Bloglander

More than two years ago, Terry and Bev Coplin saw something they'll never forget. They were the sole witnesses when a 31-year-old, the same age as their son, committed suicide in Colorado.

Ever since, the Coplins have dedicated themselves to preventing suicide. It's why they gave a generous donation to Daybreak Youth Services that allowed Daybreak to open a new 13-bed psychiatric evaluation and treatment center for girls under 18, which opened today.

"This is a happy day here," Bev Coplin tells the Inlander. "This is a wonderful thing that's happening. We really feel like out of that tragedy has come something that is very positive and beautiful."

The evaluation and treatment center has 13 beds for girls in psychiatric crisis, including suicide attempts or ideations, severe depression, psychosis, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It's located in the girls-only Daybreak inpatient residential treatment facility in downtown Spokane, at 628 S. Cowley St. Annette Klinefelter, Daybreak CEO, says the gift from the Coplins allowed Daybreak to transform a residential wing to an area accommodating the 13 beds for the evaluation and treatment center.

Nowhere else in Spokane, she says, is there a similar facility with a continuum of care that allows girls to enter the evaluation and treatment center and then, if need be, transition into the residential treatment center for substance abuse and mental health.

When Paul Sorensen hit an opponent on the football field, he delivered a powerful blow.

A Cougar for just two seasons after transferring from a Northern California junior college, he made an outsized impact as an All-America free safety who packed a wallop. A team leader and senior co-captain, Sorensen was far from one-dimensional; twice an All-Pac-10 All-Academic pick, he also intercepted four passes for a 1981 team that represented Washington State in a bowl game or the first time in a half-century, and only the third time ever.

Selected by Cincinnati in the fifth round of the 1982 NFL Draft (one of 10 players from that 1981 Cougars team to be drafted from 1982-86), he spent a season with the Bengals, another with the 49ers, and played in the USFL. You might know him better as a color commentator and analyst on Eastern Washington football radio broadcasts for the past 14 years, and as a color commentator on WSU radio broadcasts from 1985-98; during that 14-season span, he called some of the most memorable games in Cougars history.

In September, Sorensen was inducted into the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame. He answered questions we had regarding this season's Cougars defense ahead of Saturday's Apple Cup:


Q: It's no surprise that Mike Leach's Air Raid offense has held up its end of the bargain this season; what's really set this team apart is its success on defense. As a former Cougars safety, what's responsible for WSU's defensive breakthrough?

A: WSU has recruited better athletes on the defensive side of the ball, and then done a great job coaching them up, led by third-year coordinator Alex Grinch, being mentioned in the same breath as (Clemson defensive coordinator) Brent Venables and (Miami defensive coordinator) Manny Diaz as one of the top three defensive coordinators in the land.

ON INLANDER.COM

ARTS & CULTURE: Claudia Castro Luna of Seattle will succeed Spokane's Tod Marshall as Washington state poet laureate.


IN OTHER NEWS

We saw this coming
After costly mistakes in the first half put them in an early deficit, the Seahawks stormed back thanks to Russell Wilson and had a chance to send the Monday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons into overtime. All kicker Blair Walsh had to do was make a 52-yard field goal. But Walsh missed the field goal, and the Hawks lost 34-31 in a heartbreaker. (Seattle Times)

It's about time
A woman has been named assistant fire chief in the Spokane Fire Department for the first time. Trisha Wolford will help Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer with planning, coordinating and administering the SPD's activities; she begins Dec. 27. (Spokesman-Review)

Explicit photo drive in Medical Lake
Detectives are investigating after finding out that a 17-year-old Medical Lake High School student had been charging others for access to a Google Drive account that contained nude pictures of girls ages 14 to 17, many of whom attended Medical Lake High School. No arrests have been made. (KXLY)

Him too
Charlie Rose, longtime TV hot for CBS and PBS and a correspondent for 60 Minutes, has been accused by eight women of making unwanted sexual advances, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked and groping them. (Washington Post)

Media elite
The U.S. Justice Department has sued to block AT&T, one of the nation's largest internet and telephone providers, from merging with Time Warner. The merger would create a media and telecommunications behemoth, but the Justice Department argues it would weaken competition. (New York Times)

In the aftermath of Richard Sherman's season-ending ruptured Achilles tendon, Seahawks fans could at least take comfort in the return of Earl Thomas, who plays Monday night after a two-game, three-week absence as the 5-4 Falcons, away from home for the fourth time in their past five games and looking nothing like the NFC champions they were just nine months ago, come calling.

