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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2017)
JANUARY 27, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11 It’s okay not to get your deer With each deerless week he became more miserable. Soon he was like the prover- bial wounded grizzly. He developed a terrible bad cough. He would cough like a choking buffalo and pound his chest with his fi st. “Always knew someday I would come down with TB. Exposed to it as a young man back when I was still smoking.” On the last day of the sea- son, just before dark, he killed a big spike (it was either sex season). No more cough! A miraculous cure had taken place. He was well. I decided to never be like that. I’ve killed my share of deer. I’m okay with not get- ting a deer. Now that I’m older, I fi nd plenty of reasons not to be sitting out there, in the cold rain, an hour before daylight. I no longer sit out there in the evening, watching some feed- ing area,--until the air turns black–and have to fi nd my way back to the truck. My friend Bill–my age–still does. He and his wife, Gail, go up the night before and sleep in the back of the truck. They drink cold coffee and eat cold stuff for breakfast. And in the evening he will sit and watch some deer trail until shooting time has passed. I could probably do that too, if we could just clone Gail. I broached the subject with Bill, but he went into quite a snit. Guess he was afraid I would be out there, stumbling around before daylight, scar- ing off his deer. He killed an- other buck this season--open- ing day, before sunrise. It’s not that my wife doesn’t support my hunting. She only has a couple of minor requirements of me: Shut off the alarm before it rings--and slip out without waking her. The toughest part of not getting a deer is answering all the questions. My mother- in-law asks, “Get your deer yet?” “Nope, haven’t seen a thing.” “The guys two doors down from me have brought home four,” she states matter- of-factly. “Hung ‘em up and skinned ‘em on that oak tree. Maybe you should go talk to them, they would probably tell you where to go.” “Bet they would, Berna- dine.” Then there’s the little girl next door. She always spots me sneaking in, wearing my red cap and shirt. “Did you get your deer, Mr. Wilson?” “Nope, honey, I didn’t.” “How come? My daddy killed his buck fi rst morning– before sun up.” But I’m O.K. with not getting a deer this season. Most important thing now is just getting well. My doc- tor referred me to a specialist. Couldn’t fi nd any spots on my lungs, and the TB skin test was negative. They’re going to try me on a new cough syrup. The fi rst fi ve didn’t even faze me. He prescribed a 16-ounce boxing glove for my right fi st–should help protect the old bruised chest. Hope the cough doesn’t hang on until next deer sea- son. Would be pretty diffi cult to hunt making all this noise. GVC play. The Celtics play at Sprague on Friday, Jan. 27. Kirch believes the break came at the right time. “Our bodies are just banged up and people are just tired physically and emotion- ally,” he said. “With the schedule, we re- ally haven’t had a chance to get better ourselves. Having a week off really gives us a chance to really focus on our- selves. I think we’re aware of what we do well and our areas for improvement.” And playing in such a strong league will benefi t the Celtics at the end of the sea- son. “It’s an unbelievably tough year,” Kirch said. “We prob- ably have fi ve, maybe six of the top 20 teams in the state. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least four of our teams in the fi nal 16. “One of the things I think is good for us is we’re seeing lots of different styles. Hope- fully, when we get to the point where we’re in the playoffs, whether you’ve got a team that wants to press or zone you, half court and slow it down, by that point we should be pretty battle tested.” At 7-2, the Celtics are tied atop the GVC standings with West Salem. Sprague is 6-2, Forest Grove 5-3 and South Salem 5-4. McNary senior Matthew Ismay is averaging nearly 14 points, fi ve rebounds and fi ve assists per game. The Lady Celts, who are 4-3 in league play, have also face an improved GVC. After starting 1-2 with losses to West Albany and West Salem, McNary won three in a row before falling to South Salem 58-56 on Tuesday, Jan. 17. “There were a couple of games that I wish we could’ve taken care of that we didn’t but I knew before the year started that our league as a whole was better,” McNary head coach Derick Handley said. “I knew there were some teams like West Albany and Forest Grove that were going to be tough.” Since North Salem’s girls are playing a non-league schedule and a game against Beaverton was canceled, the Lady Celts have had 10 days off before they return to the court on Friday, Jan. 27 at Sprague. Handley noted McNary was playing its best basketball of the season before the break. “In the last four league games, we’ve been a lot more balanced,” Handley said. “I think we’re becoming more of a unit. Less than just a couple of girls and more of a team. We’re growing and learning our new roles.It’s kind of