It was 60 years ago that the Ballard Beavers football team went undefeated and was crowned as the state champs. This weekend, the 1951 team was honored. On Friday afternoon there was a luncheon and pep rally, followed by a tailgate party at the high school before the homecoming football game on Saturday.
Russ Quackenbush was a senior wide receiver on the team. “It was a great group of guys. I think that’s what was so neat about it,” he tells us about that 1951 team. “There were no stars, no two or three guys who made it happen. It was all of us, offensively and defensively. It was a special group of guys.” The 1951 undefeated state champs. Russ Quackenbush is third from the right.
During half time of Saturday’s game, the team was honored in front of a sea of red and black. “I think it’s very special. None of us anticipated all this that’s been done for us,” Quackenbush says. “In fact I think it makes it more of an event now than it was when it happened.”
Many of the players on the 1951 team started working out together in the summer of that year at the Loyal Heights Field House. Not only did they go undefeated that year, but Ballard outscored its opponents by 187-8.
Two players were nominated All-American: Mel McCain and Arleigh Hiersch. Seven others made the all-city team. And in the Thanksgiving Day game, Ballard beat Bremerton 14 to 13.
And the champs weren’t disappointed at last night’s homecoming game against Garfield. Ballard dominated the night, winning 26 to 7 at Memorial Stadium. Congrats, Beavers! Here a few more photos from the big homecoming game:
The Ballard High School fall sports tryouts start next week.
August 15th:
Football – contact coach Joey Thomas (coachthomas.bhs2@yahoo.com) for times and locations. Paperwork is due this Thursday, August 11th.
August 22nd:
Cross Country – 5 p.m. at Lower Woodland near the track and tennis courts
Girls Soccer – 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the BHS Field
Girls Volleyball – 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. – BHS main gym
Contact coaches for dates:
Girls swim – contact Coach Brenda Tomtan- Brayman (b1swim@yahoo.com)
Boys Golf – contact Coach Casey McMullin (casmcm@msn.com)
Boys Tennis – contact Coach Kevin Todd (kevinptodd@hotmail.com)
Athletic paperwork is available here and must be turned in August 16 from 9 a.m. to noon or August 17 from noon to 3 p.m..
Our sister-site MyBallard spoke with Ballard High alumni-turned principal Kevin Wynkoop last week, who had no idea when he graduated 17 years ago that he’d be running BHS one day.
Wynkoop earned his teaching degree after graduating and returned to BHS in 1999, where he taught U.S. History, World History and A.P. Government for several years (including when I was a student there from 2001 to 2005). After earning his Masters in Education, Wynkoop came back to BHS once again, serving as interim principal over this past school year, an ultimately becoming the high school’s official new principal.
MyBallard has a great interview with Wynkoop about his last year and what he sees for the future of Ballard High School. Read the full story here.
Ballard High School receives very little money for its music program and athletics. In order to supplement the costs, the Ballard High School Foundation holds fundraisers to raise money for the programs. A foursome at a past BHS Golf Classic
The Foundation’s largest annual event is coming up this August – the 11th annual Ballard High School Golf Classic. “This is really quite the golf tournament with so many BHS alumni, friends and community members hitting the links to support athletics and music at Ballard High,” organizer Sue Verduins tells us.
This year’s event is honoring two individuals that were very influential in the BHS and Ballard communities. Sir Jim Vatn, graduated from BHS in 1962. Not only was Jim very involved in many organizations in the Ballard community but he never forgot his BHS experience giving freely of his time and talents to his alma mater. He was an active member and chair of the Ballard High School Athletic Committee and Ballard High School Foundation. He served as chair of the very successful annual Foundation Golf Classic. Attendees of football and basketball games could hear the “Voice of the Beavers” – and came to recognize it as none other than Jim’s.
The tournament this year is also recognizing Janet Rodgers. Janet was the Director of the BHS Foundation for many years. As Director of the Foundation, Janet built a great team of community members, alumni, faculty and staff that have worked on countless projects benefitting BHS students and the entire Ballard community. She was a part of the group behind the inaugural Ballard Beaver Bash, proceeds of which support BHS academic programs and was heavily involved in the Golf Classic.
