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A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015 SPORTS Umatilla boys race past Riverside coming in the second half, and Webb hit two 3-point- ers in the second quarter to provide a needed lift for the Vikings (8-8, 2-0). “That was probably the BY SAM BARBEE excitement of the night, HERMISTON HERALD the energy of the night,” Leading by six at the Lete said of Webb’s sec- half, the Umatilla boys ar- ond-quarter spurt. “That’s rived to the court 10 sec- GH¿QLWHO\ ZKDW ZH QHHGHG onds before the start of the to get things going. That’s third quarter. Viking head what he needed. That’s coach Derrek Lete was al- what the team needed.” ready at his bench. His ad- For Riverside, the story dress was short and sweet was much different. The and appeared to be effec- Pirates (5-10, 0-2) com- tive. mitted 27 turnovers in The Vikings went on to the game and were forced outscore the Riverside Pi- into using a largely inex- rates 14-4 in the third quar- perienced back court af- ter and win their second ter sophomore guard Noe Eastern Oregon League Madrigal was tagged with game in as many tries, 56- VRPHHDUO\IRXOVLQWKH¿UVW 38, Thursday night in The half. Pit. “The guards have to get Despite the 18-point stronger,” Riverside head win, Lete was not thrilled coach Clair Costello said. with his team’s perfor- “They’re young, inexpe- mance. rienced. They didn’t have ³:H GH¿QLWHO\ GLGQ¶W any varsity experience play up to our potential,” starting out the season. We KH VDLG ³:H ZHUH ÀDW WKH got up and down. Our bigs whole night. Our bench was didn’t play very big.” ÀDW2XUOHDGHUVKLSZDVQRW Umatilla’s lack of in- there.” tensity was on full display Sophomore Jesus LQWKH¿UVWTXDUWHU7KH9L- Ramirez and freshman kings were whistled for Kaden Webb drove the nine fouls in the frame and Vikings. Ramirez had 12 turned over the ball eight points, with eight of them times. Just 13 shots in total Third quarter paces Umatilla blowout ZHUHWDNHQLQWKH¿UVWTXDU- ter, which ended in a 9-7 Pi- rate lead. Six of those nine points came from the free- throw line. Umatilla came back in the second quarter but still struggled to maintain pos- session of the ball, and the same went for Riverside. Webb came into the game and hit a 3 with 5:12 on the clock, and two posses- sions later he hit another 3 to give the Vikings a 17-13 lead, which was their big- gest lead of the game up to that point. “Good thing we had some younger kids, some sophomores, some fresh- men that really stepped up and decided to play,” Lete said. Umatilla went into the locker room with the 23- 17 lead, and broke it open in the third behind more VWLÀLQJ GHIHQVH DQG JRRG enough offense. Eric Gar- cia hit a 3 right out of the gate to give Umatilla 26-17 lead, and the Vikings never looked back. “Overall, (I’m) really disappointed, though,” Lete said. “I’m glad we got the win.” The Vikings’ next con- test is Saturday, when they host Vale at 7:30 p.m. SAM BARBEE PHOTO Riverside’s Juan Villa (30) drives through Umatilla’s Edgar Morales (32) and Dany Ayala during WKHÀUVWKDOIRI8PDWLOOD·VZLQRYHUWKH3LUDWHV7KXUVGD\QLJKWLQ8PDWLOOD Vikings reject Pirates on home court forced 22 Riverside (7-8, 0-2 EOL) turnovers, but the added looks resulted in just With Eastern Oregon WRWDO¿UVWKDOISRLQWV League play hitting full The Umatilla offense stride, Umatilla coach Scott never found its rhythm, Bow has begun to recog- shooting just 17 of 50 on nize trends from his fourth- the night and 1 of 9 from ranked Vikings. three-point range. For the second consecu- The two EOL league tive contest, the team’s ac- wins provide two of the tive defense wreaked hav- team’s three lowest scoring oc, pressing the youthful outputs in wins this season. Riverside Pirate backcourt The 37-point average in into giveaway after give- those games marks a stark away — 38 total for the contrast from the squad game — in a 42-27 victory that averaged 57 points per Thursday at Umatilla High win in its run through non- School. league play. “Umatilla is fourth in “We had a lot of shots state for a reason,” River- that kids normally hit that side coach Kevin Gilbert- didn’t go down for us,” son said. “They play hard. Bow said. “The last two Those girls hustle.” games have been the same The hustle and clamp way — the same style — down mimicked the Vi- we played well defensively NLQJV¶¿UVWOHDJXHZLQRYHU down in Nyssa, we played Nyssa Saturday, when they well defensively tonight, held the Bulldogs to a mea- but we just couldn’t con- sly 21 points. vert. STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY The other developing “We’ve got to do what habits don’t have Bow quite Kasandra Galbraith (24) and Aleesha Watson (40), of Umatilla, we’ve got to do to win these battle the Pirates’ Kassidy McCullough for a loose ball Thurs- as encouraged, however. games and hopefully at the “We’re struggling to put day in Umatilla. end of the season we’ll be the ball in the hoop,” Bow peaking — back to the way conceded. “I think we’ve hoop. us and challenge us and we started the season.” had a lot more possessions “I really thought we ZH ZHUHQ¶W DEOH WR ¿QLVK Junior center Court- and better looks than other were just going to start run- them.” QH\ 'RKPDQ¶V HLJKW ¿UVW teams, but we’ve just strug- ning away in the beginning, In the opening half quarter points appeared to gled to put the ball in the and they were there to stop Umatilla (13-3, 2-0 EOL) have the Vikings headed in BY ERIK SKOPIL EO MEDIA GROUP WATSON: continued from page A1 It’s a lifestyle,” Zimmerly said Thursday. “It won’t end when you get out of high school or college.” Zimmerly and McCann are two of The Eastern Or- egon Family Taekwondo center’s regular students