Yukon Band B

The storm that blasted through the Cascade Mountains earlier this week dropped 17 inches of new snow on Mount Baker, and allows the ski area to open tomorrow for skiing and snowboarding.

The total snow base at Mount Baker is 35 inches, and more snow is expected to fall tonight and tomorrow.

Mount Baker is operating out of the White Salmon Base Area, and Chairs 3, 4, 5, 6 7 and 8 will be running from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. With more snow predicted Mount Baker plans to open all lifts and both base areas by this weekend.

Crystal Mountain Resort is also planning on opening their doors to skiers and snowboarders by this weekend with limited operations. The area plans to open the Discovery, Chinook Express and Forest Queen lifts.

Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort is also open under limited operations on Fridays and weekends from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com

When I entertain, I like to make the food I serve, or at least most of it. Friends and family can pick up a Costco tray for their holiday bashes, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I have a reputation to uphold (or repair, depending on the circumstance), and a homemade spread is appreciated by guests, if not expected. Or perhaps this is just what I expect of myself.

My home kitchen is small, so I need to prepare as much of the food as possible in advance. And this is the key - I try not to wear myself out the day of the party. A tired host is a cranky host, and that’s not much fun for anyone.

So I choose recipes that can be prepared a day or two before the special event. For an appetizer spread, crostini is a basic. (Who doesn’t like toast, after all?) The tapenade I make is based on a store-bought product, to which I add chopped oil-cured olives, capers, lemon zest and basil. It’s very easy and delicious.

Jarred red peppers are great for dips and such, but as a crostini topping, they don’t have the intensely fresh flavor or texture I like. Roasting the peppers is so easy, especially when they’re cut in half, flattened and run under a hot broiler until the skins blister and blacken. The flesh is then cut into strips and marinated. The peppers and tapenade can be made up to 48 hours before serving and kept in the refrigerator.

For a casual dinner party, the crostini can be followed with a wonderful pasta paired with a salad. Baked Rigatoni Norma with Eggplant and Ricotta is a dish that delivers - it’s vegetarian, so there are no worries about guests who don’t eat meat, and it can be made a day in advance and refrigerated. And it’s so good, even eggplant loathers will like it.

For dessert, I would serve a wonderfully rich chocolate dessert from one of the terrific shops in town. Most likely, it would be a conversation piece, and if anything goes terribly wrong with the rest of the plans, there will be the comfort of chocolate to turn to.

Planning just a dessert party can be a fun solution for getting together with busy friends without the stress of pulling an entire menu together. Everyone can bring something, or serve just one homemade specialty with rich coffee and herbal tea. It’s just one of the entertaining themes that satisfies everyone’s expectations.

CeCe Sullivan: csullivan@seattletimes.com

Columbus Short is an actor-dancer and choreographer. He choreographed for Britney Spears, back when she toured. And danced. He has parlayed a jump-start from the sleeper hit “Stomp the Yard,” about step competitions at predominantly black colleges, into a string of coming movies, including the graphic-novel adaptation “Whiteout,” “Armored” with Matt Dillon, and one he is about to shoot titled “Quarantined.”

In “This Christmas,” he plays a Marine who will do anything to get to his family’s Christmas celebration, and anything to avoid telling them his “big secret.”

Q: So the idea that black family Christmases are different from traditional family Christmas celebrations depicted in the movies is behind “This Christmas.” Are the traditions that different?

A: America is all about the holidays and all about family. And while there are some differences in the ways African Americans celebrate Christmas, we’re a lot more alike than you might think. Some of the traditions are going to be different. The music, for instance. Maybe we’re dancing like “Soul Train.” But we’re listening to “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” “Rudolph,” “Santa’s Coming to Town.”

The black factor is important. But you don’t have to have gone to a black college to get a kick out of the traditions of “Stomp the Yard.” I think this movie works because of the situations and characters every American will recognize in the Whitfields.

