A10
SPORTS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Lady Eagles resume
STEAMROLLER STATUS
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
A
fter four straight
losses to the
top state teams,
Joseph Charter
School’s lady
Eagles got back
on track with a 51-27 steamroll-
ing of the Griswold Grizzlies.
The outcome of the battle
was clear from the start with
the ladies leading 31-11 at the
half. As per usual, the bench got
plenty of quality floor time in the
contest while starters enjoyed a
well-deserved break.
Supreme Sabrina Albee
cleaned up in scoring with 18
through the bucket while snatch-
ing 12 boards and handing out
seven assists. She also recorded
a half-dozen thefts. Madelyn
Nelson burned the hoop with 14
points and committed six theft
crimes.
Camille Crenshaw recorded
six points while seizing an
amazing 11 boards while Bri-
anna Micka dumped in eight
points along with six steals and
four assists.
Albee was happy with the
win.
“It felt good to get our first
league victory tonight,” she
said. “It feels good now that we
got some rest and got to play at
home.”
Coach Lance Homan noted
the victory was a full team effort,
despite some shortcomings.
“We didn’t play as crisp as
I would have liked, but it was
good to get a win,” he said.
Homan also noted he enjoyed
seeing several players score
and do some good work on the
court. The coach also said that
he thought the defense played
Steve Tool
“It’s mine,” Joseph Eagles player, Sabrina Albee, seems to say to a
Griswold player during the Eagles 51-27 shellacking of the Grizzlies
on Friday, Jan. 10.
Photos by Steve Tool
Steve Tool
Nelson to the rescue — Eagles senior, Madelyn Nelson, goes up high
for two during the lady Eagles’ 51-27 triumph over the Griswold
Grizzlies on Friday, Jan. 10.
Halt, Halt — A Griswold Grizzlies player seems to be shouting as the
Eagles’ Camille Crenshaw goes up for two of her six points on Jan. 10.
Crenshaw also seized an amazing 11 boards on the evening.
well and expected the squad
to clean up some of their dusty
spots before they play again this
and play with some confidence,”
he said.
The ladies are now 1-0 in
weekend.
“Overall, it was good to see
the girls back out on the floor
Joseph/Wallowa wrestling shorthanded but mighty
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Joseph/Wallowa wres-
tling squad braved the week-
end storms to battle at the Echo
High School Cougar Challenge.
The move paid off for Jo/Wa
who, despite being several wres-
tlers short, managed a fourth–
place finish with 66 points while
second and third slots, filled by
Heppner and Imbler respec-
tively, eked out 67.5 and 67
points respectively.
Out mining the gold fields
were Zeb Ramsden at first at
145 pounds with three falls and
muscleman Jonah Staigle at
220 pounds for the gold. Stai-
gle defeated all four opponents
by falls.
Ronnie
Morello
came
back with a second after a sil-
ver mining expedition at 170
pounds and Kennison Knifong
found some bronze, also at 145
pounds.
Coach Tim Kiesecker was
recovering from surgery, so he
didn’t attend the meet. He got
good reports about his squad,
however.
“We did all right,” Kiesecker
said. “I talked to the boys at
times, during and after their
matches. We were down three
kids, so only six kids went
over.”
The coach said the squad
didn’t meet any foul weather on
the trip to Echo, but that changed
by the end of the meet. Inclem-
ent weather forced the team to
spend the night in a Pendleton
hotel.
“I think the kids wrestled
good, and a huge thank you
to everybody who helped out
and got them there safely,”
Kiesecker said. “I’m really glad
the kids were able to make this
one.”
Jo/Wa has the next weekend
off followed by a meet at John
Day on Jan. 24-25.
Cougar boys come out the worse for wear versus Huskies
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Wallowa Cougar boys
suffered a 57-33 loss to the
Elgin Huskies during an away
hoops game Friday, Jan. 10.
“I think Elgin has one heck
of a half-court press they run,”
Coach Cody Lathrop said.
“They were extremely patient.
They are definitely the team to
watch out for.” Lathrop added
the Cougs seemed to handle the
press at the start, but it eventu-
ally wore on the team and flus-
tered them. “Our guys were
a little taken aback by it,” he
said.
According to Lathrop, the
Huskies’ coach has the same
type of vision for his team
that the Wallowa coach har-
bors: To let the defense lead
to the offense’s efficiency. In
the game, the Huskies forced a
large number of turnovers that
allowed the offense to capital-
ize on them.
Lathrop said the Cougars’
defense was tight for the most
part. Had the offense been able
to gel, it might have allowed
for a different game outcome.
“The defense played hard,
and they played to the whistle,”
Lathrop said.
The coach said that a mea-
sured and patient response
can break the trap press, and
he expects with maturity,
the Cougs can master their
response.
“We’re working at it bit by
bit,” Lathrop said. “They love
to compete. and they love going
out and working. By the end
of this year, we should have a
good grasp on what we need to
accomplish.”
