SIDELINED 2020
Gearing up for the title fight
5 QUESTIONS WITH
ISAAC URBINA
By BRETT KANE
For the East Oregonian
Favorite sport to play and
why?
My favorite sport to do is
probably wrestling. While I do
enjoy the experience of football,
I’m pretty good at wrestling, and I
like winning a lot. Wrestling is just
something that I’m good at and
understand fully.
P
Favorite sport to watch and
why?
I actually enjoy watching football
a lot more than wrestling. Watch-
ing wrestling as a spectator
sport, even on TV has always
been hard for me, because it
throws me into competitive
mode, and all I can think of is “I’m
up next,” or, “I’m on deck.” Foot-
ball, on the other hand, has long
games that will twist one way,
then the other. You can sit there
and watch them while relaxing
with your friends.
Favorite thing to do when
you’re not playing sports?
Fishing, tubing, and playing
spikeball with my friends. I’m
actually crazy about spikeball. I’ll
play it for hours on end trying to
get better.
Favorite moment in high
school sports so far?
Winning the finals at the Muilen-
burg tournament. The finals were
so hyped up with a walkout and
faceoff and everything, and I won
a hard-fought battle, and earned
a big gold and black belt buckle.
A fun fact about you that few
people know?
I will drink over a gallon milk
every two days. I know it’s a lot,
but I’m just used to it.
ENDLETON — Buckaroo
defensive end Isaac Urbina
won’t be hitting the gridiron
with his teammates this fall.
Instead, he’ll be playing fantasy
football with his wrestling friends.
After the COVID-19 pandemic
effectively put an end to the 2019-
20 spring season for all Oregon
School Activities Association pro-
grams, the fall season was next
to catch the fallout of the virus.
This year, instead of starting foot-
ball practices in the summer, high
school athletes across the state, like
Urbina, will have to wait until Feb-
ruary 2021 to put on the helmet and
pads again.
“When I first heard about foot-
ball being canceled, I was upset,”
said Urbina, 17. “Thoughts of
no late-night football games, no
homecoming, and no pep ral-
lies raced through my head. But I
believe that everything will work
itself out somehow. All I can do is
hope that when spring rolls around,
I will be playing and that people
will be allowed to watch and come
show support for our teams.”
Not only is Urbina on the start-
ing line of the Bucks football team,
but he’s also a state title-winning
wrestler. At 182 pounds, Urbina
won the freestyle and Greco-Ro-
man state titles at the junior nation-
als meet in Redmond last season,
qualifying him for the Oregon
National Duals A-Team. He placed
fourth at the OSAA state meet
last year, and has won titles at the
Muilenburg in La Grande, the Lib-
erty Tournament in Hillsboro, the
Oregon Trail County Champion-
ship in Echo, and the Old Guys
Tournament in Gresham.
And while he waits for his last
chance to don the Pendleton foot-
ball uniform, he’ll be getting his
4 • S E P T. 2 9 , 2 0 2 0 • E O M E D I A G R O U P
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Isaac Urbina, a Pendleton High School senior, is a two-sport athlete who
competes in football and wrestling.
football fix online, where he’s in
a fantasy league with wrestling
friends he’s made on the road.
“I’m in a fantasy football league
with a friend who is a national
champion,” he said. “My favorite
parts about wrestling are the con-
nections that I’ve made with peo-
ple outside of our town.”
Urbina’s history of football goes
all the way back to the third grade,
when he casually accepted an offer
to register for youth football on a
whim.
“My mom came up to me and
asked if I wanted to play football,”
he recalled. “I told her, ‘Sure, why
not?’ I’ve been playing for Pendle-
ton ever since. When I was younger,
I never really thought about play-
ing football. I watched the NFL at
the time, and knew how to play, so
I figured it would be fun.”
Urbina made the varsity cut for
the Bucks as a sophomore, and
earned a starting spot as a junior.
That same year, he was named a
5A all-league honorable mention.
“Fall is the time for football,”
Urbina said. “We won’t get to have
the homecoming game or the steak
dinner. Playing in the spring is all
wet and rainy. We’ve played in the
rain before. I know the team. If all
it’s going to do is rain, then we’ll be
ready for it.”
For his senior season, Urbina’s
goals are simple: to make the first
team all-league list, and to finish
“a lot higher than all of the rank-
ing websites think we will,” he
said. For wrestling, he’s aiming for
a state title.
“Isaac is coming off a tre-
mendous junior year as a defen-
sive end,” Pendleton head football
coach Erik Davis said. “He’s really
worked hard to change his body
physicality, and that hard work has
paid off on the field. Isaac has great
body awareness and is unafraid to
be physical, which I attribute to his
wrestling background. Isaac has
had a very successful wrestling
career, and I believe that he has the
talent to have that same success on
the football field as well.”
In the meantime, Urbina will
spend his now-open fall season
college searching, applying for
scholarships, golfing, washing
cars, doing homework, and work-
ing out, all of which he has been
doing since summer break began.
He’s been taking an online com-
puter class through Harvard Uni-
versity. He also finished his final
high school credits online early.
“My experience as a Buckaroo
has been the best in the world,”
Urbina said. “I’ve been shown
so much support from the stu-
dents, staff, and community. I love
Pendleton High School, and you
couldn’t pay me to go anywhere
else.”