B2
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Woods:
Continued from Page B1
for the first time in many
years. You want to grow
those special moments.”
While the good things
make the job fulfilling,
there’s also the headache
of scheduling, bus sched-
ules and hiring new coaches
when necessary. That’s just
scratching the surface.
“It’s so much more than
buses and officials,” she
said. “You are the coach of
coaches. If you want them
to build culture and grow
leaders, you have to grow
leaders too. I probably have
one of the youngest coach-
ing staff s in America. I am
married to the Stanfi eld bus
dude (Kurtis Woods), so that
part is easy. We have our own
buses and bus drivers.”
Still a small-town girl
Woods graduated from
Condon High School in
1986. She played volleyball,
basketball and track for the
Blue Devils.
She went to college
at Western Oregon State
College with the intent of
getting a music degree. She
played clarinet and sang in
the choir.
She made the switch to
elementary education and
never looked back.
“My first teaching job
was in The Dalles,” she said.
“Then I was in Sheridan,
Oregon, for two years, and
then landed back in Arling-
ton. I was there for 20 years,
and I coached volleyball
for several years. I had no
intention of being an athletic
director. The position came
open. I was surprised I got
the job. I really didn’t want to
do the job because I was still
coaching at the same time.”
Woods spent more than
Timber:
Continued from Page B1
Her favorite event is
the single buck, which has
competitors make one cut
through 19 inches of white
pine using a single man cross-
cut saw. The piece they cut off
is roughly 3 inches thick.
“It’s a love-hate relation-
ship,” she said. “I love the
misery.”
While competitors bring
their own crosscut saws and
axes, the event provides the
chainsaws to make sure there
is an even playing fi eld.
“It’s a funny concept in
Timbersports,” Page said.
“They try to keep it fair, but
everyone has diff erent axes
and cross-cut saws. When you
get there, it’s the luck of the
draw. You could get the one
block (of white pine) that is soft
and breaks like a pumpkin, or
you could get the one that is so
solid. They try to take the trees
from the same cluster so they
are about the same age.”
Since moving back to
Honor:
Continued from Page B1
Nichols finished 10th
at the Cascade Collegiate
Conference Championships
in the 800 with a time of
1:54.81. He also was seventh
in the 1,500 (3:54.14). EOU
won the men’s team title.
Nichols qualifi ed for the
fi ve years as athletic direc-
tor. At one point she had to
write professional goals to
keep her job. One was to be a
league representative, then a
1A classifi cation representa-
tive for the state, and then run
for state secretary.
“One day I got a call that
I should run for state secre-
tary,” she said. “I skipped a
couple of steps. I ran for it.
I had no idea what that was.
I lost by three votes. Two
months later, the guy who
won left and Bill Bowers
from Springfi eld asked if I
still wanted it. It’s a fi ve year
sentence. Secretary, trea-
surer, vice president, presi-
dent and past president. I got
to work with the best lead-
ers in the state. I met athletic
directors from all over the
country, and went to the
national conference three
times. It was awesome.”
Woods took the athletic
director job in Nyssa, but
lasted just one year.
“When you move away
from everything you have
ever known, it’s hard,” she
said. “We just needed to
move back.”
In 2016, they moved back
to Eastern Oregon, where
Wood taught in Umatilla and
Pendleton, and spent one year
as a volleyball referee.
She’s also back in the
boardroom as the Blue
Mountain Conference repre-
sentative and is filling a
term as the 2A state classi-
fi cation representative. She’s
also noticed a change in the
athletic director position
throughout the state.
“I’m going back to the
steps I skipped the fi rst time,”
she said. “I was happy to do
it. I would be at the meetings
anyway. Since I left the athletic
director world for a while and
came back, the female popu-
lation of athletic directors
has increased tremendously,
which is nice to see.”
Oregon from Montana last
year, Page has had more
opportunities to train with
coaches and compete in
more events. She put in her
fi nal training session a week
ago with David Moses Jr., of
Snoqualmie, Washington.
“He (Moses) is helping me
fi ne tune parts of my form to be
faster, more precise and how
to read my block faster,” Page
said. “My arms move faster
than my brain can process. He
has been a competitor in the
series for a long time.”
Page has done fi ve shows
already this season, winning
two in California.
“If Erin doesn’t show up, I
do pretty well,” Page said.
