Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager OUR VIEW Be savvy to signs of abuse E arly intervention and education play a crucial role in curb- ing abusive patterns among young people, behaviors that can permanently damage lives if permitted to continue. Our interview last week with The Harbor’s teen outreach coordinator Erin Hofseth was an illuminat- ing glimpse at the ugly underside of too many youthful relationships. The staff at The Harbor, our region’s nonprofit advocacy group for victims of domes- tic and sexual violence, wit- ness how these patterns reverberate through society. There are no lower or Erin Hofseth upper boundaries in the age range of people who There are no suffer and perpetuate vio- lence within intimate part- lower or upper nerships. Awareness has grown in recent years about boundaries in how vulnerable older adults the age range sometimes are victim- of people who ized by those who should love, respect and care for suffer and them. But when it comes to perpetuate teens — beyond well-pub- violence licized bullying problems — many of us remain bliss- within intimate fully ignorant of the ways in which early relationships partnerships. can morph into something destructive. We should all be deeply concerned by the estimate that “1.5 million teenagers are abused by a dating partner nationwide in a year. … One in three girls will be purposely hit, slapped, punched, abused in some way.” Beyond this, many parents will be shocked to learn that “digital abuse … Pressuring for nudes and sexting is a really big thing.” This digital abuse can rip up reputations and leave long-term psychological scars. Beyond obvious warnings about sexting, parents and others with leadership roles in young lives can clearly help young people of any gender learn to identify warning signs about abusive rela- tionships, both in their own lives and those of their friends. “Once a person is enmeshed in an abusive relationship, it’s really hard to get out of it. It’s really hard to kind of see it when you’re in the cycle,” Hofseth said. Being savvy to the signs can help people of any age from becoming snared in situations from which it’s hard to get out. Some of the things to watch for: • One partner asserting control over the other partner, and using things like isolation, controlling what they wear and what they do, who they’re friends with, using social status to control them. • Taking manipulative or coercive steps to sever a partner’s connections with friends who might provide a lifeline. • Obvious physical signs, like bruising. • “If a parent has a child who is usually confident and secure, decisive, compassionate about things at school, and they start to see kind of abnormal insecurity … that’s part of that cycle of tear- ing them down to make them feel dependent on the abuser.” If you see these signs, either in your own relationship or in that of someone you love, reach out to The Harbor at 1361 Duane St. in Astoria for additional help and advice: 503-325-3426 office, 503-325-5735 hotline. LETTERS WELCOME Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. Letters should be fewer than 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone numbers. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to edit- ing for space, grammar and, on occasion, factual accuracy. Only two letters per writer are printed each month. Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date the letter was published. Discourse should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Submissions may be sent in any of these ways: E-mail to editor@dailyasto- rian.com; online at www.dailyas- torian.com; delivered to the Asto- rian offices at 949 Exchange St. and 1555 N. Roosevelt in Seaside or by mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. SOUTHERN EXPOSURE The championship that got away By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian S EASIDE — The basketball Gulls have yet to win a state championship. But they’ve sure come close. As they look ahead to the tournament this week, players past, present and future are watching a team with a long legacy of success. Mark Wickman’s name comes up almost immediately in every conver- sation of Seaside’s basketball stars. “I had a great player, Mark Wick- man,” Coach Larry Elliott, who led the team from 1971-96, said. “He went on to Linfield, was a little All-American academically, as well as basketball.” Seaside has never won a state title, but Wick- man’s scoring dom- inance — abetted by the play of his teammates — in the 1973-74 season brought them close. Seaside alum and 1973-74 bas- ketball team member Scott Maltman recalled “some good athletes those years: Mark Wickman, Lee Wilson, my younger brother Michael, Frank Sheppard was our center. Mike Hart- man was the other guard my senior year.” Others in a team photo include Mitch Mooney, Tom Bates, Josh Gizdavich, Fritz Beckford and Jim Norling. Catching up Wickman is not easy to catch up with today — he’s frequently on the road as a financial planner — but we did manage to catch him for a phone conversation on one of his drives in southern Oregon. Wickman transferred to Sea- side High School from a small reli- gious school on Washington’s Olym- pic Peninsula for the 1972-73 school year. “The two prior years, the Gulls hadn’t won many games,” Wick- man said. The team finished 6-4 in the very tough Cowapa League in 1972-73, beating two league powerhouses, Scappoose and Tillamook, during the regular season. Wickman was picked for first-team All-League. Dave Allen, Dave Butler and Tom Malt- man gained second-team honors, set- ting the next season’s stage. “I knew that going into the ’73- 74 season we could be a very good team,” Wickman said. “We were big, we had guards, shooters, we started 6-6, 6-5, 6-4 and we had 