FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
B3
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • FrIday, aprIL 30, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NFL
49ers draft QB Trey
Lance No. 3
The San Francisco
49ers selected quarter-
back Trey Lance with the
No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL
draft.
The 49ers used their
pick to select the former
North Dakota State quar-
terback Thursday night
after completing a block-
buster trade in March
with the Miami Dolphins
to jump from their origi-
nal No. 12 position in the
draft to No. 3.
The 49ers’ decision to
select Lance was some-
what of a surprise. Lance,
who played for the Bison,
an FCS program, had
played in just 18 games
during his career. Lance
sat out the 2020 season
because of the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
Lance’s one full season
in 2019 was spectacu-
lar. He passed for 2,786
yards with 28 touchdown
passes and no intercep-
tions while completing
nearly 67% of his passes.
Most draft evalua-
tors and mocks had pre-
dicted the 49ers would
select former Alabama
quarterback Mac Jones,
who posted a career year
while leading the Crim-
son Tide to the national ti-
tle last season. The drama
leading up to the draft
with the 49ers was if they
would surprise prognos-
ticators and select some-
one other than Jones,
who had been connected
to them for much of the
month April.
However, there were
reports surfacing in the fi-
nal days leading up to the
draft that the 49ers could
select Lance.
— The Oregonian
NFL DRAFT
No suspense as 3 QBs dominate early picks
BY BARRY WILNER
AP Pro Football Writer
No suspense at the top of this NFL
draft: Quarterback, quarterback and,
yep, quarterback.
With fans in attendance, prospects on
hand and Commissioner Roger Good-
ell dispensing greetings to players be-
ing selected Thursday night, Clemson’s
Trevor Lawrence went to the Jackson-
ville Jaguars to get things started. Next
was BYU’s Zach Wilson going to the
New York Jets, and North Dakota State’s
Trey Lance landing with the San Fran-
cisco 49ers.
That matched 1971 (Jim Plunkett,
Archie Manning, Dan Pastorini) and
in the college ranks, in trying to turn
1999 (Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb,
around a franchise that went 1-15 last
Akili Smith) as the only drafts
season.
with quarterbacks taken
“I’m just pumped,” Law-
with the top three picks.
rence
said. “The best is yet
Inside
to come.
Only Plunkett won a Su-
Oregon’s OL Penei
“I don’t what the point
per Bowl among those
Sewell selected 7th
is … if you don’t expect to
QBs, and he didn’t do it
by Detroit Lions,
win every week. I’m going
with New England, which
B4
to bring the same mindset.”
drafted him.
The mindset in Cleveland
Lawrence, a junior who
was positive simply because
led Clemson to a national ti-
there were 12 prospects (not
tle, generally is considered the
Lawrence) and thousands of fans — in-
best prospect at the position since An-
drew Luck in 2012. He joins new coach cluding, according to the league, fully
vaccinated folks near the stage — join-
Urban Meyer, himself a major success
See NFL draft / B4
PREP BOYS GOLF
Iron sharpens
iron for Storm
Sam Renner, Lucas Hughes lead
the Summit boys golf team
BY BRIAN RATHBONE · The Bulletin
SUNRIVER —
I
t would not be a surprise if Summit boys
golf coach Andy Heinly carried around a
rabbit’s foot in his pocket, or spent some of
his time on the golf course searching for four-
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Summit’s Sam Renner chips onto the fourth green while playing in the La Pine Invitational at Crosswater Club in
Sunriver on Wednesday.
‘Hawks sign DT
Robert Nkemdiche
leaf clovers.
The Seahawks did not
have a first-round pick
Thursday night in the NFL
draft.
But they acquired a
first-round pick Thursday,
anyway — a former one,
at least — in defensive
tackle Robert Nkemdiche.
Nkemdiche was the
29th overall pick in 2016
by the Arizona Cardinals
out of Ole Miss. In fact,
many analysts that year
predicted Nkemdiche
would be picked by Seat-
tle, including ESPN’s Mel
Kiper Jr., as the Seahawks
had the 26th pick enter-
ing the draft. Seattle in-
stead pulled off a trade to
move down in the draft
and took offensive line-
man Germain Ifedi with
the 31st pick and defen-
sive tackle Jarran Reed in
the second round.
With Reed now gone,
Nkemdiche becomes a
Seahawk to help replace
him.
He comes to Seattle to
also potentially put a hap-
pier ending on a career
that has not lived up to
expectations.
Nkemdiche started just
six games in three years
with Arizona, all in 2018,
before being released.
He spent part of the 2019
season with Miami before
being released in Novem-
ber. He was suspended for
two games by the league
in 2019 for unstated rea-
sons. The suspension was
listed as officially lifted 13
days later.
He was not on a ros-
ter last season, but ac-
cording to a report from
Ed Werder of ESPN, the
26-year-old Nkemdiche
wanted another chance
to play and “crushed” a
recent workout with the
Seahawks to show he was
still in shape.
Contract details were
not revealed, but Nkemdi-
che is likely to have signed
a one-year, veteran-mini-
mum deal with Seattle.
With a little good fortune next year, the Class 6A
state golf tournament will return after a two-year hi-
atus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am praying that we play a state tournament
next year,” said Heinly, in his eighth year at Summit.
“This group is as good of a team that I have had at
Summit since I’ve been here. This is as talented and
as deep of a group that I have had.”
The latest example came on the links of the
Crosswater golf course, where on a pristine Wednes-
day afternoon the five Summit golfers made up the
top five on the leaderboard — Sam Renner, Lucas
Hughes, Ethan Jaehn, Jakob Hansen and Brody
Grieb. The highest score of the bunch was only five
shots over par in the La Pine Invitational, which also
included Bend High, Mountain View and La Pine.