The Golf Classic will be held at The Golf Club at Newcastle. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. with a dinner and auction the evening of August 1st at Newcastle. The emcee for the evening event will be BHS’ own Bob Flick (Class of 1956) of the Brothers Four band. The tournament is Tuesday August 2nd with registration beginning at 7:00 a.m. and the 18-hole shotgun starting at 10:00 a.m.
Learn more about the event here and learn about sponsorship opportunities here.
Nearly 300 students gathered on Wednesday evening at the Ballard High School gymnasium for the Northwest-Cluster Showcase of Choirs.
Penny sent us the above video and says that each choir sang one or two songs alone and all sang Yonder Come Day together as a combined showcase choir. Participating schools were:
Loyal Heights Elementary
Whitman Middle School
Lawton Elementary
Ballard High School Trebel Choir
Coe Elementary
Ballard HS Men’s Ensemble
Whittier Elementary
Ballard High School Concert Choir
Seattle Public Schools sent the following release:
Seattle Public Schools is hosting a Family Engagement Symposium: From Cradle to College & Career on Saturday March 12, at Ballard High School. This Symposium is aimed at providing families with the information, practical strategies, and resources they need to support their students’ academic success.
The symposium, which runs from 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m., includes a Resource Fair with community resource booths and activities for children ages 4 and up. Families will learn how to support their children in the areas of early learning, math, reading and writing non-fiction, special education, parent leadership, college and career readiness, graduation requirements and four-year planning, and apprenticeships among others. A light lunch will also be provided courtesy of the Alliance for Education.
This story originally appeared on sister-site MyBallard.com.
Seven films produced by Ballard High School students have won prizes at a prestigious national film festival. The 15th Annual Derek Freese High School Film & Video Festival was held last Saturday at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Video Production teacher Matt Lawrence sent us the following information:
Ballard High School filmmakers won every award in the documentary category. (This is quite an honor, as Temple is widely regarded as one of the best schools of documentary filmmaking in the country.)
First Prize went to Robyn Cochrane, Spencer Miller, Georgia Peck & Justin Smith-Mercado for Bar Ink, the story of a youth whom manages to discover and develop his talent in spite of incarceration.
Amelia Elizalde, Levi Friedman, Sean Hendricks & Sheridan Koehler took Second Prize for Henry, about the Seattle muralist of that name.
Third Prize went to Tony Meyer, Matt Law-Phipps & James Vitz-Wong for Seattle Street Musicians. John Christensen, Rikke Heinecke, Blair Scott & Allie Stock won the Best Documentary Screenplay prize for Split Mind, the story of a family’s experience with schizophrenia.
In the Best Fiction category, Ballard High School students won three prizes.
First Prize went to Emily Deering, Amelia Elizalde & Blair Scott for the subtle dramatic short Buy, Sell, Trade.
Second Prize went to Matt Law-Phipps, Tony Meyer & Ryan Zemke for their dystopian vision, Real World.
Best Fiction Screenplay went to Rikke Heinecke, Tony Meyer & Lizzy O’Laughlin for Signs, a story of hope for the homeless.
Lawrence tells us that this is the eighth year in a row the BHS students have been finalists at the festival and the third time they have won top prizes. Stay tuned for more information on The Showing on February 11th which will feature the Seattle Premiere for some of these films.
This year seven students have been selected for the 15th annual festival, which is judged by professors from Temple University’s renowned film school and industry professionals.
The finalists from Ballard High School are:
Finalists for Best Documentary are Bar Ink by Spencer Miller, Robyn Cochrane, Justin Smith-Mercado, & Georgia Peck; Henry by Amelia Elizalde, Levi Friedman, Sheridan Koehler & Sean Hendricks; Seattle Street Performers by James Vitz-Wong, Tony Meyer & Matt Law-Phipps; and Split Mind by Rikke Heinecke, John Christensen, Blair Scott & Allie Stock.
