SPORTS
East Oregonian
B2
Saturday, June 26, 2021
The species that long eluded me
beating scar tissue in my
chest resilient.
Unsure who the guy (or
the three others in his car)
were, I followed him to the
nearby parking lot. It was
broad daylight, and there
were people everywhere, so
I fi gured at least there would
be witnesses to my murder.
Out of the car popped
some guy I’d never seen
before in my life.
In the passenger seat, a
woman (I’d later learn this
was his wife, Julie) seemed
a bit embarrassed and kept
apologizing profusely.
Figuring this wasn’t the
typical behavior of a Bonnie
and Clyde-type duo on a
murderous rampage, I went
up.
He introduced himself
as Peter Chang, and told me
he’d started reading my blog
and then my column years
before when he fi rst got into
fi shing. I was fl oored.
It’s not uncommon for
me to get recognized in my
hometown by people I’ve
never met who read my
column, but I’ve been writ-
ing there for seven years.
This seemed almost unreal.
I’m horrible with names
but great with faces. Here, I
was drawing a blank.
He told me as I tried not
to visibly sigh in relief, “You
wouldn’t know me, but I’m a
fan of your writing!”
I was humbled to rare
speechlessness for a
moment.
We talked for a few
minutes, grabbed a picture
together, and we parted
ways.
I followed him on Insta-
gram that day, and a few
months later, I saw he’d
caught my nemefi sh ...
As I planned this year’s
summer trip, I arranged to
meet up with Peter and try
for these weatherfi sh on
one of my fi rst days on the
road. We planned to visit a
spot our mutual acquain-
tance, Ben Cantrell, had
discovered. Peter and Julie
graciously invited me to
stay with them.
Peter and I met up in the
early evening and walked
to a remote creek on the
outskirts of Los Angeles.
After catching my fi rst
arroyo chub, another fi sh I’d
tried and failed to catch a
few times, I fi nally hooked
my weatherfi sh — and
promptly dropped it.
It’s OK, because I caught
another one. And dropped
it.
This repeated, comically,
for at least half an hour. I
lifted no fewer than eight
Oriental weatherfi sh/dojo
loach/Luke’s nemefi sh out
of the water but failed to get
one in hand for a picture. I
touched several, even got
one on land before seeing
its snake-like movements
propel it from the muddy
shoreline into the stream
and out of my life forever.
Peter was remarkably
helpful, spotting the abun-
dant fi sh for me and stifl ing
most of his laughs as I
dropped fi sh after fi sh.
Daylight faded with my
patience, and he informed
me we had about 15 minutes
left before we had to move
the cars out of the park.
In the wan light, I hooked
my ninth? Tenth? Eleventh
fi sh? I landed it, walked
an unnecessary distance
from the water and snapped
a quick picture as Peter
looked on approvingly.
I owed him so much; I
could barely contain my
joy. He helped me close a
long, embarrassing chap-
ter of failure in my fi shing
career, but the good news
is that I was experimenting
with my GoPro that night,
so I immortalized 20 or 30
minutes of that repeated
failure on fi lm for future
generations.
Though I hadn’t released
the video, I’m pretty sure
his adorable infant daugh-
ter, Hailey, must’ve heard
about my failings because
she seemed pretty uncertain
about me when I met her the
next morning. Eventually, I
won her over the same way
I won over the weatherfi sh:
with Peter’s help. Grapes
admittedly helped, too.
After years of repeated
failure, Peter helped me
solve that problem. So the
next step, it would seem, is
to have Peter take a look at
my online dating profi les,
right?
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boosters from compensating
athletes for NIL use.
About a dozen other states
have NIL laws that could take
eff ect next month and states
such as Ohio have legislation
pending.
“In a strange twist of
events, schools in states
without laws could have an
advantage because they can
make any rules they want,”
Lawrence said.
Most state laws about to
go into eff ect restrict schools
from being involved in fi nan-
cial agreements athletes make
with third parties, Lawrence
said. Given the ability to
make their own policies, some
schools might decide to take a
more active role.
