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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2020)
SPORTS MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, August 12, 2020 Wildfire softball ends short summer season on top A7 Team played four tournaments over the summer By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle Contributed photo/Oregon State Police Two Grant County men were arrested in connection to unlawful taking of wildlife in Grant County. Driver intentionally strikes, kills six pronghorn antelope near Christmas Valley multiple counties over the past two years. A concerned citizen contacted the TIP Line to report the poaching ring. Restitution for the crimes, Blue Mountain Eagle which occurred in Benton, Lane, Linn, Lincoln, Polk and Six pronghorn antelope run Tillamook Counties, may top down with a pickup on a road- $162,000. way in Lake County on April In April, two men were 26 are the latest in a string of charged with poaching a poaching thrill kills in Oregon. pronghorn buck, a branch bull The driver, Michael Scott elk and six buck deer over the Phillips, 48, of Christmas Val- past year in Grant County. ley, told author- In July, the ities that he did “WHEN PEOPLE division iden- tified a poach- it because he hates prong- POACH, THEY ing hot spot horn, accord- STEAL FROM in County, Columbia ing to a press where release from the two elk and a ALL OF US. Oregon Depart- buck deer were COMING ment of Fish shot over a and Wildlife. period of three ACROSS A Oregon State months near Police Fish & W e y e r h a e- HERD OF user property. Wildlife Divi- sion troop- PRONGHORNS All three ani- were left ers discovered IS A ONCE-IN- mals to waste where a grisly scene of five does A-LIFETIME they were shot, with little or no and one buck EXPERIENCE meat taken. pronghorn ante- lope, their car- The Oregon THAT MOST casses strewn Hunters Asso- along Fossil AMERICANS ciation operates the TIP Line. Lake Road near WOULD Callers receive Christmas Val- ley. The buck’s a cash reward HOLD AS A Walls, roof, horns had been or hunting pref- TREASURED erence points bleachers, floor removed and if their report taken as a tro- MEMORY. to be improved phy. One doe leads to a cita- tion or arrest. was eviscerated INSTEAD, A The TIP Line By Rudy Diaz with a knife Blue Mountain Eagle — her unborn POACHER HAS rewards pro- is funded fawn removed ROBBED THE gram primarily Seismic-retrofitted walls, and placed on a new roof, new bleachers, through hunter its mother’s car- ANIMALS OF cass. May is restitution a resurfaced floor and a new THEIR LIVES fees and fines. paint job are some of the fawning sea- son for ante- AND EVERYONE The changes students can expect reward lope in Oregon. at the Prairie City School gym for reporting a Any pregnant ELSE OF THE poached deer, this fall. does would Prairie City Superinten- elk or antelope dent Casey Hallgarth said have given birth EXPERIENCE.” is four pref- erence points —Yvonne Shaw, Oregon the construction in general at within a month Department of Fish and or $500. Last Prairie City School has been had they not Wildlife anti-poaching year OHA exciting, especially with the been killed. campaign coordinator The division awarded more addition of new roofs for the received the ini- than $21,000 in gym and cafeteria, addressing tial report of the crime through rewards, and ODFW awarded problems with leaks. the Turn In Poachers Line. 143 hunter preference points “I’m extremely excited for The caller reported hearing to people who reported to the the community to come see a man bragging about accel- TIP Line. the finished product here,” erating his pickup to hit sev- ODFW anti-poaching cam- Hallgarth said. “CB construc- eral pronghorns, which were paign coordinator Yvonne tion has been nothing but on bunched together in the mid- Shaw said the crimes reflect top of the project and hats off dle of the road. The man said wanton disregard for wild- to them too.” he left the scene to get a ham- life, wildlife laws and fellow Hallgarth said the bleach- burger, then returned later to Oregonians. ers will be a great addition retrieve the buck’s horns. since they will be safer than “When people poach, they Troopers served a search steal from all of us,” Shaw the previous set. The new warrant on Phillips’ residence said. “Coming across a herd bleachers will provide rail- ings and handrails going up in late May. They recovered of pronghorns is a once- the aisles to keep people from the horns and other evidence in-a-lifetime experience falling. linking Phillips to the crime, that most Americans would He said the bleachers will according to division Sgt. hold as a treasured mem- be easier to adjust to accom- Lowell Lea. Phillips admit- ory. Instead, a poacher has ted that he accelerated to robbed the animals of their modate for people and be more than 60 mph to hit the lives and everyone else of more ADA-compliant. antelope, and confirmed they the experience.” “We’ve had a few peo- were bunched together in the road. There was no evidence that he slowed down or tried to stop before striking the animals. Phillips said he did it Outdoor Dining Available because he hates pronghorns, according to Sgt. Lea. Phil- • Great Burgers lips was arrested on May • Ice Cream Cones and Shakes 21. He is lodged in the Lake • Huckleberry Treats and Snacks County Jail facing multiple charges including aggravated • Ice, Snacks, Gas and Cold Beer animal abuse, take/posses- • Dine-In or Take-Out Available sion of antelope and waste of a game mammal. Located at Austin Junction Highway 26 and Highway 7 “Not all poaching involves the use of a fire- 541-448-2526 arm,” Sgt. Lea said. “This Call for Daily Hours is not the first case of peo- ple poaching with a vehicle. www.austinhousebarandgrill.com And poaching takes opportu- nities away from hunters and others.” This incident comes after three Oregon men were cited in May for allegedly poach- ing 27 big game animals in S201536-1 Contributed photo/Tanni Wenger Grant County Wildfire 16U softball team member Drewsey Williams pitches in a game this summer. In the championship game, Williams said, the team ran out of pitching and fell to