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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
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TEEING OFF FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Disc golf tourney
to benefi t BMCC
rodeo team
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
A11
SPORTS ROUNDUP
Mac-Hi football
team has 2 games
canceled because
of COVID-19
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN — The Blue
Mountain Community College
rodeo team is looking to lasso a
few dollars Friday and Saturday,
Oct. 1-2, when it hosts the Battle
at the Beach 2 Disc Golf Tour-
nament at Sailboard Beach Disc
Golf Course in Boardman.
The Professional Disc Golf
Association sanctioned event will
have divisions for pros, advanced,
advanced 40-plus, intermediate
and women. Each participant will
get four rounds over the course of
two days.
Rebecca Manning, president
of the BMCC Rodeo Booster
Club, proposed the idea, and
knew the perfect person to help
her put the event together — her
husband Ryan Manning, who is a
professional disc golf player.
“This is her baby,” Ryan
Manning said. “I’m just helping
to put it together.”
Manning may be a pro player,
but he’s also a professional bull-
fi ghter, which makes this event
near and dear to him.
“It’s kind of funny how it
works out like that,” he said. “Two
pretty diff erent worlds, but two
things I am passionate about.”
This is not the fi rst time Blue
Mountain has hosted a disc golf
event to benefi t the rodeo team.
“Last time we raised about
$4,000, but this time we are up
against other tournaments, and
it wasn’t a registered PDGA
tournament last time,” Manning
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Ryan Manning tees off Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, on the Pendleton Rotary Disc Golf Course at Community Park.
said. “Once you register with
the PDGA, you have to provide
a prize value of 85% of their
entry fee. Pros play for cash,
amateurs play for discs and
other prizes. If they get the
value for what they entered,
they will come again.”
To meet that percentage, spon-
sors are key.
“Academy Mortgage is the
title sponsor, the River Lodge is
doing 40% off your room if you
stay,” Manning said. “Midway
Bar & Grill (Hermiston) is bring
food. Players also are getting
rated rounds, which is important
to them.”
The pro rating system ranges
from 0-1,000. Manning’s rating
is 961.
“There are a few players rated
higher than me in the tourna-
ment,” Manning said. “I think I
will play since Matt (Winter) is
not going to play. I don’t want
Rebecca to be overwhelmed.”
Manning and Winter will set
up the course in Boardman. It’s a
relatively open space, so they are
creating boundaries to add a little
diffi culty in some places.
“You need a lot of trees to be a
good disc golf course,” Manning
said. “We need to do course
preparation to make it more fun.
The best courses, you want to be
manipulating discs around trees
and uphill. The more trees and the
more elevation, that’s when the
true skills come out.”
Torrie Griggs, with the Board-
man Chamber of Commerce, was
instrumental in getting the course
designed, according to Manning.
“It has nice tee pads and
baskets, which is good,” Manning
said.
At present, there are 40 or so
players registered for the event,
but Manning believes they will
have about 60 players.
M I LT O N - F R E E WAT E R —
McLoughlin High’s football game at
Burns was canceled Friday, Sept. 17, after
a positive COVID-19 case on the Pioneers
team was reported.
The team has been in quaran-
tine since, causing the cancellation of
Mac-Hi’s game against Baker on Sept.
24, according to Pioneers coach Jorge
Estrada.
Players vaccinated for COVID-19 are
allowed to use the weight room with a
coach who also has been vaccinated, but
all other practices are on hold, Estrada
said.
The game against Santiam Christian,
scheduled for Oct. 2, at Shockman Field,
also has been called off .
The next scheduled game for the
Pioneers is Oct. 8 when Mac-Hi is set to
play at Ontario.
The Pioneers are 0-3 on the season with
losses to College Place and La Grande,
and the forfeit to Burns.
EOU adds Johnson to men’s
basketball coaching staff
LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon
University Men’s Basketball and Interim
Head Coach Chris Kemp announced the
hiring of Que Johnson as an assistant
coach for the Mountaineers.
“I couldn’t be more excited to add Que
to our staff here at EOU. He is an elite level
player with international experience that
wants to coach and have a positive impact
on these players’ lives,” Kemp said. “His
expertise in skill development and high
level basketball will have an immediate
impact on our program.”
See Johnson, Page A12
See Golf, Page A12
Lunch is On Us!
October 5 & 6
October is National Cooperative Month so we’re
celebrating YOU! UEC members drive thru our
limited contact event and pick up a free boxed lunch
and gift bag that includes an energy efficiency kit
with an LED lightbulb! *While supplies last
Tuesday, October 5
Wednesday, October 6
Hermiston Headquarters
Boardman Operations Center
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
At Umatilla Electric,
we’re shaped by the people we serve. As a
community-owned utility, we are driven to be more
than a business, we are an energy partner.
Learn more about how
UEC is helping to power communities at:
Hermiston Office
Boardman Office
750 W. Elm Ave.
Hermiston, OR 97838
(541) 567-6414
400 N.E. Eldrige Drive
Boardman, OR 97818
(541) 481-2220