Kicking off July and entering the heart of the offseason, UTSA men’s basketball head coach Austin Claunch announced Thursday that the Roadrunners have finalized their coaching staff for the coming 2025-26 season. The Roadrunners add UTSA alum David President as assistant coach, Quentin Thomas as assistant coach and director of operations and Jordan Brooks as an assistant coach. The trio joins assistant coaches Nick Bowman and Joey Brooks, who return from last year’s staff.

“We’re really excited and fortunate to welcome these outstanding coaches we’ve brought on board. They all bring different skills to the table that will help us continue to transform this program,” Claunch said. “In David President, you’ve got the pride, investment and engagement that come with being an alum who led an NCAA tournament team, on top of being a well-connected and highly successful high school coach who has won a lot of games and knows how to bring the best out of talented players. With Quentin Thomas, you’ve got a coach who uses his passion to develop young men and has played at the highest level himself, bringing the experience and mindset of winning a national championship. Finally, Jordan Brooks is one of the most well-respected young coaches and talent evaluators on the East Coast. He has competed against our teams and has earned my respect with how he contributes to winning wherever he’s been. These men will be difference-makers in the meeting room, in our culture and in player development.”

Former Roadrunners guard David President returns to San Antonio to serve his alma mater as an assistant coach after eight seasons as the head coach at Houston-area Shadow Creek High School, where he was the seven-time District 22-6A Coach of the Year and accumulated a 220-39 record and an 84.9 percent win rate while leading the Sharks. Under his leadership, SCHS was a seven-time district champion and three-time UIL 6A regional finalist. During his time in Pearland, he coached nine NCAA Division I players and 13 more who reached the collegiate ranks at the NCAA Division II, Division III or NAIA levels. Prior to SCHS, President coached two seasons at Belton High School, leading the program to its first playoff appearance in 20 years. In his first head coaching position, he also cut his teeth as an administrator as the athletic director and basketball head coach at Waelder High School, racking up a 54-11 record, two Coach of the Year titles, a pair of district crowns and appearances in the regional finals and semifinals across his two years leading the team and department.

“I’m incredibly honored and grateful to return to my alma mater to be a part of coach Claunch’s vision for the Roadrunners men’s basketball program,” President said. “This university shaped who I am, and it’s a dream come true to pour back into the program that gave me so much. I’m ready to help build something special with our student-athletes and represent the Roadrunner spirit with pride.”

While coaching at the high school level, he guided the development of several players who went on to NCAA Division I success, including Houston Chronicle All-Greater Houston Player of the Year Ramon Walker Jr. (who earned four conference championships and a National Championship Game appearance at Houston), two-time district MVP and Guy V. Lewis Award Finalist PJ Henry (who went on to three NCAA tournament appearances between Hartford and Texas Southern), Guy V. Lewis Finalist Cameron Amboree (Oral Roberts/Southern), two-time Guy V. Lewis Finalist and SCHS all-time leading scorer Michael Collins (Louisiana) and Guy V. Lewis Finalist Bryce Jackson (Houston).

Before starting his high school coaching career as a three-year assistant at Marble Falls High School, President got his start at the collegiate level with a two-year stint as assistant coach at Austin’s St. Edward’s University while shortly after concluding his playing career at UTSA. President helped the Hilltoppers to a two-year 40-18 record, 2008 Heartland Conference title and NCAA Division II Regional appearance with the most wins in school history – followed by a 2009 Heartland tournament runner-up finish.

President was a four-year starter playing for the Roadrunners from 2001-05, scoring 597 points with 359 rebounds, 339 assists and 155 steals in 109 career games. President led UTSA in assists and steals for three of his four seasons and had the 26th-most career rebounds. A two-year captain, President helped the Roadrunners to the 2003-04 Southland Conference regular season championship and UTSA’s subsequent NCAA Tournament appearance against Stanford.

Also joining the Roadrunners ahead of the 2025-26 season as assistant coach and director of basketball operations out of Northern California, Quentin Thomas played four seasons for Roy Williams at North Carolina from 2004-08, earned three Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) titles, was a captain on the Tar Heels’ 2008 Final Four team and was part of North Carolina’s 2005 NCAA National Championship. Thomas was in action during the second-most winning four-year stretch in UNC history with 123 victories across his four years at Chapel Hill, playing in 129 games for the Tar Heels.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity that God has given me and I’m excited for this next chapter in my life,” Thomas said. “I’m looking forward to building and connecting with the players and coaching staff throughout the season and helping add as much value as I can, both on and off the court.”