Finalists for Best Fiction Film are Buy, Sell, Trade by Emily Deering, Amelia Elizalde & Blair Scott; The Real World by Matt Law-Phipps, Tony Meyer & Ryan Zemke; and Signs by Rikke Heinecke, Tony Meyer & Lizzy O’Laughlin.
Several of these works have also been nominated for Best Screenplay.
The festival is this Saturday at Temple University’s School of Film and Media Arts.
Matt Lawrence, the video production teacher, tells us that some of these finalists will have their Seattle premiere at The Showing in the BHS auditorium on Friday, February 11 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 and will be sold at the door. We’ll have more information on The Showing as it gets closer.
The 10th Annual Victor E. Salvino ‘51 Golf Tournament is coming up next month to raise money for Ballard High School athletics and bands. The golf tournament will be held on August 3rd at The Golf Club at Newcastle.
From the Ballard Beavers website:
Not only do you get to have a fabulous, fun-filled day of golf, dinner/auction, and other activities, you are making sure that BHS athletics and bands receive funding in order to be competitive in KingCo 4A. The past nine years, this tournament has been able to provide for all teams and we want to continue this tradition….we need your support in order to fulfill this goal!
Organizers are looking for more than 280 golfers to participate in the shotgun-start tournament. Each foursome will play nine holes on the Coal Creek course and nine holes on the China Creek course. The cost is $275 per golfer which gets you into the putting contest, poker and door prizes, lunch, and tickets to the dinner/auction the evening before.
Along with a full round of golf, there is also a $100,000 putting contest. The winner takes home $50,000, the other $50,000 goes to BHS Athletics. Carter Volkswagen Subaru is donating four hole-in-one prize cars. For more information on the tournament, click here. You can also contact Mary Wong, the golf chair at marwong@juno.com.
Earlier this week we reported that the paperwork for fall sports at Ballard High School would be accepted until today, June 30th. Today’s deadline has been extended. According to the Beaver Athletics website:
Athletic paperwork will be accepted in the main office Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon during the month of July (with the exception of July 5 as the office will be closed for the Independence Day holiday.) Paperwork only (not payments) will be accepted; this will greatly reduce your wait time in August when you or your student comes in to pay fees.
In August, football players must turn in their paperwork and pay fees on August 11th between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. All other fall athletes must turn in their paperwork on August 17th between 9 a.m. and noon or August 18th between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
To avoid the lines in August, Ballard High School is accepting fall sports paperwork until June 30th (that’s tomorrow.) If you have a student hoping to play a fall sport at BHS, paperwork is due during the summer break. If you miss the June 30th cutoff, the paperwork won’t be accepted until August when the lines can be pretty long. Here are the August dates to turn in paperwork, pay the sport fees and buy the ASB card:
Football players:
August 11 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
All other fall sports:
August 17 between 9 a.m. and noon
August 18 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Here is the packet (.pdf) that needs to be filled out completely and the parent release form (.pdf) that also needs to be filled out. Forms that aren’t completed will be given back to the student.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact athletic secretary Sharon Davis at 252-1000. Sharon is in the office from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through June 30. More information on Beaver athletics can be found here.
For the fourth year in a row, Ballard High School students have walked away with a golden statue at the Northwest Regional Emmy Awards. Congratulations to two teams of video production students at Ballard High School for each winning an Emmy earlier this month. “Loose Change,” which was produced for Real Change by Emma Hutchison, Georgia Peck and Alex Scheller, won in the Public Service Announcement category, and “The Crumb” by Emily Deering, Karli Lafferty, Sarah Maloney and Taylor Rubright won in the Dramatic Presentation category. Four other productions were nominated and received honorable mentions. The regional Emmy Awards honor outstanding productions from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
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The 10th Annual Victor E. Salvino ‘51 Golf Tournament is coming up next month to raise money for Ballard High School athletics and bands. The golf tournament will be held on August 3rd at 