I wanted to be in this because it was going to have a great cast, a great look, because it wasn’t going to look like a “scaled down” cut-rate “black” movie. You have so many good black actors in this it feels like “The Family Stone.” It’s “The Family Stone” with some more color in it!

Q: One thing that stands out about “This Christmas” is the presence of religion in this family. A lot of Hollywood Christmas movies leave that out.

A: Religion is going play a central role in your typical African-American family’s Christmas. But with this movie, the script doesn’t beat you over the head with it. They didn’t push it. And there’s an argument over it.

But that’s a thing families argue over, religion. Any family, black, white, Catholic, Jewish or Mormon, there’s always going to be some members who are more religious than others. That sort of argument rang true to me.

The reasons these movies about family holidays are so popular is that you put family crammed together with all the emotions of the holidays and you get drama. It happens in the movies. It happens in life, man. We’ve all had our holiday beefs with our family. I know I have. C’mon. You have too, right?

Q: Oh, let’s not get into that. Your character, Claude, the Marine. What’s his function in the movie?

A: Claude is another mirror on the Whitfields’ past. It isn’t the dialogue that gives that away. It’s what’s not said. The Whitfields are a whole family with abandonment issues, from Loretta (the mother) down to Baby (the youngest son). Everybody has those, and we’re all working them out. The father of these kids isn’t around. Claude is somebody who grew up with that, and he isn’t about to do what his dad did. That’s why he’s a mirror.

You have to pay attention to get the relationships in this movie. There’s none of that lazy expositional dialogue. You have to meet the characters, figure out who they are in relation to one another, when you’re supposed to. Gradually.

Q: You’re a dancer, so I probably already know the answer to this. What was the most fun thing to play in the movie?

A: That’s right, that’s right! The “Soul Train” line (the family shows off its dancing skills, “Soul Train” style) was the most fun thing ever. That was what the spirit of the set was like, all day. By the time it came to shoot that, we were all comfortable, in the pocket, ready to cut loose.

As a Sikh, Sukhvir Singh says he has encountered racial harassment before, but he never feared it could lead to his death.

But on Saturday, police say, the Orange Cab driver withstood a violent attack from a drunken passenger who punched him, bit off a piece of his scalp, called Singh an “Iraqi terrorist” and threatened to kill him. The attack ended after a Metro bus pulled up to the cab and a passenger called 911.

Luis Vázquez, a 20-year-old construction worker from Kent, was charged Tuesday with third-degree assault and one count of malicious harassment, the state’s hate-crime law. If convicted, Vázquez faces up to a year in jail, according to a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

After the attack, Singh was treated at Harborview Medical Center and released. He was later admitted to Valley Medical Center in Renton and remains hospitalized because of kidney problems. He said it’s unclear whether the problems are a result of the attack.

Speaking from his hospital bed Tuesday, Singh said it is difficult to talk about the attack, but he is grateful for the outpouring of support from the community.

“I live here, and I love America. I love to serve my community and my people here,” said Singh, of Kent, a father of two. “It’s very hard to think about.”

Intoxicated passenger

Singh was stopping at a Montlake neighborhood grocery to grab dinner Saturday before 8 p.m. when Seattle police escorted an obviously drunken man to his cab, said the cabdriver’s attorney, Hardeep Rekhi. Singh, a cabdriver for seven years, said it’s not uncommon for police to place intoxicated people in his cab so they can be driven home.

Authorities say the passenger was Vázquez. They said he had been kicked out of the Apple Cup football game at Husky Stadium.

While Singh was driving Vázquez home, Vázquez started calling him a terrorist and threatened to kill him, according to court charging documents. Singh said he worried for his life and the lives of other motorists as he drove down Interstate 5 at 60 mph.

Singh pulled over just south of the exit for Interstate 90, according to charging papers.

Vázquez followed Singh as he left the cab and continued the attack, court papers said. It was only when a Metro bus pulled up and Vázquez tried to board that the attack stopped, according to charging papers.

