Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 2017)
Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian BRIEFLY Golf Fore Life seeks participants Golfers are invited to tee-off to benefit Pregnancy Care Services of Hermiston and Pendleton. The Golf ‘Fore’ Life Tournament is Saturday, Aug. 26 at Echo Hills Golf Course. Sign-ins are at 1 p.m., with a shotgun start at 2 p.m. A catered meal is set for 4:30 p.m. A four-person scramble format, it features nine holes. The cost is $60 per person, which includes green fees, a cart, barbecue dinner and swag bags. Mulligans can be purchased for $10. In addition, prizes will be awarded for lowest combined score, longest drive, closest to the pin and longest putt. Also, those who would like to come for dinner only can buy a ticket for $20. Registration for the tournament is requested by Wednesday, Aug. 16. Forms are available at www. pregnancycareservices.com. Fall recreation sports start in September HERMISTON — Adult fall sports league in Hermiston includes co-ed competitive and recreational volleyball leagues and USTFL Adult Flag Football Offered by Hermiston Parks & Recreation, captains must register all volleyball players (roster is limited to 12 players). The eight-week season, which starts Sunday, Sept. 17 in the Gold Gym at Hermiston High School, includes a postseason single elimination event. The team fee is $150 and the registration deadline is Aug. 31. The football league is 8-on-8 non-contact. The eight- week season includes a single elimination tournament. The games are on Saturdays, beginning Sept. 9 at Sunset Elementary School. The team registration fee is $475. The captain must register the team by Friday, Aug. 25. To participate in the fall adult leagues, participants must be 18-or-older, not in high school and not playing on a college team. Visit www.hermistonrecreation.com. Wednesday, August 9, 2017 MARINERS: Alonso 1 for 5 in team debut Seattle Mari- ners’ Yonder Alonso pre- pares to bat in the dugout before a baseball game against the Oakland Ath- letics, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017, in Oak- land, Calif. Continued from 1B Smith was the seventh reliever manager Bob Melvin summoned in relief of Kendall Graveman, who was making his second start after being on the disabled list with a strained right shoulder. Graveman gave up four runs (three earned) and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. Khris Davis was 2 for 4 with a home run (his 30th), a triple and four RBIs and Ryon Healy had three hits including a solo home run - his 21st - as the A’s took a 6-2 lead into the sixth inning. Oakland’s gaffe-prone defense figured prominently in the meltdown as they committed three errors that led to two unearned runs. Ben Gamel went to second on rookie third baseman Chapman’s throwing error leading off the eighth inning. Gamel went to third on Jarrod Dyson’s infield grounder and scored on pinch-hitter Danny Valencia’s sacrifice fly. Gamel was 2 for 5 with a two-run double. AP Photo/ Marcio Jose Sanchez The A’s lead the majors with 95 errors and 70 unearned runs allowed. Seattle was 2-44 when trailing after seven innings going into Tuesday. DIG THIS Less than two days after being traded to the Mari- ners, All-Star first baseman Yonder Alonso debuted with FARM-CITY: Stock to be housed on rodeo grounds now Continued from 1B Local contestants Aubrey, Texas, and Matt Shiozawa of Chubbock, Idaho, who won the event in 2015 and 2013 respectively, are also entered in this year’s tie-down roping in Hermiston. The top Farm-City team ropers from 2016 — Garrett Tonozzi and Wyatt Cox — are also expected back in Hermiston this week as is last year’s barrel racing champion, Kimmie Wall. The only event in which a 2016 Farm-City champion who isn’t entered for the 2017 rodeo is last year’s bull riding champion Cole Melancon, who is currently ranked seventh in the world standings. But there will be no shortage of bull riding talent as five of the cowboys in the Top 10 of the bull riding world standings are entered in Farm-City, including Garret Smith of Rexburg, Idaho (No. 2), and Ty Wallace of Coll- bran, Colorado. (No. 3). At least 32 cowboys and cowgirls from Umatilla and Morrow counties are entered in the event, including 17 from Hermiston alone. Local competition will be particularly prominent in the barrel racing event, with 18 barrel racers from Umatilla and Morrow counties, led by Callahan Crossley of Hermiston, who is currently in seventh place in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Associa- tion’s Columbia River Circuit standings as of July 31. Crossley and the rest of the local barrel racers will be competing against some of the top talent in the event. Seven of the top 10 barrel racers in the current WPRA standings are entered in Farm- City including top-ranked Tiany Schuster of Krum, Texas, who has a lead of more than $76,000 over second-place Stevi Hillman of Weatherford, Texas, who is also entered. The top-ranked Oregon cowgirl is Amberleigh Moore of Salem-Keizer, Oregon, who is also entered in the Farm- City field and leads the Columbia River Circuit standings. Even before the rodeo started, stock contractor T.J. Korkow praised the new setup. Some of the Umatilla and