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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, AuguST 27, 2019
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Astorians help win HTC High School Challenge
The Astorian
It isn’t often when some locals
make the awards stand in the Hood
to Coast.
But this year’s list of winners
included three Astoria runners in
the High School Challenge portion
of the 2019 relay, which included
26 teams.
Astoria High School students
John Clement, 14, and Sophie
Long, 16, were part of the Oregon
Road Runners, who blitzed over
the hill from Portland to Seaside
(129 miles) in 12 hours, 51 min-
utes, 34 seconds, topping the sec-
ond place Bushnell Bushwackers
(14:00:34) by over an hour.
Astoria 14-year-old Jack Col-
quhoun also ran for the Road
Runners.
Clement, a freshman-to-be at
Astoria, helped build the team,
SCOREBOARD
THURSDAY
Volleyball — Knappa at Warrenton, 6 p.m.
Cross-Country — Seaside at Hillsboro Invitational
FRIDAY
Football — Astoria jamboree, at CMH Field,
6 p.m.; Warrenton jamboree, 6 p.m.
Volleyball — Astoria at Catlin Gabel, noon
SATURDAY
Volleyball — Warrenton Tournament, 10 a.m.
which included friends he races
with in USA Track & Field
competition.
In addition to Colquhoun and
Long, the “dream team” of high
school runners had Central Catho-
lic’s Liam Murphy, Wesley Shipsey
and Tristan Sullivan, Logan Law
from Milwaukie, and Carter Cut-
ting from Wilsonville.
Each runner ran 15 to 21 miles
in three legs.
Chris Long
The Oregon Road Runners, from left to right: Sophie Long (Astoria), Carter
Cutting (Wilsonville), Wesley Shipsey (Central Catholic), John Clement
(Astoria), Tristan Sullivan (Central Catholic), Logan Law (Milwaukie) and
Liam Murphy (Central Catholic).
QB Luck
finds cost
of football
too pricey
By MICHAEL MAROT
Associated Press
Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin takes part in an interview Monday at the location in Renton, Wash. where
he hopes to spearhead the construction of a community center. Baldwin is donating $1 million toward the project with the goal
of raising another $5 million in collaboration with the city of Renton. Baldwin was released by the Seahawks in early May with a
failed physical designation after an offseason where he underwent surgeries on his groin, shoulder and knee.
Baldwin moving his focus
from football to philanthropy
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
R
ENTON, Wash. — In his previ-
ous occupation, the final week of
August was a time Doug Baldwin
would be in the final stages of prepar-
ing for the grind of the upcoming NFL
season.
On Monday, Baldwin sat in an empty
field, talking about the next stage of his
life away from football and with a focus
on philanthropy and helping others.
“The goal has always been to effect
change in the world on a very large
scale,” Baldwin said. “I really do feel,
and I know it’s an ambitious statement
to make and sometimes could be a naive
statement but as I think through what I
want to accomplish through the rest of
my life and also for my children I want
to change the world in a positive way.”
The former Seattle Seahawks wide
receiver is no longer a football player,
and one of his first projects in the
post-playing career is spearheading
construction of a community center in
the Seattle suburb of Renton. Baldwin
is donating $1 million toward the proj-
ect with the goal of raising another $5
million in collaboration with the city of
Renton.
“I think this center will be a portal
where they can be seen, can be under-
stood as human beings, can be recog-
nized that there are things they need that
can stabilize their lives or further their
lives and this facility will present those
resources,” Baldwin said.
The youth center Baldwin is cham-
pioning has been nearly five years in the
making. Baldwin lived in the area near
where the proposed center will be built
during his rookie season. He found sim-
ilarities in the area to his upbringing in
Pensacola, Florida, but without a gath-
ering point for youth. Baldwin began
conversations with the city of Renton
about ways to make a youth center a
reality.
“This project is a personal passion,”
Baldwin said. “This facility that we’re
building it’s very similar to a facility
and program where I grew up back in
Pensacola, Florida. It’s a place I called
my second home. There were resources
and people that genuinely cared about
me not only as a student and an ath-
lete, but more so about me being a well-
rounded human being. There was so
much involved in that you can’t really
put a measurement around. I owe a lot
to them, to that organization, to that
facility, to that second home for me see-
ing the world the way I see it today.”
