As the fall sports season comes to a close, accolades have begun to roll in. This year, one King’s cross country senior has received recognition not only in-state but nationally both in sports and in the classroom.

Naomi Smith finished her third and final season with the King’s Cross Country program earlier this month placing 2^nd in the 1A State Girls Cross Country Championship meet. She ends her 3-year cross country career with a 7^th, 1^st, and 2^nd place State Championship trophy, respectively.

Smith is also known for her smarts. Averaging a 4.0 while taking numerous AP courses, this past September, Naomi was recognized as one of 16,000 high school students in the country when she was named a Semifinalist in the 65^th Annual National Merit Program. This places her in the top 1% nationally for PSAT test scores of all high school students. With this ranking, Smith has a chance to move towards earning a National Merit Scholarship, offered to only 7,500 students in the country.

Naomi began her freshman year at King’s as a junior-varsity volleyball player, never having been a part of a cross country program, however, Smith always knew she loved to run. After trying one of the Knights practices “for fun” after her volleyball season ended freshman year, Smith broke the school record in that day’s timed-trial.

The following year, Smith decided to turn out for the cross country program, and in just two years has made her way up the national polls as a high school runner.

This season, with a time of 17 minutes and 21.7 seconds, Smith held the second-fastest high school girls’ time in the entire state regardless of classification. This time ranked her at 47^th-fastest in the nation.

Smith ended her high school cross country career running the 5k course at the State meet in 18 minutes and 24 seconds.

Smith plans to continue her distance-running career for the University of Washington Track and Field team next fall. 

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Another school year has come to an end and the King’s Knights have come out on top. This week, King’s High School was awarded 1^st Place in the 2018-2019 WIAA/Washington Army National Guard 1A Scholastic Cup.

This prestigious award is earned with a strong dedication to activities and athletics in the school community throughout the entire year. Schools that finish at the top of their respective classifications in state athletic competitions receive points, as do schools that finish at the top in team academic performance. Sportsmanship is also a factor and at the end of the school year, the school with the most points in their classification is crowned champion.

“King’s High School is excited to celebrate our 8^th WIAA Scholastic Cup,” said high school principal, Bob Ruhlman. “This statewide award recognizes two key components of any activities program: academic achievement and competitive achievement. At King’s, we seek to take it one step further with faith and character development – hallmarks of our athletics and activities departments. Congratulations to our student-athletes, their coaches, our athletics administrators and to our parents and teachers. This award recognizes every member of our outstanding community whether you were on an athletic team, in our music or drama program or even our new speech and debate program. Way to go King’s!”     

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by Head Football Coach Jim Shapiro

Coaching football at King’s has given me the platform to help boys grow into men. Over my 23 years of coaching, I have had the opportunity to interact with hundreds of young men. These guys are from all walks of life but find a way to come together every fall to try and achieve something they couldn’t achieve on their own. They pursue success and victory on their way to experiencing personal building blocks that help them grow from boys into men.

The phrase that best describes the primary aim of our program is “building champions while pursuing championships.” It’s an exciting mission that follows a road that is full of ups and downs, but worth every minute invested in practicing and playing the game.

Early in my coaching career I was taught that the goal of the football season is not the end destination but rather the journey itself. When you can learn how to enjoy the process of practicing and preparing, then winning tends to happen more often than not.

Simply put, the goal is not the end of the road, the goal is the road.

Along this road I have had the opportunity to coach some amazing young men. I now have past players that are in the early 30’s. Many of them are married with kids. Just this past weekend I attended the wedding of a past player. There he stood all grown up waiting for his bride to meet him at the alter. Witnessing this great event was a room full of past coaches and players. It was a powerful site to see and a great reminder as to why I coach football at King’s.

I wish I had the time to share with you all the amazing memories I have from my two-decades of coaching, but there isn’t enough room on this page to do my experiences justice. What I can tell you is that the memories are many, most full of laughter and fun with a few tears and tragedies along the way. I guess what I’m saying is that the memories the King’s Football experience provides are memories of life lived together, in community, under the banner of Christ, with teammates that care for one another and coaches that truly believe in building champions while pursuing championships.

We are just weeks away from starting another season. This season promises to be full of great memories and success on the scoreboard. It also promises to be another opportunity for building champions while pursuing championships.

I hope that you can make it out to Woolsey Stadium one of these Friday nights to see my boys in action. They are fun to watch, compete with an eager mindset and you will have a chance to see first hand what King’s Football is all about.

I will see you on the gridiron!

Coach Shap

For more about King’s Schools athletics, please visit khsathletics.com.

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