“That’s college-level stuff,” said Heinly of his team
that combined to average one shot over par.
The Storm totaled a 288 for the team victory.
Renner won the tournament with a 7-under-par 65.
Hansen finished with a 73, followed by Hughes with
a 74, Grieb (76) and Jaehn (77).
— The Seattle Times
ing Goodell on the shore of Lake Erie.
Last year’s draft, scheduled for Las Ve-
gas, was instead a totally remote affair
because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perhaps emboldened by successfully
finishing the 2020 season on time and
then staging the playoffs and Super
Bowl without a hitch during the pan-
demic, the NFL targeted the draft as an
opportunity to embrace some normalcy
in America’s biggest sport. It also has
used the event to support vaccinations
for COVID-19 and, for the second con-
secutive spring, as a Draft-a-Thon rais-
ing money for a variety of causes.
“Our group of guys play all the time together.
It is one of those deals where they are
competing against each other, but they are
competing with and for each other.
So they are a fun group to watch because they
are golfers and that is what they do.”
— Andy Heinly, Summit boys golf coach
James Bjorvik led the way for the runner-up Lava
Bears (332), finishing five shots over par with a 77.
Wyatt Neet and Weston Shaffer each shot an 84
in Mountain View’s third-place finish (376). Rid-
geview’s Dylan Bojanowski also shot an 84, Dale
Nelzen of Redmond carded an 86 and La Pine’s
Aidan Crowley led the Hawks with an 83.
In a year without a district or state tournament,
and with several players looking ahead to playing in
amateur events during the summer, it would be easy
for a team to blow off the high school season.
But not this year’s Storm team.
“Our group of guys play all the time together,”
Heinly said. “It is one of those deals where they are
competing against each other, but they are compet-
ing with and for each other. So they are a fun group
to watch because they are golfers and that is what
they do.”
Two of the Summit golfers have been competing
against one another most of their golfing careers be-
fore playing for the Storm.
Renner and Hughes, both juniors, have had an
eye on one another on the golf course for about a
decade, as the two first began competing against
each other when they were just 6 years old.
“We have been battling it out since we were very
young,” said Renner, who did not bogey a single
hole and carded an eagle on the sixth hole. “We
have developed a friendship through golf and are
not likely to ever stop. A lot of great friendships are
made through golf.”
See Golf / B4
HORSE RACING
Carmouche to be 1st Black jockey
in Kentucky Derby since 2013
BY STEPHEN WHYNO
Associated Press
Long before Kendrick Car-
mouche started riding horses
growing up in Louisiana, Black
jockeys were synonymous with
the sport.
Black riders were atop 13 of
the 15 horses in the first Ken-
tucky Derby in 1875 and won
15 of the first 28 editions of the
race. Everything has changed
since: Carmouche on Saturday
will be the first Black jockey in
the Kentucky Derby since 2013
and is just one of a handful
over the past century.
Carmouche is now one of
the few remaining Black jock-
eys in the U.S. Much like Mar-
lon St. Julien in 2000, Patrick
Husbands in 2006 and Kevin
Krigger in 2013, his presence
in horse racing’s biggest event
is a reminder of how the indus-
try marginalized Black jockeys
to the point they all but disap-
peared from the sport.
“As a Black rider getting to
the Kentucky Derby, I hope it
inspires a lot of people because
my road wasn’t easy to get
there and I never quit,” Car-
mouche said. “What I’ve been
wanting all my career is to in-
spire people and make people
know that it’s not about color.
It’s about how successful you
are in life and how far you can
fight to get to that point.”
Carmouche is a success story
in his own right. He is the son
of a jockey who has won more
than 3,400 races and earned
$118 million since beginning
to ride professionally in 2000.
He came back from a broken
leg three years ago and set him-
self up for his first Kentucky
Derby mount by riding 72-1
long shot Bourbonic to vic-
tory in the Wood Memorial on
April 3. Bourbonic will leave
from the 20th post in Satur-
day’s race at Churchill Downs.
He’s also a rarity in a sport
now dominated by jockeys
from Latin America.
“Obviously there haven’t
been many in recent decades,
but if you go back to the early
years of the Derby, the late
1800s, early 1900s, Black jock-
eys dominated the Kentucky
Derby,” NBC Sports analyst
Randy Moss said. “Guys like
Isaac Murphy and Jimmy
Winkfield.”
Carmouche joins St. Julien
as the only U.S.-born Black
jockeys in the Derby since
1921, which was even then
long after the era dominated by
Murphy, Winkfield and others.
Chris Goodlett, a historian
at the Kentucky Derby Mu-
seum, cited a combination of
Jim Crow laws and segrega-
N.Y. Racing Association/Coaglianese via AP, file
Kendrick Carmouche smiles in the paddock at Aqueduct Racetrack in
the Queens borough of New York, in 2020. Carmouche is set to ride
Bourbonic in the Kentucky Derby, the first Black jockey in the race since
2013.
tion in the U.S., intimidation
by white riders and decisions
by racing officials, owners and
trainers for the decline of Black
jockeys in the early 20th cen-
tury.
One example was white
counterparts riding Winfield
into the rail at Harlem Race
Track outside Chicago and in-
juring him and his horse.
“Consequently, white train-
ers and owners would be
(more) reluctant to ride Black
jockeys on their horses due
to instances like that,” Good-
lett said. “We see it also just
from an administrative point
of view, as well: fewer licenses
being issued to Black jockeys,
sometimes not issued at all.”
See Derby / B4