Originally from John Day,
Page works in the Heppner
Ranger District on the
Umatilla National Forest for
the U.S. Forest Service.
She and her husband,
Camron Tack, left for Arkan-
sas the morning of July 20.
“On the way back, we
are going to Tombstone
(Arizona),” Page said. “When
we drive, it gives us an oppor-
tunity to see new places.”
NAIA Outdoor Track &
Field Championships in the
1,500. He placed 11th with a
time of 3:58.93.
Nichols, a junior, also
was named to the dean’s list
for the 2022 winter term.
Qualifying students had
to achieve and maintain a
grade point average of 3.5
or higher while completing
a minimum of 12 hours of
graded coursework.
SPORTS BRIEFING
HSD off ers free
sports physicals
HERMISTON — The
Hermiston School District
reminds parents that their
student-athletes are required
to have a sports physical to
participate.
Fre e s p or t s physi-
cals (which are valid for
two years) for Hermis-
ton students are off ered on
Aug. 9 in the gold gym at
Hermiston High School,
600 S. First St. Sixth through
ninth grade students are
from 9 a.m. to noon and
grades 10-12 are 1-4:30 p.m.
For questions, contact
Maria Duron at maria.
duron@hermistonsd.org or
541-667-0036.
— EO Media Group
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Saturday, July 23, 2022
Blues:
Continued from Page B1
Turning my attention to
the head of the pool, a few
more dinks challenged the
fl y, each brilliantly colored
like jewels in a treasure
chest. It seemed odd that a
bigger fi sh didn’t come from
beneath the log. Shifting
right a little, I cast toward
the glide.
As the fl y bounced
against the log and fl oated
back into the glide, a fi sh
larger than any I had caught
in this stream since 2013
swiftly rose and engulfed
the meal, then quickly
reminded me what it was
like to fi ght a strong fi sh on
a tenkara fl y rod. The fi sh
was over 14 inches, thick
and deep, quick and fast,
and would have been into
the drag had I been using a
reel. Somehow, I thwarted
its attempts to blast down-
stream through the riffl es
and break me off . As the
fi sh slid into the shallows,
I admired its beauty and
eff orts and released it with
the hope that it would grow
another year.
Each subsequent bend in
the stream set up a simi-
lar pool and glide, but none
off ered up another big fi sh.
Hours quickly passed in the
soothing rush of waters, and
I decided it was time to hit
the trail.
Transitioning to the
mountaintop, I approached
the headwaters of the
stream, pulled to the shoul-
der of the Forest Service
road and climbed on the
bike. Years had passed
since my last ride and I was
in search of new trails, but
more importantly, I sought
meadows painted against a
backdrop of the snowcapped
Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo
Crimson Indian paintbrush steals the show among sulfur lupine.
Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo
A superbly colorful rainbow trout that could not resist a
big stimulator fl y.
peaks of the Eagle Caps.
A short distance ahead
was a blocked and forgot-
ten two-track where I
hooked left and climbed up
to a small meadow glowing
golden with biscuitroot and
yellow fawn lily. Around the
bend, another wildfl ower
appeared on the edge of a
wetland, the Bonneville
shooting star, which is a
lovely fuchsia with a yellow
petal base and black cone.
The petals turn up, making
the fl ower appear comet-like
and identifying its name-
sake. Violet showy penste-
mon, pink spring beauty,
common yarrow and more
took advantage of the open
trail edges. It was slow going
as I stopped to photograph
the various specimens.
Veering onto another
route, I came upon grand
vistas dressed in sulfur
lupine and accented by
crimson Indian paintbrush,
and wetland seeps speck-
led with buttercups and the
peculiar ballhead waterleaf.
A fi nal pull back up to the
truck led through a fi eld of
grass widow — a delicate
pink fl ower hung from the
side of a slender grass-like
blade leaf. The perfect end
to an incredible day in the
Blues.
There is no shortage
of biking, trout and wild-
fl ower opportunities in the
Blue Mountains. More info
on biking and trails that
may coincide with moun-
tain stream and lake fi shing
is available from the U.S.
Forest Service North Fork
John Day Ranger District
website at bit.ly/3ct3sC9.
———
Brad Trumbo is a fish
and wildlife biologist and
outdoor writer in Waits-
burg, Washington. For tips
and tales of outdoor pursuits
and conservation, visit www.
bradtrumbo.com.
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