A familiar name has been hired as interim head football coach at Lincoln High School.

Ben Cochrane, a running back on the 1999 NCAA Division III national champion Pacific Lutheran University team, will lead the Abes. Cochrane takes over for former coach DJ Dobbins, who resigned this month to pursue a career in law enforcement. He begins at the Tacoma Police Academy later this summer. Dobbins coached Lincoln to a 6-4 record in 2007, his third season leading the Abes.

Cochrane, who graduated from PLU in 2002, coached at Ford Middle School from 2002-06. He also volunteered for

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The accolades for Tumwater graduate Ashley Andrews continue to pile up. The News Tribune’s Female Athlete of the Year was named to the EA Sports Softball All-America Second Team. Andrews will play softball at the University of Tennessee.

Here’s a link to the First Team.

Since we’re on the topic of highly-skilled prep athletes, the quarterbacks at the final Elite 11 camp have been revealed. No Washington quarterbacks this year. This guy is the last Evergreen State quarterback to make the cut.

Here at The News Tribune, we’ve started planning our prep football section. The season doesn’t officially kickoff until August 20 when practice begins, but, hey, is it ever too early to talk football?

Didn’t think so.

Like we do every year, we will include a preseason all-state team, class-by-class top-10 rankings and predicted order of finish for the leagues in our coverage area. This is where you — the fan, player, coach, classmate, parent or friend — come in.

Give us your picks. Who are the top 10 teams in each class? What teams will win

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Renado Parker signed a letter of intent to play basketball at North Idaho College, the school said in a press release on Wednesday.

Parker, a two-time selection on The News Tribune’s All-Area team and four-time first-team all-SPSL North pick, graduated as the Chargers’ all-time leading scorer. The 6-foot-6 forward averaged a double-double in the 2007-08 season, scoring 21.6 points and grabbing 10 rebounds per game.

Renado Parker going up for a dunk against Prairie in the 2007 state tournament.

Not even at the basketball state tournament can you see this much talent in one place.

Plucked from YouTube, here’s a highlight video of the Northwest Panthers-Seattle Rotary AAU game that included a Who’s Who in Seattle-Tacoma hoops scene: Abdul Gaddy, Avery Bradley, Peyton Siva, Josh Smith, Tony Wroten and more.

Enjoy.

*Yes, at 3:29 in the video, that is Texas coach Rick Barnes.

This article should not come as a surprise to anyone here, but ESPN.com’s Ted Miller, formerly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote a piece on Seattle still being a hoops hot-bed, despite the Sonics moving to Boomer Sooner-land.

Also not surprisingly, Bellarmine Prep’s Abdul Gaddy and Avery Bradley are mentioned, along with Franklin’s Peyton Siva and Garfield’s Tony Wroten.

There was no word in Miller’s article on Kentwood’s Josh Smith, but according to WashingtonPreps.com, he’s getting plenty of interest from the basketball blue-bloods.

“Some of the schools that have offered me are Louisville, Duke, UCLA, Georgetown, Texas,

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P.J. Bolte, a 2008 graduate of Franklin Pierce High School, will play basketball at Rice University this year.

The 6-foot-6, 190-pound Bolte has enrolled in summer school at the Houston college, the Houston Chronicle reported in this story.

Bolte averaged 14 points per game for Franklin Pierce in the 2007-08 season.

Brandon Mueller, a member of The News Tribune’s 2001 all-area football team died July 8 in a Nevada hospital.

UPDATE, July 17: There will be a service for Mueller at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Mountain View Valley Chapel in Lakewood.

Mueller, a 2004 Wilson High School graduate, died from massive head trauma suffered in a cliff-jumping accident on Saturday at Lake Havasu. Mueller was a kicker on the all-area team in 2001.

According to the San Bernardino County Sherriff’s Department, Mueller leaped off a rock in Copper Canyon and disappeared under nearly 30 feet of

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