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!