CALEB PEREZ

Samaritan hosting 24th annual charity golf tournament

MOSES LAKE – Samaritan Healthcare Foundation is hosting its 24th annual Desert Golf Classic charity golf tournament tomorrow with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. at the Links at Moses Pointe golf course.

Lions take a road loss against Odessa

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Christian Academy/Christian Covenant School Lions volleyball team fell on the road in their season opener Tuesday evening against Odessa with a final score of 1-3.

Huskies roll ahead of Ellensburg to start season

OTHELLO – The Othello Huskies made a strong start to their season after earning a 49-0 win on the road over Ellensburg Saturday evening. “We’re senior-dominated, we have guys with a lot of experience,” said Huskies defensive coach Kevin Hale. “We have all-state quality guys at certain positions, so we expected to do well, and we did on both sides of the ball.”

Basin teams compete at Ellensburg Invitational

ELLENSBURG — The Ephrata Tigers, Othello Huskies, Royal Knights, Wahluke Warriors and Warden Cougars cross country teams all travelled to Irene Rhineheart Park in Ellensburg Saturday morning to compete in an Invitational Relay event. “The Ellensburg Relay provides a great opening race for the season,” said Tigers coach Lyndsy Roberts. “The coed relay feature helps build team chemistry and the distance of 1.5 miles gives athletes a chance to race fast over a manageable distance. The knee-deep water feature also brings an exciting and memorable moment.” The event featured an individual race as well as a team race where both boys and girls ran together. Ephrata and Othello were two of the top teams in the boys individual race one, with the Tigers taking second and the Huskies taking fourth. Ephrata and Royal also made the leaderboard in the girls relay with the Tigers taking ninth and the Knights taking 13th.

Huskies volleyball enters season with renewed confidence

OTHELLO – The Othello Huskies volleyball team is aiming to rebound this season after finishing 2-15 last year and falling out of the district tournament in the first round. “I think it was a lot of young people, and it was kind of just something to adjust to,” said Huskies’ senior Abbie Douglas.

Warden starts season with 32-13 win

WARDEN – The Warden Cougars football team started their season off strong with a 32-13 victory over Medical Lake as they push to solidify themselves as a top contender in the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference. “It was pretty good,” said Cougars running back Danny Martinez. “First half blocks were settling in kind of flaky, but by the second half they actually got good blocks they got a good hold and actually earned some yards.”

A young Lions team rallies around their junior and senior leaders

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Christian Academy/Christian Covenant School Lions volleyball team is preparing themselves for another deep run in the postseason this year after ending the previous season 12-6 record and making a deep run at districts. “Last season I thought was pretty good,” said Head Coach Dean Spurbeck. “We didn’t quite make it to state, (but) they continued to get better.”

Tigers’ cross country ready to compete at state level

EPHRATA – The Ephrata Tigers Cross Country team is preparing for another year of competition after finding success last season but just missing out on the state tournament. “This year we’re looking to go for some redemption to earn a state spot,” said Tigers Head Coach Lyndsey Roberts. “We’ve got most of our runners returning and we’re really excited about the potential.” Last year, the boys team finished second in the Central Washington Athletic Conference and qualified for state, but missed out on the championship by a few points, said Roberts. The girls team was in the middle of the league, but had strong front-runners, including Abigail Chamberlain, Savannah Harper and Hannah Malone.

Warden volleyball works to repeat past success under new head coach

WARDEN – The Warden Cougars volleyball team is tracking another run at the state tourney this year with new head coach Katie Roylance leading the team. The coach wants to maintain a winning culture this season. “You have those returning players who know where that expectation is and I’m probably just going to bump that bar up just a little bit and just try and hold that expectation,” said Roylance.

Eagles volleyball boasts strong senior class

SOAP LAKE – The Soap Lake Eagles are preparing for another successful season after finishing the last season 16-5 and earning second in districts and making the second round of the state tourney. “Last season was probably our best season since I’ve been coaching,” said Eagles Head Coach Niki Noble. “I was really proud of the girls for how hard they worked.”

Huskies look for success with a younger team

OTHELLO – The Othello Huskies girls soccer team ended their last season with a record of 6-9-2, which qualified them for districts, but they were eliminated in the first round. This year the team has a younger roster, but hopes for a deeper postseason run. “Last year we were a young team and it kind of showed when we went into playoff play,” said Huskies head coach Victor Quiroz. “We had a good regular season, but we were knocked out in the first round of playoffs.” The Huskies graduated nine seniors from the team in the offseason, which were complemented by the seven freshmen who were on the team last year. This year’s team is returning fewer seniors, with a roster heavy in underclassmen.