Thomas arrives in San Antonio fresh off serving as an assistant coach at College of Alameda for NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton, helping the Cougars spark a dramatic nine-game improvement over the prior campaign. Thomas aided the development of Isaiah Hill, the Bay Valley Conference Freshman of the Year and an All-BVC first-teamer. Prior to Alameda, Thomas was a skill development coach at Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd High School (2023-24) and an assistant coach at Silverado High School in Henderson, Nevada. In his prep role, Thomas worked with UC Davis’ Cyril Franklin and UC Merced leading scorer Cameron Brown. Developing players since the end of his playing days, Thomas founded String Along Basketball in 2010 to help Bay Area youth on and off the court and has continued as a skill development coach since then, also serving as a management youth mentor at Feets Basketball Academy since 2020.

The third and final addition to the 2025-26 Roadrunners staff is Jordan Brooks, coming to UTSA following a single season as an assistant coach at Morehead State in Kentucky, where he focused heavily on recruiting and community engagement, while being deeply involved in player development. Brooks joins the Roadrunners after recently attending the invitation-only 2025 Jay Bilas Coaches Leadership Program.

“I’m incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to join the UTSA men’s basketball program,” Brooks said. “I have tremendous respect for coach Claunch and his vision for building something special here. San Antonio is a city full of pride and energy, and I’m looking forward to bringing that same passion to our team every day. I’m committed to helping our student-athletes grow both on and off the court. I can’t wait to get to work.”

His work with the Eagles followed two seasons in Norfolk, Virginia at Old Dominion in the same role – earning the No. 5 spot on 247Sports’ 2024 National Recruiter of the Year rankings, helping ODU achieve its best record in four seasons and working closely with all-Sun Belt performer Chaunce Jenkins. ODU’s 2024 recruiting class ranked No. 24 nationally with the two highest-ranked players in the program’s history. Brooks was also the director of recruiting at Xavier (2021-22), helping the Musketeers to a 23-13 record and the 2022 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Championship after reeling in the 15th-ranked national recruiting class and notching the program’s second-highest Big East ranking. While serving in Cincinnati, Brooks helped develop Colby Jones, who was drafted by the Sacramento Kings and is now with the Washington Wizards. He also previously served as recruiting coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana (2019-21), where he coached All-Southland Conference performers Gus Okafor and Keon Clergeot. While serving as recruiting coordinator/assistant coach at Howard (2017-19), Brooks recruited MEAC Rookie of the Year and later MEAC Player of the Year RJ Cole, who also went on to earn First Team All-Big East honors at UConn. His efforts with the Bison propelled him to a spot on the 2019 Under Armour NABC 30-Under-30 Coaches Team, helping guide Howard to a massive turnaround and the program’s first winning season in four years. He also helped the program receive its first postseason bid in more than 20 years, making the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

Before Howard, Brooks coached and recruited at the 14U, 15U and 16U levels (2012-17), helping to develop several NCAA Division I student-athletes from top programs around Washington, D.C., including DC Assault, Team Takeover, Team Durant, and Team St8ment. In that five-year stretch, Brooks had the opportunity to work with several players who went on to excel at the highest levels of college basketball, including standouts such as Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), Armando Bacot (North Carolina), Casey Morsell (NC State), Jamir Young (Maryland), Jay Heath (Georgetown), Justin Moore (Villanova) and Mekhi Long (Old Dominion). Brooks played college basketball at Hampton (2007-11).

https://goutsa.com/news/2025/07/3/mbb2025-staffchanges

It is the ninth year for the swimming program at Oakwood and the Hawks have just completed a remarkable season. Highlights include increased participation for both boys and girls, school and league records and the first-ever CIF State qualification, with Lucas Tompkins competing for Oakwood in the CIF State Finals in the 100 breaststroke.

In that event in Clovis on May 16-17, Tompkins swam a 55.79 in the Friday prelims to qualify for the finals. On Saturday, he swam 56.17 to finish in 16th place among all swimmers in the state of California.

“The atmosphere at States was electric,” Tompkins said, “Behind the block was the loudest and most energized I’ve experienced and it was exciting to race at this really fast state meet, one of the fastest in the US. I was really happy with my swims at the meet and proud to represent Oakwood as our first CIF State swimming participant. 

“I hope to return next year and continue to move up and hope some Oakwood teammates will be there, too. Our Oakwood swim team and school were really supportive in cheering me on as well.”