Vázquez later told investigators that he was afraid of Singh because Vázquez “had a buddy in Iraq,” according to charging papers. Singh isn’t Iraqi. He’s an Indian-born member of the Sikh religion, which claims up to a half-million followers in the U.S.

Because the case appears to be a hate crime, the FBI has launched a civil-rights inquiry, said spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs. The facts gathered by agents will be sent to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and if attorneys there think more information is necessary, the FBI will launch a full-blown investigation, Burroughs said.

The New York-based Sikh Coalition had pushed for prosecutors to file the case as a hate crime.

Rekhi, the Seattle attorney representing Singh, said his client is pleased with the filing decision.

Singh said that even though he has never been called such awful names, his fellow Sikh cabdrivers have faced worse violence and terror.

On Sept. 13, 2001, Farwest Cab driver Kulwinder Singh was assaulted and accused of being a Middle East terrorist by an intoxicated passenger he picked up in SeaTac. Raymond Isais Jr., 21, of San Diego, pleaded guilty to malicious harassment.

“Safe transport”

Explaining why officers placed a drunken man in Singh’s cab, Seattle police Sgt. Deanna Nollette said the department’s protocol with intoxicated people is to simply find them “safe transport.”

The State Patrol, which is also investigating the attack, doesn’t believe Seattle police did anything wrong by putting Vázquez in Singh’s cab.

“The goal of law enforcement at that venue was getting him home. There was no lawful reason to detain him,” said State Patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill. “For some particular reason, this guy in this scenario snapped.”

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Pressure.

It’s what every defense wants to apply to the opposing quarterback. Chase him out of the pocket or rush him into making a bad decision. Better yet, clobber him so bad he’ll see double and think twice the next time he drops back to pass.

Pressure.

It’s what the Seahawks’ pass rush feels, too. There is no statistic that more clearly delineates Seattle’s victories and its losses this season than the number of sacks the Seahawks rack up in a game.

Seattle has 32 sacks in its seven victories, an average of 4.6. The Seahawks have just three sacks combined in their four defeats.

“The sack numbers are pretty crazy, the skew between our victories and our defeats,” said defensive end Patrick Kerney, who has six sacks the past two games. “But like I’ve always said, so many things go into the sacks and the pressures, and we’ve taken care of those things in the games we’ve got the sacks.”

Holding a lead helps because it forces the opponent to throw. So does stonewalling the opponent’s running game. And then there’s the role of the secondary, whose coverage can not only buy a little extra time for the pass rush to reach the quarterback but also give the defensive coordinator confidence to send an extra player or two on a blitz.

Those are just a few of the variables that figure into the pass rush that has been such an essential part of Seattle’s success this season. They are 5-0 when they rack up four or more sacks. They are 2-1 when they get at least two sacks. The Seahawks are 0-3 when they fail to sack the opponent.

“There is a direct correlation,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “And it means a lot.”

This is neither new nor novel. There isn’t a defense in football that doesn’t get a boost out of tackling the opposing quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, but the Seahawks might need that pressure to be effective more than the average team.

Opponents converted 28.9 percent of their third downs in the games the Seahawks had four or more sacks. They convert 46.3 percent of their third downs in the five games the Seahawks have had three sacks or fewer. That’s a complicated way of saying that pressuring the quarterback is central to Seattle’s ability to stop an opponent’s drive.

“If we can’t get home, then we’re not getting off the field on third down,” Holmgren said.

And staying on the field longer poses a problem for Seattle’s defense because it’s a little light in the britches to stand in the trenches and trade body blows with an opposing offense.

“Because of our size, we wear down just a little bit,” Holmgren said.

Some teams in the league can send nothing more than their four down linemen after the passer and still expect pressure. The Giants and their league-leading 38 sacks are a good example of that with pass rushers like Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck, all of whom have at least seven sacks.

Kerney provided that kind of pressure off the edge the past two games for Seattle, recording three sacks each against Chicago and St. Louis. But that kind of pressure has been the exception, not the rule for Seattle this season.

“Just to line up with four guys and do that, that hasn’t worked real well for us,” Holmgren said.

