PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 3, 2016
KEIZERTIMES.COM
22,450th!
Submitted
McNary senior Kyle Bonn recently committed to playing with the Willamette Bearcat football
team.
MHS lineman signs
with Willamette
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Standing at 6-4, 220
pounds, football coaches have
always been excited to see Mc-
Nary High School senior Kyle
Bonn walk on to the fi eld.
But the feeling wasn’t al-
ways mutual.
Bonn used to hate football
and if not for his mother, he
would have quit a long time
ago.
“It defi nitely hasn’t been
easy for me,” Bonn said.
“When I fi rst started doing
football, I cried nearly every
practice. My mom told me if
I wasn’t going to do this, I’d
have to do some other exer-
cising. I kept on with it and it
became something that grew
on me. I started to love it and
meant a lot.”
Bonn, who later chose to
wrestle and play lacrosse as
well as football “because you
get to hit people,” will get to
continue the game he grew to
love.
The two-year starter on the
offensive line recently com-
mitted to Willamette Univer-
sity in Salem.
“I’m just really excited to
have the opportunity,” Bonn
said. “It’s something I’ve ac-
tually looked forward to for a
long time. I couldn’t imagine
going without football.”
Bonn began playing foot-
ball in the fourth grade at the
Boys and Girls Club in Keizer
but said he didn’t start to peak
until middle school when he
got in better physical shape.
Due to his size, Bonn al-
ways played on the line, except
for the one time a coach gave
him the ball for an extra point.
Bonn likes the family-feel
of the offensive line.
“The feeling you get when
you have a successful play,
you feel like you just did it
with your family,” Bonn said.
Please see BONN, Page A11
Submitted by Tricia Aloisi
Keizer resident Jerry Nuttbrock at the starting line of the Boston Marathon in April.
last May which is a BQ — a Boston (marathon)
By LYNDON A. ZAITZ
qualifi er. He needed to run that 26.2 mile race
Of the Keizertimes
When is it an occasion for celebration com- in no more than 3 hours and 55 minutes. He
ing in 22,450th place? When you’ve run your came in nine minutes ahead of the cutoff.
As the oldest continuous races in the world,
Boston Marathon.
Keizer resident Jerry Nutttbrock, 62, was the Boston Marathon is one of the six most
one of 30,000 people to qualify for the 2016 prestigious races on the globe. Tens of thou-
marathon, and one of about 20 from the mid- sands of runners from around the world train
Willamette Valley area who were accepted to to qualify. In the end, the number of Boston
Marathoners is limited to 30,000, divided by
run this year.
A runner during his middle and high school age groups. With an acceptance letter, and $155
days, in his early 20s, Nuttbrock’s knees start- in-hand, Nuttbrock went to Boston with his
running partner Tricia Aloisi.
ing going out. He didn’t run
She doesn’t run marathons. Yet.
for many years. He started again
The world’s elite runners
in his early 40s and new shoes
generally start the marathon
made all the difference; a visit
run fi rst (the world marathon
to a Portland shoe company
record is a little over two hours),
resulted in the appropriate run-
then ‘waves’ of runners, num-
ning shoe and he has not had
bering about 7,500 each, took
knee problems since.
off in intervals.
He said he runs because it’s
What was on his mind when
cleansing.
— Jerry Nuttbrock
he was at the starting line?
“The best things about run-
“I was thinking ‘I hope my
ning is that it is exercise, it clears
my brain. It’s kind of medicinal,” he said. “I love watch works’. And ‘It’s hot,’” Nuttbrock re-
to run because it doesn’t feel like work. I’m not called. He also asked himself if his shoes felt
right. “I don’t get all hyped up, I don’t get ner-
much of a gym rat.”
He may not be a gym rat but he does have vous.”
On a larger scale, while in place and ready
a training system that strengthens his core—
where the running comes from. He said that to take off he thought, “I’m glad I’m here; so
training for races, such as marathons, calls for a much training and time went into it.”
lifestyle change. His diet and nutrition changed
To an amateur, the idea of running more
and he includes yoga in his workout routine.
than 26 miles seems an impossible task, but
His training pays off — in the past year, he Nuttbrock says that proper training gets a run-
ran 26 races ranging from 5Ks to marathons. ner’s body to a state where it won’t betray them
One of those races was the Eugene Marathon
Please see BOSTON, Page A11
“I love to run
because it
doesn’t feel
like work.”
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Lady Celt Reina Strand committed to playing basketball at North Dakota’s Minot State Univer-
sity last month.
Strand to Minot Beavers
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
When Derek Handley was head coach of
another Greater Valley Conference girls basket-
ball program, he dreaded going head-to-head
with McNary High School.
“They had this 6-foot-2, sophomore post
with skills that I knew would cause us trouble,”
said Handley, who is now head coach of the
Celtics.
The post in question was Reina Strand, who
signed a letter of intent to play with the Minot
State University Beavers at a ceremony Mon-
day, May 23. MSU is a Division II school based
in Minot, N.D.
“I really liked the coach and got along with
the girls in the program, and they have an ath-
letic training program, which is what I want to
study,” said Strand.
Strand’s path to playing college ball wasn’t
as simple as some others. Most college-bound
players are recruited in their junior years, but
Strand was stuck riding the bench as a junior,
the result of a “devastating” knee injury.
However, rather than sit out entirely, Strand
found ways to stay involved. She had perfect
attendance at practices and games when she
wasn’t at physical therapy appointments and
even started coaching the younger girls in the
program.
“Her work ethic is unmatched,” Handley
said. “And staying involved helped her learn the
game from another point of view.”
While it spoke volumes about her character,
Strand was still in the lurch when it came to
options for college as a senior. Then, too, she
took matters into her own hands.
Please see STRAND, Page A11
Booster auction Saturday
The McNary High School
Athletic Booster Club (ABC)
will host its annual dinner/
auction Saturday, June 4, at
the Log House Garden at
Willow Lake, 5655 Windsor
Island Road N., in Keizer.
Tickets are $35 per per-
son, $360 for a reserved table
for eight or $500 for a spon-
sored table. Tickets can be
purchased at mcnaryabc.com
and include dinner and a bid-
der paddle for silent and oral
auctions. The event begins
with a social hour at 4:30
p.m.
This summer, the ABC is
helping to cover the cost of a
gym renovation. The project
includes repainting all three
levels of the gymnasium and
refi nishing the main gym’s
fl oor to include a McNary
“M” logo.
The fi nal cost of the proj-
ect is expected to be some-
where between $25,000 and
$32,000, and is set to begin
in June. McNary’s ABC is
kicking in $20,000 toward
the overall cost of the reno-
vation. The dinner and auc-
tion, which is celebrating the
golden anniversary of Mc-
Nary athletics, will include a
“raise-the-paddle” session to
fundraise specifi cally for the
gym project.
Other highlights this year
are “Golden Tickets” that
will be sold only at the auc-
tion. Fifty tickets will be sold
for $50 each and the winner
will get to choose any of the
oral auction packages to take
home before it goes on the
block.