There were many accomplishments and records by the 10-person Oakwood team this year. The squad included six boys and four girls. 

Tompkins, a junior, was joined by returnees in sophomores Porter Banks and Max Weltchek, along with three newcomers. The new swimmers were sophomores Davit Gasparyan and Victor Salankin, along with freshman Shayan Bahrainy. 

The girls crew featured newcomers Allison Li, Avi Martinez, Ria Deshpande and Sthanika Rahool, all four of whom are freshmen.

“Oakwood swimmers are students first and foremost and have maintained high academic standing in the classroom and great effort in the pool,” said Jaime Tompkins, co-coach with Van Weltchek. “(We) are proud of the swimmers’ accomplishments in the pool, in the classroom, and as just kind and awesome people. We’ve had a blast coaching this team and are excited for all to return next year.”

In the Pacific Coast Athletic League championships at Salinas on May 2, both boys and girls teams notched their highest placements ever. The meet was contested in two different ways, with both league races (PCAL) and division races (the three PCAL Divisions: Gabilan, Mission and Cypress).

The boys finished 14th out of all 20 PCAL teams, tallying 136 points. That mark placed them ahead of schools such as Pacific Grove, Monterey and Watsonville. In the PCAL Mission Division standings, Oakwood finished in fifth place.

The Oakwood girls finished 16th among all PCAL teams with 96 points. Their total slotted them ahead of big schools such as Watsonville and Hollister. In the PCAL Mission Division standings, Oakwood finished in fifth place.

Individual stars were Tompkins and Martinez. Tompkins was the fifth-highest scorer among all boys and Martinez was sixth-highest among all girls, along with being the highest scoring freshman girl.

Martinez shined in the 100 freestyle, with a division win in 58.23, and in the 100 backstroke, with a division win in 1:05.24. In the 100 freestyle, those swims were both a PCAL Mission Division record and an Oakwood school record.

“One of my favorite swimming accomplishments this year was the chance to swim at PCALs and earning a second place overall in the 100 backstroke and first in our division,” Martinez said. “Getting to compete with other fast swimmers really pushed me to do my best in the race and hopefully next year I can shoot for first place.”

In division results, Li finished seventh in the 100 backstroke in 1:29.71 and eighth in the 100 freestyle in 1:14.37. Deshpande came in eighth in the 100 backstroke in 1:32.73 and 10th in the 50 freestyle in 37.28. The four girls competed as a team in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay and finished second in both races.

“My favorite accomplishment was shaving over 20 seconds off my 100 freestyle time,” Li said. “But this year was also my first time doing relays which were a lot of fun and is now the event I look forward to.”

Tompkins also won two events. He captured the 100 breaststroke in 56.94 for both the PCAL title and the Division title. In the 200 IM, he finished second in the PCAL and first in the PCAL Mission Division with a time of 1:59.27. Each was both a PCAL record and a Division record.

“Our Oakwood team had 10 swimmers this season and we all supported each other and had our best season yet,” Tompkins said, “Our team did great at the PCALs champs meet with our best placing and most points scored yet which was nice, including a really close relay race where we ended up in second even though we are one of the smaller teams.”

In division finishes, Salankin took third in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.20 and fourth in the 100 butterfly in 1:05.41. Weltcheck got third in the 200 IM in 2:18.03 and fourth in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.79. Banks nabbed 10th place in the 50 freestyle in 26.73. Gasparyan, Bahrainy and Rahool also competed well. 

The boys’ quartet of Tompkins, Weltchek, Banks and Salankin placed second in the division in both the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay. In both cases, they demolished the old school record.

“(My favorite memory) was beating the four free relay record with Porter, Victor and Lucas,” Weltchek said.

Tompkins competed in the 200 medley and 100 breaststroke events at the CCS Finals Meet at Independence High in San Jose. He raced in both in the prelims on May 8 and moved on to the finals in his best event, the 100 breaststroke, where he clocked 56.61. In that event in the May 10 finals, he swam 56.47, sixth best in CCS.

“For CCS I was qualified in two events: the 200 yard Individual Medley and the 100 breaststroke,” Tompkins said. “In prelims I had a new personal best time and qualified for the ‘A’ final as the sixth seed overall. In finals I maintained that position and went a new personal best time. 

“Being in the ‘A’ final was quite an experience with the announcers announcing each finalist individually behind the blocks and racing some really fast swimmers.”

