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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 2022)
INSIDE: COMICS, OPINIONS & CLASSIFIEDS B S PORTS THE BULLETIN • SaTUrday, aUgUST 6, 2022 bendbulletin.com/sports WNBA Kremlin open to Griner exchange MOSCOW — The Kremlin said Friday that it’s open to talking about a possible prisoner ex- change involving Amer- ican basketball star Brit- tney Griner but strongly warned Washington against publicizing the issue. Griner, a two-time U.S. Olympic champion and an eight-time all-star with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mer- cury, has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 af- ter police at a Moscow air- port said they found vape cartridges containing can- nabis oil in her luggage. A judge convicted the 31-year-old athlete Thurs- day of drug possession and smuggling, and sen- tenced her to nine years in prison. In an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week to Rus- sian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal un- der which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espi- onage charges, would go free. Lavrov said Moscow was “ready to discuss” a prisoner swap, but that the topic should only be discussed via a dedi- cated Russia-U.S. channel that Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to establish when they met in Geneva in June 2021. People familiar with the U.S. proposal have said it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for a notorious Russian arms trader, Viktor Bout. He is serving a 25-year sen- tence in the U.S. after be- ing convicted of conspir- acy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization. — Associated Press NFL 49ers’ Shanahan addresses brawl SANTA CLARA — Line- backer Fred Warner’s hit ‘heard round the 49ers’ world did more than spark a training camp brawl. It gave wide re- ceiver Marcus Johnson a concussion, and it also stirred debate on how physical the 49ers are. Coach Kyle Shanahan, speaking Friday for the first time since Tuesday’s hit-triggered brawl, did not condone Warner’s actions or much of the aftermath, aside from Brandon Aiyuk rushing to combat Warner for level- ing Johnson. “I love the intensity of it. I don’t think you have to fight to be intense, though,” Shanahan said. “Scuffles are scuffles, but then they lead to other stuff. “We have a guy in (concussion) protocol be- cause we took an unnec- essary shot on someone, which led to the big fight, and then we had a bunch of haymakers thrown in there, which only break hands.” To clarify, no one is known to have sustained a broken hand. However, Johnson is “recovering slowly,” thus hindering his roster chances as a sixth- year veteran who signed in free agency. Immediately after Warner’s hit, he was con- fronted by Aiyuk, and a melee ensued. Shanahan paused practice to ad- monish his team, and no further fights have taken place over the 2½ prac- tices since then. — Bay Area News Group PREP SPORTS Kicking off a tradition Win or lose, Caldera High athletes prepare to make history, starting with football in the fall BY BRIAN RATHBONE • The Bulletin N o matter how many games are won or lost this year at Caldera High School, one thing is certain. It will be history in the making for Bend’s newest high school. The school has never fielded a team of varsity athletes, so Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin with less than a month before the Wolfpack hosts Pendleton on Sept. 2, the football team’s playbook this year includes excitement and a bit of nerves. It’s the first year that Caldera High will play a varsity schedule. Coach Mike Mitchell watches as his players run through drills during practice at Caldera High School on Thursday. Last year, in its inaugural school year, Caldera played a junior varsity schedule across the board. That fact isn’t lost on sophomore quarterback Tommy Morris. “I’m not gonna lie, it is a little scary,” Morris said. “These guys are 18-year-olds. We got to come out fighting.” Without a senior in its school, because Caldera is in its second ac- ademic year, the Wolfpack will take “I’m ready to go out there and show what we got. I just want to start the season. We have to keep working until we get to that point.” — Tommy Morris, Caldera High School quarterback on the likes of Bend High, Summit, Mountain View, Ridgeview and Redmond in the new Intermoun- tain Conference for at least the next four years. In addition to being older and more experienced, the competition will likely be stronger, too. “I’m ready to go out there and show what we got,” Morris said. “I just want to start the season. See Caldera / B2 MOTOR SPORTS | INDYCAR FOOTBALL Rested Newgarden seeking lead at home in Nashville Hall of Fame recognizes women’s impact on sport BY JENNA FRYER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jo- sef Newgarden wasn’t at peak physical condition when he raced last week at Indianapolis, that much he admits. But sitting out would have crippled his championship chances, so earning the med- ical clearance to compete fol- lowing his post-race collapse at Iowa was Newgarden’s only choice. He finished fifth to maintain his hold on third place in the IndyCar standings. “I wasn’t 100% but I felt good, I felt normal in a lot of respects, but I’m