Sports
7A
Saturday, March 20, 2021
The Observer
EOU volleyball coach reaches milestone
By ANDREW CUTLER
East Oregonian
IF YOU GO
LA GRANDE — When the
cheers were directed her way and
not at the team, Eastern Oregon
University head volleyball coach
Kaki McLean Morehead was at a
loss.
Of course, it was the second of
two 3-0 wins over Warner Pacific
on March 5 that generated all the
cheers. That is when it registered
for McLean Morehead, it was her
300th win at EOU.
“I actually had no idea, to be
completely honest,” she said. “It’s
not something that I keep track of.
So when my kids started chanting
my name at the end of the game, I
was like, ‘You guys, what are you
doing?’ My kids did a great job
of making the day pretty special.
I was completely surprised and
shocked.”
McLean Morehead, who is in
her 14th season as head coach,
said the milestone win is some-
thing she’s incredibly proud of,
but being in the same athletic
department as women’s basket-
ball coach Anji Weissenfluh, who
has compiled more than 450 wins
in 19-plus seasons at EOU, is a
motivator.
“On one hand, 300 is an
accomplishment and something
I’m incredibly proud of because of
Effective Friday, March 19, EOU Athletics is
allowing spectators at sporting events, but
there will be a capacity limit for all venues
and events.
Eastern Oregon University/Contributed Photo
Eastern Oregon University head volleyball
coach Kaki McLean Morehead recently re-
corded her 300th win as a head coach for
the Mountaineers.
what we have built here at Eastern
Oregon,” she said. “But on the
other side of it, you know, I’m
just trying to keep up with (Weis-
senfluh) who has 450 wins and
counting.”
The road to 300 has had its
challenges, and none bigger than
when McLean Morehead had to
lead the program after tragedy
struck.
A 2004 EOU graduate,
McLean Morehead had coached
the Mounties for four seasons,
from 2006 until 2009. She stepped
down after the 2009 campaign in
order to move to Idaho. McLean
Morehead’s successor, Hailey
The Observer, File
Eastern Oregon University’s Isabelle Statkus, left, and head coach Kaki McLean Morehead
talk after a play in 2016. McLean Morehead earned her 300th win as Mountaineers head
coach on March 5, 2021.
Pearce, was killed in a car crash
just before the start of her second
season in La Grande.
McLean Morehead stepped
in as the interim head coach for
the 2011 season, posting a 17-11
record and a third-place finish in
the Cascade Collegiate Confer-
ence. Shortly after the end of the
2011 season, McLean Morehead
signed on permanently.
“During that time, we realized
that Eastern Oregon is where we
want to be,” she said. “And again,
I am incredibly proud of what my
kids have worked to build and
what we have worked to build.
And I think that, that is something
special and it’s not something that
you find every day.”
McLean Morehead has the
Mountaineers off to a 9-0 start
and a No. 8 national ranking in
a season turned upside down by
the COVID-19 pandemic. She
said the team has proven to be a
resilient and determined bunch,
and one not taking anything for
granted.
“We’re going to try everything
that we can and play our best
with the opportunities that we are
given,” she said.
The Mountaineers put their
undefeated record on the line
with a pair of matchups on Friday,
March 19, and Saturday, March
20, against Interstate 84 rival Col-
lege of Idaho (4-6 overall) inside
Quinn Coliseum. Match times are
set for 4 and 7 p.m., respectively.
EOU’s Sluberski earns coach of the year honor
Wrestler Erin
Redford takes
second at national
competition
By ALEX WITTWER
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Eastern Oregon Universi-
ty’s Carlene Sluberski is the
2020-21 Cascade Collegiate
Conference Women’s Wres-
tling Coach of the Year.
The conference in an
announcement Thursday,
March 18, reported her
fellow head women’s wres-
tling coaches in the confer-
ence voted for her to receive
the honor.
The head
coach was sur-
prised — she
said she didn’t
even know she
was nominated
for the award.
Sluberski
The award
came less than a week after
Sluberski wrapped up her
first year as the program’s
head coach and less than a
week after she led nine of
her players to North Dakota
to compete in the National
Association of Intercolle-
giate Athletics Women’s
Wrestling National Invi-
tational, where wrestler
Erin Redford finished as
Eastern Oregon University/Contributed Photo
Eastern Oregon University women wrestlers Erin Redford, left, and
Dempsi Talkington pose during the Women’s Wrestling National
Invitational in March 2021 in Jamestown, North Dakota. Redford finished
as the runner-up at 143 pounds, and Talkington posted an eighth-place
finish at 155 pounds.
the national runner-up at
143 pounds, posting a 4-1
record over the two-day
tournament. EOU teammate
Dempsi Talkington posted
an eighth-place finish at 155
pounds.
Sluberski took on the
position of head coach for
the women’s wrestling team
back in November 2020
— the third person to hold
the title. Women’s wres-
tling at EOU is relatively
new. The program started
in 2016 after the university
received $300,000 from the
state, along with $200,000
from private donations, to
reinstate a men’s team and
establish a women’s team.
“It’s definitely not tradi-
tional,” said Sluberski about
the sports’ niche status,
“but it’s up and coming.”
Nationwide, Oregon is
one of 28 states that have
state-sanctioned cham-
pionships for women’s
wrestling.
New York, Sluberski’s
home state, isn’t one of
them. That fact didn’t deter
Sluberski’s passion for the
sport.
“I’m from New York,
so I wrestled in New York,
and I wrestled on the boys’
team,” she said. “They
still don’t sanction it in
New York — I’m 11 years
removed from high school,
and they’re still behind.”
