10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
No time for
Seahawks to
recover from
loss to Rams
SPORTS
IN BRIEF
Mariners deny
fired exec’s
claims of racism
against Latinos
SEATTLE — The Seattle Mar-
iners are denying claims made
by the club’s recently fired train-
ing and conditioning director, who
said team management had dis-
paraged Latino players.
The Mariners issued a state-
ment on Monday following the
social media postings from Lorena
Martin in which she claimed gen-
eral manager Jerry Dipoto, man-
ager Scott Servais and director of
player development Andy McKay
had called Latino players “lazy,
dumb and stupid, especially the
Dominicans.” Martin, whose title
with the team was director of high
performance, posted her message
on Instagram and Twitter .
The Mariners said Martin, who
was hired with much fanfare last
year, was relieved of her duties on
Oct. 10.
Ohtani wins AL
Rookie of the
Year; Acuna
takes NL honor
NEW YORK — Shohei
Ohtani was rewarded for a Ruth-
ian season at the plate — and on
the mound.
Baseball’s best two-way player
since the Babe at the dawn of the
live-ball era a century ago, Ohtani
was an overwhelming pick for
American League Rookie of the
Year on Monday despite an elbow
injury that stymied his switch
from Japan to the major leagues
and likely will prevent him from
pitching next year.
“I was just kind of disap-
pointed I wasn’t able to play a full
season,” he said through a transla-
tor. “I feel like every player should
be able to play a full year and help
out the team. So that’s something
I need to work on, and that’s going
to be one of my goals, to stay
healthy for a long full season and
be able to the team win from day
one.”
Atlanta Braves outfielder Ron-
ald Acuna Jr. was a runaway
choice for the NL honor over
Washington outfielder Juan Soto
in a contest between 20-year-olds.
A singular sensation who
earned a chorus of praise for his
dual success, Ohtani became the
first player since Ruth in 1919
with 10 homers and four pitching
wins in the same season.
He didn’t play between June 4
and July 3 because of a sprained
ulnar collateral ligament in his
right elbow, an injury the Angels
were aware of when they signed
him for a $2,315,000 bonus last
winter.
— Associated Press
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — The idea
the Seattle Seahawks would score
31 points and lose used to be unfath-
omable with Pete Carroll in charge.
It’s happened now twice this sea-
son, both times to the division-lead-
ing Los Angeles Rams. And by the
end of the season those two games
of being unable to slow down the
Rams could end up being the dif-
ference between Seattle finding its
way into the playoffs and being left
home for the second straight year.
Krissy Barendse-Goodman/For The Daily Astorian
North Coast official Tal Gohl signals a 3-point shot for the Loggers.
Referees and officials needed
cials over the last nine years.
“We’ve lost 18 percent of our
officials. And the number of con-
training clinic for basketball
tests hasn’t gone down,” he said.
officials will be held Sunday
Plus, the current officials are
at Clatsop Community Col-
aging — the average age is 48.
lege, 16th and Lexington in Astoria.
“If an official has been offici-
ating for three years, you can nor-
The clinic is hosted by the Ore-
gon Athletic Officials Association
mally keep them for much longer,”
(OAOA), and is for training and
Toyas said. “But those first three
playoff certification for the Offi-
years are the key. The training,
cials’ Certification and Education
mentoring, the good experiences
Program (OCEP).
… that kind of thing.”
It’s also for anyone interested
Not only is it difficult to keep
in officiating local games, from the
officials interested, but high school
youth Pacific Basketball League
basketball associations now need
to middle school to high
more officials per game,
school.
with leagues across the
The North Coast Offi-
state moving to three-of-
cials’ Association — like
ficial crews, from the old
associations throughout the
two-person crews.
state — is in desperate need
With basketball season
of referees. There’s a defi-
right around the corner, the
nite shortage of officials in
North Coast association
youth athletics, says local Teena Toyas is just trying to stay afloat,
multi-sport official Teena
Toyas said.
Toyas.
“Obviously we’ve lost one offi-
cial (the recent death of longtime
While the pay isn’t great and
official/umpire Brad Campbell),
there’s lot of travel, Toyas says
and there’s a couple others who
the main reason for the shortage
won’t be officiating this year,” she
of officials is “fan behavior. (Offi-
cials) just don’t like getting yelled
said. “We do have some new peo-
ple coming in, but they are going to
and screamed at, and blamed for
be brand-new rookies.”
their kid failing and everything
The shortage of officials has
else.”
affected all sports, at all levels.