Cougars soccer aims high with senior leadership

WARDEN – The Warden Cougars girls soccer team is returning to the field for the Fall season with aspirations to build off what they accomplished last season. “It was a good season, we didn’t make it to finals, but we played hard,” said head coach Barbara Landeros. “We had a lot of new girls coming from middle school, so we had a strong team. There was a lot of learning and fun experiences throughout the season.”

Friday jamboree helps area teams finalize strategies

EPHRATA – The Ephrata Tigers hosted a jamboree Friday afternoon to kick off the football season. The Tigers were joined by the Moses Lake Mavericks, the Royal City Knights and Wenatchee High Panthers. “I think it just kind of gives that little taste of competition against that other team where then you can’t wait to play that next game,” said Tigers head coach Patrick Mitchell.

Cougars rally behind new coach ahead of fall season

WARDEN — The Warden Cougars are striving to go above and beyond this season and bring up a new love for football in the community. “I’m ready to get some dubs, have some good times with my teammates and make lots of memories,” said junior Kameron Jensen, Cougars quarterback. For senior tight end Hunter Golladay, this season will be about returning to full swing following an injury that took him out of the final three weeks last season. He said that he broke his kneecap and irritated an old tear in his meniscus and made a full recovery in the spring, just in time to prepare for the fall season.

Huskies aim for a state championship title

OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies return to football again following their success last season. Last year the Huskies finished the season with a 9-2 overall record and made the state tournament. “It sounds cliché, but there was quite a bit of adversity with our starting quarterback going down and other injuries,” said Huskies Defensive Coach Kevin Hale. “The kids managed to fight through it; it could have been a situation where they could have easily folded, but that didn't happen, and we made the state playoffs.”

Lions look forward to increased roster for ’25-26 season

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School Lions are preparing for the upcoming football season with high expectations as they enter their third year of the school’s football program. “We have most of our team back, only lost a few seniors, so looking to build our team chemistry and do good this year,” said Johnathan Ferguson, Lions quarterback. Athletic Director and Head Coach Josh Kast said the team ended its previous season 5-5, earned second in the Central Washington 1B league, and played in the state tournament. “(We) ended up having a tough matchup first round,” Kast said. “We got beat up pretty good over against Naselle in the playoffs.

Eagles set sights on state

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Eagles are preparing to come back into this season after ending last year with a 5-4 record and being two points away from making the state playoffs. “(We) had a couple of costly fumbles in a couple of different games,” said Eagles Head Coach Garrett Devine. “We were right there, but the top three from our league go to state and we ended up fourth.”

Tigers enter 4th year under Coach Mitchell

EPHRATA — The Ephrata Tigers are returning to the field for the 2025 season with a sense of confidence. They ended their previous season with a 5-5 record and plan to improve that record and make a deep playoff run. “We had a few key players leave last year, but I think we’re able to bounce right back just with the guys that played not as much,” said Tigers quarterback Brady Hendrick. “I think everyone on the team is ready to go.” Hendrick is one of the seniors with the Tigers this season and is coming into his third year starting. He said that during just the first few days of practice, he is starting to see strong chemistry between each of the players, where they’re building a tight friend group on a senior-heavy team.

QUINCY MAYORAL RACE: Candidate Q&A

QUINCY — The Quincy Mayoral Race consists of candidates, incumbent Paul Worley and Manny Rodriguez. Both candidates were given the same deadline and set of questions, that they answered as follows. Q: Data Centers and food processing are the two major industries that we see in Quincy. What diversification of the city’s economy would you like to see and how would you go about making that happen? Worley: I would like to see all types of businesses come to Quincy. Motels, fruit and vegetable processors, industries, retail stores like Target, and various types of sit-down restaurants. We will continue working with the Port District, Chamber of Commerce, along with the School, Hospital, and Fire Districts to make Quincy an inviting place to attract businesses for our citizens to enjoy.

GALLERY: Basin football almost here

MOSES LAKE – The 2025 football season is almost a week away with local high school football teams hitting the gridiron and preparing for week one. Here’s another glimpse into their practices. Our annual Gridiron Guide publication is right around the corner. Pick up a copy of the Columbia Basin Herald on Friday, Aug. 29, for a look at the upcoming high school football season.

Warden council passes property maintenance resolutions

WARDEN – The Warden City Council held its regular meeting Tuesday with all members in attendance. The meeting called into discussion an update on Public Works projects, the approval of the Port of Warden Annexation and weed abatement rules.

RITZVILLE CITY COUNCIL: Candidate Q&A with Michelle Plumb

RITZVILLE – The race for the Ritzville City Council consists of two candidates, Michelle Plumb and Eric Ottmar. Plumb responded to a set of five questions presented as follows.

