends and join us on a fun, fast, flat course at Golden Gardens on  March 30 !

NEW THIS YEAR when you register, use the drop-down menu to specify which BHS Athletic Team you want to support with your race fee.  When you select this option, 70% of your fee goes directly to your favorite Ballard team ! * It's a perfect opportunity to sneak in a little extra fundraising in support of your student athletes. Why not get a group together and make it a fun team parent outing?

Can't make it to the run this year? You can also make a direct donation at  www.runningofthebeavers.com , with 100% of your donation going to the team of your choice.

Get more details at  www.runningofthebeavers.com !

* Remember, in order to donate a portion of your race fee, you MUST select your team from the drop-down menu when you register!
ABC FAQ
With so many different volunteer groups working to support BHS students, we know things can get confusing. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the ABC.

What exactly  is  the ABC?
The Ballard High School Athletic Booster Club (BHS ABC) is a parent volunteer group that works with the Athletic Director and BHS coaches to benefit the student-athletes and athletic programs at Ballard High School. We support  athletic programs at Ballard High School by providing administrative, communication, and bookkeeping services; we  promote  BHS sporting event attendance, school spirit, and camaraderie for all Beavers; and we  advocate  for BHS Athletics in the surrounding community.

Ok, so what does the ABC do?
The ABC Board meets monthly with the Athletic Director to make sure that our efforts align with BHS Athletics values and goals. One of our most important jobs is maintaining financial records and managing bank accounts for all BHS sports teams, so that teams do not have to maintain individual non-profit status and coaches and team parents are not also required to be bookkeepers. We also:
  • pay for and maintain the Ballard Athletics website
  • pay for, produce, and distribute this newsletter
  • produce and sell Beaver Gear
  • host the Ballard Athletics Blast fundraiser
  • purchase fun Beaver Swag for giveaways at select sporting events
  • pay an annual percentage of the Strength and Conditioning coach's salary
  • provide grants to the Athletic Director for special projects that benefit BHS Athletics

I want to support BHS athletes! What can  do?
  • Become a member of the ABC. Membership fees help cover our costs and keep the ABC strong.
  • Buy and wear Beaver Gear, especially when you are out supporting our Beavers at sporting events.
  • Plan on attending the various social and fundraising events we host throughout the school year. Help us build community while we celebrate our athletes!
  • Become a team parent, or offer to help your existing team parent -- volunteering to help out with a team's administrative, fundraising, or communications tasks means that the coach has more time to focus on his or her athletes.
  • Make a direct donation to your team!