SPORTS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
A7
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
The gym is open LUCKY DOGS
Limited basketball,
wrestling and dance
practices available
at Grant Union
E
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Sports may be on hold
at the moment, but Grant
Union High School now has
an open gym schedule.
Grant Union Principle
Ryan Gerry said Oregon
School Activities Associa-
tion season one guidelines
state schools are able to have
open gym, dependent on a
county risk level, and can
designate each season an
allotted time for students to
practice.
Gerry said, at the begin-
ning of the school year, they
started offering open gym
and open field to the spring
sports because their season
was canceled last school year.
COVID-19 regulations
required closing the gym, but
the school is now allowed to
reopen it.
“We’re just bringing
(open gym) back up because
when we got into compre-
hensive distance learning, we
weren’t able to offer those
(open gym) opportunities,”
Gerry said. “Then our county
got put into the extreme risk
category so we couldn’t have
any indoor activity.”
Open gym resumed on
Jan. 4 with winter sports: bas-
ketball, wrestling and dance.
Gerry said there are still lim-
itations on the activities, fol-
lowing the guidelines from
Oregon Health Department
and OSAA.
“They can’t scrimmage,
and they can’t play five-on-
five (basketball), but they
EO Media Group file photo
Grant Union’s Riley Robertson (10) drives toward the basket
during the first half against the Heppner Mustangs last year.
EO Media Group file photo
Mason Morris of Grant Union
goes to the hoop during last
year’s Blue Mountain Con-
ference championship game
against Pilot Rock at the Pend-
leton Convention Center.
can work on shooting skills,
dribbling and do some con-
ditioning,” Gerry said.
While the past year has
been unique in limiting the
opportunities kids have to
participate in activities,
Gerry said this gives students
a chance to continue devel-
oping their skills while being
with their
teammates.
“Open
gym resem-
bles a sense
of normalcy
for the kids
Ryan Gerry
to get back
and
have
an opportunity to work with
their coaches.” Gerry said. “I
think it’s important to get the
kids active and have these
opportunities.”
The OSAA 2020-2021
season calendar has schools
in season one — open gym
time — until Feb. 22, when
season two starts with fall
sports. Football would start
on Feb. 8 while cross country
and volleyball would start on
Feb. 22. However, football
is classified as a high-con-
tact sport and would not
be allowable under current
guidance.
Gerry said volleyball
and cross country would be
allowed under the current
risk level, but are contingent
on the next county COVID-
19 risk level assessment in
January.
very time the UPS
delivery driver makes a
stop at our porch, he is
greeted at the gate by a drool-
ing small yel-
low horse.
I would
call him a
dog, but I
know my
16-month-
old son could
Dale Valade
put a saddle
on its back
without any trouble. Duke, my
trusted yellow lab, is a great
candidate, high in the running
for mascot to represent the
gloriously upsetting chrono-
logical period we humans refer
to as 2020.
Duke is a loving dog and
loyal as the day is long, but I
believe he was near the end of
the line when God was hand-
ing out brains. In 2019, we
arrived home late from an
evening with my parents. At
the time, we lived over near
Mitchell. Our pup, excited we
were home, ran out to greet us
and ended up under the tires
of my pickup. Fearing I had
killed him, we called the vet
and raced towards John Day.
After an X-ray, he had a cou-
ple of broken bones in one leg
and a broken pelvis. Costly as
it was for the surgery, down-
time and recovery, we were
glad he was going to be OK.
Eventually, as he grew, I
started to take him to work
with me. Part of my duties at
the time consisted of lots of
tractor driving. Duke eagerly
came along, chasing butterflies
and birds as I drove along.
Sometimes he would get so
fixated on a squirrel mound
that he would lose track of the
big noisy diesel rig roaring in
his immediate direction. Sev-
Contributed photo
Columnist Dale Valade’s yel-
low Lab, Duke.
eral times I’ve had to swerve
the tractor in a last ditch near
miss to save his blissfully igno-
rant keister.
I never planned to train
him for bird hunting, mostly
because I found out early that
he is scared to death of gun-
shots. I had read somewhere
guys were teaching their
pooches to retrieve shed ant-
lers. That sounded promising,
but old Duke never got the
knack of bringing them back,
nor more importantly turning
loose of them to me. Try as I
might, he just wouldn’t do it.
Goofy giant that he is, he likes
to sit on my lap in my recliner.
I’m sure collectively we
exceed the weight limitations
of the poor chair by the weight
of at least one adult male.
A couple of weeks ago
while clearing fence at work
I decided to fall a dead pine
snag that curled precari-
ously over the barbed wire.
If I didn’t fall it then, eventu-
ally it would rot and break and
smash a section of fence with
it. Duke, though not super
wary of things that will kill
him, had gleefully played as
I worked clearing fence lines
off and on for weeks. As I fin-
ished the preferred Humboldt
undercut, Duke sat a few safe
feet behind and uphill of me.
Sometime between then and
when I finished the back cut,
he had trotted off looking for
who knows what and wandered
directly into the path of the
rapidly descending snag. I saw
it happen, and when the tree
landed right across his lower
back and appeared to smash
him to the ground with all of
its weight, I turned away, hear-
ing his yelp of pain.
I was mad, upset, hurt and
scared all at once. My poor
dog who had been through so
much would now seemingly
meet his demise for literally
being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. As we felt his legs
and spine, we could miracu-
lously feel nothing broken. We
saw no wounds or blood. He
could walk and, although was
quite understandably under
duress, appeared to be OK. I
couldn’t believe it. I just knew
that tree had smashed him, and
I would then have to put him
down.
Another quick trip to the
vet after making a phone call
was eerily reminiscent of the
last time. However, by the
grace of a higher power which
apparently also watches over
my dog, he had no broken
bones and no internal bleeding.
The vet told me plainly that,
although he needed medication
and convalescence, his log-
ging days were over and that
we should buy a lottery ticket.
In spite of all the pain and loss
we have experienced in 2020,
it looks like at least we didn’t
lose Duke. He is one lucky dog.
Do you have a lucky dog?
Write to us at shootingthebree-
zebme@gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local coun-
try gent with a love for the out-
doors, handloading, hunting
and shooting.
The Carrie Young Memorial
would like to thank everyone who helped
make 2020 such an amazingly successful year.
To all that donated to this year’s cause- in all the million different
ways… we thank you! It was such a strange year with all the
uncertainty.
But, we had a record year, bringing in a total of $44,7002.61 to assist
the elderly of Grant County.
This county’s citizens and our family
and friends beyond its borders are
some of the most generous and
amazing people this world knows!
It is our hope to be back to “normal”
in 2021 – time will tell.
From the bottom of our hearts –
THANK YOU!
In memory of Carrie Young
7/13/61 – 9/15/1993
Lucie Immoos, Christie Winegar,
Dolores Young
S225394-1