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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1994)
Sports Pg. 7 The Clackamas Print Wednesday, February 23,1994 Haluska uses experience to lead Cougar wrestlers to nationals by Tyson Morrow ' PriwLEditorialStaff . ^terWrestliftgCoaeh Mike Haluska’s office and you i will be sure to find several of h& .yvrestlers;sittipgaround on couches or chairs, chatting with ' thelF'irientcgi||Oe. viafls .are Covered, with- awards- and plaques, and trophies are found onevery available inch of shelf. In a late season practice session, wrestler Blake Tompkins performs a perfect throw on team-mate Aaron Burdick. The Cougars are sending six members to the Nationals. Wrestlers send six to nationals by Maury Webber The Print Editorial Staff Three Clackamas wres tlers earned top honors and three others placed high at the recent regional championships at Yakima Community college. Their achievements in Yakima qualified them for the national championship meet in Bismarck, NJ)., Feb. 25 and 26. No small feat, noted Head Wrestling Coach Mike Haluska. “We have four of the top ten wres tling teams in the nation in our district,” Haluska said. The qualifying wrestlers included Travis Rollins at 118 lbs, Jake Whisenhunt at 126 lbs, his brother Josh Whisenhunt at 134 lbs, Jamie Dixson at 177 lbs, and Jason Marshallat 190 lbs. Round ing out the six is Nate Sullivan, who competes in the heavyweight class. Rollins, Marshall and Sullivan each won their weight class to earn the regional cham pion title. “This is the most we’ve sent to nationals since I’ve been here,” he said. The six leave for Bis marck today at noon. Haluska said they have a good chance of doing well at the competition. “AU six looked real good at regionals,” Haluska said. “Ev ery year I have high hopes for one or two people on a team, this year I believe in aU six. . “I’ve said all year long that everything up till now has been practice.. This is what we’ve been practicing for. These six guys are ready to place at nation als.” Haluska wants to wish all his athletes well and thank them for their effort and help throughout the season. “What these six guys do at nationals is for the four that didn’t make itand the 10 to 15 that didn’t compete. What these guys earn at nationals was earned by the others as well. They’ve aU done a great job.” This is a shrine of athletic ex cellence. This is : only Haluska’s fourth year at Clackamas, and his first as ¿head;.; : COach; • Yet he exudes : 'a grand type of experience; :.wiih.;-.:a • single glance you can ., : tell that, he has > spent a great part.of his life in and abdut wrestling — his ears have been cauli flowered many times, his.nose brokeaon sev- wrestled since I was 8 years old. huge;-part ¿if toyfife,” Haluskasaid, .< , ''^Cougars iri a tough league, top. Among NW ACC Junior Colleges, Re gion 18 has the mostAll-Ameri- cans. Thewhestlin^i^iisalsq the only sports team at Clacka mas Io go to the nationals. , Before Clackamas, B|Haliiskaspeht a year as as sistant coach; atHood River, and four years, asan assistant coach at ^Gladstone High School. Hegothisown high school experience at PoUdingHigh School in Des Me i. n e s, photo by Khanh Pham ;iowa<l’.yerer- ally enjoyed coaching, here at Clackamas. The only draw- back is the facilities. Through out the season we’ve been I grew yp In Iowa, where there wasn’tmuchto do except watch wrestling. ■ Wewt Wrestling .eëaçh .Mtkâ Hafaska, eraJoccastons,:' ' ,? Th^oxperrence has Ob-s viouslybenefiied the Clackamas team: this year the Cougars will send six wrestlers to the national: tournament, up . from four last year, -•/ ' - * “I grew up m Iowa, except watch wrestling. Tve plagued by injuries ... which • could havebeen prevented if wp ’’had a warm wrestling room. A matroom couldbeusedfor many :bthertom^MMialt^a sardS “l+ve enjoyed this year a lot. We’vehad abtg squad, and each and every one worked to make the year extremely ea* joy able,** Haluska added, Violence in sports needs more control ■ Sports are becoming an actual life or death situation and something has to be done by Jason Hunter The Print Staff “Kill the umpire!” is a familiar cry from upset players in the dug outs or from fans in the bleachers. Now it is more than just a harmless expression. “There’s more and more violence against officials being reported, and it’s a scary thing,” said Barry Mano of the National Association of Sports Officials. “There seems to be more unwill ingness by fans and participants to stay behind the line.” Cutis Fair was a 31-year- old youth baseball coach. When a 16-year old umpire made a call that enraged him, Fair fired a .38 caliber revolver at the umpire - but missed. Fair has been charged with attempted murder. In South Brunswick, N.J., there was an American Le gion baseball game in which a 17- year-old player was upset with a call that