The Seahawks are at their best when they pepper a few linebackers into that pass rush. Send Leroy Hill and let him blindside the quarterback like he did to Marc Bulger on Sunday in St. Louis. Move Julian Peterson around and utilize his pass-rush instincts.

Whatever the route, the Seahawks need that pass rush. Pressure can bust pipes, and it’s what the Seahawks have needed this season to break an opponent’s offensive rhythm.

Danny O’Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com

CHICAGO - Sears said Monday it was prepared to buy out the rest of retro-themed retailer Restoration Hardware for a nickel-per-share premium over a competing offer, a move that could help the iconic chain spruce up its merchandise lines.

Sears Holdings, which already owns 13.7 percent of the home-goods company, said it has repeatedly asked for access to Restoration Hardware’s confidential financial information and would make a binding offer if those details are provided. But so far the Northern California-based company has rebuffed those requests.

Sears’ tentative offer of $6.75 per share, made public Monday in a regulatory filing, is less than 1 percent above a dueling bid from private equity firm Catterton Partners.

It’s also less than the current trading price of Restoration Hardware’s stock, which has more than doubled in value since the beginning of the month.

Earlier this month, Catterton offered Restoration Hardware $6.70 per share, a deal the two companies said had a total equity value of $267 million.

But based on the 38.8 million Restoration Hardware shares outstanding at the end of the quarter, that offer is worth about $260 million, and Sears’ bid is worth about $262 million.

“We believe that this proposal … would provide a compelling opportunity for your stockholders to realize significant value for their shares in an all-cash transaction,” Sears Chief Executive Officers William Crowley wrote in a note to Restoration Hardware board members on Friday.

The letter was released Monday morning.

Restoration Hardware has until Dec. 13 to solicit competing proposals to Catterton’s buyout offer.

A Sears spokesman declined to comment Monday as did spokeswomen for Catterton and Restoration Hardware.

Restoration Hardware, which operates about 100 stores, racked up $713 million in revenue last year through sales of its home decor, furniture and gifts to a mostly affluent customer base.

Comparatively, Sears Holdings, which includes the Sears stores and discount chain Kmart, had net revenue of $53 billion.

A buyout offer was widely expected after Sears announced its stake in Restoration Hardware last week. However, the deal has already been criticized by many investors who say adding the upscale company would provide little benefit to the ailing Sears empire.

Others have said an acquisition would give Sears an important high-end brand name after the company’s licensing agreement with Martha Stewart expires in 2009, enlivening Sears’ merchandise and bringing in shoppers who’ve shunned the company’s products for trendier options.

Sears shares fell $4.81, or 4.3 percent, to close at $107.77 on Monday, while Restoration Hardware shares rose by a penny to $7.07.

WAINUI, New Zealand - Something keeps drawing me back to New Zealand. Part of it is how easy it is to vacation here for a woman traveling alone. It’s safe, tourist-friendly and comparatively cheap for anyone coming from North America or Western Europe.

But mostly it’s for moments like these: watching the bright turquoise sea wash up on the pure sand beach that fringes dark green rain forest. The soundtrack is the insistent chirping of crickets. I’m alone in the world, and I’m only 20 minutes’ walk from where I left my car.

It’s no overstatement: The coast of the Abel Tasman National Park has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Then again, New Zealand’s South Island is one breathtaking vista after another, and in southern hemisphere summer - winter in the northern hemisphere - it’s a mecca for walking, or “tramping” as it’s known round here. The warm weather season begins there in late November and early December. Though there were plenty of serious hikers around, loaded down with tents and sleeping bags, I chose a few creature comforts - I mostly stuck to walks I could complete in a day, and I had a rental car and motel accommodation. Almost every motel unit in New Zealand comes with a kitchen, so I cooked for myself.

Water taxis take day-trippers to points along the Abel Tasman coast, where they can walk part of the coastal track or simply relax on the beach. For a one-day taste of paradise, park in Marahau and take a water taxi to Anchorage Beach; the walk back will take about 3 ½ hours, leaving plenty of time for swimming, sunbathing and lots of photography along the way.

