Federal Way High School graduate Jodie Kaczor Berry is in her sixth year as a member of the Gonzaga women’s basketball coaching staff and fourth year as an assistant coach. She served as the coordinator of women’s basketball operations for the Bulldogs for two seasons prior to being promoted to an assistant coach role in the summer of 2005. Kaczor Berry was promoted to Gonzaga’s top assistant this summer after Jennifer Mountain left to become the head coach at Santa Clara University.
Kaczor Berry brings a solid basketball background to GU after earning four varsity letters at Western Washington University. She finished her career as WWU’s career leader in three-pointers (210) and free-throw percentage (81.9) and earned All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honors in 2001 and 2002. Western Washington posted a 95-24 record during Kaczor Berry’s four-year career and four trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament with a final four appearance in 2000. Kaczor Berry led Federal Way to the 1996 state girls basketball championship.
Gonzaga plays the University of Washington at 2 p.m. at Bank of America Arena in Seattle Sunday. Gonzaga is coming off a 25-9 season that ended with a second-round loss to the University of Colorado in the WNIT. The Bulldogs went 13-1 for the second-straight season in the West Coast Conference, winning the regular-season crown for the fourth-straight time.
• Wake Forest freshman defender Danny Wenzel was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Freshman Team. A native of Federal Way, Wenzel has played in 15 games this season, including 14 starts. Wenzel has helped Wake Forest to an ACC-best 11 shutouts on the season, including a span of 401:59 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal early in the season. Wenzel has also notched three assists on the season.
Wake Forest is currently the No. 1-ranked team in the nation at 18-0-1 and won the 2007 national championship. The Demon Deacons are currently playing in the ACC Tournament.
• The Big Sky Conference announced its All-Conference teams for the 2008 soccer season and Thomas Jefferson grad Sara Byrne was named to the second team.
Byrne, a freshman defender, helped keep the Eagle defense steady during the 2008 campaign, helping the team keep seven opponents to just a goal or less. She also had an assist in Eastern’s 3-2 loss to Cal State Bakersfield on Sept. 5.
The Eagles wrapped up their 2008 season on an impressive two-game winning streak. After the team defeated Northern Colorado 1-0 on Oct. 26 to eliminate the Bears from postseason competition, the Eagles outlasted Montana in a 3-2 overtime thriller on Oct. 31.
• Thomas Jefferson High School graduate Kenna Patrick finished up in 23rd at the 2008 Pac-10 Women’s Cross Country Championships last week at the Sprinfield Country Club in Oregon.
Patrick, a sophomore at the University of Washington, finished the 6-kilometer course in 20:50.03.
The Huskies won the Pac-10 team title by a record margin. Washington swept the first six places at the Pac-10 Championships. The No. 1-ranked Huskies will run next at the NCAA Championships on Nov. 24. Patrick was the team’s eighth-place runner.
Patrick won the 2006 individual cross country state championship during her senior year at TJ and went on to the University of Puget Sound, where she ran as a freshman, before transferring to Washington last year.
While at UPS, Patrick lead the Loggers to 23rd place at the NCAA Division III Championships, placing 51st overall. She was an All-Northwest Conference first-teamer.
• Federal Way High School graduate Morris Anderson finished with 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds for the Western Washington University Vikings Thursday night in an exhibition game against the University of Washington at Seattle’s Bank of America Arena. The Huskies won the game, 105-85.
The 6-3 junior guard played two seasons at Highline Community College before transferring to Western. Anderson was a first-team All-NWAACC Western Division all star as a sophomore at Highline after averaging 14 points a game.
Anderson tallied 12 points in the first half and finished 5 for 15 from the field.
Washington freshman guard Isaiah Thomas (Curtis High School) led the Huskies with a game-high 27 points. Forward Jon Brockman had 14 points and a game-high 18 rebounds, and guard Justin Dentmon had 18 points.
• Federal Way race car driver David Jurca, 23, ended the 2008 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup fourth overall in the series championship out of the more than 30 competitors in the series.
In eight races, Jurca finished in the top-10 six times with four top-fives and three podium finishes, including one win. He also led the overall championship throughout a majority of the season before a run of bad luck ended his hopes for the title.
“I really enjoyed competing in the 2008 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup,” said Jurca. “The competition was fierce, the cars were fun to drive, and the opportunity to drive sports cars for the first time was priceless. It was a season of highs and lows and one that tested my patience more than anything I have ever done before.”
The 2008 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup race season is currently airing on Speed Channel. There will be a total of five episodes ending with an hour-long Jetta TDI Cup documentary at 2 p.m. on Nov. 22. Episodes will air at 2 and 2:30 p.m. today and at 2 and 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 15.
