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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2007)
vernonia’s voice schools & alumni july/aug 2007 Two Local Wrestlers to Compete at Nationals Vernonian Named Miss Teen Oregon Finalist By Jill Hult By Scott Laird Two Local Wrestlers will be traveling to Fargo, North Dakota, the week of July 19 to compete in the National Wrestling Championships. Tyler Owens and Trevor Gwin, both students at Vernonia High School and members of the USA Cobra Wrestling Club in Scappoose, will be competing in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman Style competitions against athletes from all over the United States in the 15 to 16-year-old division. Tyler Owens, who just finished his sophomore year, is new to wrestling, having worked out with the Cobra Club for only about 6 months. “Trevor asked me to train at Cobra,” said Tyler. “I was disappointed with my high school season, I finished fourth at District, and I wanted to try something else.” The Freestyle and Greco-Roman styles are used in Olympic wrestling com- petitions and are different than the Collegiate Style that is used exclusively in United States high school and college competitions. “Tyler is just a tough kid,” said Coach Scott Revis when asked about Tyler’s success. “He is physically a good athlete with an inner strength. He’ll do what ever it takes. That kid could pound nails with his hands.” “Trevor Gwin is just a beast,” said Revis. “He has really grown in the last year and it’s all solid muscle.” Gwin, a freshman this past year, has wrestled at Cobra for three years as well as in school competitions since middle school. “We’ve [Vernonia] not had two wrestlers compete at nationals at the same time,” said Revis. Owens who wrestles at 145 pounds and Gwin who wrestles at 189 will compete against 60-100 other competitors in their weight classes. It is a double elimination tournament. “Experience-wise, both wrestlers will have their hands full. Both of them are capable of physically beating anybody, they just need to improve techni- cally. The higher up in the competition you go, the more mental it becomes. Their inexperience may actually work in their favor. They don’t know who the competition is, who the tough kids are. If you think you can beat anybody, then you just might go out and do it,” said Revis. Revis has been coaching wrestlers for over 20 years and has coached the Oregon National Team for 12 years. He also holds local competitions and takes the winners on cultural exchange programs to foreign countries each year. Last year’s Jamboree Queen, Sahrina Smith, is now a finalist for Miss Teen Oregon. Since being notified, Sahrina has been raising sponsorship money to assist her in the pag- eant’s activities. She’s also learning valuable skills such as presence and poise, public speaking, working with different people, self- confidence, and a true sense of accomplish- ment. Sahrina believes pageants like Miss Teen Oregon are encouraging and look for teens who are involved in their communities and volunteer work. Sahrina said she would encourage any teenage girl to get involved in a pageant as it can assist with college and looks good on your resume. The Miss Teen Oregon Pageant has many categories the contestants can win different prizes which include cash awards from $250 to $1000, trophies, and a modeling scholarship. Sahrina has plans to save any cash award she may win to go toward her college education. Looking forward to her senior year of high school, Sahrina’s plans for her se- nior project is to bring back Student Court at Vernonia High School. Student Court would be held for students who get in trouble in or out of school for offenses such as truancy or tobacco use. The court would be made up of a jury of student peers, and Sahrina would like to be the judge. Sahrina has plans to be a Municipal Court Judge right here in Vernonia and to attain her Law Degree. Her current colleges-of-choice are Harvard and Texas State University. She has already received letters of acceptance to attend summer courses from Yale and Princeton to better prepare her for her secondary education and career goals. The Miss Oregon Teen Finals are August 11-13 2007. If you would like to sponsor Sahrina in her efforts, please contact her at 503-475-6443. Any donation and support is greatly appreciated by Sahrina and her family. “Did You Know? By Tammy Vanderzanden After having accepted the re- sponsibility as editor of the Alum- ni section I began trying to think of what sort of articles would be of interest to people in Vernonia. After asking many friends and family members for suggestions, it was brought to my attention that –at 91-years-young - Warren Aldrich is the oldest living Ver- nonia High School (VHS) Alumni currently living in Vernonia. I de- cided he would be the perfect can- didate for our feature article, so on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Vernonia, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Warren and his daughter Judy McDonald to talk about some of his memo- ries. Four generations of Vernonia Alumni 16 in all! Warren F. Aldrich moved to Vernonia in 1924 where he started the third grade. He remembers there were 13 children in his class at that time, and all 13 graduated from VHS. The high school was located on the corner of ‘A’ and State Street and the ball games were played at the City Park (Hawkins Park) and the football games were held at Spencer Field (Spencer Park). He was the second of 6 children all of whom graduated from VHS. In grade school, Warren sold the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Country Gentleman magazines 07 for Curtis Publishing. He chuck- led when he told us the local pool halls in town were his best cus- tomers. During high school his first job was at Twin Fir service station. He then worked a short time for Clark Wilson Logging before getting a job at the Oregon American Mill where he worked for 9 years. Warren married Violet Enis, also a graduate of VHS, in 1936 and they had four children: Wayne, Sharon, Judy and Jo. In 1945 War- ren began his career with West Oregon Electric as a service tech- nician, and his house became the hotline, receiving calls of power outages – the most memorable be- ing the 1962 Columbus Day Storm when Vernonia was out of power for a week. Warren retired in 1977. Today there are 12 grandchildren, three of whom graduated from VHS; 22 great grandchildren, two of whom attend school in Vernonia, and one great-great grandchild. In 1998, Warren and Vi moved to Longview, Wash- ington, where Vi passed away just two years later. War- ren has recently returned to Vernonia and lives on ‘B’ Street, not far from the home where he and Vi shared many years together. Surrounded by friends and a lov- ing family, he is recovering remarkably well from inju- ries he received in an auto accident this past winter. Thank you, Warren, for sharing your memories wi- tus. May you have many more to share. reunions VHS Class of 1977, 30-Year Reunion Jamboree Saturday -- August 4, 2007 3:00pm to 5:00pm Vernonia Scout Cabin at Hawkins Park For more information contact Kelly Smith (360) 253-4269 or visit http://VernoniaClassmates.com/1977 VHS Classes of 1960, 1961 and 1962 Jamboree Friday -- August 3, 2007 6 – 6:30 p.m. Social Time 6:30 p.m. Buffet Vernonia Scout Cabin at Hawkins Park For more information contact Sunny Hunteman (503) 429-3163 The Annual Picnic of The Vernonia Society, V.H.S. “Old Grads”, & Oregon American Alumni Sunday, August 19, 2007 (always the 3rd Sunday in August) Registration starts at 10:00 A.M. Anderson Park, Vernonia, Oregon Please come and bring your friends and a picnic lunch. Coffee and cups will be provided. Hot dogs and drinks will be for sale. Let’s make this the BIGGEST VERNONIA PICNIC EVER!