un- fortunate to have 10 days in between but hopefully Friday we’ll be back where we were and ready to go.” Senior Sydney Hunter leads McNary, averaging 15 points and 11 rebounds per game. Kailey Doutt is scoring 12 points per contest. The Lady Celts are fourth in the GVC behind South Sa- lem (8-0), West Salem (6-2) and West Albany 5-3). “We do have the ability and the talent that we could run the table in the second half,” Handley said. “It’s huge. The second part of league is going to be big for us.” MIDDLE, continued from Page 10 Burrows, Claggett Creek has about 30 kids in its wrestling program. Aaron Carr, who coached at Claggett for three years before the team went away, is glad to have wrestling back. “We had an after school program but it wasn’t really the same,” Carr said. “They did one tournament a year so the kids didn’t really get to experience wrestling matches. It’s good to have it back. I think it’s going to be great for the high schools. It’s getting more kids interested in it. We’re having issues trying to rebuild the program. It’s go- ing to take a few years to get it back to where it used to be.” McNary also has the Celtic Mat Club but Carr said that’s for more hardcore wrestlers like Burrows, Rodriguez and Parks, not kids just wanting to give the sport a try. “Getting new kids inter- ested in it, that’s going to be the hard challenge,” Carr said. “I think it’s really good for kids to have options because not ev- eryone is going to be 6-foot-3 and play basketball.” Claggett and Whiteaker both have 10 duals, the fi - nal one against each other on Thursday, Feb 23 at McNary High School. Celtics head coach Jason Ebbs believes middle school wrestling will only strengthen his high school program, which used to have as many as 90 kids but started with only 54 this season. “Why anyone would ever take away an opportunity like wrestling from kids, I haven’t the slightest clue,” Ebbs said. “Wrestling is a no cut sport. All we do is serve kids. We have all kinds of kids come in here. I’ve got kids with great grades. I’ve got kids who are riding the fence. I’ve got kids who need wrestling as bad as wrestling needs them. It’s a unique envi- ronment that serves the needs of all of those kids. We’re still trying to fi nd the upswing. We’re in the process of trying to reintroduce wrestling to the city of Keizer.” DUAL, continued from Page 10 sure we get our school down, get our activities done and we’re performing everywhere at the highest level we can.” One of the bright spots for the Celtics against North Salem and McKay was junior Joe Collins. Wrestling in the heavyweight division, Collins went 2-0. “I think one of the biggest things is just the mental mind- set, just going out there and telling yourself that you’re go- ing to give it your all and that you’re going to win,” Collins said. “I try to keep that in my mind while I’m warming up and in practice.” Collins pinned McKay wrestler Andy Nguyen in 1:12. “He was a little bit smaller and made a couple of mis- takes,” Collins said. “He tried to snap my head down and I just improvised off of that.” At 106 pounds, Noah Gatchet started the dual against McKay with a pin. At 132 pounds, Sean Burrows also won by pin fall. McNary’s other points came from Killian Dato, who at 138 pounds won a 8-4 decision and Noah Grunberg, who at 145 pinned his opponent in 1:20. Collins defeated Obbelis Garcia of North Salem by a 9-4 decision. “That was a tough match,” Collins said. “I just had to keep my head up and just fi ght for it.” At 126 pounds, Jerry Mar- tinez won by pin fall. Dato then picked up a 12-7 vic- tory at 138. Wyatt Kesler at 152 and Carlos Vincent at 170 both got pins for the Celtics. by G.I. Wilson I didn’t get a deer this sea- son. Can’t remember the last time that happened. But I’m okay with that. I learned a valuable lesson from my dad years ago. He killed a lot of blacktail bucks. In fact, he killed seven bucks, in seven years, on opening morning. “Killed ’em all be- fore sun up.” Over a period of 17 years, he never failed to fi ll his tag. Then came the year Weeks of season passed and no deer. HALF, continued from Page 10 McNary had a week off before it throttled North Sa- lem 85-39 on Tuesday, Jan. 24 to begin the second half of “They don’t understand how important they are. We’re trying to make them under- stand that even though we may be busy we’ve got to bal- ance our priorities and make PURCHASE 1 ENTREE + 2 DRINKS Rodriguez picked up more hardware on Saturday, Jan. 14 at the Oregon Classic in Redmond. Competing in the girls division for All-Phase Wrestling Club, she won her weight class. Rodriguez looks forward to wrestling for her school. Her goal is not to lose a match. “It’s pretty cool because I’ve gone to Virginia and done dif- ferent dual meets but it’s differ- ent because I’m doing it for a school,” Rodriguez said. Led by eighth grader Grady RECEIVE THE SECOND MEAL AT… 50% OFF EXP 02-28-17 NORTH SALEM 2505 Liberty St NE 503.689.1082 Valid only at Liberty Street location. Dine-in only, Cannot be combined with any other offer or discount. Not valid February 14, 2017. Thanks for voting us Best Barbecue – 8 years running NOW OPEN