The pivot to a hands-
off approach to NIL by the
NCAA could be part of a
broader strategy following
the Supreme Court ruling
in the Alston case. The high
court said the NCAA cannot
limit benefi ts schools provide
to major college football and
basketball players as long as
they are tied to education.
The decision also raises the
possibility of future antitrust
challenges to NCAA compen-
sation rules. A lawsuit target-
ing proposed changes to the
NCAA’s NIL rules was fi led
earlier this month by one of
the plaintiffs’ attorneys in
Alston, and a judge on June
24 denied the NCAA’s motion
to dismiss the claim.
The NCAA could shift
to conferences taking the
lead on setting standards for
athlete benefi ts as a potential
way to avoid lawsuits.
LUKE
OVGARD
CAUGHT OVGARD
D
ojo loach. Amur
weatherfi sh. Pond
loach. Orien-
tal weatherfi sh. Japanese
weatherfi sh.
Luke’s nemefi sh.
Misgurnus anguillicau-
datus, a resilient, eel-like
fi sh, goes by many names.
The latter is just what I call
them. Well, called them
until this month.
Native to east Asia, the
fi sh has been introduced all
over the world by aquarists
desiring to send it “back
to nature” after deciding
it’s not the pet for them. As
these fi sh can survive in
heavily polluted waters, a
wide array of temperatures
and even barely oxygen-
ated puddles until the next
rain, they’ve taken a foot-
hold — fi nhold? — almost
everywhere they’ve been
released. The name “weath-
erfi sh” allegedly comes
from the fi sh’s increased
feeding activity before
storms, though I wouldn’t
know because prior to this
month, I’d never seen one in
the wild.
They’re supposed to exist
all over the place, and I’ve
investigated almost a dozen
locations purported to have
populations, from marsh-
lands of Astoria to sloughs
of Portland to agricultural
ditches in Ontario. The one
thing all of these locations
have in common? I couldn’t
fi nd weatherfi sh.
Last year, I expanded my
search beyond Oregon and
tried a pond outside of Salt
Lake City where a friend
had videotaped several of
them feeding during the
day. Nope. I tried a ditch in
Florida purported to have
them. Nada. I even checked
the Weather app on my
phone. Nothing. So, just as
I’ve done with dating during
the pandemic, I resigned
myself to failure and hoped
I’d get another shot some-
time before I began to lose
my hair.
Enter Peter Chang.
Peter
I met Peter in the
old-fashioned way: when
he shouted my name from
a passing car as I walked
down the side of a Califor-
nia road.
“Luke?”
“Luke!”
“Luke Ovgard!?”
The shock of someone
fi ve hours from home in a
car I didn’t recognize shout-
ing my name as I skirted the
edge of a boujee Californian
waterfront would’ve killed
someone with a weaker
heart. Fortunately, repeated
heartbreak has made the
NCAA:
Continued from Page B1
Opendorse CEO Blake
Lawrence, whose company
is working with dozens
of schools to create NIL
programming and assistance
for athletes, said it “seemed
unfathomable” the NCAA
would allow this to happen.
“But now that might be the
best strategy,” he said.
Following the template of
a recommendation made by
six Division I conferences to
the D-I Council last week,
schools would follow their
state NIL laws. To that end,
the University of Florida
released its NIL guidelines
that, among other things,
bars school employees and
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
After years and years of hunting for them, Peter Chang
helped Luke Ovgard fi nd and catch his “nemefi sh.”
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
Luke Ovgard poses with Peter Chang, a reader and now
friend whom he met after Peter shouted him down on the
side of the road.
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Shame
Hockey:
Continued from Page B1
a record 25 times — but in
this unusual season with
teams playing in refor-
matted visions that was the
case Thursday night.
Now the focus turns
toward the Cup, and there’s
no such hatred toward
namesake Lord Stanley.
“We got another series
coming up,” said Weber,
who’s playing in his fi rst
Cup fi nal at age 35. “We’ve
got to win four more games
but definitely proud of
everybody in that locker
room right now and what
we’ve accomplished so far.
But defi nitely still work to
be done.”
