Tuesday, December 5, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two individuals making distinctive, but impactful contributions to their respective basketball teams and an athletic director all appeared on GNAC Insider, airing Tuesday at 7 p.m., Pacific, hosted by Rob Lowery. This week’s guests were Western Oregon men’s basketball senior forward JJ Chirnside, Saint Martin’s head women’s basketball coach Christy Martin and Seattle Pacific director of athletics Jackson Stava.

Chirnside has made great progression through his career with the Wolves. After appearing in just 12 games during his sophomore campaign, the 6-foot-9 forward played in 23 games and made 17 straight starts to finish last season, averaging seven points and five rebounds per game. This year, he has turned into a solid veteran stretch big, playing in all eight contests and shooting 43.6 percent from the floor. The only four-year WOU player on the team, Chirnside is averaging 7.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Western Oregon resumes non-conference action this Thursday against Portland Bible.

A first-year head coach with the Saints, Martin has made a huge impact on the program just nine games into the season. Winning just five games all of last year, Saint Martin’s has already matched its 2016-17 overall and conference win total at 5-4 (1-1 GNAC). Martin comes from Tacoma Community College, where she led the Titans to a 20-8 record in her final season after taking over a program with only six players on the roster in 2014. The Saints boast the fourth highest field goal percentage (.428) and field goal percentage defense (.368) in the GNAC. Saint Martin’s takes on No. 13 Seattle Pacific this Saturday at 2 p.m.

In his second year with Seattle Pacific, Stava has overseen not only great athletic achievements, but academic standards from his student-athletes. Of the Falcons’ five fall sports, a total of 43 SPU athletes were Academic All-GNAC selections while four student-athletes were selected for CoSIDA Academic All-District teams this year. The Falcons are also among 32 Division II schools to achieve an academic success rate of 90 percent or higher, ranking fourth on the list with a 97 percent student-athlete graduation rate. With academic prowess comes on-field success, as SPU men’s soccer finished second in the GNAC, women’s soccer made its sixth GNAC Championships appearance and women’s basketball is ranked No. 13 in the WBCA Division II Rankings.