RSVPs are requested to Robin.everett@sierraclub.org. For more information, contact Robin Everett at 206-378-0114, Ext. 308.

To learn more, visit http://climatesolutions.org/nw-states/washington/ppc_onepagers.

Jake Lagucik (Photo by Wilson Tsoi)

Jake Lagucik, a sophomore from Edmonds-Woodway High School, has been named Shoreline Community College men’s soccer player of the week.

Lagucik had a solid performance in the Shoreline’s 5-0 loss to defending NWAACC Champion, Peninsula College last Saturday

The top 10 teams in the WFTDA West Region will head to Portland, Ore., Sept. 23-25 to compete for one of three spots in the 2011 WFTDA Championships. The WFTDA Western Region includes 34 teams in the western U.S. and Canada. The 2011 West Region Playoffs, nicknamed the “Bridgetown Brawl,” are expected to attract thousands of roller derby players and fans to watch some of the best action the sport has to offer.

Jet City fans wishing to cheer on the Bombers can find ticketing and other Bridgetown Brawl information at www.bridgetownbrawl.com. To make it to the playoffs, the Jet City Bombers first had to earn a top 10 ranking within the West Region. WFTDA member leagues vote on rankings quarterly. Second quarter rankings are used to determine tournament eligibility.

As the 8th ranked West Region team in the tournament, the Bombers will face 9th-ranked Tucson Roller Derby, on Friday, Sept. 23, and will play at least three games over the course of the three-day, multi-level tournament. This year marks Jet City’s second consecutive appearance in the West Region Playoffs. The league, recently featured as the league of the month on the WFTDA website, has maintained a top 10 ranking in the West Region since the second quarter of 2010.

The top three finishers at each of the four WFTDA playoff tournaments will advance to compete for the championship title. Consolation brackets for teams that don’t advance in the playoffs will help determine future rankings within the West Region. For more information on the WFTDA “Big 5” tournaments, see http://wftda.com/The-Big-5.

Miss Peters and May in the foreground in Detroit Saturday.

By Harry Gatjens

After working all day Friday and Saturday morning to repair a strut and what appeared to be a bent rudder, the U-11 Miss Peters and May got 400 big points with a victory in heat 1C of the 2011 Gold Cup in Detroit.

The Edmonds-based unlimited hydroplane, co-owned by Scott and Shannon Raney and driver/co-owner JW Meyers, suffered vibrations in its only test run on Friday morning. The crew spent the entire day after the test run re-cementing the strut to the bottom of the boat and looking for a new rudder. A rudder was found at another team’s shop in Detroit and mounted Saturday morning.

With no time for testing the new setup, JW took the boat out and just kind of “hoped” that the repairs were sufficient. Luckily, the other boats in Miss Peters and May’s heat all suffered problems of their own and our local hydroplane led the heat from wire to wire.

There is one more heat Saturday and then two more preliminaries and the final Sunday. The 400 points that Edmonds-based hydro received today put it in good position for the rest of the  race.

The vibration was very worrisome, as the last time JW Meters had a bad vibration in Detroit,–last year — the skid fin came off the side of the boat and JW was in a precarious position with little steering control and going 140 mph. He miraculously steered the boat away from the crowd but ended up hitting a 20 foot tall seawall at about 80 mph. The boat was destroyed and he broke both his feet.

Here is a video of last year’s accident.

The U-11 Miss Peters and May unlimited hydroplane is headed to the Gold Cup this weekend in Detroit after a sixth-place finish during its maiden run in Madison, Indiana.

The 6,000-pound racing boat, headquartered in Edmonds, got off to a conservative star. Qualifying sixth on its first run ever, driver JW Meyer took the boat to third-place finishes in the first two preliminary heats.

Scott and Shannon Raney’s boat was just outside of the qualifiers and needed a good finish in the third preliminary heat to make the top group. Unfortunately, they never got the chance: During the heat scheduled before the Miss Peters and May race, the U-21 Lakeridge Paving spun inside the course and while trying to return to racing, driver Brian Perkins — temporarily blinded by spray — ran over one of the volunteer patrol boats. The people on the patrol boat were thrown into the river and injured, one critically.

The decision was made that due to time constraints, the remainder of the preliminary heats would not be run. Only the final would be run and positions based upon the earlier rounds. This left our local challenger on the sidelines.

In the final, another boat spun in the turn and this time directly in front of one of the other hydroplanes. David Vilwock, driving the Spirit of Qatar, was leading when his boat hit a hole in the water causing him to spin directly into the path of the hometown Oh Boy Oberto. Oberto driver Steve David had no place to go and T-boned the Spirit of Qatar. Both boats were damaged although luckily neither driver suffered serious injuries.

In a curious ruling the officials decided to declare the Oberto the winner, which more probably more deservedly should have gone to the boat running third at the time, The Miss Red Dot, driven by Kip Brown and headquartered in Fall City, Wash.

Al the boats head to Detroit this weekend, including the Spirit of Qatar, after being repaired, the Oh Boy! Oberto with a borrowed boat, and our own local favorite, the Miss Peters and May, searching for incremental improvement in its second  race.

Scott and Shannon Raney’s U-11 Miss Peter and May hydroplane ended what had been a frustrating day with a qualifying attempt in 6th place at the 2011 Madison (Indiana) Regatta.