Sluberski grappled
most of her life, starting
in elementary school and
throughout college, winning
four individual Canadian
Interuniversity Sport titles
before becoming a head
coach at Providence Uni-
versity in Montana. After
taking the position at EOU,
she tackled a new problem
— leading the team during
a pandemic.
“When you have the
opportunity to compete
taken away from you,” Slu-
berski said, “it makes it that
much more special when
you get to go.”
Out of the 13 players that
make up the women’s wres-
tling team at EOU, Red-
ford, Talkington and seven
of their teammates — Anje-
lynn Baron, Krystal Fabri-
cante, Nayeli Flores Roque,
Macy Higa, Nayeli Maston,
Lisa Megargee and Olivia
Robinson — received
invites to the NAIA.
“It was a great event,
and it was really exciting
that we got the opportu-
nity,” said the head coach
about the invitational in
Jamestown, North Dakota.
“I mean, all year, it’s been
kind of like, ‘Oh, are we
going to be able to do it, are
we not?’”
Redford crushed the
first day of the competi-
tion, scoring a 3-0 lead. In
her first match, she pinned
Julia Mata of Missouri
Valley in 23 seconds.
She followed up with two
more pins, against Emma
Walker of Campbells-
ville and Akina Yamada
of Waldorf, securing her
place in the semifinals
the following day.
In the semifinals, Red-
ford pulled out a sudden
victory, 3-2, over Sydney
Freund of Oklahoma City
to punch her ticket to the
championship match. In the
final match of the season,
Redford battled from start
to finish before falling
4-3 to Waipuilani Estrel-
la-Beauchamp of Midland.
Talkington posted a
3-3 record in two days for
the Mountaineers. She fell
in her first match before
bouncing back to win her
next three matches to end
the day at 3-1. Talkington
closed her tournament
run with a loss in the sev-
enth-place match.
Higa at 130 pounds
went 2-2 on the first day
and narrowly missed
advancing to the second
day. Robinson also posted
a 2-2 record on the first
day at 191 pounds.
In the end, the EOU
women’s wrestling team
scored 35.5 points at the
invitational and placed
17th overall in the two-day
competition.
For now, Sluberski said
she was happy the girls
were competing again.
“I think it’s been a big
year for growth,” she said.
“We have a smaller team
and they have quite a bit of
talent. There’s a lot of good
things that could happen.”
‘We’re owed a March’: Hoop fans flock to bet on NCAA tourney
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.
— Jonathan Price was all
set: He got tickets to the
Elite Eight round of the
NCAA basketball tourna-
ment at Madison Square
Garden, where he, his two
brothers and his dad would
revel in hours of college
basketball bliss.
But that was last March,
just before the coronavirus
wiped out the March Mad-
ness tournament — and the
boatloads of money that
would have been bet on it.
But this year, it’s back.
On Friday, March 19,
the 25-year-old from Staten
Island, New York, was at
a casino in Atlantic City,
New Jersey, with a wad of
cash and picks that he was
too superstitious to reveal
to a reporter. (He was
wearing a North Carolina
jersey, though.)
“We’re owed a March,”
Wayne Parry/Associated Press
Jonathan Price of New York researches picks for the March Madness col-
lege basketball championship tournament on Friday March 19, 2021 at
the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, NJ.
said Price. “Last year got
canceled, and it was pretty
devastating. March Mad-
ness is something I look
forward to all year.”
It’s also something
sportsbooks at casinos and
racetracks, and particularly
online operations, look
forward to as well . Spread
out over several weeks, the
NCAA tournament is col-
lectively the biggest sports
betting event of the year.
And though the amount
that sportsbooks keep after
paying out winning bets
and other expenses is rel-
atively small, the tourna-
ment is essential to their
business, particularly in
gaining customers they
hope will stick with them
throughout the year and
bet on other sports.
“In terms of betting
interest, this year should
prove to be a bit of a perfect
storm for online wagering
and shatter previous
records,” said Jay Croucher,
head of trading at PointsBet
USA. “In combining factors
like pent up demand after
last year’s cancellation, the
growth of U.S. sports bet-
ting and how many more
states are now online versus
two years ago, it should
come as no surprise that
U.S. sportsbook opera-
tors are expecting huge
numbers.”
Because many offices
remain closed because of
the pandemic, eliminating
many office pools, fewer
Americans expect to fill
out brackets for the tour-
nament this year. But the
overall number of people
making bets on March
Madness should remain
about the same as the last
time the tournament was
held, in 2019, according
to the American Gaming
Association, the gambling
industry’s national trade
association.
Kevin Hennessy, a
spokesperson for FanDuel,
said legal sports betting
“continues to surpass our
expectations.” His com-
pany paid out more than
$17 million to customers
on a March Madness bet-
ting promotion Thursday
night.
“We’re gearing up for
the greatest amount of
engagement we’ve seen on
the tournament thus far,”
added Johnny Avello, who’s
in charge of the race and
sports books at DraftKings.
Melonie Johnson, the
Borgata’s president, said it
was exciting to see crowds
return to the casino for the
tournament.
“The human race was
meant to be entertained, not
bored,” she said. “Corona-
virus has taken a real toll on
everyone. But now there’s
hope; we can see it.”
Tom Gable the casino’s
director of sports and racing
betting, said he expects the
level of bets on the first day
of this year’s tournament to
exceed that of 2019, the last
year it was held.
“We went from pre-
paring for the biggest event
of the year in terms of
sports betting, to preparing
to shut down, all within the
span of a few days,” he said.
Price was to meet with
a group of friends on Sat-
urday to watch more bas-
ketball in between a round
of golf.
His betting budget for
the weekend was between
$2,000 and $3,000.
“We’re going to get
drunk, watch the games
and chill out with the boys,”
he said. “Doesn’t get much
better than that, does it?”