The Vashon Island Rowing Club (VIRC), will hold its first annual bike ride with a twist on Saturday, Sept. 17. The strenuous, 75-mile ride, called Passport to Pain, is not for the novice rider. The route connects 18 of Vashon’s must brutal hills, giving riders a total of 10,000 feet of vertical gain.
Islander Pamn Aspiri played co-ed softball on Vashon for more than a decade, usually one of just a few women on a mostly male team. She said she loved playing on the league, but always had a hunch that more Island women were interested in softball but simply didn’t want to take to the field with men who could sometimes play rough.
Steve Full, who coached the Vashon Island Rowing Club for the past year, recently accepted a position as the freshman women’s rowing coach at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Vashon Island Rowing Club’s Men’s Masters took home silver medals for their performance last weekend at the Canadian Nationals Rowing Regatta on Elk Lake near Victoria, B.C.
Vashon High School’s football team kicked off the season last week with its first practice on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The Pirates will face the Chelan High School Goats in the first game of the season on the home field at 7 p.m. next Friday, Sept. 2.
Last summer, Islander Bonnie Raume’s right leg was amputated below the knee. This summer, the 66-year old swam in the Washington State Senior Games for the first time in years. She used to enter the competition annually.
The annual Vashon Island Sportsmen’s Club Frank Matsumoto Salmon Derby took place last Sunday at Jensen Point. First place and a $200 cash prize went to Robert McIntosh (pictured above) of Paradise Cove for his 14-pound, 4-ounce Chinook salmon
Mia Croonquist, the youngest female rower to ever compete with the U.S. national team at the World Rowing Junior Championships, returned from England Monday night to a hero’s welcome — and with a gold medal hanging from her neck.
For Islander Lisa Ellner, swimming isn’t just exercise. It’s like a drug.
Alex Wegner and Charlie Hoffman, both members of Vashon High School’s 2009 state championship basketball team, recently made moves to continue their successful athletic careers at the collegiate level.
The 11th annual Heart of the Sound Triathlon will take place this Sunday beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Jensen Point.
The Northwest Islanders, Vashon’s men’s slowpitch softball team, recently won the Sun Classic tournament in Yakima, advancing the team to the world champtionships in Texas this September, where they will go up against slowpitch teams from across the country.
When Mia Croonquist arrived for her first practice with Vashon’s junior crew, the then-eighth-grader almost turned around.
