B2
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Wilson:
try everything on us. By the
time Jacey (the youngest)
came through, they were
Continued from Page B1
amazing. They won two
state (softball) titles. He was
the biggest infl uences in my very humble and very gener-
entire life, my whole child- ous. The money he made
hood revolved around life coaching he put back into
with Butch. My heart is shat- the programs. He was very
tered, broken and will never strict with his rules, but very
be the same. My second dad, giving.”
my coach, mentor, the rock
Fitzpatrick, who coached
for all of us.”
the Pilot Rock softball team
Amylee Perrine, a former for nine years, won 2A state
player and later one of titles in 2015 and 2016, and
Wilson’s assistant coaches, placed second the next two
has known the Wilson family seasons. All with Wilson as
since she was 7 years old.
one of his assistants.
“There’s a long line of
“Butch was well
kids in Pilot Rock who got to respected and well liked,”
experience being coached by Fitzpatrick said. “The kids
Butch,” said Perrine, a 2011 put out all they had for him.
Pilot Rock graduate. “He It’s one of those things you
was our coach from the time don’t do for money. He was
we were 8 years old until well respected by parents and
we graduated. He was just players. The kids loved him.”
always there. He was going
In addition to coaching at
to work us hard, but he was the high school, Wilson was
going to love you. That was a long-time, and successful,
how Butch did his thing.”
softball coach in the Little
League system. He took
Forever a coach
the 14U to regionals, and
Wilson took over the twice took the 16U teams to
Pilot Rock girls basketball regionals with Mike Balez-
program at the start of the tena and Jason Gibbs.
“He was such a behind-
2011-12 season after four
years of coaching the JV the-scenes guy,” Baleztena
team. He coached the Rock- said. “I learned everything
ets for six years, winning from Butch. I might have
district titles and taking his been the manager, but he
team to state.
was right there with me.
“Butch was a lot of fun,” Those girls were so smart by
said Perrine, who had Wilson the time they graduated, they
as a JV basketball coach. could have coached their
“He was defi nitely the type own team. He never took
of coach who made you credit for anything. Basket-
want to work your hardest. ball or softball. That’s the
He would get excited when way he was. He didn’t need
he needed to. We were well the recognition. He will be
disciplined and he showed missed something fi erce.”
us great respect. We went in
Perrine, now the Rock-
and got our work done, but he ets girls basketball coach,
made sure we had fun.”
said Wilson was just a phone
Wilson also was the assis- call away when she needed
tant softball coach for the advice.
“There have been some
Rockets, so he was a daily
fi xture for Perrine, who went hard spots being a head
on to play softball at Corban coach and I would call him,”
she said. “Whether it was
University.
“I got coached by him in trying to get them to run a
softball and basketball, then man defense, or the girls are
came back and coached with fighting. He was there no
him,” Perrine said. “I got matter what.”
When Wilson’s respon-
to help coach his youngest
daughter Jacey. She was also sibilities at work changed
one of the fi rst students I had in 2017, he had to give up
when I started teaching.”
coaching basketball and soft-
Taylor said some of her ball, but that did not change
fondest memories were play- the player’s respect for him.
ing for her dad.
“On the softball field,
“He was harder on me in whenever Butch would just
sports and it took me a while show up, the girls would
to understand that,” she said. shape up real fast,” Perrine
“He will never waste breath said. “He always said if you
to help someone who doesn’t put in a full eff ort, you will
want it. If he’s hard on you, see the rewards.”
he cares.”
For Wilson, that came in
Taylor, the oldest of the 2011, when he was named
three Wilson girls — also Pilot Rock’s Man of the Year.
Brooke and Jacey— got a The family had to use a little
hefty dose of her dad as a trickery to get him to the P
I H t her
u o friends
b a g n i k l ceremony.
a t y B . n o i t a c i d e m f o p l e h
coach, but she V and
would not change a thing.
“He thought I was getting a
“We were the guinea scholarship,” Taylor said. “He
pigs,” she said. “He would does not like attention on him.”
SPORTS BRIEFING
Racing action
returns July 23 to
Hermiston
HERMISTON — Coca
Cola Saturday Night Thun-
der heats up at Hermiston
Raceway next weekend.
The planned appearance and
racing on Saturday, July 16,
with Mr Dizzy Motorsports
is cancelled because of
injury.
The gates open at 4 p.m.
July 23, with the racing action
starting at 6 p.m. at 81236 N.
Highway 395. The evening
features WESCO Winged
Sprint Cars, the Washington
Midget Racing Association,
INEX Legends, hornets and
bombers.
General admission for
adults is $20; seniors/veter-
ans are $17, youths, $15 and
a family pass is $50 (for two
adults and three youths).
In addition, Speedy’s Grill
off ers a variety of food and
beverages.
Advance tickets are avail-
able via www.hermiston-
raceway.com. For questions,
contact 509-845-5510 or
info@hermistonraceway.com.
Tee off for Eastern
Oregon Mission
UMATILLA — The East-
ern Oregon Mission golf
tournament is July 30. The
four-person scramble event
raises money to help support
Agape House and Martha’s
House.
