Washington

HS Basketball: Cory McKinney taking over Washington girls program

Published

8 months ago

July 13, 2025

Press Room

HS Basketball: Cory McKinney taking over Washington girls program

South Bend Washington High School has turned to one of its own to lead its girl’s basketball program.

Cory McKinney, a former standout player at Washington, is the new leader of the Panthers.

McKinney, a 2018 Washington graduate, replaces Steve Reynolds. Reynolds resigned in March and then accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of Texas at Arlington in April. Reynolds was 189-89 in 11 seasons at Washington.

McKinney, who served as an assistant coach for the Washington boys hoops program during the 2024-25 campaign, is ready to take on his first head coaching position.

“This is a blessing and surreal to me,” said McKinney. “I grew up down the street from Washington. I want to be on the West Side and make a difference here. This is where I’m from.”

McKinney averaged a team-high 13.3 ppg. his senior season in 2017-18 as the Panthers finished 15-9 under Ryan Varga. Varga left as Washington’s boys coach in May to become the new boys coach at Jimtown High School. Maurice Scott, who coached the Washington girls team prior to Reynolds, is the new boys coach at Washington.

McKinney takes over a program in a rebuilding phase after a stellar six-year run. The Panthers went 138-25 the past six seasons with five sectionals, three regionals, two semi-states and the Class 3A state title in 2022. That 2021-22 squad that finished 27-3 had six Division I players on it, led by Mila, Amiyah and Kira Reynolds, three daughters of coach Reynolds.

Washington posted a 24-2 mark a season ago with a 53-43 loss to Warsaw in a Class 4A regional game. The Panthers lost six seniors from a roster of 12, including stars Kira Reynolds, Ryiah Wilson and Monique Mitchell. Mitchell was an Indiana All-Star, while all three are slated to play Division I college hoops this upcoming season. The Panthers did not have a junior varsity team last season.

“We have to get to work and start from the ground up,” McKinney said. “Our numbers in the program are to be determined, but it’s very important to have a feeder system. We plan to have a camp later in July for both the boys and girls, so we will see how that goes.”

Washington Athletic Director Garland Hudson feels confident that McKinney is the man for the job.

“Cory is a home grown guy and this is something he wanted,” Hudson said. “I just feel this is how it was supposed to be. He has a passion for it.

“It’s definitely a transition time for sure for our girls basketball program. It’s going to take a group effort to support him, but that’s nothing new at Washington. That’s what we do here. Everyone supports everyone in our athletics. We’re a family here.”

McKinney went on to have an outstanding college career playing at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne. He was a three-time Conference Defensive Player of the Year, the program’s all-time leader in assists and minutes played and helped the Warriors finish as NAIA national runner-up in 2023. The 25-year-old teaches at Washington and his wife Le Anna is expecting their first child in September.

“I’m pretty confident in my ability and I’m looking forward to molding the program into what I want it to be,” McKinney stated.

“The main things I plan for people to see this season from our team is communication and a very defensive minded and fast-paced team.”

McKinney pointed to several men who have played a part in his desire to coach.

“The people who have had the biggest influence on me to coach would be Coach Ted Albert from Indiana Tech, Coach Varga and Pat Magley, who is the founder of Heroes Camp in South Bend,” McKinney said. “Also, Scott Francoeur (the girls basketball coach at South Bend Saint Joseph), who I coach boys high school travel basketball with.”

Hudson says that it will take time for the program to grow.

“We’re building a program at all levels,” Hudson remarked. “Success under Cory is not something that is going to be determined in just one year. It’s going to be looked at in like four years. That will be a better measure of how it looks then.”

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington

Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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