New Zealand conservation authorities are visitor-conscious. Paths, from 20-minute nature walks to multi-day slogs, are well-marked and well-maintained.

On the road

Driving in New Zealand is easy. It’s hard to get lost and there’s no danger of traffic jams. But distances are deceptive, as roads can be twisty and steep. To get to all corners of the South Island, allow three to four weeks, but the main sights can easily be seen in a week or 10 days.

High on most travelers’ lists is Queenstown, “Lord of the Rings” territory and the winter skiing center. It’s a lakeside town surrounded by stunning mountains, with a host of activities for both the intrepid and the less adventurous, and plenty of souvenir shopping if you happen to arrive there on one of the many rainy days.

It’s also the gateway to the southwestern Fiordland region, where lush tree-covered mountains rise straight up out of the smooth waters. Author Rudyard Kipling called Milford Sound the eighth wonder of the world, and it’s well worth the long detour to take a two-hour boat trip there. For a more complete experience, take a longer bus-and-boat trip to Doubtful or Dusky Sound from the regional center at Te Anau. Many companies also run kayaking trips into the sounds, and the Milford Track, one of New Zealand’s great tramps, starts from nearby.

New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mount Cook (”Aoraki” or “cloud-piercer” to indigenous Maori), is visible from locations on the west coast. But to get close to it also requires a detour, from the eastern side of the island. The South Island’s central regions are continually surprising - by turns wide plateaus and river valleys, arid moonscapes and rolling green hills.

Though the village of Mount Cook itself is something of a manufactured tourist trap, the journey is worth it for the multitude of walks that start there, and for the very beautiful Lake Pukaki that reflects the peaks of the Southern Alps in its still, pale blue waters.

Less visited but no less beautiful is the Catlins region, in the south of the island, between Dunedin and Invercargill, where lush green hills and fern-filled forests rise over deserted golden beaches.

According to Maori legend, the South Island was formed from an upturned canoe. The anchor stone of that canoe became Stewart Island, an hour’s ferry ride across the Fouveaux Strait from the southern tip of the mainland to Oban, the only community on the island. The rest of Stewart Island is wilderness, a haven for wildlife and walkers. The entire island forms the Rakiura National Park.

Stewart Island is the one place in New Zealand where visitors may get a daytime glimpse of the country’s elusive national icon, the kiwi, which elsewhere is a nocturnal bird. At night here, it is possible to see the aurora australis, a phenomenon otherwise reserved for much more southerly latitudes.

Easy viewing

Wildlife viewing is a popular activity for New Zealand visitors, and one that doesn’t necessarily require much effort. The Ohau Point seal colony is a roadside stop on the main east coast road north of Kaikoura; a five-minute walk to a hide in the early evening allows visitors to watch endangered yellow-eyed penguins coming in from the sea near Kaka Point, in the Catlins; and sea lions lounge on the beach at nearby Cannibal Bay.

Kaikoura, between Christchurch and Picton, was a quiet fishing village until Maori entrepreneurs set up a whale-watching tour there less than 20 years ago. It’s now a mecca for viewing - or swimming with - a wide variety of marine life.

The Otago Peninsula, on the edge of Dunedin, also offers the chance to see royal albatrosses and many other forms of wildlife.

The city of Dunedin fancies itself Scottish, while Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island, has a decidedly English feel, right down to the men in straw boaters navigating punts down the River Avon.

The Banks Peninsula, just outside Christchurch, is the day-trip of choice for residents of that city, with most heading for Akaroa, a town that plays heavily on its short-lived French colonial past.

But undiluted Kiwi urban life, such as it is, well, that’s best experienced in the laid-back, affluent town of Nelson, in the north of the island. What’s more, from here, it’s an hour’s drive west to the wonders of the Abel Tasman park, or south to the peaceful Nelson Lakes National Park.