Toyas has officiated multiple
“There’s all kinds of research
sports locally for years, and is the
being done on it, and campaigns to
current commissioner for the North
try and recruit,” Toyas said.
Coast association for basketball,
As a result, in recent years local
soccer and volleyball officials.
schools have had to bring in offi-
A shortage of officials is not just
cials from the Longview, Wash-
a local problem — it’s a national
ington area for football games, and
trend.
the lack of referees in basketball is
Jack Folliard, executive direc-
tor of the Oregon Athletic Officials
one reason why there’s a decline
Association, said the shortage is a
or complete cancellation of city
widespread problem.
league games, Toyas said.
“It’s a huge issue across the
“That’s why the city league had
state in all sports, and an issue
to cancel their program, because
across the nation,” said Folliard,
we (the North Coast association)
who has tracked a decline of offi-
had too many games and couldn’t
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
A
service them. They had to get their
own officials, and that didn’t work
because they were untrained and
out of shape.”
The recently completed fall
sports season “was actually good,”
she said. “We had some younger,
new officials in soccer. We don’t get
a lot of new officials in volleyball,
but my volleyball group is always
there. They’re very committed,
they always take their assignments
and it’s never a huge burden, unless
we have the big tournaments, like
in Seaside, where we have to ask
for help from Portland.”
The North Coast Officials
Association covers seven mid-
dle schools (including Ilwaco)
and six area high schools — Asto-
ria, Seaside, Warrenton, Knappa,
Neah-Kah-Nie and Jewell. There
are some nights when all six high
schools host games — with most
schools holding freshman and
junior varsity games before the var-
sity doubleheaders.
While basketball practices
began Monday for the local high
school players, referees and offi-
cials also need to gear up for the
upcoming season, rookies included.
Sunday’s clinic is needed, Toyas
said, because “you have to have
this training in order to be qualified
to do any state playoff or champi-
onship games. It’s required every
five years, so we do a training class
at the college, and this will be part
of the regular training.”
The clinic will include class-
room instruction and on-floor train-
ing, and is scheduled for 10 a.m. to
2 p.m. Focus will be on three-per-
son mechanics, with presentations
from visiting officials. Lunch is
provided by the OAOA.
For more information, contact
Toyas at officiallyteena13@msn.
com, ttoyas@clatsopcc.edu, or
503-440-0221.
UP NEXT: SEAHAWKS
• Green Bay Packers (4-4-1)
at Seattle Seahawks (4-5)
• Thursday, 5:20 p.m. TV: FOX
“I’m not a moral victories guy.
A loss is a loss,” Seattle linebacker
Bobby Wagner said. “We need to
grow from it. It’s only good if we
learn something from it and do bet-
ter. We’ve got to do that. We have to
apply that to the rest of the season.”
Seattle has little time to make
corrections with Green Bay visit-
ing on Thursday night in a matchup
with major wild-card implications
in the NFC. Seattle has dropped
two straight, falling to 4-5 and can’t
afford a third straight loss if it wants
to remain in the playoff race.
Carroll believes there is still
time for Seattle to make a playoff
run. But its defense must improve
starting this week.
“We’ve got to go. We’ve got to
take these one week at a time and
start piling up some wins. I like our
style and I like our style in playoff
mode. I’d like that opportunity,”
Carroll said on Monday.
“We’ve got a lot of ball to play,
there are a lot of games coming
at us, lot of opportunities at home
and we should have nothing but the
thoughts that we should build on
where we are right now and have
a chance to get going and get bet-
ter. Hopefully we can stay healthy
and give us a chance to play with
the same guys.”
For the second straight week,
Seattle was terrible at stopping the
run, especially in the first half. A
week earlier against the Chargers,
it was Melvin Gordon running wild
as that Los Angeles franchise rolled
up 160 yards rushing and averaged
more than 7 yards per carry.
It didn’t get better against
Todd Gurley and the Rams. Gur-
ley rushed for 120 yards on just 16
carries and the Rams averaged 6.5
yards per carry. It was the third time
this season Seattle has allowed its
opponent to average more than 6
yards per rush — it happened just
seven times in the previous eight
seasons.