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B1
UMATILLA HIGH LAUNCHING ESPORTS PROGRAM
the team hopes to be
running by the spring
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
umatILLa — Video games
have come a long way since Pong.
those who played Pong in the
1970s now have aarP cards, while
the younger generation is rolling its
eyes at the black and white “tennis”
game on the tV screen that took
minimal skill to play.
Video games have moved into
a new era, where graphics are real-
istic, colors are vivid and if you are
good enough, there is money to be
made.
a group of umatilla High School
students are among the elite players,
and they have gone the extra mile to
bring an esports team to the small
eastern Oregon school.
“It’s a very cool opportu-
nity for the kids,” said Kyle Sipe,
who coaches the robotics team
at umatilla, and will oversee the
esports program. “the kids took it
to the school board to get approval.
they had to tell them why they
wanted the program and how it
could benefit the students. the
scholarships from this are huge.”
the group of senior alejandro
escovedo, juniors Quin mcclena-
hen and Kaidan blair and freshman
avery Gutierrez have spearheaded
the project. all four also are
members of the robotics program.
“I researched a bunch,” mcclen-
ahen said. “I mainly used one link,
which had how many school have
esports leagues, how many schools
are in each division, and how much
scholarship money there is in
esports.”
His research showed that nearby
riverside High School has a team,
as do eastern Oregon univer-
sity, Oregon Institute of technol-
ogy, Portland State university and
university of Oregon. the schol-
arship money available is consid-
erable, but nearly $5 million in
scholarship money has gone
unused.
blair said there are 429,000 jobs
tied to the gaming industry. His
research noted students who partic-
ipate in esports programs have a
higher attendance at school, and
their GPa improves.
“mainly, we were asking the
school board if we could play,” blair
said. “We had already secured grant
money. mr. Sipe took care of that.”
there is an expense with having
an esports team, with the biggest
chunk of money being spent on
computers.
the school district had grant
money from the department of
education, and it was allocated to
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Quin McClenahen, left, and Alejandro Escovedo practice video games Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, on computers at Umatilla High School, which has
started an esports program.
the esports program. the students
now are waiting for the computers
to arrive — worldwide distribution
issues have delayed shipping.
Once the computers arrive,
the students will get to put them
together. they hope to start compet-
ing in the spring.
“It’s a huge financial burden,”
Sipe said, “computers are expen-
sive. money was the biggest hurdle.”
While Sipe has an impres-
sive robotics team at umatilla, he
is looking forward to hopefully
having a new group of students to
work with in the esports program.
“I get to make better connections
with the kids, and different connec-
tions with a different population of
kids,” Sipe said. “It gives them a
reason to come to school. Like the
robotics kids who like to put nuts
and bolts together, we now have the
kids who will control it. they will
learn how to make a video game
work.”
A non-contact sport
While encouraging studens
to get off the couch and do some-
thing active is admirable, esports
teach some of the same principles
of mainstream athletics, including
teamwork, strategy, the thrill of
competition and learning to lose,
but without the bumps and bruises.
esports also is accessible to those
with physical barriers, making it an
inclusive program.
When the cOVId-19 pandemic
temporarily shut down live sports
in 2020, people turned to esports to
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Umatilla High School students Avery Gutierrez, left, Kaidan Blair, Ale-
jandro Escovedo and Quin McClenahen pose for a portrait Tuesday,
Nov. 30, 2021, at Umatilla High School. The students have been pivotal
in helping get the high school’s esports program off the ground.
fill the void.
Work and school were done by
Zoom, so why not interact with
others in the gaming world the same
way. Some people play, while others
are fans and like to watch the action.
In 2020, esports was a $1 billion
business.
esports combine art, science and
business, which is what draws esco-
vedo to the program.
escovedo, who teaches a mine-
craft class after school at umatilla,
said he has been playing video
games since he was 6 years old.
He’d like to pursue a degree in
computer science.
He carries a 3.8 GPa and has
applied to and been accepted to
Washington State university, east-
ern Washington university and
OIt. the scholarship money is a
big draw, which he said he needs to
be able to fulfill his college dreams.
Once the umatilla program is
up and running, it will be able to
compete against other teams from
throughout the world. While some
people like the solitude of playing
alone, esports encourage teamwork.
“It’s really fun escovedo said.
“you are right next to each other
instead of on headsets.”
blair said he always has had an
interest in computers and has built
his own. that led him to gaming.
you can hear the passion for the
esports program in his voice.
“We haven’t officially started
asking people to join, but people are
asking to come and play,” he said.
“We will have scheduled practices.”
Once the program is up and
running, participants will be held to
the same standards as the athletes,
who must maintain a certain GPa
and have good attendance at school.
mcclenahen and escovedo
played a session of Valorant, which
is one of a dozen games that are
approved for esports leagues.