And if all those day walks make you think you could take on something a little more adventurous, two hours from Nelson gets you to Picton, at the northern tip of the island (the ferry leaves for the North Island from here), the start point for the most accessible of the multi-day tramps.

A water taxi takes walkers to the start of the Queen Charlotte Track, on the Marlborough Sounds, and then transfers their packs each day to their hotel, hostel or campsite, leaving them to walk the three- to four-day track unencumbered.

Though hundreds of people walk the track every day, because they all go in the same direction, walkers rarely bump in to each other. Like almost everything else in New Zealand, I felt like someone had created this track just for me. Something keeps drawing me back to New Zealand, and I’m not over it yet. Now the North Island is calling. …

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A British teacher was arrested in Sudan for allegedly insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad, taken as a reference to Islam’s prophet and founder, the Sudan Media Center said Monday.

The teacher, who wrote the name on the bear, was being interrogated Monday, the semiofficial center said. She was arrested Sunday after the Ministry of Education filed a complaint, acting on behalf of a parent of one of her students.

The British Foreign Office identified her as Gillian Gibbons, 54, and said her 7-year-old students named the bear when she asked them to. It was not clear whether Gibbons intended to name the bear after the prophet. Muhammad is a common name in the Muslim world.

The Sudan Media Center said legal procedures were under way against Gibbons, who taught at the Unity High School in Khartoum, which teaches students ages 4 to 18.

The school could not be reached for comment, and the British Embassy in Khartoum did not return calls.

A Sudanese government official said Gibbons was still being detained Monday pending the completion of the investigation.

Abdul Mageed Khogalli, a member of the government’s Commission for Non-Muslims, said he was aware of the case but could not comment.

Gibbons’ former colleagues in Liverpool, England, said they were dismayed by the news of her arrest.

Gillian Jones, head teacher at Dovecot Primary School, where Gibbons was a deputy head teacher from 2002 to July, when she left for Sudan, said she was “absolutely certain” that Gibbons would not have done anything to insult any religion.

“Gillian is a very talented and able teacher and she was extremely popular with the pupils at this school,” Jones said.

Guess it doesn’t pay to cut into traffic.

Michael Register, 46, was cited for driving under the influence, driving without a license and driving on the wrong side of the road, Jacksonville, Fla.’s WJXX-TV reported, after police pulled him over going the wrong way on U.S. 17 in Putnam County, Fla.

While driving a riding lawn mower.

Copping a plea

Auburn cornerback Jerraud Powers suffered bites on his hand when he broke up a pass in Saturday’s Iron Bowl win over Alabama and strayed too close to a police dog just outside the end zone, the Birmingham (Ala.) News reported.

K-9 handlers say they’ll have to study game films before determining the snap count.

Paper Roses Dept.

A box containing thousands of rare documents, letters and memos surrounding the so-called Black Sox scandal is up for auction, the Chicago Tribune reported, including documents from the 1921 trial against eight White Sox players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.

Pete Rose is already claiming first dibs if they discover any Reds betting slips.

Good move, Chris

Snippet from a Q&A between Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and WWE rassler Chris Jericho, best-selling author of “A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex”:

Wolfe: “You write about ticking off NHL enforcer Dave Semenko when you shared a flight with the Oilers in the early 1990s. You called him ‘Cementhead’ in your book, but would you call him that to his face?”

Jericho: “Now I probably would if I was surrounded by other people. If it was just me and him, I’d call him Mr. Semenko.”

The shocking truth

Using stun guns is a form of torture, the U.N. Committee against Torture has declared.

But, as Taser apologists were quick to point out, it’s still a lot less painful than owning Dolphins season tickets.

Talking the talk

• Doug Segrest of the Birmingham News, on reeling Alabama - loser of four straight - looking at a possible berth in the low-rent Independence Bowl for the third time in seven seasons: “Alabama has spent more time in Shreveport than a traveling vacuum salesman.”

• Bill Lankhof of the Toronto Sun, after Saskatchewan beat prairie rival Winnipeg in Toronto on Sunday to win the CFL championship: “And so the Grey Cup parade goes west: Gentlemen, start your combines.”

