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The CHEMAWA AMERICAN
WRESTLING AND BASKETBALL
Coach Sanders called the candidates for the wrest
ling team together early last week in preparation for
their first match of the year, which was held last night
at Oregon City against the high school team. Too
late, of course, to get the results for this issue. Ore
gon City’s matmen are by no means novices at the
sport and have been training for quite a spell. So un
less our grapplers did some pretty classy twisting and
turning they were apt to have been pinned to the mat
for the count. Of course all this is supposition. We
give our bone-crushers the short end of the outcome
only because they have been out such a short while.
Oregon City comes here later for a return match and
by that time we expect our grapplers to be in good
shape and better able to put on a finished match.
So far as experience is concerned we have a few
boys who know a thing or two about the ‘ ‘Grapevine, ’ ’
“Half-Nelson,” and the “Toe-hold,” but afterayear
off the mat they certainly will not clamp them on
with cat-like quickness nor will their strength last for
long, hence the dubiousness. Peter McClusky has
won several matches from formidable opponents in
the last couple years in the high school class and
closed the season a year ago by bringing home a gold
medal and the championship in the heavyweight divi
sion at the tournament held at the V. M. C. A. in
Salem. Frank Dumont is another the Oregon City
lads should have found difficult to handle. Frank
also captured a medal at the Salem tournament last
year. Leroy Pepion is another grappler who should
have worried his man considerably. Leroy and George
Pepion and Terry Courtney have all taken more than
one fling on the mat before this season; in fact, they
are being regarded as veterans here, so should not be
defeated by stage fright. Really we might expect the
biggest surprise from these three. Among the new
men we find George Goujon, Ray Charles, Wallace
Hosie, Ira and Roland Booth.
If looks count for
anything they will not be anybody’s set-up.
Next
week we hope to give a detailed account of the match.
While our wrestling team was at Oregon City slip
ping in and out of holds and slapping on a few them
selves, our basketball team was at Monmouth playing
its first league game of the season. Last week the
team was idle, so far as a game was concerned, but
much time was spent on the gym floor developing an
offensive attack and perfecting our defensive play.
When the season started we almost threw up our hands
in despair. The outfit looked impossible. A whole
raft of new and untried men with little experience
were available.
But the past week has unravelled
many possibilities and the boys are working hard to
put them to good use. If team play continues to im
prove our offense should be better than that of a year
ago.
That wouldn’t be saying a great deal. But
for a new team it is something. They are very rag
ged in their passing just yet, but they have a better
idea of how it should be done and now they are im
proving.
A full account of the game will be given
in the next issue.
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M^^/OMORROW is Christmas Day and all
a
Christendom will observe the occa-
J sion. The celebration of Christmas
(Christ’s Mass) is much the same
throughout our fair land and in all other coun
tries. There will be many exchanges of gifts,
of good wishes, “Merry Christmases’’ and so
forth throughout the day. There will also be
much feasting (often too much) and functions
of various kinds, each and every one seeking
that particular “something’’ which has an ap
peal for him, and so the day will pass and leave
in its wake just memories, as all such occasions
do—and we are all better off, for our memories.
But back of it all is the heart and soul of the
people—the urge to make others happy, the
great spirit of “Good will toward men,” the
touch of human understanding and sympathy.
Who is there among us who does not feel the
spirit of good cheer, of genuine happiness, joy,
when on Christmas day he meets his fellows?
It is a day of observation, of remembrance, of
an occasion dear to all—long past in its birth
but still ever-present with us. For w’eeks be
fore the eventful day dawns old and young are
alert and planning the joys they are to give
their dear friends—what better sign of human
heart, of fellow love can we find than in the
spirit that prompts this solicitude? There is
nothing like it.
But there is another view of the picture. Is
it not possible that Christmas is commercialized
too greatly, too extensively?
Is it not often
true that our hearts are larger than our bank
accounts? Is it not true sometimes that Christ-
mas-giving beyond reason and our means is
the cause of deprivation both before and after
the day itself? To give when we cannot afford
it is in reality to under-observe the Spirit of
Christmas. It is the spirit of it, the joy of re
membrance and observation, the good-will fel
lowship, that makes Christmas what it is today,
and it is what has carried it to us through, lo!
these many tribulous centuries. A kindly greet
ing, a card, even a thought, is the real spirit
of it all and is what makes Christmas live.
“A Merry Christmas to you!”
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