Matthew Strissel/Whitman County Gazette 
The Neah Bay volleyball team won a back-and-forth match with Wilbur-Creston-Keller 3-2 to earn fifth place at the Class 1B state tournament at the Yakima Valley SunDome. This is the Red Devils’ third state trophy in the last four years.

Matthew Strissel/Whitman County Gazette The Neah Bay volleyball team won a back-and-forth match with Wilbur-Creston-Keller 3-2 to earn fifth place at the Class 1B state tournament at the Yakima Valley SunDome. This is the Red Devils’ third state trophy in the last four years.

PREPS: Neah Bay volleyball fifth at state tournament

Van Gordon leads Roughrider bowlers in opener

SILVERDALE — Port Angeles’ girls bowling team opened league play with a loss to Bremerton on the road Thursday.

After last year’s sixth-place team finish at state, senior Zoey Van Gordon picked up where she left off, throwing a match-high 199 in the opening game of the 2025-26 season.

“Zoey put in a lot of time in the offseason and it shows,” coach Rebecca Gundersen said. “She is confident and in control.”

Van Gordon will sign a letter of intent to roll collegiately at College of Saint Marys during a ceremony at the high school Wednesday.

The Riders split both games as well as both Baker games, but the Knights earned the final point based on overall pin count to seal the victory.

Lucy Townsend added a 145 and Kenadie Ring rolled a 132 for the Roughriders.

Also seeing varsity action were returners Izzy Spencer and Leilah Franich, as well as newcomers Grace Williams and Zoey Howe.

Port Angeles returns to All Star Lanes on Tuesday to take on defending league champion Klahowya.

YMCA basketball

PORT ANGELES — Registration is open for the YMCA’s winter youth basketball program for boys and girls ages 3-14 in both Port Angeles and Sequim.

Kids ages 3-4 and 5-7 will play with a 25.5-inch basketball and a 6-foot hoop for the younger players and a 7-foot basket for the older players.

There will be one practice per week, and after the first two weeks of practice, there will be games on Saturdays.

Registration is $70 for YMCA members, $90 for the public.

Players ages 8-14 will be divided by age group with two practices per week and games on Saturdays. A 9-foot hoop and a 27.5-inch ball will be used for ages 8-9, while a regulation hoop and a women’s basketball will be used for ages 10-14.

Registration is $80 for YMCA members, $100 for the public.

Registration ends Nov. 22.

To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/PDN-YMCAHoops25.

Last Chance U coach dies

John Beam, a mainstay of the football coaching ranks in the East Bay who was profiled in the Netflix series “Last Chance U,” died Friday, one day after being targeted in a shooting at Laney College in Oakland, Calif., authorities said.

The Oakland Police Department on Friday identified the gunman as Cedric Irving Jr., 27. Authorities said he was arrested early Friday at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in San Leandro, Calif.

It was not immediately clear what had prompted the shooting, but law enforcement officials said at a news conference Friday that it had been a targeted attack and the two men knew each other.

Investigators said they recovered a gun that used the same caliber as the shell casings and live rounds that were taken into evidence at the crime scene.

Beam, 66, was the community college’s longtime athletic director. He retired last year after more than four decades of coaching at the junior college and high school levels.

Frederick Shavies II, Oakland’s former deputy police chief and the current chief in Piedmont, Calif., said during the news conference that Beam had been a mentor to him.

“John was so much more than a coach,” he said. “He was a father figure to thousands of not only men but young women in our community. Our hearts are aching.”

Shavies played football at Washington State.

Peninsula Daily News and The Athletic

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