Volleydog Tessa Koutsky to play for Seattle University
April 13, 2007

Tessa Koutsky, an all-conference libero and varsity co-captain, will sign a national letter of intent to play volleyball for Seattle University.

"I am really excited to be playing for them," says Koutsky, a three-year letter winner for the Volleydogs.

Tessa was the Seattle Times Star of the Week for October 24, 2006, and a Seattle Post-Intelligencer Honorable Mention the same week. At the 2005 State 4A Volleyball Tournament, she was awarded the sportsmanship medal.

"It will be wonderful to see one of our Volleydog alums play for a local university," says Garfield head coach Leslie Hamann. Recent Volleydog grads are playing around the country. "We're already planning a Volleydog Night at a Seattle U home match next season."

Tessa is a member of the Sudden Impact Volleyball Club, after two years with WVBA and one with Club Wahine. Her teams competed in the Junior Olympics in 2006 (Atlanta) and 2004 (Houston).

Seattle University is a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Under head coach Shannon Ellis, the Redhawks won 35 matches the past two seasons and have become one of the top teams in the league.

School District considers adding "pay to play" fees
March 8, 2007

PAY TO PLAY is a fee collected from high school student-athletes as a mandatory prerequisite to participation in interscholastic athletics. The fee is in addition to the cost of an ASB card, which is also required for all high school athletes.

The Finance Committee of the Seattle School Board is actively researching the feasibility of implementing PAY TO PLAY at the district’s ten high schools, including Garfield. The committee is seeking input from students, parents, coaches and school administrators.

The big picture.
Interscholastic athletic programs in the Seattle School District are funded largely from sales of vending machine snacks on high school campuses. The most significant athletic expense is the cost of chartered bus transportation for student-athletes to and from competitions.

Seattle Public Schools’ new nutritional standards and commercialism policies mandated the removal of carbonated beverages from high school vending machines and the termination of contracts with the Coca-Cola Company. The district estimates that the contract with a new vendor will generate $200,000 less per year than the previous contract with Coke.

The ten Seattle high schools collectively require approximately one thousand busses for athletic contests each school year, at a district-wide expense in excess of $300,000.


An emerging trend.
Both regionally and nationally, school districts have implemented PAY TO PLAY to supplement athletic budgets. The other two districts with schools in our KingCo 4A conference—Northshore and Lake Washington—each have PAY TO PLAY in place, as do the Edmonds, Federal Way, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Renton and Shoreline school districts. Auburn, Bellevue and Kent do not currently have PAY TO PLAY.


Fee structure.
Most districts in our region charge between $50-$75 for PAY TO PLAY. In most cases, districts designate a cap on the fee for multi-sport athletes and/or for families with more than one child playing sports.

In addition, most districts make provisions for students from low-income families. In many schools, students who participate in the Free or Reduced Lunch (FRL) program qualify for reduced or waived PAY TO PLAY fees. (At Garfield, medical coupon cards are often required for proof of low income status for similar fee waivers.)

Currently, the Seattle School Board Finance Committee is studying two fee models. In Model One, low-income student-athletes would pay nothing; all other students would pay $50 per school year, regardless of the number of sports the student plays that year. The committee estimates that this system would generate $116,000 in PAY-TO-PAY fees district-wide. Model Two envisions a $25/year fee for low-income students and $50/year for all other students, for an estimated revenue of $144,000.


Admission fees to interscholastic contests.
For decades, fans have been charged admission to high school football and basketball contests, the two sports which receive enormous publicity in local media. Recently, admission fees were added for wrestling, gymnastics and volleyball. The conference is actively considering adding soccer to the list, and perhaps other sports as well.

In the KingCo 4A conference, our competitor schools on the eastside allow their students with ASB Cards to attend home contests at no extra charge, in large part because those districts already utilize PAY TO PLAY. Only the Seattle School District requires students with an ASB Card to pay admission to home athletic contests, creating a distinct competitive imbalance in many sports. Eastside schools report much greater revenue from sales of ASB cards, because many students buy cards to take advantage of free admission to athletic events. The additional ASB card revenue allows those schools to provide more funds to a wide range of school-sponsored nonathletic extracurricular activities.

Volleyball is centerpiece of new Public Television documentary
February 1, 2007

The Garfield Volleydogs' coaches--Leslie & Jack Hamann--are co-producers of GENERATION IX, a new public television documentary set to premier at 8:00pm on February 15 on KCTS | Seattle Public Television. The program offers a unique look at the world of women's sports; focusing on the first generation of young women to grow up under Title IX. The program's central characters are the members of the University of Washington's exceptional volleyball team, and highlights their recent tour of China. MORE

Volleydogs earn statewide academic honors
November 20, 2006

For the fifth season in a row, the Garfield Volleydogs have been named one of the elite academic teams in the state of Washington.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), the governing body for high school sports in Washington State, announced that the Volleydogs posted the sixth-highest team grade point average of any 4A team in the state.

Garfield earned the second-highest GPA in the state in 2002, 2004 and 2005; and the fifth-highest GPA in 2003. Since 2002, no other volleyball team in Washington State has come close to matching the Volleydogs' academic performance.