OTHELLO SCHOOL DISTRICT DIRECTOR DISTRICT 3: Candidates Q&A

OTHELLO – There are two candidates running for the Othello School District Director District 3 position in this year’s election. These candidates are Birdie Fought and Juan “Jerry” Garcia. Both candidates were given the questions below and given identical deadlines and word count restrictions for their answers. Garcia did not respond within the given deadline of Aug. 25 at 12 p.m. which resulted in his answers not being published.

Former Quincy athlete enters final soccer season at collegiate level

QUINCY – Israel Perez has led a full athletic career, participating in a variety of sports as a Quincy Jackrabbit, but soccer has been the sport that has stuck with him the most over the years. “I used to live in front of a park when I lived in a different state, we just saw the rec league and signed up,” said Perez. “Then, when I came over (to Quincy), I got into club soccer in middle school with a couple of friends.” Perez said he played with the club soccer team, Quincy United, throughout his middle school years before moving on to play for the Jacks at the high school level. His career with the Jacks was met with an unexpected bump when COVID caused both his sophomore and junior seasons to be cancelled.

Warden welcomes new AD

WARDEN – The Warden School District has hired Greg Lucas as the new Athletic Director. Lucas moved to the area from Wisconsin and said he is ready to learn about the community and help athletics grow at Warden schools.

GALLERY: Basin gridiron practices continue through the weekend

MOSES LAKE – Since Wednesday, local football teams have returned to the gridiron for their first practices of the 2025 season. Over the weekend, some of the teams have been able to put the pads on and get into full swing for the upcoming season. Our annual Gridiron Guide publication is right around the corner. Pick up a copy of the Columbia Basin Herald on Friday, August 29 for a look at the upcoming high school football season.

GALLERY: Basin gridiron action coming soon

MOSES LAKE – On Wednesday, local football teams returned to the gridiron for practice. As they prepare for the upcoming season, players hit the field to shake any rust off and dust off the pads.

Soap Lake staffing up with new police chief, departmental staff

SOAP LAKE – During the Soap Lake city council meeting held Wednesday evening, the city officially swore in Patrick Canady as the new police chief for Soap Lake Police Department. The city also has a fully staffed Public Works Department, which allows for smoother operations.

Structure fire on Road 5 NE results in fatality

MOSES LAKE – Grant County Fire District 5 with the aid of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and the Moses Lake Fire Department responded to a structure fire on Road 5 Northeast near Road E Northeast Thursday morning.

'Let's take it beyond that'

Cox named new Warden football head coach

WARDEN – Former Warden Athletic Director Brent Cox has been selected as the new head football coach at Warden High School. “I’m happy to be head coach, and I want these kids to compete and get after it,” said Cox. “We’ve got to change the culture a little bit around Warden and get these kids thinking bigger, instead of just being part of a football team I want them to be part of a winning program.”

Hellewell becomes first inductee in Moses Lake Demo Derby Hall of Fame

MOSES LAKE – During the second day of the Demo Derby, the Moses Lake Round Up organization honored Vern Hellewell as the first inductee into the Moses Lake Demo Derby Hall of Fame. Hellewell said he has been participating in the event since it first started at the fairgrounds. “I was there from the beginning and from that point until (today) it’s just been tremendous,” said Hellewell.

MLPD continues proactive approach to homelessness

MOSES LAKE – The Open Doors Sleep Center in Moses Lake has been closed for about seven weeks and Jeff Sursely, police captain with the Moses Lake Police Department, said Moses Lake PD has not seen any increase in calls for disturbances or property crimes. “It’s pretty stable, that’s how I’d describe it,” said Sursely.

Moses Lake Demo Derby concludes

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Demo Derby held the second half of its events Wednesday night with more drivers, dirt and another round of demolition. “It’s always easier on the second day because everybody is going with the flow already” said Aaron Schrodt, organizer for the Moses Lake Demo Derby. “Everybody did great, we had a couple roll roll-overs, but everybody was safe.”

GALLERY: Horse riding and demo derby’s at the fair

MOSES LAKE – At the Grant Country Fair, community members were treated to Demo Derbys full of dusty crashes and local horse-riding competitions put on by the Grant County Youth Equine Program.

Young demo drivers take the stage

MOSES LAKE — Day two of the Moses Lake Demo Derby kicked off with a special exhibition, the Youth Power Wheels Demo, just before the main event. “They love it,” said Mackenzie Cafferty, whose children participated in the event. “They don’t get to run into things at home, so it’s better for them to come out and run into other kids and have a good time.” Cafferty said she got her two children, Wesley and Hadley, involved in the Power Wheels Demo Derby through her father, Stan Cafferty, who’s on the board of directors with Moses Lake Roundup and is heavily involved in the events that take place at the Grant County Fair. She said she enjoys having her children involved and staying with the family traditions.

