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SATuRDAY, APRIL 9, 2022
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B1
PENDLETON BASKETBALL
COACHES STEP DOWN
Porter says time is
right to leave, Dong
takes AD job in Idaho
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — It’s
always hard to lose
coaches. Pendleton
Athletic Director Mike
Somnis is having to
replace three coaches heading into
the 2022-23 school year as volley-
ball coach Amanda Lapp, girls
basketball coach Kevin Porter and
boys basketball coach Zach Dong
are stepping down.
Lapp gave her notice last fall
when the season was over, and
Somnis expects to announce a new
hire in the coming weeks.
The two basketball jobs were a
bit more shocking, but Somnis said
the coaches are leaving for the right
reasons.
“We are pretty bummed out
about it,” Somnis said of his basket-
ball coaches. “They are stepping
down to spend time with family, and
Zach got a new job. The coaching
thing can be really time consuming.
Those jobs are open until April 15.
We are hoping we can get some
good people to apply.”
Dong also teaches physical
education and health at Pendleton
High School. Somnis said his loss
will be felt in the classroom.
“Losing a guy like Zach as a
teacher is tough,” Somnis said.
“He is a good teacher. Coaching is
important, but it’s never as import-
ant as your day job.”
Porter, who has been at the helm
for the past six years, said he thought
the time was right to step away.
“I thought we did some really
good things with the program,”
Porter said. “I enjoyed the kids a
great deal. I thought it was time for
someone else to take the reins and
expand the program. I just didn’t
want to leave with nothing in the
cupboard. There are some good
players left in the system, and they
are moving down to 4A and a new
league. I didn’t want to leave it in
worse condition than when I found
it.”
Porter started off as a volunteer
assistant coach when his daughter
was a sophomore in high school.
He had coached her and her friends
in AAU from fifth grade through
eighth grade, with a good amount
of success.
“That is a tough dynamic,”
Porter said of coaching his daugh-
ter. “If you try and tell yourself you
can 100 percent separate that, you
are fooling yourself. She created a
pretty tight bond with my assistant
Kim Taber (who is also stepping
down).
“When we got to high school, we
did a much better job and learned
to enjoy the game together,” Porter
continued. “There were a lot of
24-hour basketball days at our
house. As I look back on it, in that
dad-basketball coaching relation-
ship, I think we did a really good
job.”
Porter’s first two years with the
Bucks resulted in back-to-back
Columbia River Conference district
titles.
In six years, Porter amassed a
43-11 CRC/Intermountain Confer-
ence record, and was 73-54 overall.
The Bucks made the state play-
offs five times. There weren’t any
state playoffs in 2021 because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Porter earned three all-confer-
ence coaching honors in six seasons,
with the last coming in 2021.
A farmer by day, Porter said he
will miss being on the bench.
“I could see myself on the side-
lines until I’m 80 years old,” Porter
said. “I will miss it dearly. I have
second guessed my decision every
day since I told Mike I was stepping
down. Maybe I will get involved
again at the youth level. I don’t think
I am done completely.”
Going home
Dong is moving to Kimberly,
Idaho, where he will be the school’s
athletic director.
“I have enjoyed my time here,”
Dong said. “The driving force
behind the decision was getting
closer to family. Nothing more than
getting closer to family. We didn’t
think it would be that big of a deal
moving away and not having family
close. You need to have that support
system.”
See Coaches, Page B2
Mac-Hi’s Leber earns
spot on GOL first team
Rhoads, Perkins earn
second-team honors
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
MILTON-FREEWATER —
McLoughlin senior Emma Leber
earned first-team honors in the
Greater Oregon
L eag ue, wh ile
two teammates
were named to the
second team.
Leber,
a
6-foot-1 forward,
led the Pioneers
Leber
with 12.5 points a
game, along with
8.5 rebounds, three blocks and 1.8
steals.
Senior guard Darby Rhoads
was named to the second team,
along with sophomore guard Madi
Perkins.
Rhoads averaged 10.5 points, 6.3
rebounds, three assists and 2.5 steals
per game. Perkins chipped in 10.4
points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 steals.
The Pioneers finished 2-4 in
GOL play, and 8-11 overall. They
lost their 4A state play-in game to
Hidden Valley 57-32.
Photos by Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
TOP: Pendleton boys basketball coach Zach Dong cheers his team on during a game on Dec. 21, 2021. ABOVE: Pend-
leton girls basketball coach Kevin Porter talks to his team during a game on June 3, 2021, against Redmond. He and
Dong in April 2022 announced they are leaving their positions.
Don’t wait around to try fly-fishing
GARY
LEWIS
GREATER OREGON
LEAGUE
Player of the Year: Jozie Ramos,
jr., Baker
Coach of the Year: Jason Ra-
mos, Baker
First team: Rylee Elms, sr., Baker;
Macey Moore, jr., Baker; MaKen-
na Shorts, jr., La Grande; Emma
Leber, sr., McLoughlin; Grace
Neer, sr., La Grande.
Second Team: Darby Rhoads,
sr., McLoughlin; Madi Perkins,
so., McLoughlin; Brooklyn Jaca,
jr., Baker; Kayle Collman, fr., La
Grande; Kira Evans, so., Ontario.
Rhoads
Perkins
Mac-Hi did not have any boys
earn all-league honors.
The boys Player of the Year was
Devin Bell of La Grande. Coach
of the Year honors went to Mark
Carollo of La Grande.
ON THE TRAIL
I
met a guy once, one of the
best casters I ever saw. He
could put a fly in your pocket
at 65 feet and then put the fly
in his own pocket on the next
cast without stripping any line.
He had learned to fly-cast at a
city-owned casting pond, then
perfected his craft in the back-
yard. It was 15 years, he told me,
from when he first picked up a fly
rod to when he decided he was
good enough to go fishing. It was
some time after that he caught
his first fish. Hey, it worked for
him.
Last spring a friend of mine
that I started in fly-fishing came
out from Alabama to fish with
me again. He brought his son
along and it was fun to watch the
25-year-old putting his south-
ern fly fishing skills to work in
Oregon. They worked on their
presentations and their attitude
toward the water and they started
to catch fish — rainbows and
brown trout.
The beauty of fly-fishing is
Brian R. Smith/Contributed Photo
A brown trout taken on the middle Deschutes River in spring 2021.
it gives you exactly what you
demand of it. The art of the angle
can be complex or simple, techni-
cal or sublime.
Last year, over a Zoom presen-
tation to a fly-fishing club, I
talked to a guy who said he was
going to go fishing again as soon
as COVID-19 was over. Mean-
while he was going to sit in on
video fly-tying and travel discus-
sions. I’m guessing that is what
he wanted from fly-fishing, for
the time.
A friend of mine was treasurer
for a fly-fishing club in Portland. I
invited him once on a dry fly trip
to Chile and he was ready to buy
his airline ticket when his fear
of being found out kicked in. He
was not as skilled as he wanted to
be, he said. He confessed his cast-
ing skills were sub-par and his
knowledge of bugs was lacking.
“I’m just not ready for a trip
like that, Gary,” he said. “Invite
me next year. Maybe next year
I’ll be ready.”
See Fishing, Page B2