trying to get myself even better,” New- garden said. “We needed to be in the race, and I was happy to be there.” Next up is his home race, the second Music City Grand Prix through the downtown streets of Nashville. New- garden was an ambassador for last year’s inaugural race and the commitments admittedly stretched him thin ahead of his deflating 10th-place finish. That won’t be good enough Sunday for Newgarden’s quest for a third IndyCar title. So he slimmed down his obligations ahead of this year’s race and used several days this week to reset following his Iowa dis- ruption. Newgarden won the first race of the Iowa doubleheader last month to take the IndyCar points lead, but crashed hard the next day while leading in pursuit of the weekend sweep. The incident dropped him to third in the standings and then came a medical scare: New- garden was cleared in the care center but then lost conscious- ness in the motorhome lot and hit his head. BY ROB MAADDI Associated Press Darron Cummings/AP Josef Newgarden waits in the pits July 30 before an IndyCar race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s believed he suffered a concussion when his head hit the pavement. That required deliberate care to ensure New- garden would be cleared to race the road course at Indianapolis last Saturday. When that race ended, he felt “just tired.” “I was fatigued from the in- tense week,” he said. “It wasn’t so much that I was dealing with symptoms, I just wasn’t 100% energy. I feel like this week, I’ve had more time to rest, and I’ll be more myself this weekend.” Newgarden is in a tight title fight with six drivers separated by 52 points with four races remaining. His Team Penske teammate Will Power cycled into the lead for the third time this season after Indianapo- lis; Newgarden, with an Indy- Car-high four wins this season, is 32 points behind his team- mate. Newgarden is passionate about IndyCar in Nashville and last year packed his sched- ule with pre-race appearances to promote the event debut. See IndyCar / B2 CANTON, Ohio — A 15-year-old boy made his way through the the Pro Football Hall of Fame mu- seum on Friday, checking out the memorabilia and bronze busts before stopping to take a picture of Jen Welter’s blue- and-pink jersey to send to his younger sister. “She will love this,” said Zach Fleming, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan in town with his dad for the first time. “I want her to know girls can make the Hall of Fame, too.” Welter became the first woman to coach an NFL game in 2015 when she joined the Arizona Cardinals as an assistant coaching in- tern for training camp and the preseason. The shirt, pants and sneak- ers she wore on the sideline in all four exhibition games are on display at a new ex- hibit in the Pro Football To- day area of the museum. Welter’s game-worn Texas Revolution jersey, her Dal- las Diamonds helmet and a commemorative helmet signed by Team Austra- lia during her time as head coach of the national team is also displayed in a separate glass enclosure. The “Women’s Impact on Football” exhibit debuted ahead of this week’s enshrine- ment festivities. It features artifacts from women who have played, coached, offici- ated and broadcast the game at its highest level. “There’s a lot of women involved in pro football and we wanted to recognize their contributions and tell their Rob Maaddi/AP A display with Jen Welter’s blue-and-pink jersey at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, is part of the sport’s focus on contri- butions by women. stories,” said Ben Ankrum, assistant curator at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “We’ve had other exhibits featuring women in pro football and it got to the point where we could do something larger and more permanent.” Other items on display in- clude: • Callie Brownson’s game- worn jacket and a signed ball from the game in which she became the first woman to serve as a position coach for an NFL regular-season game with the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 29, 2020. Brown- son filled in as the tight ends coach when Drew Petzing didn’t travel with the team af- ter his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child. • Katie Sowers’ 49ers polo from the 2017 season, when she became only the second woman to serve as a full-time NFL coach. San Francisco hired Sowers as an assistant for the 217 season. Kathryn Smith was the first female full-time coach with the Buf- falo Bills in 2016. • The shoes Buccaneers assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust wore when she and assistant strength and conditioning coach Maral Javadifar became the first fe- male coaches to win a Super Bowl after Tampa Bay’s vic- tory over Kansas City on Feb. 7, 2021. • Maia Chaka’s referee uniform and penalty flags. Chaka became the first Black woman to officiate an NFL game in 2021. • Six-time national cham- pion quarterback Allison Cahill’s signed jersey from her MVP performance in the Boston Renegades’ victory in the 2021 Women’s Alliance of Professional Football Na- tional Championship Game played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. • Hannah Storm’s and An- drea Kremer’s headsets from 2018, when they became the first all-female broadcast team to call an NFL regu- lar-season game.