Morrow counties contestants in the Farm-City Pro Rodeo. Heppner Allen Boore, calf roping, steer wrestling Susan Gibbs, barrel racing Blake Knowles, steer wrestling Clayton Morrison, steer wrestling Staff photo by Gary L. West A group of bulls from Korkow Rodeos stock contracting com- pany is among the first group of livestock to offload into the new Farm-City Pro Rodeo arena stock pens at the Eastern Or- egon Trade and Event Center on Monday, Aug. 7. The animals will be housed in the on-grounds pens all week. David Both- um, right, co-founder of the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, talks to stock contractor T.J. Korkow of Korkow Ro- deos, during a tour of the livestock pens Monday, Aug. 7, at the East- ern Oregon Trade and Event Center. Staff photo by Gary L. West “I think it’s awesome,” Korkow said while unloading his bucking horses and bulls in the new stock pens. “They’ve all been very impressed,” Bothum said of the stock contractor’s assessment of the new facility. The pens are big and animals can relax and not be crowded, Bothum said. There is another advantage for the animals and contractors in that they can stay on the grounds through the whole run of the rodeo. “They don’t have to haul ’em in (every day) like they have for the last 30 years,” when the animals were housed at stock yards away from the rodeo arena. Bothum said that means there is less chance of an incident occurring during transport, possibly resulting in injuries to livestock. And less transporting also means less work for the contrac- tors moving livestock around every day. Bothum express appreciated to the community for supporting the rodeo and it’s board of direc- tors and efforts to get the facility to this point. He said they will learn from this week and see if anything still needs to be improved and, if so, Hermiston Randy Rae Britt, barrel racing Shandie Britt, barrel racing Andy Carlson, team roping Britni Carlson, barrel racing Brandon Christensen, steer wrestling Callahan Crossley, barrel racing Shane Crossley, team roping Cody Ford, bull riding Brad Goodrich, calf roping Mary Shae Hays, barrel racing Steve Hoffman, calf roping Hilary Imhof, barrel racing Dalton Massey, steer wrestling Shawn Massey, barrel racing Jordan Minor, barrel racing Kelsey Monahan, barrel racing Michael Pederson, calf roping Pendleton Lawanda Bronson, barrel racing Phoenix Everano, team roping Wendy Wilson, barrel racing Echo Amy Coelho, barrel racing Jody Hale, barrel racing Stanfield Chandra Eng, barrel racing Jami Erwert, barrel racing Jodi Goodrich, barrel racing Seth Hopper, calf roping Lexington Mary Ann Munkers, barrel racing Milton-Freewater Bryce Palmer, team roping “we’ll make it better.” ———— Gary L. West is editor of the Hermiston Herald and Herm- iston editor for the East Orego- nian. Reach him at gwest@ hermistonherald.com or follow him on Twitter @GaryLWest or on Facebook at www.facebook. com/journalist.glwest. TICKETS: Oregon was 4th in Pac-12 for 2016 attendance Continued from 1B director Craig Pintens said. “So we’re tracking a little behind where we need to be, but that (opening) game usually sells a couple thousand in the last week. And it’s the lowest-priced game.” According to data provided by the athletic department, the average renewal price of a season ticket is down by 3.9 percent, with 65 percent of seats decreasing in price and the other 35 percent remaining flat at 2015 rates. As of Monday, Oregon had sold 36,840 season tickets, which is down from last year’s total of 37,404. The program’s record was 43,295 in 2011, the season after Chip Kelly’s Ducks played for a BCS national title. The six games in 2016 at Autzen Stadium averaged 54,677 fans, a decrease of 5 percent from 2015 and 9.5 percent from 2014 when Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota led the Ducks to the national championship game. Michigan led the FBS in average attendance (110,468) and was one of seven programs to average over 100,000 fans per home game in 2016. Oregon ranked fourth in the Pac-12 behind USC (68,459), UCLA (67,459) and Wash- ington (64,589). “We’re very fortunate to have an extremely passionate fan base,” Mullens said. “Obvi- ously I wear green and yellow glasses, so I would say we have the best fans certainly on the West Coast and I would stack them up against anybody in the country, except for maybe size. “Autzen will always be a tremendous home-field advan- tage.” Mark Helfrich and his assis- tant coaches were fired after a 4-8 finish, the program’s worst season in 25 years. The low point was when a crowd of 58,8422, the only sellout at Autzen Stadium in 2016, watched as the Ducks’ 12-game winning streak against Washington ended with a 70-21 defeat. The downward spiral in football didn’t prevent Oregon’s best-ever finish in the Director’s Cup, which scores athletic departments based on each institution’s collective finish in up to 10 men’s and women’s sports. During the 2016-17 athletic calendar, Dana Altman coached the Ducks’ to the men’s Final Four for the first time since 1939, the women’s basketball team made a surprising run to the Elite Eight, men’s golf finished as the NCAA runner-up and softball returned to the Women’s College World Series. But revenue from the