That result and time qualified Tompkins for the CIF State meet, where he accomplished a historical first for Oakwood.
“The entire Oakwood swim team has been fantastic ambassadors for the sport of swimming while having a historic year and having a blast doing it,” co-coach Jaime Tompkins said. “The team gelled and supported each other all season long and they are excited to see what the future holds for these swimming Hawks.”

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane youth baseball team is heading to one of the biggest stages in the country this weekend.

The Spokane Steelheads 12U team raised enough money to travel to Cooperstown, New York, where they’ll represent Washington state at the Dreams Park Tournament. The Steelheads are the only team from Washington competing in the event for that specific tournament week.

Steelheads head coach Nick Holmes said the group worked hard to fund the trip, organizing car washes, raffles and other events, while also receiving support from local businesses and families throughout the community.

This team has been together for several years, making this trip to Cooperstown even more special.

“The whole reason we started coaching was to teach the kids about baseball and develop the love of the game that we all had when we were playing,” Holmes said. “We’ve kept pretty much the same team together for around seven years. It’s the same kids — they grew up together, they play together, they’re all friends. They go to school together, have sleepovers, parties, birthdays. It’s crazy, all the stuff that they do. They’re really building these lifelong friendships, and that’s the important thing to me.”

For players like outfielder Brooks Vining, the tournament is about more than just baseball.

“These guys are my brothers. Like, these are my best friends at this point,” Vining said. “Baseball is so much fun because it’s the hardest sport and it’s really mental.”

Third baseman and pitcher Jeyss Morton, one of the newer additions to the team, said it didn’t take long to feel like part of the family.

“I’ve only known them for a couple of months now, and they already seem like family,” Morton said. “It’s super cool. They’re always excited, never down. And in a game when you get down or something, they’re always there for you.”

Utility player Dane Lewis said the group is excited for both the baseball and the cross-country adventure.

“It’s just going to be a blast,” Lewis said. “We’re traveling super far, and it’s going to be a great experience.”

The Steelheads will head to Cooperstown on Saturday and starting Sunday they will compete in skills competitions and a home run derby before playing games all week, joining more than 100 other youth baseball teams from across the country. The team also gets a ticket to go and check out the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The team is also continuing to raise funds for its 11U squad to make its own Cooperstown trip. More information about how to support the Steelheads is available here.

Let’s catch up on what came by the Enclosures on Day 3.

Who Moved On

In brief for the US: not many. While there are a few more crews yet to start racing–like the Harvard and Dartmouth heavies in the Ladies–the US field, small to begin with, has been winnowed considerably this year already.

Across the 13 races US Thursday, just four eights, plus the two Princeton Brits racing the pair while they are home for the summer, got through Thursday’s racing:

The Harvard Lights and Virginia in the Temple–who will face each other tomorrow–and then the Princeton light women and Rutgers A in the Island.

Just to jump right to it, the Princeton race against a bigger crew from Bristol was textbook aggressive racing as IRA Champs Princeton grabbed a narrow lead at the quarter-mile and clung tenaciously to the lead. Charging down the Enclosures, Bristol was closing (and both crews spent some time in the middle of the river, with blades overlapping for a stroke or two), but the Tigers prevailed for the win…and our Race of the Day nod.

You can watch the rest of therace by race replays here on Youtube, and read the Regatta’s notes on the Thursday races here.

Schoolboys Top College Men; First Schoolboy Crew to Make it to Friday Since 2009

The Teddy Hall schoolboy JV caused a bit of a stir by beating the Dutch college eight from Algemene Leidse Studenten Roeivereniging Asopos de Vliet.

A remarkable row from St Edward’s school in the Temple, becoming the first British schoolboys to reach the Friday in this event (& the first school from any country since Kent School USA in 2009) #HRR25

— Daniel Spring (@fatsculler) July 3, 2025

They can try for a Dutch double on Friday when they face the selected crew from Nereus that ended the Harvard Lightweight 2V’s perfect season today.

The Rutgers Surprise

Rutgers A also remains standing in the Island, making the most of the program’s first ever Henley trip with a 2-length win over U of London A, in the best time of the day in the event.

The trip, long planned as part of the 50th anniversary year of women’s rowing at Rutgers just happens to coincide with the Scarlet Knights’ best season since COVID, where they won Women’s Sprints, took second to Big Ten newcomer Washington in their conference, and posted their best NCAA finish–8th–since 1997, the very first year of that championship.

“Before we came over, we talked a lot about how people in England, they don’t know anything about us and we’re coming over not knowing anything about our competition,” said coxswain Maxine Prawl.