The crew spent nearly the entire day sorting out mini gremlins that prevented the boat from even leaving the trailer. Finally, with two minutes before the end of qualifying, co-owner JW Meyers took the boat out on the water and drove his first laps ever in the totally redesigned hydroplane. His first lap was 130 mph, followed by a second lap of 132.617 mph. This placed the Edmonds-based hydroplane in the top half of the qualifying boats on its very first time ion the water.

Racing start at 10:15 a.m. Edmonds time tomorrow and will go on both Saturday and Sunday. The final heat will be at 1:20 p.m. Edmonds time Sunday. The race will be webcast live on the H1 Hydroplane web site here. Click on the Listen Live option, which rolls across the Latest News section. You will aso be able to see results on MyEdmondsNews.com, the official web news partner of the Miss Peters and May.

Here’s the camp schedule:

Aug. 1-4: Youth All-Skills Camp, for girls and boys, grades 3-7, choose morning or afternoon, 9 a.m.-noon or 1-4 p.m. Campers learn the fundamentals from Edmonds Community College coaches and players. $100, includes a camp T-shirt.
 
Aug. 8-11: High School Tryout Prep All-Skills Camp, for high school female athletes, grades 8-12, 9 a.m.-noon. Players step up their game and add to their offensive and defensive skills by participating in various drills and activities. $100, includes a camp T-shirt. Get extra reps by adding the Hitters Camp, 1-4 p.m., Aug. 8-9, $50 andor Setters Camp, 1-4 p.m., Aug. 10-11, $50.
 
Call 425-640-1415 to register. For more information about athletics at Edmonds Community College, visit www.edcc.edu/athletics.

Marco Cooper, Jordan Landel, George Reidy and Kosta Cooper of Edmonds stand in front of the Ho Chí Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Four Edmonds youth baseball players recently participated in the FirstSwing Foundation’s Baseball Connect program in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The players — Marco Cooper, Jordan Landel, George Reidy and Kosta Cooper — helped teach boys and girls both the basics of baseball and the game’s values in Hanoi from March 31- April 6. The Edmonds boys, who ranged in age from 10-12, went with a group that included four other Puget Sound-area players and several local youth coaches in the company of accompanied FirstSwing Executive Director Phil Rognier.

Mr. Rognier, known to many as “Coach Phil,” was making his third trip to Vietnam. The mission of Coach Phil’s FirstSwing Foundation is to teach youngsters the proper way to throw, hit, field, run, and condition, as well as the concepts of decision-making, problem-solving, responsibility, accountability, work ethic, manners, integrity, courage, and all the other important traits of being a solid citizen.

While in Vietnam, the players and coaches visited several Hanoi elementary and junior high schools to introduce baseball to more than 3,000 Vietnamese children. On World Autism Day, the players and coaches joined local families of autistic kids in a 5,000-person March for Autistic Children in Vietnam. FirstSwing also provided clothing and toys for the Dakkia Leper Colony and two orphanages outside Hanoi.

On Sunday, April 3, the players joined three U.S. boys living in Hanoi to form a USA team and play the Hanoi Youth Baseball Club (HYBC) in the first-ever baseball game between the two countries played in Vietnam. The game was played at the National Sports Complex Training Center Field in My Dinh, and the ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by Hoang Vinh Giang, General Secretary of the Vietnam National Olympic Committee, and Deputy Chairman of the Olympic Committee of Asia.

Prior to the game — in the aftermath of the recent tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan — the players, coaches and fans joined the Japanese umpires from the Japan School of Hanoi in a moment of silence to honor the memory of the victims in Japan.

After Coach Phil presented a commemorative gift to General Secretary Giang and addressed the crowd regarding the historical significance of the game, HYBC defeated the USA team 6-2 in an exciting, entertaining game. Despite HYBC’s victory, catcher Jordan Landel of Edmonds was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Marco Cooper of Edmonds knocked in both runs for the USA team with a line drive single to left field in the fifth inning. The baseball from the game was signed by all players and coaches and has been shipped to Cooperstown, N.Y., where it will be displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Following the game, the first ever Pitch, Hit, and Run competition held in Vietnam took place. The players from the U.S.A. joined more than 200 Vietnamese youth in the competition. George Reidy of Edmonds won the 14-year-old and under competition.

Hanoi Capitals founder and coach Tom Treutler thanked the young U.S. players for traveling so far and stated that when the players grow up, they will realize they were really part of something special, and played a historic role in getting baseball going in Vietnam.  “Through Coach Phil’s programs, our players have learned a lot of valuable life lessons that will help them in whatever they end up doing in the future, and they have learned real teamwork,” Treutler said.

(Story and photo submitted by Ken Reidy of Edmonds)

In the first bout of this double header, the muscle-car lovin’ ladies in orange of Camaro Harem attempt to take the purple sideshow freaks of CarnEvil for a ride. Can the Camaro Harem win over evil or will the Carnies push the Harem to crash and burn? Only one way to find out.

The second bout pits the reform school bad girls, the Pink Pistols, against the tiki terrors in aqua, the Hula Honeys. Will the Pistols take cover from the tropical storm or can they make the Hulas wish for detention?

Come on down and cheer your favorite Jet City home teams as they battle for number one in what is sure to be a nail-biting fight to the finish.

Please remember: roller derby can be a rowdy sport.  In case of flying rollergirls landing in your lap, only those fans 18-plus are permitted to sit track-side. Adult tickets are $15 at the door (if not sold out). Children ages 6-12 are $11 at the door, and children 5 and under are free!