vernonia’s
voice schools
february
09
2009
Vernonia HS Winter Sports Report
The Vernonia High School Wres-
tling and Basketball Teams are having
good winter seasons, and all three head
coaches have lots of praise for the student
athletes who make up their squads.
Coach Ted Aubin mentioned the play of Byron Schorzman-- who has
been playing with a broken hand, Cody Eaton-- who has shown a lot of
improvement from last year, Blake Moeller-- the teams defensive special-
ist and Jason Weller and Brandon Gilbertson as highlights. “Everybody
has been filling a role for us,” said Aubin. “We’ve struggled offensively at
times, but our defence has been keeping us in some games.”
Wrestling Coach James Brookins is
excited about his team this year, and ex-
pects to do well when the team heads to
the District Tournament on February 20
and 21 in Gervais. “Our team is doing
very well and really wrestling fantastic
this season,” said Brookins. The team
has finished first or second at a number
of tournaments, and performed excep-
tionally well at the Northwest Duals and
Oregon Wrestling Classic meets.
Aubin called the win at Portland Adventist-- the first time Vernonia
has beaten them in twelve years-- “Momentous!” and said “...it was fun to
coach, and a proud moment.”
The Junior Varsity Boys, led by coach David Weller are “...really
young and inexperienced,” according to Aubin. The team is made up of
mostly freshmen and sophomores. “They are very athletic and have a lot
of potential,” said Aubin, who encouraged the team to work hard in the off-
season to improve.
The Varsity Girls Basketball Team has made steady improvement over
last year and throughout the season. With only two seniors on the squad, but
Coach Brookins noted excellent per-
a number of talented underclassman filling key roles, Coach Steve Whiteman
formances this season by Trevor Gwin,
The Girls Varsity gets some advice from their coach
has been impressed by his teams’ hard work, even though they have only won
Tyler Owens, returning District Cham-
one game in league play. He noted the scoring, leadership and tough play of
pion Dalton Rumboltz, and Justin Caputo-- who has been wrestling in heavier weight classes
this season. Brookins also mentioned Calvin Barnes, who has shown the importance of seniors Tricia Levenseller and Gillian Cheney, and his starting back court of Katie Wilson and
wrestling all the way through a match, and Freshman Shylo Dooley, who has done well, and Ivory Garrymore. Garrymore
was named to the All Tourna-
who the coaches hope continues to work hard and improve.
ment Team at the Christmas
Assistant coach Chris Barnes noted this was the toughest group of Vernonia kids he’s tournament the team compet-
been around. “They have the best attitude and don’t complain about anything.” Barnes ed in this year. Whiteman also
encourages his wrestlers to keep looking for small improvements. “It’s the little accom- noted the play of underclass-
plishments that matter,” he says. Barnes is especially impressed with some of the younger men Souvanny Miller who
wrestlers on the squad, who are paying their dues right now. He expects the team to be even has been a real contributor
and can play anywhere, Ariel
better in upcoming seasons.
and Megan Rock, who have
Brookins expects his team to finish the season strong. “I think we can advance a pushed his back court start-
few wrestlers to the State Tournament-- a best case might be as many as six or eight,” ers, and post players Bonnie
Birkmaier and Adrienne East,
said Brookins.
who Whiteman says are un-
The team wrestles at home on Thursday, February 5, and in Scappoose on Saturday, dersized at their positions, but
rarely get out-rebounded.
February 7-- if you want to get a look at the team before they head to Districts.
The Boys Varsity Basketball team is having an very good season, including a historic
win over Portland Adventist in early January. The team was 6-5 in league play after two
tough home losses near the end of January, and with five league games remaining is still
working for a high seed in the league playoffs starting February 16.
“We play in a very tough
league, including last year’s
state champions-- Ranier,”
said Whiteman. “I think
we’ve turned a corner and
are on our way back up.”
The Girls Junior Var-
sity has also been improving
and has upped their intensity
level as the season has pro-
Jason Weller brings the ball upcourt for the loggers
gressed. The team is 3-9
near the end of January. Coach Theresa Williams noted the play of Megan Rock as the teams
lead guard,” ...who delivers when the heat is on.” She also mentioned Mickell Maller and
Kim Allen,” ... two strong forwards that will be forces to be reckoned with on their way to the
varsity level.” She also mentioned the aggressive play of Shyla Tungwenuk and the natural
instincts of Natalie Wallace, two freshmen guards.
“I see great things in the years to come for this JV team-- they are fighters!” said Williams.
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Snow Anyone?
By Brandy Fosdick
If you asked this question in late December, most of the people in Vernonia would prob-
ably give you a most definite “NO!” Having seen the most snow here in nearly fifty years,
we got a little more than we were asking for when we prayed for a white Christmas.
But even though there were a few rough patches with the long power outages, one on
Christmas day, and the threat of flooding afterwards, people still had a lot of fun. Kids from
both inside and outside the city limits were found competing for the best sledding hills. And
I, myself, got in plenty of fun snowball fights before the snow got too icy. People in town
were able to walk downtown and enjoy the beauty, many of them taking pictures on their
way. Everywhere you looked in December, there were snowmen, three-foot icicles, and
mountains of ice on the street corners from the plow. Our town really did look like a winter
wonderland, with everything covered, at some point, in at least two feet of snow.
...Although a lot of people didn’t get to see much of it. Many of them just bundled them-
selves up inside, next to the wood stove, not wanting to risk it out in the treacherous ice and
slush-- conditions which caused many wrecks to line our highway. Fortunately, if you were
stuck, you weren’t stuck for long. There were dozens of people seen stopping and helping
pull others out of the ditch, or, if their car was too far down, helping them to safety. Many
thanks to those good Samaritans, and all the rest of the people who helped run the shelters
and who spent a good deal of time out in the cold restoring our power or making our roads
drivable.
Well, that’s most of the good and the bad-- the good probably outweighing the bad by
just a little to make it all worth it. We can all smile-- other than one basement I heard about,
we didn’t flood. All our stuff in our schools has been put back in the cupboards again, and
with good weather, the sandbags should be returned to storage again soon. And, to top it all
off, we did get our white Christmas, even if it was a bit whiter than we had in mind.
Brandy Fosdick is a sixteen-year-old sophmore journalism student at Vernonia High
School. When not writing for The Timberline and Vernonia’s Voice, Brandy enjoys reading
and art-- mostly drawing people.