“We talked a lot about how we want to be the ones to surprise the boat next to us on the course. We don’t want to get out there and get surprised. We’ve done a really good job of coming here and making an impact, and I think we’ve been surprising a lot of people.

“At the same time, it’s not really surprising to us because we’ve trained with this intention and intensity, and we knew from the jump, that if we train the way we’re training, and we just go hard every stroke and we do what we need to do, then we can come here and make an impact.”

“So far, we’ve done a great job of executing that,” said Prawl, “but it’s only day two and we’ve got a long way to go, and all nine of us in this boat are very committed to seeing it all the way through Sunday.”

Rutgers gets the Dutch crew Laga on Friday, who was a titch slower to the Barrier today; according to Rutgers head coach Justin Price, the crew is looking forward to “getting it going tomorrow on the Fourth of July.”

Harvard Lights Stay Flawless; Sisters Will Face Off on Friday

The start of the Temple match between Harvard and the Dutch student club G.S.R. Aegir was another classic. Though Harvard pulled away once they got ahead and led by the Barrier, the first minute saw Aegir grab a quick lead and the crews were level at the 1/4 mile as Harvard rallied and responded.

For the undefeated IRA lightweight champs, it was another win in a long run that goes back to last year’s Temple semifinal…and they have not lost a race stateside in two years.

“We’ve had so much success for so long,” said senior coxswain Anya Chang, “but what makes this crew so special is that every time we enter a new competition or meet a new crew that we haven’t ever raced, or raced in a while, we don’t come into it expecting to win.

“I really admire how much they go out there ready to take anything that they want and any result that they want. They go out there as if they are the aggressor and are not expecting anything to happen to them.

“To start down and then keep the composure and the confidence to get through them, have a really good result was so exciting and honestly, I’m just so proud of the crew and how far we’ve come to the last couple of years.”

Chang, along with seven seat Brahm Erdmann, are the last two members of the crew who were part of the Harvard light varsity that fell short of an IRA bid their freshmen year. Since then? A surprising silver in 2022 followed by two perfect seasons capped by national titles.

You can read read our interview with Erdmann and more about the perfect season(s) in our IRA coverage from last month.

To keep the winning streak going, Chang and her crew will line up tomorrow against Virginia, who beat Newcastle to make it to the quarterfinals.

And when Anya gets to the start and looks across at her opposite number, she will see a pretty familiar face: her sister Celia. Now we are not about to do the math on the last time sisters may have coxed against each other in the Temple, or even in the regatta as a whole, but we are definitely here for this sister act.

Both Changs steered their crews to national championships this year–Anya at the IRA with the H150s, and Celia at ACRA with UVA–and now they have a chance to race each other that doesn’t happen back in the States, where the two teams race in different leagues.

“I’m going to root for my favorite,” said dad, Karl, with a laugh when we asked him who he’d be cheering for on Friday. He certainly has good reason to be in high spirits today; after all, not every parent gets guaranteed a Henley win the next day, but he sure is, with a daughter at the helm of each boat.

Saving Your Euros and Cents

The actual shell that the Harvard Lights beat, from the Dutch student club G. S. R. Aegir, has a neat back story. Called the ’99 it was donated by the 1999 heavyweight crew, as recompense for a shell they (accidentally) destroyed back in, you guessed it, 1999.

To pay for the boat they crashed, the members of the crew have been putting away 19.99 in Euros every month ever since–and this season there was finally enough in the kitty to finance the new boat.

One of the men who was in the boat back then and led the effort was on hand today. Wietse De Boer took a picture with the crew and the boat after the race, which led to the crew telling us his story.

Aegir, by the way, are the Dutch crew with one of the cooler racing shirt traditions we’ve run across at Henley, and while we covered it before, it is worth repeating: they can tear the sleeves off after they’ve won three races–so this all sleeveless crew was clearly a seasoned outfit–but they cannot wash the shirt unless they win the big Varsity race in the Netherlands. Since Aegir has not won the Varsity since 1982, there are, one athlete admitted, a lot of unwashed red-starred Aegir shirts in closets back home in Groningen. (You can check out the sleeve-ripping tradition on the club’s instagram.)

On to Watching the Friday

If you are all caught up here, then it might already be time to tune in to the livestream to see what’s on.