Speed Channel has been filming the drivers beginning with the driver selection process in April as well as every race. Included in the season finale on the Speed Channel is a feature on Jurca, where the filmmakers actually traveled to Seattle to highlight Jurca’s life outside of racing, as well as film his grandfather’s historic Czech racecar and the story behind the discovery of it.
• Central Washington University tight end Jared Bronson was named to the 2008 Great Northwest Conference football first-team. Bronson earned all-conference accolades despite missing four full games and most of a fifth due to injury this season. In his seven games, he totaled 20 receptions for 333 yards and five touchdowns and he is considered a pro prospect. Bronson is 6-foot-4, 255 pounds.
Central is currently 10-1 on the season and will play in the NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs Sunday against West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Tex.
Bronson was also named to the academic all-conference team. The Jefferson grad is a senior and has a 3.32 grade-point average while majoring in exercise management.
To be eligible for the academic team, student-athletes must have a minimum GPA of 3.20 and be in at least their second year of completion at their university.
• Sounders FC introduced Sweden’s Freddie Ljungberg as its designated player today at Qwest Field.
Ljungberg, 31, signed a multiyear contract that will, according to sources with knowledge of the deal, pay the internationally-known midfielder around $2.5 million a year in base salary.
As Sounders FC’s designated player under Major League Soccer salary guidelines, only a portion of Ljungberg’s salary will count against the club’s salary cap next season. Ljungberg joins Sebastien Le Toux, Sanna Nyassi and Kasey Keller on the roster.
Seattle majority owner Joe Roth was the first to talk to Ljungberg about signing with Sounders FC. Roth convinced Ljungberg to visit Seattle, and Ljungberg said it reminded him of his hometown in Sweden. The two talked about the rising quality of play in MLS, and Ljungberg decided that now was the right time to make the jump to MLS.
Ljungberg played in the English Premier League — one season for West Ham United and nine before that with Arsenal. He reached an agreement with West Ham to terminate his contract earlier this year.
“I figured if I’m going to take MLS seriously and want to make it a really good league and develop it, I should come now and not in three years’ time,” Ljungberg said. “It took me three months to come to a decision of what I wanted to do, but the guys here have helped me in my decision by showing me around the city and what they want to do with the team.”
Seattle Sounders FC will hold open tryouts for the team in Tukwila, Spokane and Yakima next month, the club announced Thursday.
The tryouts will have a twist. They’ll be taped for a reality-based TV show that will air on KING-TV, KONG-TV and Northwest Cable News in late January.
A minimum of three finalists from each city will take part in a one-hour tryout in Seattle that will be televised Feb. 1 after Super Bowl XLII on KING.
Viewers from each city will vote to narrow the list to three players, and judges will choose the winner. The one who emerges will be awarded a spot on the 2009 Sounders FC roster.
Those interested in trying out must be at least 18. The first set of tests is speed and fitness, followed by skills tests and mini-games. The first tryout is Nov. 9 at Spokane’s Plants Ferry Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The second is at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila on Nov. 15, same time, and the third is Nov. 22 at Chesterley Park in Yakima, same time.
Advance registration at www.soundersfc.com is required.
Other Major League Soccer teams, Chivas USA and FC Dallas, have held open tryouts for TV. The clubs were featured in “Sueno MLS” on Spanish-language Univision in 2007 and earlier this year.
Midfielder Jorge Flores was chosen from more than 2,000 participants in 2007 and is now on Chivas USA’s 28-man roster.
• Apple Physical Therapy will honor one boy and one girl student athlete for both the Fall and Winter sport seasons with a $1,000 Athlete of the Quarter Scholarship.
Eligible student athletes must be high school seniors enrolled in a Western Washington high school, participating in a varsity sport and be in good-standing academically. The scholarship criteria include athlete performance, community service/involvement and other compelling personal circumstances.
Nomination forms are available to download at Apple Physical Therapy’s Web site, www.applept.com, and can be turned in to any Apple Physical Therapy clinic location or other participating private practice location. A complete list of locations is on Apple Physical Therapy’s Web site. Nomination forms are due December 1 for fall, 2008 and March 1 for Winter, 2009 applications.
Scholarship winners will be announced at the conclusion of the Fall, 2008 and Winter, 2009 seasons on the High School GameTime television program on King 5 and Kong 6/16.
Apple Physical Therapy is also the official athletic training partner for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and oversees young athletes at the state football, basketball and softball tournaments each year.
Send Sports Briefs to sports@fedwaymirror.com