It was the first time Baldwin has
talked publicly about his decision to
step away from football — although he
has yet to file retirement papers with the
NFL. Baldwin was released by the Sea-
hawks in early May with a failed physi-
cal designation after an offseason where
he underwent surgeries on his groin,
shoulder and knee.
His release was a transactional
move, but its significance was final.
Baldwin doesn’t sound like someone
who intends to return to the NFL.
“I think the fundamental ques-
tion at the core of it was, ‘What am I
trying to accomplish here?’ with the
thought process of not playing football
again,” Baldwin said. “Essentially what
it comes down to is, ‘Can my body do
this and me still have a resemblance of
a quality of life afterward?’
“And at some point, I think at some
point for everyone in life, whether you
work at a desk job or you’re a profes-
sional athlete, at some point you have to
make a decision. Is this what is best for
me and my family long term? And in
some cases playing football or staying
at a job is not. And that’s everybody’s
personal journey and personal decision.
That’s the basis of it all.”
Baldwin played his entire eight-year
career with the Seahawks and finished
with 493 receptions for 6,563 yards and
49 touchdowns in the regular season.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free
agent and left as one of the core pieces
of Seattle’s championship run earlier
this decade.
Baldwin said he’s missed the cama-
raderie of being around his teammates.
“The receivers still come over to my
house. They’ve been over to the house
a couple of times so I still have that
connection with them,” Baldwin said.
“I’m still present when they need me
to be. I think most guys who retired say
that, what they miss most is the locker
room.”
INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck was
unique.
He loved football. He loves life even
more.
So when the 29-year-old Luck thought
another long, laborious comeback journey
jeopardized his future, he believed walking
away from the sport and potentially hun-
dreds of millions of dollars was the only
logical choice.
“For the last four years or so, I’ve been
in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab — injury,
pain, rehab — and it’s been unceasing,
unrelenting, both in season and off season,”
Luck said following Saturday night’s loss to
the Chicago Bears. “I felt stuck in it, and the
only way I see out is to no longer play foot-
ball. It’s taken my joy of this game away.”
The announcement and the timing —
two weeks before the Indianapolis Colts’
season opener against the Los Angeles
Chargers — shocked the football world.
But this was not a spur-of-the-moment
decision.
After three injury-plagued seasons, Luck
returned last year with a new perspective
about the physical pain, mental fatigue and
emotional agony it took to keep fighting his
way back. Late last summer, he described
his state of mind throughout the continual
rehab with words such as “sad,” ‘’misera-
ble” and “scared.”
Last month, as the lingering pain in his
lower left leg forced him off the practice
field yet again, Luck told reporters that he
promised himself after playing through the
shoulder pain in 2016 and missing the entire
2017 season, he would be honest with him-
self, his coaches, teammates and the organi-
zation about how his body felt.
At the time, Luck said he thought even
limited practices were detrimental to him-
self and the team.
“It took great courage to make his deci-
sion to walk away from the game, but no
matter how difficult he did what his heart
told him and I am proud of him for being
honest with himself and the team,” said for-
mer Colts coach Chuck Pagano, now the
defensive coordinator for the Bears. “With
Andrew it was always about more than
football.”
While some fans booed Luck as he left
the field Saturday night, other players sup-
ported him. They understand how danger-
ous and debilitating the sport can be, which
is why some are quitting at earlier ages.
Luck just happens to be the biggest
name yet on that expanding list.
“I think it takes an immense amount of
courage, an immense amount of self-re-
flection and a lot of guts to do what he is
doing,” Houston defensive end J.J. Watt
said. “I am sure people have their ways of
looking at it and their ways of trying to say
what they would do in his shoes. But the
truth is, no one is in his shoes. Nobody has
to go through what he has had to go through.
Nobody has been through the rehab and the
injuries. ... I respect the hell out of it. I think
it takes a whole lot to walk away from a ton
of money like that.”