Big news this week is coming from the Husky Softball and Golf teams. Both have a solid opportunity to emerge as national champions at the end of the season.
The softball team qualified for the Women's College World Series, sporting a cumulative 8-4 record against six of their potential opponents. The only team they have yet to face is Missouri, and upset WCWS qualifier who beat UCLA to make it to Oklahoma City.
Washington is led by junior pitcher Danielle Lawrie, who was named the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the year last night.
The golf team is currently fourth after the first round of the NCAA golf championship, being played at Inverness Golf Club in Toledo, Ohio. Washington led halfway throught he first round but fell back a bit on the final nine. Nick Taylor led UW with a one under par 70.
"There's a stretch of holes that are very tough and we have to play those well," Washington coach Matt Thurmond said. "We're going to get the birdies on the easy holes but we need to play holes 3 to 7 well."
More Heaps
I heard some rumors earlier this week that Skyline QB Jake Heaps had made up his mind one way or another. One set said BYU and the other set from a different source said UW. Neither source has spoken directly to Heaps or the Heaps family recently.
Such is the life of one of the top football recruits in the country, who seems to be taking things in a very mature one day at a time manner. Jake and his family recently spent four hours on the UW campus looking at academics.
Something tells me if you are spending four hours on the local campus looking at academics, you still haven't made up your mind one way or another.
BYU was the first to offer during his sophomore year, followed soon thereafter by Washington. BYU's recruiting of Heaps has been longer and more consistent than Washington's. The word is he feels very comfortable with both the Cougar coaching staff and Provo in general.
Word on the street is Tyrone Willingham and Tim Lappano did not invest the time that BYU has. They really didn't get serious until Steve Gervais hit campus last year and let them in on how agressive BYU had been. I guess that isn't much of a surprise; Willingham's recruiting style was never been described as aggressive.
The other side of the coin is that Nussmier and Sarkisian have done a good job recruiting him ever since they hit campus December. One of the first recruiting stops Sarkisian made was at Skyline HS when he arrived at UW.
So the consensus is UW is coming from a bit behind on this one. This is why you will continue to keep hearing rumors of BYU holding the lead.
My opinion based on the countless rumors out there that it is a race between UW, BYU, and Notre Dame. In the end it will come down to UW, and BYU, and finally.... Jake hasn't made up his mind yet.
Expect a firm decision sometime in June.
Vacation
Kate and I leave on Thursday for Boston to attend her 20 year reunion at BC. After that we head down to St John in the US Virgin Islands for four days of fun in the sun. I have never been to the Virgin Islands but I am thinking any place with a beach and a Redstripe should be pretty good.
As usual I will post when I can depending on my Internet connection.