10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2015
Poyer: ‘The kids are ¿red up to be out here’
Continued from Page 1A
For the kids, they learned
a great deal in just four hours
of instruction time.
For Poyer, it was one last
“fun” break before the grind
of another NFL season, his
third year with the new-look
Browns.
“It’s been pretty crazy, but
I’ve had a good off-season,“
Poyer said. “I got engaged,
went to (Washington) D.C.
for a little bit, played in the
summer softball game … it’s
been fun, but it’s coming to
an end quickly. Got to enjoy
these last couple weeks.“
“The kids are ¿red up to
be out here, and it’s always
good to come back,” Poyer
said.
It was also the camp’s ¿rst
time at Columbia Memorial
Field, which drew some posi-
tive reviews from Poyer.
“This is my ¿rst time
stepping on it — it’s pretty
awesome,” he said. “I’ll miss
being at ol’ John Warren, but
I could get used to this.”
The Browns in 2015
Meanwhile, the players
Poyer will be facing on the
¿eld one month from now
will be a little older and a
lot bigger. He’s ready for the
challenge.
“This next year is going
to be a big year for me,”
said Poyer, who has already
impressed many with his
performance in Cleveland’s
recent off-season training
camp. “I have a lot of expec-
tations for myself. Year 2 was
a plain and simple year — I
came out healthy and I was
satis¿ed with it.”
In 2014, “I didn’t ac-
complish a lot of things
that I wanted to,” Poyer
said during a visit to Asto-
ria earlier this year. “I came
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Cooper Miller, 13, goes airborne during a tackling drill at
the Jordan Poyer football camp at CMH Field Sunday.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Jordan Poyer, left, tries to strip the ball from Clay Keyser, 11, right, during returning drills
at the Jordan Poyer football camp at CMH Field Sunday.
‘This next year is going to
be a big year for me.’
— Jordan Poyer
NFL player from Astoria
out healthy, and played well
enough to stay on the team.
I played on special teams
mostly, and played about 30
snaps on defense towards
the end of the season. It was
not the season I wanted to
have, but at the same time it
helped me get ready for this
next year.”
Listed ahead of Poyer on
the depth chart last year was
Jim Leonhard, a free safety
who retired at the end of the
2014 season, after 10 years in
the league.
“Jimmy Leonhard had
basically the position that I
would have played this (last)
year,” Poyer said. “It was
his last season, and I kind of
studied under his wing. The
coaches wanted me to play
one year in that system, and
come in next year and have
the role that Jimmy Leonhard
played — to come in on sec-
ond-and-long plays and third
down situations.”
Poyer would also like to
get in on some special teams
action, ¿elding kickoffs and
punts.
“I want to return again,
really bad,” Poyer said. “All
four phases of special teams,
I don’t mind playing, going
out there running down ¿eld
and trying to make plays.”
Even before the draft
and some off-season moves,
Poyer said, “I de¿nitely feel
like this team will be a lot
stronger that it was last year.
There’s just a couple pieces
here, that if we can put it to-
gether we’ll be a really strong
team, all around.”
Speci¿cally, the Cleve-
land secondary has been
called one of the best in the
NFL.
“I felt our defense played
great, our offense played re-
ally well at times,” Poyer
said. “If we just put every-
thing together throughout a
whole season, I think we can
be really dangerous.”
Individually, Poyer was
honored as one of the NFL’s
11 best players on kickoff
coverage, as selected by Pro
Football Focus.
“Anytime you get recog-
nition for anything — espe-
cially in the NFL — I feel
like it’s a pretty good accom-
plishment.”
Poyer will return to the
Paci¿c Northwest Dec. 20,
when the Browns play at Se-
attle.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Corbin Kremz, 10, dives while trying to tackle Jordan Poy-
er during a running drill.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Coaches and players cheer before heading off to the next
drill station. More photos online at www.dailyastorian.com
Center: There are about 1,000 homeless people in the county
‘We just want a chance’
Continued from Page 1A
Struggling couple fear
they might lose children
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
John Donoghue is not looking for a hand-
out.
The handyman, his wife, and their ¿ve
young children have been living for the past
few years in weather-beaten camper trailers in
a scrap yard on Wireless Road outside Astoria.
Donoghue has been scraping together mon-
ey by hauling away other people’s junk. His
wife and home-schooled children appear hap-
py and well-fed, but their lifestyle has raised
alarm.
Sheriffs have been out to the trailers multi-
ple times to check on the family’s welfare. On
Thursday, Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin
¿nally told Donoghue that if the family is still
living there by winter, the children might be
taken away by the state.
Proud and independent, Donoghue, 51, re-
fuses to accept government assistance. But he
does not have the resources or steady employ-
ment record to qualify for a market-rate rental
for a family of seven.
Ideally, he would like the owner of a ¿x-
er-upper to allow his family to stay in return for
renovating the property.
“We just want a chance,” Donoghue said.
On the margins
Like many who ¿nd themselves on the mar-
gins ¿nancially, there is no one reason to ex-
plain the Donoghue’s predicament. Decisions
they have made over the years, both small and
large, have trapped them into a corner.
People in Astoria who know the family de-
scribe Donoghue as intelligent and hard-work-
ing, if a bit eccentric. His wife, Chelsea, 30,
is devoted to him. The children — John, 10;
Patrick, 8; Jennifer, 6; Tommy, 4; and Jessica,
1 — appear well-adjusted and educated.
Some say, however, many have tried to help
the family but that Donoghue has either refused
or become suspicious of potential allies.