But that was before the news that Kam Chancellor's season is almost certainly over as well, ended by a neck injury — first diagnosed as a stinger — he suffered in the Cardinals' final possession in the Hawks' costly 22-16 victory at Arizona on Nov. 9. The Hawks are likely to place the four-time Pro Bowl strong safety on injured reserve, ending his season early for the first time in his eight-year career.

What was likely Chancellor's final game of 2017 was also his best — nine of his team-high 10 tackles were solo stops; he knocked down a Drew Stanton pass; forced Adrian Peterson's fumble on the first play from scrimmage, setting the Hawks up at the Cardinals' 48; and tackled Peterson, like Chancellor a future Hall of Famer, in the end zone for a safety that gave the Hawks a 9-7 lead early in the second quarter.

As with fellow eight-year veteran Thomas, who has inserted himself into Comeback Player of the Year discussion — he broke the tibia in his left leg in Week 13, ending his 2016 season — Chancellor entered the season coming off surgery, in his case to remove bone spurs from both ankles.


In this case, the next man up is Bradley McDougald, signed away from the Buccaneers as a free agent to a one-year, $2 million deal in March, a little-noted transaction at the time that's proving to be a big deal in light of the Seahawks' suddenly injury-riddled secondary.

McDougald spent the past two games filling in for Thomas, a four-time Pro Bowl free safety who along with middle linebacker Bobby Wagner is the quarterback of Seattle's defense, responsible for diagnosing offensive formations and getting his teammates in the right position before the ball is snapped. Now he switches over to strong safety, tasked with replacing Chancellor, the defense's soul, a physical, intimidating enforcer and tone-setter.

At 6-1, 210, McDougald was a bigger option at free safety than the 5-10, 202-pound Thomas, but at strong safety is nowhere near Chancellor's chiseled 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame. In three-plus seasons in Tampa Bay, the fifth-year pro with strong ball skills — he was a two-way player (wide receiver/safety) his first two college seasons at Kansas — started 36 games at free safety, including 31 of 32 his final two years.

The cavalry has arrived in a besieged Seahawks secondary in the form of Byron Maxwell, who spent his first four seasons with Seattle, playing a meaningful role on two Super Bowl teams, but left in 2015 for a six-year, $63 million deal from the Eagles; he played just one season in Philadelphia before being dealt to Miami. The Hawks are fortunate to have another veteran corner in Jeremy Lane, who steps in for Sherman; the nickel back, sent to Houston in the Duane Brown trade three weeks ago, was returned by the Texans after failing his physical.

It will be the first time since January 2011 that the Seahawks take the field without Sherman's presence as a shutdown corner; since then, their defense has never been without two among the trio of Sherman, Thomas and Chancellor.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has had success against the Seahawks, even with all of their best defensive backs healthy, completing two-thirds of his passes and averaging 260 yards in six games in the Pete Carroll era, and throwing for three touchdowns in four of them, including a 36-20 victory in January in an NFC divisional playoff game in Atlanta.

Former Huskies and USC head coach Steve Sarkisian, regarded as an offensive savant of sorts at the college level and hired by then-Trojans coach Carroll in 2001, has been a bust in his first season as offensive coordinator in Atlanta, responsible for an offense that has scored just 197 points (a 21.9 average) through nine games; the Falcons racked up 540 points (a 33.8 average) last season under Kyle Shanahan, who left to coach the 49ers.


As long as Russell Wilson (290 yards, one touchdown, four fumbles; Seattle has recovered all of them) remains the Seahawks' leading rusher, they're going to have a tough time advancing in the playoffs — if they even get there. If the season ended right now, they'd be the NFC's sixth seed, with no possibility of a home playoff game. A loss to the Falcons would knock the Hawks down to a tie for seventh in the conference; a win would tie them with the Rams, who lost 24-7 at Minnesota on Sunday, for the NFC West lead.