First day of the Moses Lake Demo Derby

MOSES LAKE – The first night of Miner Services’ Demolition Derby kicked off Tuesday with a variety of racing and knockout events, concluding with a last man standing demo derby with Seth Dompier coming out on top. “It’s just a great time,” said Dompier. “It’s a lot of fun coming out here with your friends and a lot of good people (and being) in front of the fans and just having a great time wrecking some cars.”

Grant County Fair officially begins

MOSES LAKE – The 2025 Grant County Fair held its opening ceremony Tuesday at 10 a.m. to kick off the festivities for the week. Fair volunteers and advisors, local politicians, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office were all in attendance to celebrate. “Everybody can be proud of probably one of the best fairground facilities in the state of Washington,” said Jim McKiernan, director of the Grant County Fairgrounds.

Amazon warehouse opening in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE – Amazon has opened a warehouse at 5451 North Owens Road in Moses Lake and is currently hiring.

Invasive animals pose risks to the Basin

MOSES LAKE – The Washington Invasive Species Council has 29 animals and insects listed on their site as priority invasive species that have either found themselves at home in the state or are of concern around the country. The Columbia Basin has become home to a number of these species.

Lady Jacks to hold soccer tryouts

QUINCY – The Quincy High School Lady Jackrabbits soccer team will be holding tryouts Aug. 25 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the high school soccer field. “Looking at the big idea, I just want as many girls to play as much as possible,” said Jacks head coach Jesse Villalobos.

Vehicle catches fire in Coulee City

COULEE CITY – A call has been put out for a structure fire that has broken out at 301 W Locust Street in Coulee City. It came in as a brush fire at first, but it has since been discovered as a vehicle fire.

Grant Co. making progress on 6-year roads plan

EPHRATA – Grant County has updated a six-year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), as outlined in a signed resolution from 2025 to 2030, with drafts extending the resolution from 2025-2030 and drafts going into 2031.

Basin communities meet their protectors at National Night Out

MOSES LAKE — First responders and the people they serve mingled this week in three Columbia Basin communities for National Night Out.

Moses Lake Guardians baseball holding team tryouts

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Guardians American Legion baseball team will be holding team tryouts later this month. Guardians head coach, David Serrato, has a plan in place for tryouts. “We’re just going to be doing basic fielding, batting and running,” said Serrato. “Measuring talent and all that kind of stuff so we can work on it during the offseason on the two teams.

Invasive weeds threaten Columbia Basin ecosystems

MOSES LAKE – The Columbia Basin has become home to a variety of invasive plant species, with the most notorious being noxious weeds. “Weeds are a big issue,” said Nicole Jordan from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “Letting them go out of control can destroy a lot of habitat for other things.”

MLHS Pals Club fundraiser supports special needs athletes

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake High School Pals Club held a Unified Booster fundraiser outside of Moses Lake’s Crumbl Cookie Tuesday evening from 5-8 p.m. to raise money for Unified Basketball and Soccer for the 2025/26 school year. “This is just one of our fundraisers we did this year, it was our second Crumbl Cookie fundraiser,” said Sarah White, Mavs’ assistant coach for unified sports.

Keeping an eye on the Basin’s at-risk species

MOSES LAKE – A number of animal species in Washington State are listed as threatened or endangered on the state or federal level including species native to the Columbia Basin region including Grant and Adams Counties. “We protect them on our state land,” said Nicole Jordan from Region 2 of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There’s different categories, there’s endangered, protected and threatened, there’s protected and sensitive and there’s just protected in general.”

One injured in Desert Aire shooting

DESERT AIRE — One man sustained life-threatening injuries in a shooting at the Shell gas station at 5 Desert Aire Drive SW in Desert Aire Saturday around 5:30 p.m. The case is still under investigation.

Celebrating 50 years of business in Moses Lake

Hamiltons reflects on Michael's, Rock Top and community

MOSES LAKE – Mike Hamilton has a long history of owning restaurants in Moses Lake. He’ll hit 50 years of business in Moses Lake in October. With the help of his wife Krista and his son Jordan, he's created a legacy with Michael’s on the Lake, Michael’s Market and Bistro and Rock Top Burgers & Brew. “I've always known I wanted to own a business,” Mike said.

Fatality collision closes Road 4 NE in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE – Road 4 NE was closed near Road F NE in Moses Lake late Monday afternoon due to a two-vehicle collision that resulted in one fatality and one injured, said Kyle Foreman, Public Information Officer for Grant County Sheriff’s Office. The road is closed until further notice as officials investigate and remove vehicles from the scene. More information on the collision will be provided as it becomes available.