Highline Community
College
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR
RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY
DATE: March 3, 2009
CONTACT: Lisa
Skari: (206) 870-3705, lskari@highline.edu
Highline men’s basketball team clinches division title
Ché Dawson honored as NWAACC’s Western Division Coach of the Year
DES
MOINES, Wash. — Highline Community College men’s
basketball team (15-1, 20-7) clinched the Northwest Athletic Association of
Community Colleges (NWAACC) Western Division crown on Saturday in a win against
Pierce College, 81-78.
“We
got the win under tough circumstances,” said Head Coach Ché Dawson. “I’m really proud of
the kids for remaining focused, night and day, on winning the division title.”
In
addition to the division title, Dawson
was named the NWAACC’s Western Division Coach of the Year.
“It’s
a nice honor, but it’s really a team and coaching staff honor,” Dawson said. “It reflects
our outstanding team, assistant coaches and athletic director.”
The
Thunderbirds go into this week’s NWAACC championships as the No. 2 seed in the
Horizon Air final overall basketball polls, with Clackamas
Community College, of Portland, Ore.,
taking the top spot.
The
Thunderbirds first game in the tournament is against Eastern Division’s
fourth-ranked Columbia Basin Community College,
of Pasco, Wash.,
at 2 p.m. March 5 in Kennewick,
Wash.
Highline Community
College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County.
With approximately 10,000 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s
largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of
academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day,
evening, online and weekend classes.
With
the most diverse population of any college in Washington state, Highline takes a
multicultural approach to education for the success of all its students and the
prosperity of its surrounding communities. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor
Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida, Washington state poet laureate Sam Green
and Boston Celtics forward Brian Scalabrine.
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