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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2020)
SIDELINED 2020 Echo senior, Zora Gehrke, is ready for a return Echo senior Zora Gehrke impressed during first year of cross-country By ANNIE FOWLER For the East Oregonian E CHO — Zora Gehrke admits she would rather busy herself with sports or work than spend the day on her cellphone. Yep, you read that right. The Echo High School senior runs cross-country (with Stanfield) and plays bas- ketball and tennis. She also lives on a farm, which comes with a litany of chores. Last fall was Gehrke’s first year of running cross-country, and Stanfield coach Eric Jen- sen was pleasantly surprised with her talent. “We could tell the first week or two that she would be a good runner,” Jensen said. “She was our No. 1 runner right off the bat. The first six weeks, (assistant coach) Mandy (Blackburn) and I just kept prodding her. She finally figured it out the last couple of meets of the season.” Gehrke ran her personal best time of 22 minutes, 0.02 seconds on Oct. 17, 2019, at the Kyle Burnside Wildhorse Invite in Pendleton. “She wanted to get under 22 minutes so badly last year,” Jensen said. “To think where she would be had she come out as a freshman.” Gehrke would have been the Tigers’ top entry for the dis- trict meet last fall, but she had already made plans months before to attend the National Future Farmers of America Convention in Indianapolis. “She had those plans long before she knew she would be as good as she was,” Jensen said. “We were supportive, but she was bummed. When she was closing in on those good times, she wanted to run.” Gehrke is missing her fall cross-country season right now, but will be ready when bas- ketball rolls around the end of December. “I will be grateful if we get a few races or games in,” Gehrke said. “That’s how it goes.” The Cougars advanced to the 1A state tournament this past season. They beat Elgin 49-36 in the first round before dropping a 64-45 game to eventual state runner-up St. Paul in the second round. Echo finished 10-2 in Big Sky League play and 19-9 overall. Echo has advanced to the district playoffs all three years Gehrke has played. Gehrke, a 5-foot-5 guard, will be the lone senior for the Cougars this season. They lost just two players from last year’s team, giving new coach Brandi Russell a solid base to work with. The Cougars also benefit from playing in their new gym, which has only seen a handful of games compared to the old one. “It is a lot bigger and nicer,” Gehrke said. “There is a lot more room on the sidelines. It’s a nice thing to have. I kind of miss the old one. I have a lot of memories there watch- ing my brothers, Hank and Zack, playing basketball.” Echo co-ops with Stanfield for tennis, where Gehrke was the No. 1 singles player as a sophomore. She’s played at sub-districts, but has found the road to state to be tough. “There are some good players in our dis- trict,” she said. “I was looking forward to playing this last spring.” Like every school in Oregon, Echo fin- ished spring quarter with distance learning, which was hard on Gehrke. She said she ben- efited by having her brother Hank help her with math. “It was very weird not going to school and being around my friends every day,” she said. “But I had my family, and my grandparents live next door.” Gehrke spent her summer working on the farm. She helped with harvest lunches and was learning to sew. “We made all kinds of different foods and took them out to the fields,” she said. “We wanted to make sure they had a good meal.” Gehrke would like to run cross-country or play tennis in college, but isn’t quite sure where that might be. “I have thought about a few places,” said Gehrke, who plans to major in psychology. “I want to go to Blue Mountain and get my asso- ciate’s degree.” Echo senior, Dysen Wilson, enjoys doing his thing By ANNIE FOWLER For the East Oregonian CHO — If anything, Dysen Wilson is honest. Growing up, he played football, basket- ball and baseball, but once he got to Echo High School, he knew he could not maintain the grind that comes with being a multi-sport athlete. “I had other interests, and I know how com- petitive and serious my school is when it comes to sports,” Wilson said. “I wouldn’t be able to give myself to those sports.” He didn’t walk away from athletics com- pletely. He joined the Echo/Stanfield tennis team, where he played No. 1 singles as a sopho- more, and was geared to earn the top spot again as a junior. Now, he will have to wait until next spring to get back on the court. “We were practicing before it all hit,” Wilson E said of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Overall, the team was disappointed, especially the coaches, because we should have had a good year. It was always fun going to matches.” Echo/Stanfield coach Yazell Chavez said it was disappointing not to have tennis this spring, but she is looking forward to next year. “He just gives it his all,” Chavez said. “He’s a good player. I tell him he’s playing the No. 1 kid in the county and he’s OK with that. He just goes out there and does his thing.” While Wilson is a good player, Chavez says it’s his personality that makes him enjoyable to coach. “Dysen has no filter,” she said. “He is a funny character, and really smart.” With tennis on hold until spring, Wilson does his part to stay in shape with home work- 18 • S E P T. 2 9 , 2 0 2 0 • E O M E D I A G R O U P outs and running. “I like to listen to music, and running gives me an excuse to sing along,” Wilson said. “I can’t hear myself because I have headphones in, which is probably a good thing.” With a light sports schedule, Wil- son has time to turn his interests to academics and Future Farmers of America (FFA). He’s on the Echo Knowledge Bowl team, he’s senior class president, involved in FFA, and carries a 4.0 GPA. He’s also taken distance learn- ing in stride. “It’s nice to see the resilience in peo- ple,” Wilson said. “So far, things have gone well. We have to make the best of the situation. We will always remember this year.” Wilson typically shows chickens and tur- keys at the Umatilla County Fair through his FFA group. This year, he only showed one mar- ket animal, which was a 31-pound turkey named Mayflower. The prize turkey sold for $600. “I was surprised,” Wilson said of the sale price. “I thought the numbers would be down because it was online.” Wilson’s family lives on two acres just out- side of Echo. The makeshift farm includes the flock of chickens and turkeys, a garden and 10 fruit trees — apple, pear, cherry, apricot, plum and peach. He also is the go-to guy for pet sitting. It’s a job he enjoys, unless there is a particularly nasty parrot involved. Sports are not part of Wilson’s college plans. In fact, he’s not quite sure what the future holds. “College is something that terrifies me,” he said. “I don’t know why. I have a 4.0 GPA, and that gives me options. I don’t know what is the best fit for me. I hope a revelation dawns on me.”