The tournament, which
is open to men and women
of all skill levels, will begin
with a shotgun start Satur-
day, July 30, 8 a.m. Golfers
are asked to check in at 7 a.m.
at Big River Golf Course, 709
Willamette St., Umatilla. The
entry fee is $60 per person,
which includes green fees,
breakfast pastries and lunch.
A luncheon, raffl e drawing
and awards ceremony will
be held at the conclusion of
the tournament.
Also, sponsorships are
available. For more informa-
tion, call Mark Gomolski at
541-567-8774.
— EO Media Group
LeeAnnOttosen@UmpquaBank.com
UmpquaBank.com/Lee-Ann-Ottosen
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Peaks:
Continued from Page B1
From Santiam Pass the
peak has something of the
Matterhorn in its dart-like
shape, albeit with a summit
more akin to a thumb than
the tip of a knife as with the
Alpine eminence.
But seen from the east,
near Sisters, Mount Wash-
ington is a dome with a
sharp tip in its center.
The diff erences aren’t
so distinct from the west or
south, but from both direc-
tions the mountain could be
taken for a diff erent peak
altogether.
I had occasion to ponder
this matter of mountains,
and their many faces, while
hiking on Saturday, July 9.
The subject in this case,
though, wasn’t a single
mountain but rather a
range — the Elkhorns. My
backyard mountains, both
fi guratively, in that they are
the ones I visit most often,
and literally, as I can see a
section of the range from
my own yard.
The site was the eastern
side of Gorham Butte, a
modest summit — it tops
out at 6,176 feet — a couple
miles north of the Anthony
Lakes Highway.
Gorham Butte, despite
its singular name, is
actually a spine of high
ground with a few separate
summits, two on the south
end and a third at the north,
with a saddle between.
The butte is the high-
est point between Baker
Valley to the east and the
Elkhorns — not a foot-
hill, exactly, but sort of an
intermediate summit. It’s
also a hydrologic divide,
with the Antone Creek
drainage to the south and
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Van Patten Butte seen from a road on the east slopes of
Gorham Butte on July 9, 2022.
Anthony Creek to the
west and south. The latter
stream, which drains from
its namesake alpine lake,
follows a glacier-carved
canyon that runs nearly due
east until it reaches the base
of Gorham Butte, which
forces the stream to fl ow
northwest for a few miles
before it resumes its east-
erly course.
I picked Gorham Butte
for the hike mainly because
the route, along a road I
didn’t recall ever traveling,
was on the east side of the
ridge, and I reasoned, or so
I told my wife, Lisa, and
our son, Max, that there
would be more cooling
shade.
Which it was.
What I didn’t anticipate
was the fresh perspective
the road lent to the familiar
peaks of the Elkhorns.
But fi rst we had to climb
about 350 vertical feet, on
sometimes steep grades,
along Forest Road 7320-
050. Once the road reaches
the aforementioned saddle,
though, it’s either fl at or
slightly downhill.
Just north of the saddle
the trees thinned slightly
and the views opened to
the west and south. We
stopped, and I needed a few
seconds to fi gure out what I
was looking at.
The view of Twin Moun-
tain, in particular, was so
diff erent from what I’m
used to that I didn’t recog-
nize it right off .
The granitic peaks
around Anthony Lakes,
sculpted into horns and
pinnacles by Ice Age
glaciers, are a reliable
landmark, but even those
familiar peaks weren’t in
quite the right order, so to
speak. Once I had picked
out Gunsight Mountain the
rest fell into position, as it
were.
Yet each summit seemed
just strange enough from
our vantage point that I felt
as though I were seeing
each anew. Van Patten
Butte was broader than I
was used to.
Most notably for me,
though, was Angell Peak,
the spire that looms above
Angell Pass on the Elkhorn
Crest Trail about two miles
south of Anthony Lake. The
scree slopes on the peak’s
east side were almost
completely snow-covered,
and as I processed the
scene I realized that I was
looking directly at the spot
where the Crest Trail was
hacked through the granitic
outcrops and boulders on
the climb to the pass.
I knew, even more than
several miles away, that
the trail was largely, if not
completely, covered by
snow that has persisted
longer than usual due to the
chilly spring.
It was a curious sensa-
tion.
But also a pleasant one,
rather like encountering
a favorite old friend in an
unfamiliar city.
Besides the surprising
vista of the Elkhorns, the
road is also a fi ne place
to get an overview of the
Anthony Burn. In July
and August 1960, a light-
ning-sparked fi re burned
about 20,000 acres between
Gorham Butte and the Ladd
Canyon Road. It was one of
the larger blazes in North-
eastern Oregon during the
20th century, and in the
fi re’s wake much of the land
was colonized by lodgepole
pines that, more than a half
a century later, form all but
impenetrable thickets over
much of the area.
We could hear the roar
of Anthony Creek, still
swollen with snowmelt,
several hundred feet below.
It was a beautiful July
day — a few harmless
cumulus, pleasantly warm
but refreshingly cool in the
shade.
I was reminded that
although I prefer trails,
hiking on roads — even
roads that, like 7320-050,
are open to vehicles — can
be rewarding as well.
———
Jayson Jacoby is the
editor of the Baker City
Herald and enjoys Eastern
Oregon’s outdoors.
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