Season begins with Stanwood/Kamiak football game Friday night

A Spartan running back hopeful heads upfield in last Friday's Red and White scrimmage, as the Stanwood High gridders prepare for this coming Friday's 2010 season opener against Kamiak here at the newly renamed Bob Larson Stadium. PHOTO BY JOHN GALBREATH | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS Second-year head coach Aaron Cupp’s Spartan football club kicks off its 2010 campaign this Friday, 7 p.m. Sept. 3, against Kamiak High School at the newly renamed Bob Larson Stadium on the Stanwood High School campus.

The Sparts’ other athletic teams must wait until next week to begin their seasons.

Snohomish High School’s Glacier Peak soccer team will visit SHS next Tues., Sept. 7. The match will begin at 6:30 p.m. The local booters, under Lori Stunz’s direction, will attempt to better last year’s effort when the Lady Sparts made the post-season only to lose a heartbreaker in the first district playoff round to Kamiak.

Bettering last year’s record setting 9-3 regular-season mark is likely a goal for Rita Brennan’s Lady Spartan swimmers, but it’ll be especially tough to accomplish when every meet will essentially be an “away” contest. Due to the closing of the privately owned pool they’ve used for more than a decade, the Sparts will be using the Marysville YMCA pool for their practices. As it stands now, all meets involving the Stanwood girls will be at the home pool of the opposing squad.

Next Tuesday, Sept. 7, Brennan’s team will participate in the Western Conference North Division jamboree at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

Meanwhile, the boys’ tennis team will kick off their 2010 season with a home match against Arlington’s Eagles on Tuesday, Sept. 7, beginning at 3:45 p.m. Last campaign the Sparts placed second in the North with an 11-5 record.

The rest of the Spartan varsity athletic teams begin their efforts to claim postseason berths Thursday, Sept. 9.

Jordan Sneva’s thinclads – both the girls and the boys – will run in the WesCo cross country jamboree at Arlington’s River Meadows Park beginning at 3:30 p.m. Expectations are high for the girls’ team, which won the WesCo district meet before placing third in the 4A state meet last fall. Only one of those runners, Natasha Verma, who now runs at Portland State, graduated from the program. A number of boys, including Wade Weinert, will make a run at placing in post-season meets as well.

With a heavy senior graduation rate, Erik Titus’s volleyball team will depend on several veterans and a lot of underclassmen to improve on last fall’s near-even season record. Next week the local high netters will take on Kamiak Thursday, Sept. 9, starting at 7 p.m.

Also on Thursday, the SHS soccer club will travel to Lake Stevens as will the boys’ tennis team.

Next Friday, Sept. 10, the football Spartans will host Sedro-Woolley starting 7 p.m.

Prior to that encounter, the boys’ tennis team will play Monroe on the local courts beginning at 3:45 p.m.

On Saturday, Sept. 11, the volleyball squad will participate in the Squalicum Invite in Bellingham.