6-5, 6-4 coming off the bench as well.” The Gulls reeled off a 9-1 record by early January, the only loss com- ing to Portland’s Class 3A Jackson. Seaside was ranked No. 1 in the Class 2A Associated Press poll. “Oh my goodness, it was crazy,” Wickman said. “Just crazy. We won our tournament and another tourna- ment. The gym was packed through- out the year. The No. 1 ranking was something people really got behind.” You think “Go Gulls” fever is big this year? “We had a very good following on the road,” Wickman said. “This was the event, every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night in town to go to, and people went.” Big games The season had its share of big games. Wickman set a school scoring record against Clatskanie, pouring in 38 points, 24 in the second half. He also hauled down 24 rebounds and had eight steals. Cascade was dominant, as Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian The Seaside marching band raises their instruments during a free throw as Seaside faced off against Cascade in round one of the 4A State Championship Friday in Seaside. were the highly ranked Rainier Columbians. “I had a game where I was 15-15 from the field and they still beat us,” Wickman said. “They just had our number. They had an All-State guy that was about my size, and another guy, second team All-State.” Looking back at the record, Wick- man’s memory holds true. In a Feb- ruary 1974 game, the Columbians shot 80 percent in the first half and 90 percent in the second half to trip up Seaside. The level of play remained high all year, as did the excitement. A Jan- uary contest brought what the Sea- side Signal’s sportswriter called “car- diac basketball.” Scott Maltman was the hero of a showdown with Neah-Kah-Nie, making a layup in the final second of the game to win 48-46. In another buzzer-beater, senior forward Beckford gave the Gulls an 50-48 overtime win against Scap- poose with a reverse layup with 14 seconds on the clock. That win put the Gulls into the State 2A Tourna- ment in Eugene. Their first matchup was against No. 2 Cascade. The game pitted two All-State centers — Jeff Koenig played the position for Cascade — and though it was the first game of the tournament, it was considered the jewel in the crown. State play Wickman still regrets the trophy that might have been. Seaside played 3 1/2 quarters of some of its best ball of the year, the Signal reported, “manhandling the Cougars and almost breaking the game open at several points.” With a little more than 2 minutes remaining, Seaside led 57-53 and had a one-and-one bonus situation at the foul line. The Gulls missed the opportu- nity and in the next 120 seconds Cas- cade reeled off points as the Gulls lost the ball repeatedly on the full- court press. Cascade capitalized on an 11-point burst for a 74-61 victory. Wickman scored 33 points in that game, 14 rebounds and “completely handled” Koenig for the first three quarters, but he and the team ran out of gas as Cascade’s Koenig and All- State guard Dennis Federico led the Cougars’ comeback. “I’d had a real good game,” Wickman recalled. “They came back, they had a couple of guys who kept plugging away, we made a few bad decisions and they took advantage.” Wickman was “absolutely crushed.” “I felt we were the better team,” he said. “It sounds selfish, but know- ing what I know now, I would have said, ‘Give me the ball.’” After the loss, the Gulls regained their composure, rolling off three vic- tories in a row, winning the conso- lation trophy and finishing fifth in the state. In one of those tournament games, Wickman set a record tying the individual field goal mark in a tournament, 15. He was named to the all-tournament team and was the Class 2A rebounding leader. Cascade went on to beat the Gulls’ nemesis, Rainier, for the title, 56-50. The next year, the Gulls earned a repeat trip to the tournament, win- ning their first two games before being stymied. College and pros Wickman followed his Gulls career with even greater glory, play- ing ball at Linfield College — the alma mater of Coach Elliott. At Linfield, Wickman was a three-time All-American and four- time All-Northwest Conference and All-District basketball player. He was a nearly straight-A student. Wickman’s bid at a major college tournament came in his sophomore year at Linfield, when they faced a team from South Carolina. “That was one and done, as well,” Wick- man said. “Their starting lineup was 6-11, 6-10, 6-6, 6-6 and 6-2. We gave up about 4 inches at every position, another one where we’re leading with 2 minutes to go and I fouled out.” Wickman’s career total of 2,357 points has never been equaled at Lin- field. Nor his career rebound total of 1,109, he said. Wickman came oh-so-close to a career in the National Basketball Association, drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers the season after they won the title. “They won the title in ’77, my year was ’78,” Wickman said. “I went to rookie camp, played a little bit in the summer league and then got cut. I played four years in Europe. I coached and taught for a little while, then went into financial services.” Today he and his family split their time between McMinnville and Bend. Wickman has encouraging words for this year’s Gulls as they take to the court once again with hoop dreams. “I just know they were there last year in that championship game and they have to realize how great an advantage having been there last year in that championship game was and how they can use that to their advan- tage this year,” Wickman said. “It’s a confidence issue. Absolutely a confi- dence issue. Believing in themselves, they can win.” R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori- an’s South County reporter and edi- tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.