But an even bigger factor in making (or not making) the postseason has been a constant all season — the team most likely to beat the Seahawks is the Seahawks. It's not just the sheer volume of penalties — 94 for 780 yards, both league highs — it's their timing and the detrimental effect they've had on this team's momentum on offense, and lack of ability to blunt opponents' momentum on defense.

C.J. Prosise's sprained ankle vs. Arizona doesn't help matters, though Prosise, a second-year player from Notre Dame, has played in only five games, getting just 11 carries for a paltry 2.1 yards per. He's averaging a career-high 14.5 receiving yards, but on just six catches. Next man up is Mike Davis, a third-year pro signed off the practice squad who represents a far more conventional running back skill set than the speedy but fragile Prosise. Seattle lists left tackle Duane Brown (ankle) and defensive tackle Jarran Reed (hamstring) as questionable. Also out are outside linebacker Michael Wilhoite (calf) and Luke Joeckel (knee), who has started every game at left guard and will be replaced by rookie Ethan Pocic.

The Seahawks, the most successful team in the history of Monday Night Football (23 victories in 34 games, 67.7 winning percentage) have won 11 consecutive Monday night games dating back to 2005, second only to the Raiders' 14 straight wins from 1975 to 1981.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee tabbed Seattle's Claudia Castro Luna as the fifth state poet laureate. She'll start her two-year term on Feb. 1, 2018, taking the reins from current poet laureate and Spokane resident and Gonzaga professor Tod Marshall.

Castro Luna becomes the first immigrant and woman of color to fill the role; her family fled war-torn El Salvador for America when she was a teenager, back in 1981. Despite their hardship, her parents always pushed the importance of education, and she later earned an MFA in poetry and MA in urban planning. After working as a K-12 teacher, Castro Luna became Seattle's first Civic Poet.

"Claudia grew up knowing firsthand the importance of literature, particularly its power in trying times," said Karen Haren, executive director of the Washington State Arts Commission, in a statement accompanying the announcement of Castro Luna's selection. The poet laureate program is sponsored by Humanities Washington and ArtsWA. "This has given her the ability to connect with a range of people, and her experience as an immigrant will enable the program to reach new communities. She's also wonderfully inventive — it's clear she'll take this role to new and exciting places."

Like those who served in the role before her, Castro Luna is expected to travel far and wide in the state to advocate poetry's importance and power. Current Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall has crisscrossed the state numerous times, and created WA129, a collection of poetry by writers in the state, dedicated to voices of both established poets and novices.

On Wed., Nov. 29, Marshall and some of the poets from WA129 will read at Wolff Auditorium on the Gonzaga campus at 7:30 pm.

Castro Luna will take over the position at a "Passing of the Laurels" ceremony at the Seattle Public Library main branch on Jan. 31.

While a 3-0 record was expected for a team fresh off of a Final Four run, there were still plenty of questions regarding how this Gonzaga team was going to get it done. Here are some early storylines from the Zags' three-game homestand as they tooled up for their big non-conference slate.

The right wing and the wings
In this early season, Josh Perkins has shown an assertiveness that we hadn't seen from him in his first two full seasons. His three-point shot attempts have nearly doubled from last year (going from 4.2 to 8.0 per game) while improving to a 45.8 shooting percentage. Credit goes to him for hunting his shot, but also knowing where his bread gets buttered.

Perhaps two-thirds of Perkins' makes from beyond the arc come from the right wing, the spot he often finds the ball during some of the Zags' elite ball movement. It's been agreed upon that for the remainder of his time as Gonzaga's chief ballhandler, that the right wing be referred to as Park Hill, the domain of Josh Perkins, Prince of Park Hill.

Speaking of wings: boy, does Gonzaga all of a sudden have a lot of them. Since the "Decade of Excellence" has grown to become a double decade of excellence, the increase in caliber of recruits and player development has not gone unnoticed. While a fun bar-rail debate can be found in whether Gonzaga is a guard or big-man mill, it was safe to say that the wing position was never the program's forte.

It was a limited football schedule over the weekend; Washington State enjoyed a bye week before next Saturday's Apple Cup in Seattle, with the Pac-12 North Division title at stake for the Cougars. Whitworth's season ended last week, and the Seahawks don't play until tonight. Eastern Washington won big on Saturday, then lost big Sunday morning, and Idaho started its gift-giving early, handing a 1-9 team its second win.


