REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Friday, October 3, 2014 | Vol. 114, No. 39 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: Sci-fi fun: A8
Bainbridge’s ‘most wanted’ arrested in remote forest BY BRIAN KELLY, CECILIA GARZA
Bainbridge Island Review
Brian Kelly | Bainbridge Island Review
Members of the Kingston and Bainbridge tennis teams throw tennis balls into the crowd at the end of the memorial for Mike Anderson, the tennis coach for the Buccaneers and Spartans who passed away in September.
Bainbridge pays tribute to Coach Anderson BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
It started the same as so many other happy times before for Mike Anderson. Love-love. A crowd of more than 400 people gathered in the commons at Bainbridge High School last week to give a loving farewell to Anderson, a longtime teacher at the school and the Spartan tennis coach who passed away unexpectedly in early September. “Mike touched our lives in so many ways,” said Bainbridge High Principal Mary Alice O’Neill. District Superintendent Faith Chapel said many throughout the school district were grieving the loss. “He always greeted us with a smile. He was unfailingly upbeat and positive. He always had something warm and kind to say to everyone,” Chapel said. To the students gathered at BHS, Chapel said: “He loved you. He cared deeply about you.” He was generous to his colleagues, supportive of the staff, and was Bainbridge High’s always-on-the-go ambassador in many community efforts. “He gave, he gave and he gave some more,” Chapel said. His wife Kim told how they met online in October 2012, and were married two years ago.
north Mason County. Though their time together was Saturday’s memorial was filled with short, it was full, and she said she friends and family, students and staff appreciated what they had. and teachers who had “I am the luckiest girl in known him over the past the world,” she said. 20 years, as well as coachHe hasn’t been far, she es and representatives said, recalling how a bush in from other Metro League their yard had bloomed long teams. Members of the ago, but last week, one small Kingston and Bainbridge white bloom appeared. tennis teams, wearing “I know where that came their red and blue team from,” she said. jackets, filled a row near There was something the front of the audience. else, as well, on the mornMike Anderson On one side of the ing of the memorial when podium, a large bouquet she kept trying to get the of flowers, yellow lilies mostly, set in a printer for her computer to work, and it wouldn’t. Just the second page would large glass vase filled with tennis balls. And next to the flowers, a manual come out and things grew increasingly tennis scoring stand, with the numbers frantic and frustrating. set to 0-0. Love-love. “I just said out loud, ‘Come on, The flowers were just like the one Mike. Help us out.’ “And all of a sudden: bizz, bizz, bizz,” that Kim Anderson had sent to him at the high school after their first date; she said, mimicking the sound of the an event that prompted a school-wide printer. announcement over the intercom by “I know he is still with us,” she said. the “voice of the Spartans” Mary Sue Mike Anderson, 60, was a longtime Silver. educator and taught for the past 19 “He was totally embarrassed; it was years at Bainbridge High. He was the great,” Kim Anderson said. head coach for the Spartans co-ed tenThey were married on the shore of nis team, an economics teacher at BHS and the career and technical education Gig Harbor, where they met. Her dad, then 91, was best man director at the school. and her mom, then 87, was the He died just a few days after the start of the school year, on Sept. 7 in a drowning accident in Tiger Lake in TURN TO COACH | A7
Two of Bainbridge Island’s “most wanted” have been arrested in Jefferson County. Ericka Nitz, 24, and Kristopher Thurston Nickerson, 31, were identified by Bainbridge police in mid-September as suspects involved in a recent car prowl where credit cards were stolen. The pair were taken into custody by deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office who were investigating a report of trespassers Tuesday, Sept. 30 on Tarboo Lake Road in Quilcene, according to a report by the Peninsula Daily News. “We’re satisfied now that they’ve been taken into custody that we can look to resolve many of these alleged offenses,” said Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner. The Jefferson County deputies discovered a cache of property reported stolen in Kitsap County, the newspaper reported. “I think they have been operating for a while around Port Townsend and Jefferson County,” Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole told the Peninsula Daily News. “There’s no telling how many other thefts they would have committed if we hadn’t caught them today.” Nickerson, 32, and Nitz, 25, remain in custody in the Jefferson County jail. No bail has been set for their release. Nickerson was taken into custody for investigation of resisting arrest, theft of a motor vehicle,
Ericka Nitz
Kristopher Nickerson criminal impersonation, criminal trespassing and a probation/supervision violation, Nole told the Peninsula Daily News, while Nitz was arrested for investigation of possessing a controlled substance and vehicle theft. Nole also said the charges will be amended as the recovered material is cataloged, which includes two motor vehicles and several iPads, iPods and cellphones. The two were reportedly found on a spur off Tarboo Lake Road after security guards employed by Pacific Mountain Products found an illegal encampment on land owned by Pope Resources. When deputies arrived, Nickerson began running and was captured in a chase while Nitz was taken into custody without incident, Nole told the Peninsula Daily News. “This is someone who has violently resisted officers in the past,” Hamner said. “That’s an individual that needs to be taken off the streets.” TURN TO WANTED | A7