• Former NBA star Charles Barkley, to the Dan Patrick radio show, on old pal Michael Jordan reportedly losing more than $150 million in his divorce settlement: “I was going to call him to borrow money, but I think I’ll hold off on that.”

• Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, wondering about NFL players’ Thanksgiving Day activities: “Did Ricky Williams host a potluck?”

Charging foul

Touhomi Ghazoul, a former basketball player at North Dakota State College of Science, rang up $46,897 on a school calling card by making 395 unauthorized international phone calls at $9.80 a minute, the Fargo Forum reported.

The bill was even more staggering than that, investigators say, before Italian cellphone providers agreed to waive the Roman charges.

Dwight Perry: 206-464-8250 or dperry@seattletimes.com

Q: In your opinion, what is the best football team in state history?

A: Bellevue, 2004. This was the team that ended the 151-game winning streak of Northern California power De La Salle with a 39-20 triumph at Qwest Field. The Wolverines went on to win the 3A state championship with an undefeated record.

My opinion isn’t based on whether this was the best collection of talent in state history but on my belief that this was the most unbeatable team.

The Wolverines were superbly coached, had excellent speed and ran the wing-T offense to near-perfection. It was hard to follow the ball from the press box, so I have plenty of sympathy for all the opponents who tackled the wrong guy.

And yes, the team indeed had plenty of future Division I college players including E.J. Savannah (UW), J.R. Hasty (UW), Stephen Schilling (Michigan), Eric Block (WSU) and Keith Rosenberg (WSU).

Q: Did you hear about the incredible football stat that Zach Keene of 1A Cedar Park Christian of Bothell had this season?

A: Keene, a 5-foot-11, 151-pound senior, caught eight passes and each was for a touchdown. That is the football equivalent of batting a thousand.

Keene is a sprinter who has posted an 11.1-second clocking for 100 meters. His eight TD catches were for 474 yards (59 yards per catch). Cedar Park Christian was 6-3 in the regular season and lost to Lynden Christian in the play-in game for a round-of-16 berth.

Q: Did you see the Rick Reilly column in the current Sports Illustrated about Archbishop Murphy being disqualified from the state 2A football playoffs?

A: I did. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has hit the big time for its decision to disqualify Murphy because a player had an expired physical. The oversight occurred because coach Terry Ennis, who handled all the details at Murphy, died of prostate cancer Sept. 12.

Reilly’s column begins: “The smallest-brained crustaceans are water fleas. The smallest-brained parasites are flatworms. And the smallest-brained mammals are the men and women who run high school athletics in the state of Washington.”

Q: I watched a lopsided Seamount League football game this year and the clock was allowed to run in the second half. Is this legal?

A: It’s legal enough for me. You saw common sense on display. I’ve seen this sometimes in the Metro League, too, when a game is a total mismatch. The clock runs in the second half, the dominating team plays substitutes and everyone goes home early.

Q: I’ve heard that the state cross-country course in Pasco was about 200 meters longer than what it should have been. True?

A: Not according to the man who was in charge of the meet and measured the course.

John Crawford, who just finished his 20th and final year of being in charge of the meet, insists that the course was accurate and said it was measured three times.

“It was a full 5K [5,000 meters],” he said.

Crawford said the cross-country rule book says a course should be measured “where the average runner is going to run.” To Crawford, that means one or two meters out from the shortest distance on turns.

Someone else with a measuring wheel can cut corners sharper and get a different figure.

Crawford said there were some major changes made in the course in 2006 but fewer changes this year. He said runners may have taken some extra seconds to get through a new boggy area about 1 ½ miles from the start. Construction of golf cart paths forced the routing through the mushy area.

Noting that some coaches said times were faster at qualifying meets around the state, Crawford replied, “Our course is a little tougher than people think it is.” He added, “Who is to say that the courses they ran the previous week were a full 5K themselves?”

He said this year’s times “were within what they’ve always been.”Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com