The Current
SPORTS
Area loses one-of-a-kind prep sports curator, Ken Eilmes
By Mike Vlahovich THE FINAL POINT
To know Ken Eilmes was to know a guy both prickly and passionate. I knew of him long before I knew him, as a youngster immersed in the sports pages of the now-defunct Spokane Daily Chronicle, memorizing the names of the City League stars. His was among them. I was unaware he knew of me, Spokane-bred as he was and coach of baseball at North Central while I was covering high school sports in the Valley. I found out he lived out here and obviously kept eyes on me by reading the Spokane Valley Herald. The city folk wanted to see if I was a “homer” when I wrote about a game. Having suffered cancer for several years, Eilmes soldiered on before dying last month at age 76. The area lost a vital link to high school sports and its history in Spokane. In The Spokesman-Review obituary written by Tom Clouse, a quote from the archives written back in 1997 sounded familiar. I looked it up and it turns out that I wrote the story for the Valley Voice. I had forgotten. Eilmes forgot nothing. My story’s lead said that he “not only (was) a part of Spokane’s prep sports history, but also its curator.” As time went on, we got to know each other personally. We’d both sit in the bleachers comparing notes at baseball games. He was blunt and didn’t suffer fools gladly. You definitely knew he was old school. He’d slice and dice the game’s nuances, pointing out the mistakes players made, the strategy errors that he wouldn’t tolerate as a coach, the lack of fundamentals. He was a delight. But there was that other side. Like a proud parent who compiles copious scrapbook clips of their children’s accomplishments, we gathered in his basement once and he took me through an amazing historical anthology of prep teams and athletes gleaned from newspapers dating back decades. He discussed with me an ambitious project he was about to undertake: the entire his-
tory of baseball in Spokane. “Right now, my primary concern is from 1937 on up,” Eilmes said. He also had a passion for baseball cards. They ran from the 1970s into the ’90s. It would have been larger had he not OK’d his mother’s request to toss out cards he had amassed prior to 1961, when he entered the Army. “At the time, no one knew the value of cards,” he said, presumably with a touch of regret, although I doubt he collected them as an investment. “I keep them because I love baseball.” Eilmes, small, but feisty, was a threesport, all-conference athlete and allstate in two sports for Rogers at a mere 5-foot-7, 145 pounds in 1956, when the Pirates were a league force. “Maybe I was lucky,” he told me. “Our coaches expected you to work twice as hard as the average person. I probably got by more on determination than anything.” Years later, I witnessed first-hand his intensity. I attended an amateur baseball league game at the behest of thenCentral Valley baseball coach Harry Amend, who was playing. No umpire showed up, so Amend coerced me to get behind the plate. Eilmes was catching and didn’t care for my strike zone. After taking so much of his carping, I went back into the stands and let him call it his way. As time went on, we became friends, particularly in his post-coaching life. It always seemed we were bumping into each other at a baseball game, even when he revealed he had cancer. He had strong opinions on the sport: “Athletes are self-centered today. They are about themselves and that is it.” He taught his son Kenny all facets of baseball; bunting, moving the ball around, advancing runners but he made one concession to the modern game — he’d have stressed power hitting. But he added this caveat: “Recruits are players who have terrible fundamentals, but can hit it 400 feet.” And that quote Clouse had in his S-R story is my favorite: “Today, everybody’s bigger, faster and stronger now — I didn’t say they were better.” Old fashioned, perhaps, gruff and scrappy to the end, Ken Eilmes was one of a kind. Mike Vlahovich is a longtime Spokane Valley sportswriter and member of the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame Scroll of Honor.
FEBRUARY 2014 • 23
U-Hi makes statement at Battle of the Bone and 195 pounds — but nonetheless swept unbeaten through the Great Northern League. The whole was the sum of its parts. By Mike Vlahovich CURRENT CONTRIBUTOR “It’s been an interesting year,” coach Craig Hanson said. “If you’d have told me It wasn’t just the eight weight-class winat the start of the year we’d have this many ners that decided the Battle of the Bone on problems and still survive the season, I Jan. 23 against Central Valley for Greater never would have believed it.” Spokane League unbeaten champion UniThe Knights battled injury, illness and versity. Everyone played a part. grade issues necessitating juggling 21 “Even in our losses, everyone was wreswrestlers among the 14 weight classes. tling hard at the end,” coach Don Owen Except for Trey Meyer at 145 pounds, said. “Even at 145 pounds (where Zach Hanson used two, three and in one weight Martin lost by nine points to a returning state champion), we got the last takedown.” class four different wrestlers in weights to fill holes and create favorable matchups. That tells the tale of the Kenny Martinez was upset victory, by a young perfect at 195 and 220. LoCV NOTEBOOK team that had graduated gan Sundheim went 5-0 nine seniors, over the preONLINE at 113 pounds, but lost a season favored Bears. match at 120. He was one Looking for “I was hoping for seven of several who lost but once an update wins, and maybe we could during the league season. on Central keep from getting pinned,” EV finished with a perfect Valley High School Owen said. “We got a cou6-0 season. winter sports? Contribuple of wins that weren’t ex“Ours is kind of that team tor Mike Vlahovich wrote pected.” where everybody’s pretty an all-Bears report for The Titans prevailed good, ” Hanson said. “That’s The Current’s sister in eight, lost by pin only the thing that saved us. publication, The Splash. once and had pins in four There’s not a giant hole in View it online at www. of the final five matches. the lineup.” libertylakesplash.com or Four were decided by two February is postseason points or came in the wancheck out the full issue month. Districts are held ing seconds, where U-Hi at issuu.com/thesplash. the first weekend at EV and conditioning was a factor regionals the next at West — Mikey Garrison at 113; Valley, where four per weight qualify for Brandon Clark, a ball of muscle who cut to 126; Cam Sorensen at 132, and John the Mat Classic state tournament Feb. 2122 in the Tacoma Dome. The Knights have Fairbanks at 160. a wealth of potential qualifiers who will “When matches get long,” Owen said, compete to advance from a rugged region U-Hi has an advantage. “Our motto is ‘24 that’s a state meet in itself. -7.’ The kids absolutely live it. This shows Meyer was third at state last year and how far we’ve come.” West Valley finalist Jace Malek also reA master motivator, Owen credits his turns. assistant coaches with getting the Titans battle-ready by studying film, working in Tough go for Titans the practice room and planning strategy. University basketball teams that enjoyed “I am just so blessed,” he said. “They postseason success the last couple of years make me look a whole lot better than I have found the sledding tougher in 2013am.” 14 through graduation and injury. Neither team had a winning GSL record Postseason begins Feb. 8 for the defending 3A state champions with a sub-region- two-thirds through the season, the girls at al in Hanford, regional on the west coast 5-7, the boys at 6-6 (8-6 overall) through the following weekend and Mat Classic in Jan 24. On the brighter side, both Titan teams did have a slight edge for No. 1 disthe Tacoma Dome Feb. 21 and 22. Sorensen and Austin Stannard are re- trict 3A playoff seeds in a wide open chase turning finalists and Tate Orndorff fin- with six games remaining. The boys have been led by Michael Isoished third. talo, who was fourth in league scoring at Knights win Frontier 13.6 points per game, and junior Robert East Valley’s wrestling team had but Little, who was averaging 10.5. two unblemished weight classes — 113 See NOTEBOOK, page 24