Pendleton’s OE fast-pitch, 23-10. The girls traveled to Fruitland, Idaho, July 10-11 and won two out of their first three games, beating Idaho Crossfire’s Graham team 4-3, but then falling to their Davies team 4-3. In the third game the girls won 11-3 against the Boise Storm. The girls lost the semifinal game 9-8 to the Idaho Racers, a team that, Wil- liams said, are in the championships in nearly every tournament. “The girls were really amped up, they had played a great game and just couldn’t hold on, Williams said. “The coach for the Racers approached our girls after the game and told them how impressed he was with them and told them that he would love to get to play them more.” Williams said there are many “amaz- ing” things that have come from this team, from the camaraderie and family mentality, to learning to genuinely care about their teammates. “They weren’t always successful, but they have had so many opportunities that it will serve them well as they move on to the next stage of their softball careers,” he said. GRANT COUNTY WILDFIRE 16U Roster Addy Northway 2 Reece Jacobs 9 Savannah Watterson 1 Halle Parsons 14 Sivanna Hodge Bailey McCracken 7 15/13 Ava Gerry 10 Drewsey Williams 4 Lauren Wenger 12 Jaydika Anderson 11 Lilly Rockhill 16 Madi Seavert 10/7 (pickup player from La Grande) Ava Ellis (pickup player from Pilot Rock) 6 Coaches and volunteers Zach Williams, Levi Watterson, Ray Wenger and Marissa Williams Prairie City gym overhaul nearly complete The Eagle/Rudy Diaz Prairie City School’s gym has seen many changes this summer with seismically retrofitted walls, a new roof, new bleachers and resurfaced floor. ple, elderly, that are in wheel- chairs, and there are two sides where they can sit with our old bleachers, which is one end or the other,” Hallgath said. “Now, we have the capa- bility to push in portions of the bottom row to where they can sit in the center.” The walls of the gym are being seismically retro- fitted by receiving carbon fiber strips with high tensile strength on both sides of the walls. “When they do that, they have to paint the walls after finishing, so what’s great is we get to decide what colors we get to have,” Hallgarth said. The inside of the gym will be painted with 12 feet of black going from the bottom Austin House of the floor up, then a three feet orange strip and then white the rest of the way up, including the ceiling. On the outside, the building will be painted a dark gray all around. The agriculture teacher, Lindy Cruise, has been making a sign for the front entrance of the gym stating “Home of the Panthers” with the school’s CNC machine, which was received through the Career Technical and Education program. The letters are being cut out of 12-gauge metal at just under 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide, according to Hall- garth. He said the letters are going to be orange and sit off the wall a little bit so they can be backlit. Prairie City School Dis- trict was awarded a $2.5 mil- lion grant from the state’s Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program to fund this project. “I wrote a seismic grant two years ago when I first got the job,” Hallgarth said. “We got it, and we partnered with ZCS engineering who helped us with the grant process.” The project is projected to be finished in the middle of August, but Hallgarth said the team is about two and a half weeks ahead of schedule so there is a possibility the proj- ect will be completed early. Hallgarth said they are also adding livestreaming capabil- ities to the gym, which they already set up at the football field. They partnered with the National Federation of State High School Assications and Pixelot Company as a pilot school to provide this option. “We got two cameras and all the hardware that comes with it, and we can livestream all of our events at the foot- ball field, the track area and in our gym,” Hallgarth said. This will allow Prairie City to provide streams for both sporting events and school activities such as assem- blies, Christmas programs and more on the school’s new website, pcsd4.com. “That gym is the hub for the city for a natural disaster, so safety-wise and cosmeti- cally, it’s going to be great,” Hallgarth said. OUTPATIENT EAR AND FOOT CLINIC Open Mon. - Thurs. 8AM - 4PM 422 West Main John Day OR, 97845 Regular and High Risk Foot Care done by specially trained RN or CNA. Ears are examined and cleaned by Registered Nurses. Call to make an appointment today! 541-575-1648 S197702-1 Incident follows Grant County poaching case from April The Grant County Wildfire 16U soft- ball team finished out their summer sea- son just like they had hoped in a round robin tournament in La Grande Aug. 1, handily defeating Union County Light- ning 10-1 and shutting out Central Ore- gon Crossfire 7-0. “While the girls will move on and obviously play together again in high school, this was basically the end of Wildfire as we have known it,” Wildfire head coach Zach Williams said. Williams said the 16U team played in four tournaments this summer. In their first tournament, the Nampa Shakedown, June 19-20, the girls blanked the Boise Storm 20-0 in their first game, fell to the Idaho Racers 19-3 in game two and bounced in the third game, beating Nampa Pride 17-4. With a 2-1 record in pool play, the Wildfire ranked in the top half of the 16 teams and fell to the Idaho Crossfire, the team that won the tournament. Williams said the team had the lead heading into the fourth inning “but ran out of fresh arms on the mound” to close it out. In Pendleton June 27-28, the Wildfire went into the tourney 1-2 in pool play, beating UC Lightning 7-5 in the first out- ing, but then falling to Pendleton’s OE fast-pitch team, 11-7, in game two and then again to Portland Rise, 17-8. Williams said the girls notched a huge win they took down the top-seeded Van- couver Rampage, 11-8. Drewsey Williams pitched a really good game, the coach said. He said the team played solid defense behind her. “We hit the ball really well, from the top and to the bottom of the lineup” he said. Williams said the four girls in the bot- tom of the lineup were seven for 11 in plate appearances.