foot- ball program pays for about 70 percent of the athletic depart- ment’s budget. “We need to sell football tickets,” Mullens said. “It’s the economic engine that allows us to support these other sports that can finish ninth in the Director’s Cup, which is remarkable, almost unbelievable in a certain sense. “So it’s not to where we want it to be. We’re exploring everything that we possibly can to make that happen.” Season ticket prices range from $348 to $499 for seats that don’t require an additional donation to the Duck Athletic Fund. The more premium seats range from $649 (including a $150 DAF donation) to $2,371 ($521 season ticket, $1,850 DAF donation) for a seat in the Charter Box. Oregon’s marquee noncon- ference matchup on Sept. 9 against Nebraska is an official sellout. Pintens said sales of three-game “mini-plans” are also up significantly from last year. The Ducks’ Pac-12 home schedule includes California (Sept. 30), Washington State (Oct. 7), Utah (Oct. 28), Arizona (Nov. 18) and Oregon State (Nov. 24). his new team in his old digs. “We wish him the best,” Melvin said. “He was very impactful with this club not only on the field but in the clubhouse.” TRAINER’S ROOM Mariners: RHP Felix Hernandez was placed on the DL with right shoulder bursitis. He returned to Seattle and was examined by team physician Dr. Edward Khalfayan. Marco Gonzales will take Hernandez’s spot in the rotation. “We certainly need (Hernandez) in our rotation,” manager Scott Servais said. “. three to four weeks is a little bit of a blow there.” . RHP David Phelps was placed on the DL with an impingement in his right elbow. He’s expected to miss 2-3 weeks. UP NEXT RHP Yovani Gallardo (5-7, 5.35 ERA) will pitch Wednesday’s series finale against Oakland. RHP Jharel Cotton (5-8, 5.48) of the Athletics has an 8.31 ERA in two starts since coming off the DL with a thumb blister on July 30. STUDY: States that follow policy limit deaths Continued from 1B policy changes can have a massive impact when a life is saved,” says Dr. Douglas Casa of KSI. “That is the goal of KSI in releasing these rankings, to prevent needless deaths in high school sports. We have had countless conversations with loved ones who have lost a child/sibling/ grandchild/athlete. If these rankings can get more kids home for dinner instead of to a hospital or morgue, then we have succeeded.” The institute is a sports safety research and advocacy organization located at the University of Connecticut and named after the former Vikings star who died from exertional heat stroke in 2001. Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death for the age range. Casa notes that progress is slow because most states only make a change after a tragedy. But he stresses that the policies KSI promotes are not difficult to adopt. “At least one state has adopted each individual item, and for many items, more than half of the states have the policy in place,” he explains. “So this tells us it is feasible (to maximize protection). Now we need to collectively get states to learn from their colleagues and adapt these (programs) in their own state. Our top state is at about 80 percent, showing that, with effort, these policies can be implemented.” Bob Gfeller lost his son, Matthew, at age 15 in 2008, after a traumatic brain injury while playing in his first high school football game. Gfeller is an executive vice president at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the execu- tive director of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma. He found the wide range of results by state “enlightening.” Asked what can be done to get states to adopt more of the guidelines to protect high school athletes, Gfeller says: “Sharing of best practices amongst the state high school professionals. For each state to study where they are gapping and what other states who are scoring high are doing, so then to be able to determine how to close their gap.” In his field of expertise, exertional heat stroke, Casa notes that states that have adapted significant changes to heat acclimatization policies have not had such a death when the policies have been followed. “Keep in mind these policies are for the phasing in of initial practices in August,” Casa says. “Some of these states have still had exertional heat stroke deaths during summer condi- tioning in June/July or other times of the year, because they lack policies that govern these other circumstances.” To prevent death from EHS, it comes down to three things: — Prevention — heat acclimatiza- tion, modifying work/rest ratios based on environmental conditions, hydration, body cooling, etc.; — Recognition — being aware, acting quickly, rectal temperature; — Treatment — cold water immer- sion, cool first/transport second. Casa adds that the monetary cost of reaching the desired preventive measures is not high. “To be honest, you could get to 90 percent implementation with very little cost and effort,” he says. “Spending probably less than $5,000 per school could get you close to 90 points. You also would probably need a two-day meeting with the key state association officials to refine the details of the changes. “It is matter of convincing people that these issues are important and that they need attention.”