EASTERN"S SEASON ENDS SHORT OF PLAYOFFS

Eastern Washington fans head to be feeling good Saturday night: the Eagles had pounded Portland State 59-33 at Roos Field, ending a regular season that fell short of lofty expectations on a high note and leaving the door open to a trip to the 24-team Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and the chance to pursue the school's second FCS title.

A few hours later, reality hit home as the FCS snubbed Eastern, which had hoped to receive one of 14 at-large berths. Only three teams from the Big Sky Conference, perceived to have had a down year, made the field — champion Southern Utah (9-2, 6-1), which beat Eastern 46-28 a month ago; runner-up Weber State (9-2, 7-1), a 28-20 winner last week in Cheney; and Northern Arizona, like the Eagles 7-4 overall and 6-2 in Big Sky play; the Lumberjacks did not play Eastern this season. It was only the second time in the past six years that EWU, which advanced to the semifinals last year, failed to qualify for the FCS playoffs.

There was nothing wrong with the Eagles' performance against the Vikings — Gage Gubrud rebounded strongly from a one-game suspension, completing 17 of 32 passes for 445 yards and four touchdowns and running for 67 more yards. Senior wide receiver Nic Sblendorio caught nine of Gubrud's passes for a career-high 273 yards — 2 shy of the Eastern record of 275 set by Cooper Kupp, now with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, at Northern Colorado in 2015 — including touchdowns of 60 and 74 yards. Running back Antoine Custer ended his sophomore year in style with a career-high 177 yards and touchdowns of 6, 27 and 28 yards.

ON INLANDER.COM

'Lemon Pepper Chicken'
We asked Mark Anderson, Spokane's new poet laureate, four questions.

Space Needle discovery
After decades, a long-forgotten time capsule has been discovered near the Space Needle's main elevators. (via New York Times)


IN OTHER NEWS

Nuclear option at Hanford
The board charged with oversight of the Hanford radioactive waste cleanup is sounding the alarm on "design problems that risk explosive and radioactive releases," a new report shows. Some wonder if the board's report will have any impact, and whether the board itself will still exist under President Trump. (Seattle Times)

Charles Manson dies in prison
The serial murderer and leader of a cult "family," Charles Manson, is dead at 83: Remember his victims. (Los Angeles Times)

Walking while black in Florida
Five years of data for tickets issued to pedestrians in Florida reveal disproportionate impact on black people, especially those living in poor neighborhoods. (ProPublica, Florida Times-Union)

Hopefully you all have a short week so you can enjoy some family and friends time at Thanksgiving, and beyond. Here are some options to keep everyone entertained, as draw from our event listings and Staff Picks.

Monday, Nov. 20

FILM | Head to the Magic Lantern for the latest in their Monday Night Movies series, Private Violence. The movie delves into domestic violence through the eyes of two survivors.

Tuesday, Nov. 21

COMEDY | Join a slew of Spokane's funniest folks at the Bartlett for the Spokane Comedy Mixtape Vol. 2 live recording from the club's stage.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: A member of the Kettle Falls Five wants Congress to keep states' protection for medical marijuana.

NEWS: Days before regulators will decide whether to grant the final permit needed to begin construction on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a pipeline constructed by the same company spilled 210,000 gallons in South Dakota yesterday. (via New York Times)


IN OTHER NEWS

Look up! No, don't...
A Navy pilot thought it would be funny to trace a penis in the sky with an aircraft's contrails above Okanogan County. The Naval Air Station in Whidbey Island is taking the matter very seriously, telling KREM that "we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable."

Choose your own outrage
Donald Trump, the president who has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment or misconduct and has bragged about sexually assaulting women, criticized Sen. Al Franken yesterday after allegations surfaced that the Minnesota Democrat forcibly kissed and groped a woman on a USO tour in 2006, two years before he was elected to the Senate.

Trump remains silent, however, on the allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore sexually assaulted several underage girls decades ago. (Associated Press)

Lake City HS student arrested
Following a string of threats at the school, a Lake City High School student was arrested yesterday for referencing a gun while verbally threatening another student. (CdA Press)

Tax reform
Republican members of the House passed a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax cut yesterday, despite objections from Democrats that it only benefits corporations and the rich at the expense of the middle class. The Senate is coming up with its own bill. (New York Times)