MIKE MAYNARD
Recent Stories
Basin soccer roundup, Sept. 24-30, 2026
MOSES LAKE — Basin soccer concluded September play this week, and now teams are starting to turn their focus to a strong finish to the season as the state tournament begins to peak over the horizon. See below how your favorite teams fared in the last week of games.
Royal’s Grant Wardenaar commits to Central Washington University
ROYAL CITY — Though high school basketball is still a couple of months away, it wasn’t a bad time for Knights all-time leading scorer Grant Wardenaar to announce his commitment to the Central Washington University Wildcats. “They started recruiting me (after) my sophomore year, and then we've just been in touch since then,” Wardenaar said. “Coach (Brandon) Rinta was always calling me – probably two times a week since, like a few months ago. It felt good to kind of wrap up (recruitment) and know what I'm going to do after high school and just have a plan.”
Eagles sweep Hornets, extend win streak to four
SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Eagles (5-4) earned a dominant 3-0 win over the Oroville Hornets, extending their win streak to four straight, with the last three coming in straight sets. “Oroville is a very scrappy team. We just watched them last week reverse sweep Wilson Creek, so we knew that they were going to be tough,” Head Coach Erin Fletcher said. “Our goal was to come in and just put it away. We didn't necessarily do that the third set, but those first two sets we did do a good job of trying to come out and be aggressive early on, handle what we could on our side, and try to put the game away early.” The Eagles were determined to start fast in the first set, which they did by being the first to score five points, Fletcher said. From there, they cruised to a 25-14 set win. They continued to dominate on the court, only allowing four points by the Hornets in set two as they won that as well. However, Oroville showed they weren’t going away quietly, giving the Eagles a battle in the third set, but Soap Lake managed to pull away 25-21 to seal the three-set win at home.
Freewind martial artists claim four Jr Grand Championships
RICHLAND — Freewind Martial Arts Studio recently competed in the Battle on the Columbia tournament, where four of the nine competitors brought home hardware in addition to strong all-around performances. “We were really excited because we had such a great turnout,” Freewind Instructor Brandi Guertin said. “We had nine competitors go, and having nine competitors go to a single tournament is so fun because it's such a giant group, and having such a giant group makes it exciting because you have someone competing at almost every moment of the tournament.” Of the nine competitors, Serjio Madrigales, Milan Bhatt, Zachary Morris and Jessie Young earned Jr Grand Champion honors for their performances in form, weapons, noodle sparring and sparring across their respective age groups and levels. Across the entire group that competed, everyone placed in the top three of each competition, highlighting a dedicated class of students in attendance, Guertin said.
Basin teams compete at Nike Invite
SPOKANE — Local cross country teams found success over the weekend as athletes from Ephrata, Moses Lake, Othello and Warden travelled to Spokane to compete in the Nike Bob Firman Invitational. See below how each team did.
Basin volleyball roundup, Sept. 22 – 28
MOSES LAKE — Basin volleyball put in yet another week of competitive games as league matchups become more important the further into the season we get. See below how your favorite teams fared.
Gridiron roundup – week four
MOSES LAKE — Four weeks of Basin high school football are now in the books with many teams earning statement wins early on. As they begin the second half of the season, see below how your favorite teams fared on Friday. Note: Warden's week three game against Highland was postponed to the following Monday, so both games played were reflected below.
Burns’ record 309-yard night fuels Mavs dominant win
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Mavericks (3-1) were dominant on the gridiron, running away in the second half to defeat the Wenatchee Panthers 58-22 behind a record 309 yards and four touchdowns from running back Elijah Burns on the ground. “It was definitely a big win,” Burns said. “Obviously not just me; blocking really helped a lot. We had a lot of good blocking, I ran hard, but it was a lot of blocking. I couldn't have done it without my teammates.”
Eagles’ fast start fades in narrow home loss to Cal Poly
CHENEY — The Eastern Washington Eagles (1-4) fell to the Cal Poly Mustangs 31-27 Saturday. While the defense provided an energetic first half, late mistakes ultimately cost the Eagles at home. “There's a combination of deflation a little bit,” Head Coach Aaron Best said. “Ultimately, I think it came down to a myriad of things. The big things that stood out for me on the sideline - (we) didn't protect the passer well enough; they got after us. Secondly, 43 (carries) for 87 (yards), the only chance you have in any game like that is when you take the ball away three times, when you have a long kick return, and when you have a fourth down stop.” Despite forcing three turnovers and a turnover on downs, Eastern Washington could not capitalize consistently enough to pull away. Missed kicks, poor pass protection and a struggling rushing attack eventually allowed Cal Poly to erase a fourth-quarter deficit and escape Cheney with a 31-27 victory.
Broncos shake off early miscues, roll past Asotin
LIND — The Lind-Ritzville Broncos (2-2) earned a statement 35-13 win over the Asotin Panthers Friday which was highlighted by strong running and game wrecking defense. “We really hurt ourselves in the first half,” Head Coach Brenden Bermea said. “We turned the ball over four times, but it was great to see them bounce back. We're becoming more resilient as a team, and you can only find that out when you're actually on the field.”