Kraken News

The Kraken will spend another offseason looking for new leadership. The team announced today that it fired head coach Dan Bylsma after one season in Seattle. Bylsma guided the Kraken to a 35-41-6 record that put them 20 points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Kraken will now look for their third head coach in as many seasons, having fired Dave Hakstol last offseason. They won’t be alone in the search for a new bench boss, as the New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks also parted ways with their head coaches over the weekend.

Mariners News

The Mariners had another productive weekend to continue their streak as the hottest team in baseball. Rowdy Tellez homered in each of their three games and Seattle took two out of three against the Toronto Blue Jays to win their fourth straight series.

Luis Castillo gave up three runs in five innings to help the M’s cap it off with an 8-3 win yesterday. Cal Raleigh continued his stretch as the league’s hottest hitter with another home run, making it seven bombs in his last nine games. Dylan Moore also homered yesterday on his way to earning American League Player of the Week.

The Mariners have now won 8 of their last 10 games and sit just a game behind the Rangers for first place in the AL West. They’ll continue their road trip tomorrow in the start of a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox. Coverage begins at 2:30 and first pitch is at 3:45 on KPUG.

Sounders/Reign

It was a successful weekend for Seattle soccer clubs. The Reign picked up a 1-0 win over the Portland Thorns at Lumen Field on Friday. It was their second win of the season as they now jump into a three-team tie for sixth place in the National Women’s Soccer League standings.

The Sounders followed with a 3-0 shutout win over Nashville FC on Saturday. They’ve won back-to-back games after going on a five-game winless streak.

High School Sports

Washington has a new high school sport for the first time in over two decades. The WIAA voted to approve girls flag football as an official sport last week, making it the first newly-sanctioned sport in Washington since 1999. Washington is now the 15th state to sanction girls’ flag football in the country.

The WIAA also approved an amendment cracking down on transfer eligibility rules. Students can now transfer one time after establishing initial eligibility at a high school, but only within designated transfer windows. Under the new rule, a student who transfers will be ineligible for 40% of varsity games in the school year following the transfer. Those amendments and five others will take effect on August 1.

Meanwhile, a pair of rule changes proposed by Whatcom County school districts to restrict transgender participation in high school sports failed. One would have restricted girls’ sports to biological females and the other would have created an open division outside of “boys and girls” for transgender or nonbinary students. The Lynden, Lynden Christian and Blaine school districts were among those who submitted one or both of the proposals. They were each up for advisory-only votes, because several state agencies told the WIAA that they would violate state law.