During that same span, the American Volleyball Coaches Association has honored Garfield as one of the top academic teams--high school and college--in the nation.

Five Volleydogs named all-conference
October 28, 2006

The Garfield Volleydogs placed five athletes on the 2006 KingCo 4A all-conference team.

Seniors Tessa Koutsky, Lizbeth Arias and Britt Thorson were each named to the conference's second team. Co-captain Koutsky led the team in digs; Arias was the team leader in blocks; co-captain Thorson had the most kills on the team.

Senior Andrea Arkans and junior Erica Jornlin were both earned all-conference Honorable Mention. Arkans was among the team leaders in assists; Jornlin was one of the Volleydog leaders in kills and blocks.

The five Volleydogs join twenty-nine previous Garfield players to earn all-conference honors since the inception of KingCo 4A in 1997.

Tessa Koutsky named Seattle Times Prep Star of the Week
October 24, 2006

The Seattle Times named Volleydog Tessa Koutsky its Prep Star of the Week. In honoring the four-year Volleydog, the Times wrote:

Koutsky, a 5-foot-4 senior libero, amassed an impressive 55 digs to help lead the Bulldogs to a 3-2 victory over Juanita in a KingCo 4A match. It was the third straight conference win for Garfield. Koutsky, a team captain, came up with 108 digs during that span.

Tessa is the third Volleydog to earn this prestigious honor. Jamie Nikami was the Times Prep Star of the week on September 27, 2005, and Lillie Cohn won the award on October 19, 2004.

2006 Volleydog teams announced
August 25, 2006

Twenty-five students have been selected to represent Garfield High School as members of the 2006 Garfield Volleydog team:

VARSITY

• Lizbeth Arias (2007)
• Andrea Arkans (2007)
• Kyra-lin Hom (2007)
• Erica Jornlin (2008)
• Lauren Kaczmarek (2008)
• Tessa Koutsky (2007)
• Anna Miller (2009)
• Alexandra Ndegwa (2008)
• Babette Papineau (2009)
• Saghal Scego (2007)
• Camille Shumann (2009)
• Britt Thorson (2007)
• Carly Tsutakawa (2008)

JUNIOR VARSITY

• Lily Anderson (2010)
• Casey Babcock (2010)
• Maddie Boardman (2008)
• Eliza Cohn (2010)
• Kaylee Dye (2008)
• Emily Fletcher (2009)
• Carly Haeck (2010)
• Georgia Jamieson (2010)
• Noelle Jung (2008)
• Alexa Lagazo-Patton (2010)
• Hannah Rusk (2010)
• Leah Trangen (2010)

Samantha Chin (2008) is recovering from knee surgery, and will assist the 2006 team as team manager.

The 2006 tryouts attracted a record turnout, spanning five days of instruction and intense competition. Head coach Leslie Hamann called it the best tryout week in her ten years of coaching at Garfield. The coaching staff offers its congratulations to all who competed for a spot on the team.

Volleydogs win fifth national academic award
August 11, 2006

For the fourth year in a row--and the fifth time in the past seven years--the American Volleyball Coaches' Association (AVCA) named the Garfield High School varsity volleyball team one of the top academic teams in the nation.

The award honors college and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average.

For the second year in a row, the Volleydogs were the only team--high school or college--in the state of Washington to win the award.

Members of the 2005 Garfield Varsity were seniors Berit Erickson, Tatiana Gellein, Jamie Nikami, Molly Swenson and Chelle Ticeson, juniors Lizbeth Arias, Andrea Arkans, Tessa Koutsky and Britt Thorson, and sophomores Erica Jornlin, Lauren Kaczmarek, Alex Ndegwa and Carly Tsutakawa. The head coach of the Volleydogs is Leslie Hamann.

Volleydog seniors announce their college choices
May 4, 2006

Garfield's five graduating seniors have announced their college choices.

Berit Erickson will attend Haverford College, an elite liberal arts school just outside Philadelphia. Berit's exceptional academic record earned her an early admission offer from Haverford, precluding the need to wait out acceptance letters from other universities.

Tatiana Gellein has been admitted to Brown University, of the Ivy League. Tat had lots of options, choosing among acceptance letters from the University of Washington, NYU, Emory and USC.

Jamie Nikami will attend highly-regarded Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she hopes to play volleyball for the Division III Tigers. Jamie also received offers from the University of Washington, Mills College, Seattle University, the University of Puget Sound and St. Mary's University.

Molly Swenson was offered the opportunity to play volleyball at four outstanding schools: Amherst, Columbia, Tufts and Pomona. In the end, she opted for the unparalleled experience of Harvard University.

Chelle Ticeson will play volleyball at Bethune-Cookman, an historically Black College in Daytona Beach, Florida. Chelle was actively recruited by several universities, and received volleyball scholarship offers from Western Washington University and Indiana State University.

The Volleydogs are proud of the stellar academic acheivements of all their players. Recent Volleydog alumni attend, or graduated from, the University of Washington, UCLA, Brown, Dartmouth, the University of Chicago, Georgetown, Whitman, Willamette, the University of Maryland, Christian Brothers University, Carleton College and Pitzer College, among others.