8 The Clackamas Print
Sport
sportsed@clackamas. edu
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Runners up: Track and Field takes second place
Men’s and Women’s
track and field gets
the best even finish
since the 1994 season
By John William Howard
Associate Sports Editor
You often hear that life is
not a sprint but a marathon.
You don’t have to hurry from
one thing to the next in order
to get to a certain place in
life because you’ll get there
in time regardless, and you
might as well learn some
thing on the way. This was
the case with the Clackamas
Community College track and
field team, who took second
in both men’s and women’s
at the Northwest Athletic
Association of Community
College championships on
May 23 and 24.
It took a season full of
battling injuries, weather
and other setbacks, but the
long road eventually came to
a happy end. The Cougars
walked away from the season
with their collective heads
held high, led by Head Coach
Keoni McHone, who was
named Southern Region coach
of the year after the Southern
Region championships on
May 14 at Lane Community
College.
The women scored 174
points with 14 athletes for
an average of 12.43 points
per athlete.
Spokane’s
women scored 250 points with
24 athletes for an average of
10.42 points per athlete. The
men scored 20 points more
than the pre-meet perfor
mance list predicted, while
the women scored 12 more.
According to McHone,
the Southern Region meet is
nothing more than a spring
board for the NWAACC meet,
a meet in which McHone’s
teams have generally done
well. Last year the Clackamas
women placed second and the
men placed third. At the time,
that tied the top combined
performance in the last 10
years, making this year’s two
second place finishes at the
NWAACC championships the
best Clackamas has seen since
they finished in the same posi
tions in 1994.
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Contributed by Tracy Swishel
The Clackamas women’s track and field team poses with their second place trophy. Per
athlete, Clackamas outscored the women’s meet champion Spokane Community College.
“We use the Southern
Region championships as a
tune-up for the NWAACC
championships,”
said
McHone, who is in his sixth
season as head coach. “We
just did whatever we needed
to do to feel like we were
Contributed by Tracy:
The Clackamas men stand with their second place trophy, their first since 1998.
going into the NWAACC
championships
prepared
properly. We under-raced and
under-competed and under
emphasized the region cham
pionships quite a bit mentally
and physically and- set our
selves up for the NWAACC
championships.”
While it seems as though
this may have made light of
the Southern Region compe
tition, it worked. Clackamas
took second overall at region
al but beat the region winner,
Lane Community College, at
the NWAACC championships.
“On the women’s side,
we did what we should have
done,” said McHone. “On the
guy’s side, it was a super,
super tight battle. The guys
stepped up and ‘gapped’ it a
little more than we foresaw on
paper, and so we were excited
that the guys decided to do
that.”
The numbers backed up
McHone’s claims.
“I did not have time to dif
ferentiate between individu
al’s season bests and all-time
best, but at NWAACCs we
had 35 season-best perfor
mances,” said Assistant Coach
Danny Barley, who coaches
the throwers. Of those season
bests, 21 were women’s and
14 were men’s.
By the time the NWAACC]
championships were finished]
Clackamas came away witfl
seven individual champions!
16 All-Americans and 28 tol
three finishers. Sophomorl
pole vaulter Keisa Monteroll
and sophomore thrower Katil
Higgins were named femall
co-outstanding field athletes]
and James Ratliff was name!
as one of the male co-out]
standing track athletes. Thl
biggest prize, however, wal
the knowledge that they hal
given all they had and donl
their best; their marathon wal
finally over.
Clackama
Sports Information Director brings change to athletics
By Robert Morrison
Sports Editor
Clackamas’ sports department is one that has seen great
improvement over the last 10 years. The coaches and the
recruitment are just a few of the reasons but in the wake of
change there is a man behind the curtain: Tracy Swisher.
“He works hard, is positive and is easy to work with. He
wants to do tilings as well as he can for everything he does.
He is a team player,” said Clackamas Community College’s
basketball Head Coach Clif Wegner of Tracy Swisher.
Swisher is not only currently Clackamas’ sports informa
tion director (SID) but also holds the same position for the
Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges. In
addition, Swisher decided to take up sports photography to
help him in this role. You may have seen his handiwork for
team pictures, on the NWAACC site, on his website or even
in The Clackamas Print
Swisher has been with Clackamas since 2005 when the
college contacted him about updating the sports website. He
began a contracted job with the NWAACC in 2006 which
resulted because of his earlier work with CCC, and in 2009
he became the school’s sports director. Being a sports fan,
according to Swisher, is one of the reasons his job is sb fun.
When he started out in the field, Swisher was just your
average photographer, but when he started on the website he
knew he would have to get the best shots possible to liven
up the pages. He started off with a high end point-and-shoot
model but said he wasn’t getting the desired results, so he
switched to a Canon Rebel with some detachable lenses.
After some time went by he upgraded and now is on his third
DSLR camera.
“His photography is great but the best part of him being
in the SID position for us is that we have him as a resource
for all of our website, athletic and press release needs,”
stated Josh Rhoden, coach of the 2010-2011 NWAACC
Championship wrestling team. “It takes some of the work off
of my plate as a coach.”
Not only does Clackamas’ sports director spend countless
hours doing work for the sports teams and their websites,
taking photos for the league and sending out press releases,
but he is also a veteran.
“After a 20 year career in the Navy, I decided I wanted
to do something that really gave me job satisfaction 24/7,”
stated Swisher in an email.
x
At one time Swisher was just another college student
looking to find what makes himself tick, and like many peo
ple he started off at a community college. “I attended CCC
to possibly get a start in teaching, since one of the highlights
in my naval career was teaching rate training (‘A’ school)
for three years,” he stated. “After a year of teaching classes
at CCC, I decided I didn’t want to spend another four (or)
five years to meet the state requirements for teaching, so I
changed my degree to computer science. I had a background
in web design, so I opted to go that route and received my
CCC degree in June (of2005).”
Change can be a good thing and with Swisher as the
sports information director the school looks to improve every
season from both the players, website, and Swisher’s press
releases.
Look out for Swisher’s work in a number of places,
including his website www.fotozoneonline.com
Brad Heineke Clackamas Print
Tracy Swisher stands and watches during an away
softball game on May 4 at Clark Community College.
Swisher attends most Clackamas athletic events.