Furrer, Lam left state to become Hokies

Q: Are there any athletes from Washington high schools playing for Virginia Tech?

A: No. However, two notable Hokies from Washington in the past 20 years were Will Furrer, Pullman 1986, and Felice Lam, Ballard 2001.

Furrer set records as a quarterback at Virginia Tech, then had a four-year NFL career with Chicago, Denver, Houston and St. Louis. He went to Tech after a post-Pullman stop at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia.

Furrer graduated from Pullman one year after Timm Rosenbach, who starred at Washington State, then played in the NFL and Canadian Football League. Rosenbach now is quarterback coach at WSU.

Lam, born in France, was a Class 3A state tennis champ at Ballard. She was recruited to Tech by Lisa Hart, a former state champion from Sunnyside who is now head coach at WSU. Lam was 55-35 in singles and 72-35 in doubles for Tech before a knee injury ended her college tennis career in the fall of her senior year. She was team MVP in the 2003-04 season.

Personal note: My wife's second cousin, Travis Jarrell, from Parkersburg, W. Va., went to Virginia Tech and visited us in 2002. One day he was wearing a T-shirt from the Big East track championships and I said, "Travis, that's nice that you went to the track meet."

He politely replied, "I was in it."

Q: I recently watched the DVD "Heart of the Game" about Roosevelt girls basketball and enjoyed it. What is player Darnellia Russell doing these days?

A: Russell, a star on the 2004 Roosevelt team that won the 4A state championship, is back at North Seattle Community College after being out of school for a couple quarters, according to Roosevelt coach Bill Resler.

She starred at North Seattle in the 2004-05 and '05-06 seasons.

Russell is back in school as a student, not a student-athlete. If she doesn't get her two-year degree by the fall, Resler said, she will have only one year of her four-year college eligibility remaining.

Russell's daughter, Trekayla, is 4 ½. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association challenged Russell's high-school eligibility in the championship season because she had missed a year of school because of the baby. A court order allowed her to play for Roosevelt as a senior and the WIAA dropped its case after the Roughriders won the title.

Q: Is chess an interscholastic activity? Who is the top team in the state?

A: Yes, there is a state tournament in chess. It is conducted by the Washington High School Chess Association because chess isn't a WIAA endeavor.

The state tournament was held awhile back and Mercer Island beat Garfield in a playoff. Lakeside was third.

The individual champion was Andy May, a home-schooled sophomore from Vancouver. In the championship match, he beat Bainbridge junior Ricky Selzler.

I think chess is a sensational pastime even though a smart dog could beat me. If I were in high school and our chess team did well, I'd boast about it in the hope that some of that brainpower might rub off on me.

I dropped by a Metro League chess match at Bishop Blanchet this winter and two things struck me: 1) I couldn't tell immediately which team is which because what you see are kids in school clothes sitting at cafeteria tables with chessboards between them. I'm used to uniforms, with one team in white; 2) The O'Dea team arrived in one of the school's mini-buses just like a baseball or basketball team. "That's cool," I told myself.

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