The Canadiens are on
one of the more surprising
runs in postseason history,
erasing a 3-1 defi cit against
Toronto in the fi rst round,
sweeping Winnipeg in
the second and shutting
down heavily favored
Vegas in six games in the
third. Only minutes after
giving up the series-de-
ciding overtime goal to
Artturi Lehkonen, Golden
Knights netminder Robin
Lehner said: “Hell of a
team. Works really hard.
Sticks with their structure
and they have a lot of great
players. Everyone underes-
timates them.”
Three-time Cup winner
Patrick Sharp, now an
N BC Spor ts analyst,
expected Montreal to lose
every round. Only after
watching Canadiens goal-
tender Carey Price and
his teammates frustrate
Vegas did he realize he and
so many others were just
wrong.
“We should’ve known
better,” Sharp said Friday.
“It’s a team that’s got some
belief, no question about
that, and those teams are
often the most dangerous
this time of year.”
The lineup also is a
perfect mix of veterans —
Price, Weber, Corey Perry
and Eric Staal, who have
been in plenty of play-
off games before, with
young players, includ-
ing Cauf ield, Jesperi
Kotkaniemi and Nick
Suzuki.
T h e 2 0 - y e a r- o l d
Cauf ield was playing
college hockey as recently
as March, and Suzuki just
beat the Vegas organiza-
tion that drafted and then
traded him in a deal for
former Montreal captain
Max Pacioretty.
Price is the backbone,
having stopped 495 of 530
shots to go into the fi nal as
a front-runner for the Conn
Smythe Trophy as playoff
MVP. Like Weber, it will
be his fi rst fi nal.
Credit also has to go to
coaching, with Montreal
heading into the fi nal with
assistant Luke Richardson
as the third person behind
the bench in the past four
months. Interim coach
Dominique Ducharme
took over when Claude
Julien was fi red in Febru-
ary, and Richardson is
fi lling in after Ducharme
tested positive for the coro-
navirus last week.
The Canadiens made
sure Ducharme was on
video from afar when they
returned to their locker
room Thursday night to
share in the joy. Now that
they’ve guaranteed at least
four more games and their
jubilant city is poised to
celebrate, Ducharme could
potentially return midway
through the fi nal.
With Ducharme on their
minds, players quickly
shifted from enjoying
another series victory to
thinking about trying to
get another.
“They’re not done yet,”
Richardson said. “They
saw a fire in their eyes.
They’re already talking
about it. ... Get right back
at it. And we’re looking
forward to the challenge.”
ON THE SLATE
SATURDAY, JUNE 26
TUESDAY, JUNE 29
Prep wrestling
Riverside at 3A state tournament,
Redmond
Heppner, Echo/Stanfi eld at 2A state
tournament, Sweet Home
Youth baseball
Ashlee Hodgen Memorial Tourna-
ment: Columbia Gorge Hustlers vs.
Hodgen Distributing, 10 a.m.; Hills-
boro vs. Hodgen Distributing, 3 p.m.
Baker Tournament: Pepsi Diamond-
jaxx vs. La Grande, 10 a.m.; Pepsi
Diamondjaxx vs. Elko, 3 p.m.
No events scheduled
SUNDAY, JUNE 27
Youth baseball
Ashlee Hodgen Memorial Tourna-
ment: Hodgen Distributing vs. TBD
Baker Tournament: Pepsi Diamond-
jaxx vs. TBD
MONDAY, JUNE 28
No events scheduled
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30
No events scheduled
THURSDAY, JULY 1
Youth baseball
Spokane Tournament: Pepsi Dia-
mondjaxx vs. Claremont Cardinals,
1 p.m.; Pepsi Diamondjaxx vs. West
Valley, 6 p.m.
FRIDAY, JULY 2
Youth baseball
Spokane Tournament: Pepsi Dia-
mondjaxx vs. Yakima Valley Pep-
pers, 8 a.m.; Pepsi Diamondjaxx vs.
Gonzaga Prep, 1 p.m.
SATURDAY, JULY 3
Youth baseball
Spokane Tournament: Pepsi Dia-
mondjaxx vs. TBD
EASTERN OREGON
2021
PHOTO CONTEST
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