Thomas Sullivan made. He allegedly picked up Sullivan and cracked the umpires back over his knee and broke three of his ribs. In a recreational hockey league, a player went after the referee after the game and threw a skate at his head. The referee sued and won $32,000 in an out- of-court settlement Verbal abuse has always been on the bad side of sports officiating. “Yelling at umpires by fans incites players,” said um pire Henry Pollard. “That often sows the seed for physical attacks against officials.” In Long Beach, Calif., two players with bats attacked an umpire and seriously injured his eye. The two players received jail terms and the umpire settled a civil suit for $10,000. Allen Serra Jr. assaulted two referees at halftime of his son’s high school football game in Maryland. He received a sentence of 42 months in jail. “You see more and more violence against anybody in au thority today and it’s an unfortu nate way of life,” Pollard said.. From 1983 to 1989, the number of umpires in the Amateur Softball Association of America fell from 62,000 to 56,500. Fighting is down in toe NBA, but toe game is more violent than ever. Sport Magazine had a poll and these were toe results: 1) America is not kinder and its not, getting gentler. 2) In the NBA, we are here to inform you that thé league is tougher than ever, with more kicking, gouging, pinching, hacking, butchering, choking, bit ing, and stomping that we’ve seen in years. “I look at the NBA as a football game without a helmet It’s 260 against 260 night after night after night,” said Tom Tolbert of thè Orlando Magic. “I thinkthebiggestshock to me when-I came to the NBA was the rebounding on the weak side. It’s less visual because people are concentrating on the ball, but I’m telling you, it’s a war zone in there, and there are no rules,” he continued. “It’s a free for all with all the pulling and scratching that goeson. All you can do is get your job done and hope you get out of there alive.” Arecord 1,944 technical fouls were called in the 1989-90 season resulting in $127,150 in fines. In 1991, the number dropped to 1,735 and $108,050 in fines. • ‘qf you’ve never played in the NBA before, if you’ve never posted up against anybody before, then you can merely be told how physicaiitis/’saidBoston Celtics’ Head Coach Chris Ford. When Seattle Seahawks’ former coachChuck Knox was asked where all the tight ends had gone, he said,“Tb toe'NBA.’* One of those tight-end like bodies belongsto Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz. Heonceelbowed Isiah Thomas which resulted in 40 stiches near Thomas’ eye. Malone said, “I don’t care what anyone thinks, it was an accident. Right after toe incident I called Isiah in San Antonio and every thing was settled.” The NBA fined Malone $10,000 and sus pended him for one game. The National Hockey League has a Violence problem, as well. Softie , don’t think of it as violence, though. “There’s a big difference between violence and fighting, a hell of a difference,” said Blackhawks’ Coach Darryl Sutter. Fights are started whenastar player is mistreated in any way. If player A knows smacks player B, he’ll have to deal with player C, it gives him something to think about. The new rule is that toe instigator will be penalized as opposed to toe third player in the fight. Rob Dibble of toe Cincin nati Reds said that in order to stop brawls in baseball they should play it like hockey does, the. third man in gets ejected. Lettoepitcherand toe batter duke it out. Iff-1990 at a,game between toe Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers, a record was set with 86 penalties called. Only 1:35 into toe first period, the Kings’ Marty McSoreley and Oiler Mark Messierdropped their gloves and went at it for no apparent reason. The fight started the rest of riotous incidents that would add up to 86 penalties. It also started other incidents in which toe Kings’ Tomas Sandstrom was sent to toe hospital. The first period went somewhat smoothly after that. With 3:22 remaining in the sec ond period, however, an eight player brawl broke out. In that brawl, Glenn Anderson punched Sandstrom in toe face. He laid on toe ice for several minutes and then was taken to toe hospital. He was treated for a fractured facial bone, a scratched right cornea, bleeding inside toe right eye and a gash which took four stitches to close below that same eye. Sandstrom underwent laser sur gery on his eye. Violence in sports has to be controlled better than it has been in toe past. Participants of toe sport need to get a hold of themselves. No violence Story would be complete without toe mention of a certain figure skater that is in a lot of trouble right now... Tonya Harding. The incident is not just an attack on Nancy Kerrigan but it is also an attack on America. ■ Sports are becoming an actual life or death situation and something has to be done.