that have attended since the dojo opened in 2009. They were DPRQJWKH¿UVWWRMRLQ Zimmerly said she was familiar with Watson and his wife, Lorry, and wanted to give their dojo a try because they wanted to help out the Watsons. Zimmerly and McCann like it for separate reasons. Zimmerly sees the way Watson interacts with the children — he is fun and stern, but playful and serious — and she trusts his ability to teach them correctly. “He’s not like other (teach- ers),” Zimmerly said after their class Thursday. “They seem to be a little too aggres- sive (with children).” McCann said she likes ev- erything about the martial art. “I like doing all the stuff,” McCann said. “I like mov- ing up belts, doing forms. (Watson’s) always funny. He teaches us a lot.” Watson said his playful attitude with the students stems from an experience he had when he was introducing martial arts to his oldest son, Tyler, who’s now 26 and lives in The Dalles. He started by taking Tyler to a karate dojo when he was 5 in Pendleton but quickly decided that wasn’t the best place for his son. The in- structor was too intense for a 5-year-old, Watson said, and he wasn’t comfortable with putting his young son through that level of aggression. So, when he opened EO Family in 2009, he made it child-focused with an emphasis on fun, re- spect and proper technique. “I enjoy the kids,” he said. “I wish I had more adults, but that’s alright. I think it’s real- ly all about the kids. I always try to make it fun. I try to be strict, and they know how far (they can go), and they know respect.” Wednesday’s class had just a handful of students, and Watson’s voice echoed through the dojo. Thursday, however, had a full dojo. Stu- dents from orange belts to blue belts were learning and practicing techniques. All but two were children. Because Watson is so chil- dren-focused, he has them bring in their report cards and progress reports from school. When they bring the cards for WKH¿UVWWLPHKHJLYHVWKHPD patch to go over their heart, to show everyone that their focus should be on not just taekwondo, but on life out- side the dojo as well. When the report cards are good, he rewards them a red star to go around their collars and sleeves. By placing an emphasis on doing the right thing inside and outside of the dojo, Wat- son said he is trying to instill concepts that are larger than just learning how to punch, kick and block. “Respect is my No. 1 rule, and you have to follow that,” Watson said. “I’m hoping that I’m teaching that to these kids and it’ll be in their mind, so when they grow up, they’ll know what respect is.” One student who has ben- H¿WHGIURP:DWVRQ¶VPHVVDJH of respect is 10-year-old or- ange belt JP Phillips. Accord- ing to Watson and Phillips’ grandmother, Juanita, Phillips struggled with anger issues growing up. He lashed out at his grandparents and had trouble focusing at school. Watson’s approach to keep the mood light while being strict at the same time has re- ally helped Phillips, they said. He’s doing better in school because of taekwondo. His behavior at home has im- proved. Even Phillips himself has seen an improvement. “My grandma said it’s af- fecting my focus,” Phillips said after class Thursday. “My focus on my work at school and at home.” Watson’s family-focused emphasis is also present in lessons. He ended Thursday’s session with a couple rounds of “Mr. Watson Says,” a va- ration of “Simon Says,” to teach discipline and hones- ty. The dozen or so children loved it, and the winners were rewarded with candy of their choice. Watson reinforces the life lessons he teaches students in other ways. Before a student can graduate from an orange belt to a green belt, he has him or her write an essay about a quality, such as respect or in- tegrity. He said students can’t truly know what those quali- ties are until they can describe it in their own words. Phillips had to write an es- say on respect. “We always talk about respect all the time,” Watson said. For more information about the Eastern Oregon Family Taekwondo, call 541- 667-9872. the right direction, but she only scored twice more on the night. The remainder of the normally potent scorers never got going. And still the Vikings built a 22-12 halftime lead. The margin never dipped below 10 in the second half. “We lost, but it’s a win,” Gilbertson said. “It’s a mor- al win. We’re building. We just want to keep building.” The Pirates start two sophomores and two fresh- men, and while the team never truly challenged the Vikings on the scoreboard, they “battled” throughout, Gilbertson said. “Our ranking doesn’t show the heart our girls have,” he said of his team’s 27th positioning in Class 3A out of 39 teams. “Overall, I can’t com- plain.” 'RKPDQ ¿QLVKHG ZLWK a game-high 12 points and ¿YHUHERXQGVLQ³KHUEHVW game all year”, according to Bow. “They have a 5-11 girl that’s a beast,” Gilbertson said of Dohman. Sophomore forward Aleesha Watson added 11 points in the win for the Vikings. Lacey Mashos led Riv- erside with eight points. Both sides play again on Saturday. Umatilla hosts Vale, while River- side will play Nyssa at home. Love Notes Tell The World How You Feel, Send A Message To Your Special Someone For Valentine's Day! ONLY $ 25 15 words + picture ONLY $ 20 15 words only February 14th in the Hermiston Herald & East Oregonian Your Name: Daytime Phone: Address: Person's Name: Message: Mailed check or money order I would like to pay with my credit card Circle one: Visa or Mastercard Cardmember Name: Card Number: Cardholder's Address: Expiration Date: Emailed photo to classifieds@eastoregonian.com Entries must be received by Feb. 6th at noon Fill out this form and send to: PAULA 541-278-2678 211 SE Byers Ave, Pendleton