Tristin Bales played a
good game with 16 points in
the bucket, half from the free
throw line, where he went 8 of
12. The entire team was 15 of
24 from the line. Lathrop said
that Bales was among the first
to recognize the half-court trap
press and it fazed him but little.
The loss left the Tom Cougs
with an 0-2 league record and
4-8 overall. They next guard
their lair versus Powder Valley
on Friday, Jan. 17.
When it comes to sports, what counts for kids is playing together, working hard, and trying your best.
Amanda J. Visek
George Washington University
A new study from George
Washington University looks
at what makes organized sports
fun for kids, and some of the
findings might surprise you. It
dispels the popular myth that
what makes sports the most
fun for girls are the social
aspects, like friendships,
while for boys the fun factor
has to do with competition.
“Our data indicate girls
and boys are more similar
than different when it comes
to what makes playing sports
fun,” said Amanda J. Visek,
PhD, an associate profes-
sor of exercise and nutri-
tion sciences at the George
Washington University. “What
counts most for girls and boys
are things like ‘trying your
best,’ ‘working hard,’ ‘stay-
ing active,’ and ‘playing well
together as a team.’ These find-
ings are the same for athletes
at younger and older ages and
across recreational and more
competitive levels of play.”
But there are some small
yet intriguing differences in
fun priorities, depending on
the age or gender of the young
athletes.
opportunity for kids, espe-
cially those at younger ages, to
get experience playing all of
the different positions within
a sport, is important for their
athletic development,” Visek
said.
‘OUR DATA INDICATE GIRLS AND
BOYS ARE MORE SIMILAR THAN
DIFFERENT WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT
MAKES PLAYING SPORTS FUN.’
Amanda J. Visek, associate professor of exercise and
nutrition sciences at the George Washington University
For
example,
younger
players reported it was more
important to have a coach who
allowed them to ‘play different
positions’ than older players.
“Sport sampling — allow-
ing kids to play several dif-
ferent sports — as well as the
In addition, boys rated
‘copying the moves and tricks
of professional athletes’ and
‘improving athletic skills to
play at the next level’ as more
important to having fun on the
playing field when compared
to girls. Visek and her research
team think this might be a result
of boys having more male pro-
fessional athletes to look up to
and identify with than girls,
who have fewer female profes-
sional athletes to emulate.
These findings, among oth-
ers that the study unveils, can
be used by sport organiza-
tions to make their programs
more fun and thus keep kids
playing longer. Kids in the
United States who drop out of
organized sports typically do
so by middle school, claiming
that games and practices just
aren’t fun anymore.
The findings of this study
suggest that coaches and par-
ents may be missing the mark
if they push a winning season
or mistakenly reinforce per-
ceived gender differences.
“When it comes to orga-
nized sports, kids just want to
have fun,” Visek said. “This
research does not support the
common gender and develop-
mental stereotypes we tend to
make about kids in sports.”
league play and 8-4 overall.
They have the seventh slot in
league rankings.
Tribes break
ground for new
salmon hatchery
Bonneville Power Administration
The Confederated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation kicked off con-
struction of the Walla Walla River Fish
Hatchery with a groundbreaking cere-
mony at the hatchery site Jan. 10.
As part of its Fish and Wildlife Pro-
gram, the Bonneville Power Adminis-
tration is funding the project, located 10
miles east of Milton-Freewater. Once
complete, the hatchery is expected to
return thousands of adult spring chi-
nook salmon to tributaries throughout the
Walla Walla River Basin each year.
The new facility is also expected to
double the amount of young fish released
into the South Fork Walla Walla and
Touchet rivers from the current 250,000
to about a half-million annually. The
majority of the smolts will be released
into the South Fork Walla Walla, with
approximately 20% going to the nearby
Touchet.
“We are really pleased that this project
is moving forward,” said Kat Brigham,
chairwoman of the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. “We
expect the facility to produce more fish
for the environment, our people and the
region.”
The new hatchery will have egg incu-
bation and full juvenile rearing facilities.
Right now, eggs are incubated and fish
are raised offsite before they are released
into the South Fork Walla Walla River.
With the new hatchery, the Tribes can use
river water to incubate and rear young
salmon before releasing them, helping
the fish to imprint on their natal streams.
The goal is to return approximately 5,000
adult salmon annually to the Walla Walla
Basin.
“This tribal hatchery is included in the
Columbia Basin Fish Accords agreement
with the Confederated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation and illustrates the
progress we can make for fish when we all
work together,” says Scott Armentrout,
vice president of the BPA’s Environment,
Fish and Wildlife Program. “The part-
nerships derived from the accords also
ensure the BPA gets the highest value for
the fish and wildlife investments it makes
throughout the Northwest.”
Over the past three decades in the
Walla Walla Basin, the BPA and its local
partners have invested approximately $40
million in fish habitat projects, includ-
ing passage improvements, increasing
instream water, flood plain restoration
and initial artificial propagation actions.
Hatchery construction is expected to
be complete by the spring of 2021 with
the first adult salmon returns to the basin
by 2026.