Come next fall, Sumner High football standout Tre Weed will be wearing the red and white of the Eastern Eagles.
The Spartan senior committed to Eastern Washington University Feb. 7, national Letter of Intent signing day.
He joins Sumner teammate Ben Wilson in heading to four-year programs. Wilson, a much-coveted linebacker, signed with Texas Christian University Dec. 20, the nation’s first early-signing day.
Wilson and Weed have been two-way mainstays for a Sumner Spartan team that posted a 34-5 overall record the past three seasons and made it to the state semifinals the past two years.
Weed will head to the Cheney campus and join a rock-solid program that has posted winning records for 11 consecutive seasons and been better than .500 in 20 of the past 22 campaigns. The future remains bright, with nine starters returning to the Eagle offense and eight on the defensive side of the ball.
Weed takes a unique skill set to the Eastern program, one that has coach Aaron Best excited.
Weed signed as a safety, “but he has kick return skills, punt return skills and he has ball-in-his-hands skills,” Best said. “He has a lot of position flexibility and a lot of opportunities ahead of him.
“He’s an important piece of the puzzle, especially from a defensive standpoint, but what a great all-around athlete he is,” Best added.
Including playoffs, Weed finished his Sumner High career with 5,980 all-purpose yards and 83 touchdowns. Defensively, he recorded 19 interceptions, including six he returned for touchdowns, and had 103 total tackles. He averaged more than 21 yards per kickoff return and more than 12 yards on punt returns.
Honors included a league MVP award following his senior season. Additionally, he was a first-team, all-state player by the Associated Press. He was rated as a three-star recruit and the 12th-best prospect in the state by 247sports.com and scout.com. He was a two-star prospect on rivals.com.
Wilson had been firm in his commitment to TCU, despite landing a handful of attractive offers to go elsewhere. He announced he would be attending the Fort Worth, Texas, university a year ago and confirmed his verbal commitment prior to the fall prep football season. Along the way, Wilson received scholarship offers from Pac-12 schools like Stanford, Cal and Utah, and was targeted in a late recruiting push by the University of Washington.
Wilson was one of 18 student-athletes to sign on Dec. 20, contributing to a TCU recruiting class that has been ranked in the Top 20 nationally by 247Sports.com. From the early-signing day, he was the only linebacker.
At 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, Wilson was a four-star recruit by 247Sports.com, ranked as the No. 1 inside linebacker in Washington and No. 18 in the nation. Overall, he was ranked the No. 5 player in the state. He was a three-time, first-team, all-league selection for the Spartans.
During his senior season, Wilson recorded 141 tackles, including 11 for loss, and also pulled in four interceptions. As a running back, he totaled 1,259 yards and 20 touchdowns.
SEVEN MORE SPARTANS TAKING TALENTS TO COLLEGE
Also signing a national Letter of Intent on Feb. 7 were:
• Luke Ross: the Spartan quarterback will head to Valley City State University, where he joins 19 other new recruits. VCSU is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, plays in the North Star Athletic Association and is located in Valley City, North Dakota.
• Samantha Larbergh, women’s soccer, Northern Arizona University
• Sophie Painter, women’s soccer, Yakima Valley Community College
• Austin Roth, football, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
• Torben Deese, football, Claremont McKenna College
• Ryan Griffith, men’s soccer, Pacific Lutheran University
• Maddie Gustafson, women’s soccer, University of Idaho
Spartan athletes who already signed on with college programs include Kaitlyn Clark, who will play basketball at Olivet Nazarene University in Chicago; Jake Gehri, who will play baseball at Yale University; and Rafael Rodriquez, a diver heading to the University of Arizona.
WHITE RIVER: SOCCER PLAYERS HEADING TO FOUR-YEAR PROGRAMS
A pair of Hornet senior standouts, Annabelle Hall and Haylee Gunter, signed a national Letter of Intent Feb. 7 to play at the collegiate level.
Hall is off to the Cheney campus of Eastern Washington University following four years at White River where she scored 116 career goals and dished out 45 assists. She earned first team All-SPSL honors as a forward from 2015 to 2017 in addition to all-state honors in 2016 and 2017.
She earned the SPSL’s Most Valuable Player award following both the 2016 and 2017 seasons and also was named the 2017 SPSL Offensive Player of the Year.
Eastern Eagle coach Chad Bodnar had this to say about Hall: “Annabelle is a proven goal scorer that we think can develop into something special here at EWU in our style of play. She’s very good inside the 18-yard box and a good finisher. Her accolades in high school speak for themselves and we like her athleticism.”
Hall joins an EWU program that has won the Big Sky Conference championship the past two seasons, each time advancing to the NCAA tournament.
Gunter also was a four-year player for the successful Hornet soccer program. A midfielder, she was named to the all-South Puget Sound League 2A first team following both her junior and senior seasons. As a sophomore, she was a second-team selection.
Now, she will be suiting up for Montana State University Billings, a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
Yellowjacket coach Stephen Cavallo, who first saw Gunter play a couple of years ago while she was performing for a club team, clearly is excited to have her heading to Billings.
“It has been awesome watching Haylee develop over the last two seasons and we are lucky to have her joining our program,” he said in an email. “I think she is a player that possesses great athleticism and skill on the ball. I think she is set for a seamless transition to the college game and we cannot wait to start working with her in August. More important than the talents she brings on the field, Haylee really impressed me with her humble, positive and driven attitude.”
In Billings, Gunter will be reunited with former White River teammate Mack Breeden, a starting midfielder for the Yellowjackets.
Two other members of the successful White River team, Alex Hatley and Emma Slyter, have signed to play next year with Pierce College.
ENUMCLAW: ELDRIDGE TO WESTERN WASHINGTON, HUNT TO GEORGE FOX
Following one more spring of soccer with his Enumclaw High teammates, Teagan Eldridge will head to Bellingham for a career with the Western Washington University Vikings.
At EHS, Eldridge was an all-league, second-team selection following his junior year and received honorable mention honors after his sophomore campaign. That comes with a successful stint with a traveling club team.
Greg Brisbon, who has five seasons under his belt as the Viking coach, is happy to land the Hornet.
“Teagan comes from a club team that has had great success in the past two years. One of the main reasons for that is because of Teagan,” Brisbon wrote in an email. “He has great attacking instincts, he is a team guy first and has a tremendous motor. We are looking forward to see Teagan grow as a player and student athlete over the next four years.”
Enumclaw High senior Cortney Hunt looked south for her collegiate sporting adventure, signing to play fastpitch softball for George Fox University. She’ll head to the Newberg, Oregon, campus in the fall, following one more spring season at EHS.
Following her junior season in a Hornet uniform, Hunt was voted a second-team, all-league outfielder. She was a first-team pick as a sophomore. During that sophomore season, Hunt hit .339, with an on-base percentage of .431. Those numbers improved during her junior year, when she hit .443 with a .512 OBP.
Cortney Hunt signed to play softball, joined by (from left) parents Tone and Renee Hunt and EHS coach Mike Eckhart and Linda Hubber. Submitted photo
For signing day, Teagan Eldridge was joined by parents Lane and Dennis Eldridge, seated, and grandparents Bob and Vikki Gramann. Submitted photo
White River soccer star Annabelle Hall was joined by family and friends as she signed papers to play for Eastern Washington University. Submitted photos.
Haylee Gunter finished a four-year career at White River High School and was supported by family when she signed to continue playing at MSU Billings. Submitted photo