“He’s an interesting person to say the least,”
Sheriff Bergin said. While Donoghue means
well, Bergin said, “he thinks everybody is
against him. He thinks the whole world has put
him down, that they’re holding him back.”
Bergin said the family’s living conditions
do not yet meet the criteria for removing the
children.
But the sheriff said he told Donoghue the
children could potentially be removed by the
state Department of Human Services if the
family remains in the trailers by winter.
“We’re trying to be as gentle and kind as
possible,” Bergin said.
Donoghue, who said he served in the Ma-
rine Corps, insists he is not anti-government.
He said he believes in personal responsibility,
however, and does not think others should have
to pay for his choice to have a large family.
“Why should she have to collect welfare,”
he said of his wife, “when she’s got a healthy,
intelligent, able-bodied man who’s willing to
work and can’t get a job?”
While the exact circumstances that brought
Donoghue to Oregon from the East Coast are
dif¿cult to pinpoint — he claims to have in-
vented a carburetor that led to some type of
business dispute, and refers to a conÀict with
his wife’s parents in Connecticut — he wants a
future for his family beyond the trailers.
Dan Hess, a former Port of Astoria com-
missioner, has allowed the family to stay on the
Wireless Road property for now.
“We need to ¿nd a place to live,” Donoghue
said. “ASAP.”
Herzig said volunteers de-
cided to raise the threshold to
open the shelter to 40 degrees or
severe weather conditions — it
was initially 35 degrees last win-
ter, then adjusted to 38 degrees
— because the cutoff appeared
arbitrary.
“When we’ve got these ter-
rible rainstorms, it’s still hell to
be out on the streets,” he said. “If
we can possibly open more, we
want to.”
Clatsop Community Action,
which helps low-income res-
idents with food and housing,
has estimated there are about
1,000 homeless people in Clat-
sop County.
The homeless can seek shel-
ter from the Astoria Rescue
Mission and Helping Hands in
Seaside, which have programs
to help people get off the streets
and address health or sub-
stance-abuse issues.
Without much fanfare, First
Baptist Church had also been
opening for the homeless on
freezing nights for the past sev-
en years. The church ended the
outreach last winter when the
Astoria Warming Center opened
a few blocks away.
The warming center functions
more like a shelter of last resort
than a homeless assistance pro-
gram. Some in the social-service
community have been concerned
about whether volunteers at the
warming center are equipped
to handle homeless people with
severe mental illness or drug and
alcohol problems.
Herzig said the volunteers
Fastabend: ‘He is a lifelong Astorian’
Continued from Page 1A
His new position as the
Astoria boys’ coach “will take
up most of my time now, for
sure,” he said.
Changing roles
When Patterson stepped
aside to become the head
women’s soccer coach at
Portland Community College,
Fastabend threw his hat in the
ring for the Astoria job.
Fastabend had served as
an assistant to Patterson in the
past, knows all the players,
and de¿nitely knows soccer.
The choice to make Fastabend
the coach was a no-brainer
for Astoria Athletic Director
Howard Rub.
“Coach Fastabend is a
great ¿t to assume the role of
our head boys coach,” Rub
said at the time. “He under-
stands the philosophies of the
AHS Athletic Department and
what we hope to provide for
our student-athletes. Coach
Fastabend is widely respect-
ed in Clatsop County for his
work with LCYSA and his
work as a local businessman.
“He is a lifelong Astorian
and has great pride in AHS
athletics.”
Fastabend has been a local
youth soccer coach since sum-
mer 2000 and has served as a
volunteer high school coach
for both the Astoria boys and
girls since fall 2011.
Big shoes
He will have big shoes to
¿ll as the Astoria coach.
Astoria boys soccer was
¿rst added as a varsity sport
in 1991, when Max Bigby led
the Fishermen to the Cowapa
League championship. That
set the standard, and the ex-
pectations have been high
ever since.
From 1991 to 1998, the
Fishermen were in the dis-
trict playoffs seven of the
eight years, made the state
playoffs four times, advanced
to the Tuarter¿nals twice and
played in the semi¿nals in
1995.
Bigby’s overall record was
77 wins, 47 losses, 12 ties.
From 1999 to 2006, Bois-
vert had a career record of
80-35-15. Patterson took over
in 2007, ran the program for
eight years, and stepped down
with a mark of 77-36-9.
The Fishermen missed the
playoffs last season, after a
loss to Gladstone in the Re-
gional Play-in round.
“Quite a few seniors de-
parted last year, and we have
a handful coming back, but
we’ll be relying a lot on some
sophomores and juniors,”
Fastabend said. “It will be
somewhat of a rebuilding year
from the players’ side, and
then it will be an adjustment
period for the players getting
used to a new coach.”
If Fastabend can build and
repair a soccer team like he
builds and repairs boats, the
Fishermen will be in good
hands.
— Gary Henley
Daily Astorian File
Men wait outside the downtown Astoria Senior Center,
which served as a warming center, as volunteers set up
inside in January.
hope to be better partners with
Clatsop Community Action and
other social-service providers.
“We’re not presenting ourselves
as a full-service clinic,” he said.
“It’s just a place to get in, get out
of the weather, get warm, and be
able to sleep safely as opposed
to sleeping under a bush not
knowing what’s going to hap-
pen to you.
“We’re not kidding our-
selves. We are not trained pro-
P PG P
E X
fessionals dealing with this, but
somebody had to step up.”
Carol Prichard, the pastor at
First United Methodist, said the
church exists to extend compas-
sion and hospitality to people
in need. “It’s really a faith and
a biblical mandate for us in fol-
lowing Christ,” she said.
“It makes perfect sense to
us. We want to make sure that
we’re good stewards. We have
a building.”
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