Lawrie makes history at U of W

Danielle Lawrie

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

he Washington Huskies football team may have scored a history-making upset against the USC Trojans last week, but the school’s best athlete doesn’t compete on the gridiron.

No, it is on the softball field where Langley superstar pitcher Danielle Lawrie has established herself as one of the best college athletes on the planet.

Lawrie, who is entering her senior year with the University of Washington, led U of W to a national championship at the College World Series in Oklahoma City, the school’s first ever. She dominated the tournament, going 5-1 and even hitting a game winning grand slam and it all culminated last week at the Huskies football game, where she and the rest of the Huskies softball team were presented with their national championship rings and where Lawrie was awarded the Honda Sports Trophy as the NCAA’s top female athlete among 12 different sports and the 2009 USA Softball player of the year award.

It has been a tremendous year for Lawrie, who captains the Huskies. She’s played for Team Canada in some capacity since she was 15 years old, she was the MVP of the 2006 Canada Cup, where Canada won a silver medal, and suited up at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. That forced her to redshirt her Huskies 2008 campaign, but she was back with a vengeance in 2009, her junior season. She finished up the year with a ridiculous 37-7 record to push her total to 91-36, pitched a pair of no-hitters and

set an all-time strikeout record with 472. Her ERA was a miniscule 0.84 and she has one of the most feared changeups in the sport.

2009 wasn’t just about winning a major championship for Lawrie, even though that’s more than most could ask for, it was also about making history. She blew away six U of W records this season (wins, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, compete games and starts).

Consider this: Since she arrived in Washington, Lawrie has set and re-set the all time school mark for strikeouts each year. Right now, with a career total of 1,316 strikeouts after just three seasons (which has already surpassed legendary American pitcher Jennie Finch) Lawrie is already ranked 15" on the all time NCAA strikeout list.

Lawrie’s season was marked by her remarkable performance in back-to-back games on May 17 against UMass, where she played both games and threw an inhuman 395 pitches in one day. The second game, an essential one for the Huskies to stay in the playoff race, lasted five and a half hours and went an incredible 15 innings. The Huskies eventually prevailed 6-1 behind Lawrie’s marathon effort.

There’s no limit to how many records will fall in Lawrie’s senior year with Washington. She rightly received a thunderous ovation from 70,000-plus football fans at Husky stadium and with Lawrie on the mound and leading the team, there’s no telling how far the Huskie’s will go this year.

The ‘Other News

Printers gets second chance with Lions

Casey Printers

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

Ts BC Lions just proved that almost anything is possible in the world of professional sports. Despite a prolonged and messy falling out several years ago, Casey Printers is once again a member of the BC Lions.

Just a few months ago, the mere suggestion of Printers joining the Lions seemed ludicrous. After all, isn’t this the same Casey Printers who, after winning the CFL MVP award back in 2004, caused a distracting and eventually disastrous quarterback controversy with Dave Dickenson? Isn’t this the guy who spurned a three-year, $1 million contract offer from the Lions, split the locker room in half and then bolted to the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs at the earliest opportunity?

Well, yes and no. Since leaving Vancouver, Printers has had a few humbling experiences to say the least. He completely flamed out with the Chiefs and got cut before the regular season even began. He then spent 2006 and 2007 on the Chiefs practice roster before washing out of the NFL in late 2007.

Just a few days after getting released by Kansas City, Printers signed a mega-deal (at least by CFL standards) with the perennially horrible Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Hamilton made him the highest paid player in the CFL, signing him to a reported $500,000 per year pact. However, with a terrible supporting cast, Printers lasted just five months with the Tiger-Cats before getting released and effectively becoming a free agent that wasn’t exactly arousing too much interest, especially after Hamilton started their current campaign off better then they had in years.

Rumours persisted all summer that Printers might make a return to B.C., but the logical evidence suggested otherwise. It was widely assumed that

Printers had long since burned his bridge with Lions’ GM and head coach Wally Buono. Plus, B.C. was already considered to be deep at quarterback with co-starters Buck Pierce and Jarious Jackson.

Then however, a funny thing happened. The Lions bombed to start the season, and the play of both Pierce and Jackson was average at best. The frequently injured Pierce, who has proven over the years to be one of those guys who does a decent job but not much more than that, suffered another concussion and Jackson didn’t exactly step up and steal the starting job.

Then, when Jackson went down with a rotator cuff injury that is expected to sideline him for the remainder of the season, Buono went to Printers. Pierce was activated and led the Lions to a win against the terrible Toronto Argonauts, but his performance wasn’t exactly inspiring. Ticket sales for the game, despite being held on a clear Saturday night, plummeted from the normal 32,000 or so to just 27,000. With a 5-6 record, that number wasn’t exactly surprising.

With Printers though, expect that to change in a hurry. Love him or hate him, this is a guy that can sell tickets. He’s a proven commodity who can scramble with the best of them and, despite their assets, is miles beyond Pierce and Jackson in terms of talent.

Printers said all the right things when he arrived in Vancouver. In a candid interview with the TEAM 1040, Printers talked about how lucky he was to receive another opportunity and about how he didn’t care if he started or backed up, he was just glad to be here.

Hopefully, Printers has turned a corner. With his ability on the field, if he can learn to be a good teammate, as he’s promised he has, then the Lions can do great things.

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