INSIDE: CLASSIFIEDS & WEATHER
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • SUNday, aprIL 25, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
GOLF
Bulletin invites
calendar items
The Bulletin is assem-
bling a golf calendar for
the 2021 edition of our an-
nual Central Oregon golf
guide. The guide will be
published later this spring.
Those who wish to
have information included
in the calendar — includ-
ing dates for clinics and
classes, public leagues,
and other tournaments
and events — are encour-
aged to submit that infor-
mation by April 30 to The
Bulletin (sports@bendbul-
letin.com).
PREP SPORTS
Let the real practice begin
— Bulletin staff report
MOTOR SPORTS
Wheldon boys sign
junior racing deal
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.
— Standing below the
monument on Dan Whel-
don Way that honors their
late father, the two young
sons of the two-time Indi-
anapolis 500 winner took
a big step in their bud-
ding racing careers.
Andretti Autosport in-
troduced Sebastian, 12,
and Oliver Wheldon, 10,
as the newest additions to
a development program
as junior drivers.
“Racing runs deep in
their DNA,” Susie Whel-
don, the boys’ mother,
told The Associated Press.
“There have been many
summer days where I
have been sitting all day
in the middle of a field
in central Florida asking
them ‘Are you sure this is
what you want to do?’ But
they do, they have a pas-
sion for it, and now they
have a path.”
Dan Wheldon was
killed in the 2011 IndyCar
season finale, five months
after he had won his sec-
ond Indianapolis 500. At
the time, Sebastian was 2
and Oliver 8 months old.
Michael Andretti be-
lieves in developing driv-
ers and promoting them
through a ladder system
into IndyCar.
Their father won 16
races over 10 years in
IndyCar, three of those
seasons at Andretti. The
British driver won the
2005 championship and
his first Indy 500 driving
for Andretti. He had com-
pleted an agreement to
return to Andretti for the
2012 season the night
before he died at 33 in a
crash at Las Vegas.
“Dan was family to us,
and we had a lot of on-
track success together, we
see a lot of Dan in both
Sebastian and Oliver and
are very proud to officially
welcome them into our
racing family,” Michael An-
dretti said.
“No one will ever
be able to replace Dan
in their lives, but we’re
happy to offer a network
for mentorship to help the
boys grow their careers. ”
These days, the mother
said, the boys are racing
all the time. They were
in New Castle, Indiana,
last weekend and back
home for the Andretti
announcement Saturday.
Then they headed back to
Indiana for more racing.
Susie Wheldon has been
guiding their careers since
Sebastian began driving
shortly before he was 5.
“They love this,” she
said. “But they obviously
have talent, and when
you have talented kids,
you need to know what to
do with them and how to
help them do what they
love.”
Members of the Mountain View wrestling team grapple in the school’s
sand volleyball pits while practicing together on Friday.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Central Oregon wrestling and basketball coaches ecstatic that full-contact indoor sports are now allowed
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
F
or the past couple of weeks, the
Mountain View High School
wrestling team has been spending
some time on the sand volleyball courts on
its campus.
The team is not preparing for a match against
the school’s volleyball team, or getting a head start
on the popular summer activity. But rather, find-
ing a way to practice wrestling, which has been
prohibited indoors.
“A decade ago they started a sport called beach
wrestling,” said Mountain View wrestling coach Les
Combs. “It was created because third-world coun-
tries could not afford mats. We are wrestling in the
sand with the masks on so that the kids can wrestle.”
Until the recent addition of wrestling in sand,
the past year of wrestling practices without contact
WOMEN’S COLLEGE GOLF | OREGON STATE
• Twenty-year-old Har-
rison Burton is making
his NASCAR Cup Series
debut at tricky Talla-
dega. Details, B3
See Prep sports / B3
COLLEGE FOOTBALL | OREGON
Record-setting Ellie Slama aims high Ducks upgrading personnel
BY NICK DASCHEL
The Oregonian
The Oregon State women’s
golf record book better make
room for a few more entries,
as senior Ellie Slama has de-
cided to stick around for an-
other year.
Slama, who along with OSU
teammates began play on Fri-
day at the Pac-12 tournament
at Stanford, is eligible to return
because of an NCAA ruling al-
lowing an additional year of el-
igibility due to the pandemic.
The owner of many school
career and season records,
“I feel like we have a good shot at winning something, so I
wanted to give myself an extra year in Corvallis and stay
part of Beaver nation.”
— Ellie Slama, Oregon State golfer
Slama says opportunity and
goals are her primary reasons
for returning.
Slama, who has professional
golf aspirations, had her ju-
nior year cut short by the pan-
demic, as well this fall’s tourna-
ment action. Slama looks at the
team surrounding her and be-
lieves there’s a national tourna-
ment berth and perhaps more
on the line in 2021 or 2022.
“It was a hard decision for
me,” Slama said. “I feel like we
have a good shot at winning
something, so I wanted to give
myself an extra year in Cor-
vallis and stay part of Beaver
nation.”
See Slama / B3
for special teams this spring
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
EUGENE — The days of
fifth-string quarterbacks on
Oregon’s kickoff return and
coverage units are over.
Even with all their special-
ists returning, the Ducks are
making drastic changes to their
special teams units this spring,
particularly in terms of person-
nel and also adding voices to
coaching the various units.
Tight ends and special teams
coach Bobby Williams will
continue to oversee the various
units, but other members of the
staff will be involved in coach-
ing kickoff and kickoff return,
punt and punt return, and field
goal and field goal block.
“Everything has to be up-
graded from the way that we
performed and it’s happening
we feel in a couple of different
ways,” Oregon coach Mario
Cristobal said.
See Ducks / B2
MARTIAL ARTS
Gold-medal project: Judo seeks
solutions in police training
BY EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
— Associated Press
INSIDE
included conditioning, weightlifting and shadow
wrestling (wrestling against air). Some Cougar
wrestlers traveled to other states where wrestling
competition was allowed.
As of Friday, those sand practices are in the rear-
view mirror and normal practices can continue.
Last Tuesday, high school sports in Oregon re-
ceived welcome news when the Oregon Health Au-
thority changed its COVID-19 guidelines to allow
full-contact indoor sports, including wrestling and
basketball, which had previously been prohibited.
Eddie Pells/AP
Eve Steffans of the Martial Arts Academy in Billings, Montana, prac-
tices judo techniques on Ed Thompson, a retired police officer, during
a training session in March in Douglas, Wyoming. USA Judo is holding
workshops with police departments across the country to introduce
them to judo techniques that could lessen the need for deadly force
when officers have to apprehend people on the streets.
DOUGLAS, Wyo. — The
stakes were clear to the two
dozen police officers who gath-
ered for a judo workshop with
an ambitious and increasingly
urgent mission — recalibrating
the way police interact with the
public in America.
The class took place the
same week as jury selection
for the trial of Derek Chauvin,
the former Minneapolis officer
who was convicted Tuesday of
murder and other charges in
the death of George Floyd.
No one attending the con-
ference would deny that the
profession failed the day Floyd
died with Chauvin’s knee on
his neck.
They came to the classes
with the idea that judo, the
martial art with a deep global
history and an imprint at the
Olympics, but still shallow
roots in the United States,
might be able to help fix it.
“The social contract between
police officers and the public is
degrading a bit,” said Joe Yung-
wirth, a trainer at the work-
shop who built his career doing
counterterrorism work for the
FBI and now runs a judo acad-
emy in North Carolina.
“All law enforcement offi-
cers I know, we feel we need to
bring that back in line some-
how.”
See Judo / B3