While their lefts hands controlled
the keyboard, their right worked the
mouse. It takes a special skill and
hand-eye coordination.
contrary to popular belief,
esports have been around for
decades, staring in the 1960s with
the game Spacewar, which is
considered the first digital computer
game.
The first esports tournament was
held in 1972, and Spacewar was the
game used. there were 24 players
and the winner received an annual
subscription to rolling Stone maga-
zine.
Sipe, and his wife Heidi, the
superintendent of the umatilla
School district, played video games
during the pandemic when every-
thing, including school, was done
by Zoom.
Heidi took an interest in dr.
mario (circa 1990), where the objec-
tive is to defeat different colored
germs with vitamins of the same
color.
“I think if I can beat dr. mario,
I can end this pandemic,” she said.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Quin McClenahen is the stepson
of Hermiston Herald editor/senior
reporter Erick Peterson.
How to smoke a Christmas turkey
GARY
LEWIS
ON THE TRAIL
t
he recipe is as follows: Pour
100 grains of powder down
the barrel, load a plastic cup
with 1 1/4 ounces of lead and seal it
with a fiber wad. A shotgun primer
goes under the hammer.
In my possibles bag, I keep the
plastic shot cups pre-made, ready to
go for quick reloads. Quick reloads
are important.
One of my favorite shotguns
is an austin & Halleck bolt-ac-
tion muzzleloader designed by my
friend ray crow. I call it Old crow.
Once a year I take Old crow out
for a walk. Sometimes for grouse,
sometimes for pheasant, but the
most memorable hunts are for wild
turkey.
at zero-dark-thirty we sped
south, fueled on coffee, bacon and
eggs. my friend troy rodakowski
had a line on a flock of turkeys that
were roosting on timber company
land and feeding in a friend’s
fields.
When the sun lit the eastern
horizon, a thin orange line beneath
the brooding clouds, the rain began
to pour. We pulled into the drive-
way where we were greeted by the
landowner wearing a slicker. He
indicated we could hunt anywhere
on the property, but for best results
we should use the barn as cover and
take a peek into the canyon first.
Never one to second-guess a host,
I agreed. troy was a bit skeptical
of our chances. We couldn’t hear
any birds and, in the downpour, we
couldn’t see any birds.
It was 80 yards through the rain
to the barn then we had to sneak
alongside the tractor and peer into
the canyon.
A flock of 20 birds were spread
out along the far side of the canyon.
Hens and jakes. I picked out a jake
standing still, shouldered the gun,
put the bead above the bird’s head
and squeezed.
click. I quickly threw the bolt
and squeezed again. click. a bad
cap.
In my pocket I had another cap.
I pulled the dimpled one off and put
the new one on. Now the turkeys
were nervous, exiting stage left.
One lingered. a jake craned his
neck for a better look.
boom.
One of the things I always forget
is the big white curtain of smoke the
muzzleloader throws up. I couldn’t
see whether I’d hit the bird or not.
The rest of the flock legged it up the
hill and out of sight.
Forty-two yards is a long shot
for a muzzleloader. We had to chase
down my trophy and finish it off.
It was a young gobbler, perhaps an
11-pound bird.
a turkey shot with a muzzle-
loader is only half-smoked. On
christmas eve, I took the bird out
of the freezer, skinless and bone-
less, and let it sit in a brine for 24
hours. On christmas day, I took
the bird out, scored it with a knife
and coated it with pineapple/roasted
garlic Justy’s Jelly.
With the dark meat and jelly
folded inside, the bird, wrapped
in bacon, bound with string and
coated with olive oil, went inside
the camp chef pellet grill into a
haze of maple, apple and hickory
smoke.
We kept the juices in and let the
jelly and bacon blend with that true
wild flavor and tender meat. It took
an hour and a half for the internal
meat probe to read 165 degrees,
which is the magic number.
Speculation before thanksgiv-
ing this year was that supply chain
disruptions were making it harder
to buy a butterball. according to
the uSda, frozen turkey invento-
ries were 24% below their three-
year average volumes.
Not so in the oaks and pine
forests of Northeastern Oregon.
From the first of December through
the end of January, a hunter can use
a fall turkey tag on private lands.
Hunters may purchase tags through
the end of the season.
that’s how to smoke a turkey.
Gary Lewis/Contributed Photo
Even if hunting with a familiar gun and a proven load it makes sense to go
to the range and confirm the pattern and effective range including hold-
overs at 30, 40 and 50 yards.
———
Gary Lewis is the author of “Fish-
ing Central Oregon” and “Oregon
Lake Maps and Fishing Guide” and
other titles. To contact Gary, visit
www.garylewisoutdoors.com.