A few peak interest races you might want to catch live:

7:45am EDT – Harvard LWTs vs Virginia in the Temple (Student M8)
9:20am EDT – Dartmouth Vs Oxford Brookes B in the Ladies (Interm. M8)
9:30am EDT – Redwood Scullers vs Tideway Scullers in the Princess Grace (Open W4x)
10:50 EDT – Harvard vs Thames/Leander in in the Ladies (Interm. M8)

That Redwood Scullers crew is a Stanford “all-star” crew featuring three national teamers out of this year’s Stanford V8, and recent alum Esther Briz, the Spanish Olympian.

Saugatuck and Newport will be back in action Friday as well, after today’s off day in the Prince Philip event. Newport gets Headington, last year’s winner, while Saugatuck will face the other heavy favorite, Shiplake. Saugatuck coach Mike O’Hara is undaunted though, telling row2k: “It’s the Fourth of July, so we’re going to come after them like Rocky.”

Notes from the Banks

You Know It’s a Tough Draw When… you find yourself saying “congrats on the World Cup win” at the end of the race, as Spains Koxme Burutaran did to Logan Ullrich at the end of their heat in the Diamonds. Ullrich won gold in the single for New Zealand just four days ago in Lucerne before heading to Henley–and Burutaran could have also congratulated Ullrich on winning the IRA. Ullrich was still sweeping–and hoisting the Varsity Challenge Cup–with his fellow Washington Huskies a mere month ago on the Cooper.

And Then There Were Six – Umpire launches that is: the morning schedule today was a bit of an experiment, as the Stewards “river-tested” using six launches instead the usual five. That meant the morning could run fully on 5 minute centers, without the traditional 10 minute break every five races to reset the launches…and that would let the Regatta add more races as the Stewards keep looking for way to increase the parity across the men’s and women’s events.

All USA was A-OK – Earlier in the week, we noted that Purdue and Virgina drew the proverbial short straw when they came all this way just to see a crew they race all the time back home, but UVA coach Frank Biller pointed out that seeing the top two crews from the ACRA racing each other at Henley was both historic, and a real sign of how healthy college club rowing is these days. He and Purdue coach Jack Kellmanson, a former UVA rower himself, made sure their crews knew just how historic it was and the two crews even met before the race to wish each other luck.

From 1975: The Spokesman-Review published a special section celebrating Spokane’s selection as an “All-America City.”

Columnist Dorothy Powers noted that this was just one of many “firsts” for Spokane:

• First of its size to stage a world’s fair.
• First in the nation to mount an international event in the Bicentennial Era.
• First American city to host a world’s fair since the U.S. joined the Bureau of International Expositions.

And now, “nationwide recognition with 1974-75 All-America City Award from the National Municipal League.”

Powers added that “Spokane’s civic momentum refuses to quit, now.”

From 1925: Thousands of holiday-goers engaged in an “early morning invasion” of Spokane businesses as they stocked up for an especially big celebration of the Fourth of July holiday.

The Fourth came on a Saturday, which meant that it would be a “double-holiday” celebration lasting through Sunday.

“Reports from the neighboring lake resorts tell of capacity reservations which will be taken up tonight, as the highways leading from Spokane to the various resorts become filled with hundreds of automobiles,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote.

Huge fireworks displays were planned at Spokane’s Natatorium Park, Lake Coeur d’Alene and in many of the surrounding towns. Crowds were expected to jam the Northern Idaho Stampede Rodeo just across the Idaho-Washington state line at Alan.

In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade announced that Jasmine Robinson of North Cobb will repeat as the Gatorade Georgia Girls Track and Field Player of the Year. This highlights her performance on the track and in the classroom.

Robinson excelled in multiple hurdle races as she set a state record in the 300-meter hurdles at the Arcadia Invitational in California this past season, with her time of 39.81 seconds ranking her 2nd nationally among prep girls competitors this spring and 3rd in prep history. Another state record she set was in the 400-meter hurdles at the Mark Trail Memorial Day Meet in Stockbridge, Georgia, posting a time of 56.73 seconds in that race. That time ranked her at No. 4 nationally in that event.

Robinson’s head coach Josh Shaw spoke highly about her contribution to the team’s success.

“Well beyond the fact that you know she’s going to score close to 30 team points each meet, she is the ultimate competitor”, Shaw said. “She leads by example and her work ethic is off the charts. Teammates see how hard she works to be great and that influences them to do the same”.

In the classroom, Robinson has been outstanding as she has maintained a 4.52 weighted GPA. Along with that, she has volunteered locally for her school’s Rally Club as she supports finding a cure for childhood cancers. Robinson is also a member of North Cobb’s Beta Club where she has given her time to help with community cleanup projects.

She will receive a grant to donate to a social impact partner as part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport.