FEBRUARY 25, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
A6 WEDNESDAY,
SPORTS
PREP BASKETBALL • SCHEDULE
Moving on HERMISTON SLIPS BY PENDLETON
from loss
Lady Bulldogs
clinch CRC title
B
rutal losses stick
with people. They
linger and taunt and
tease and laugh. It’s the
kind of pain one can’t lose
and time doesn’t heal. It
nestles up between your
head and heart and tears
at both, never resting,
never relenting, never
restraining.
I have a few.
Remember that football
game against Woodland
my senior year? I blew
a coverage and gave up
the go-ahead touchdown
late-ish in the fourth
quarter. That one still
hurts. The last two games
I pitched in high school
were both losses. The
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our home diamond, I gave
up a two-out, two-run
one-hop-the-fence double
to the opposing clean-up
hitter on a change-up.
I should’ve thrown a
curve. I still think about
that. Two games later, in
a win-or-go-home game
against a league rival, I
started but only went a
couple innings. We lost
by two or three, and I still
remember watching the
other team celebrate going
to state. All I remember
thinking is, “That should
be us.” My coach had to
pull me to the dugout. I
couldn’t leave. I couldn’t
believe we lost, that we
lost like that. We had state
title-caliber talent, and we
didn’t get out of districts.
This is where the
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now after their soul-
crushing 60-59 loss to
Heppner in the district
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pretty well known by now
that Heppner hit a shot
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put them ahead.
It was the third
out-of-nowhere, wait-
what-did-I-just-see
game that the two
teams played. Back
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half with unbelievably
hot shooting in the third
quarter and won 51-
46. In early February,
a Heppner shooter was
fouled 30 feet from the
basket and heaved a
last-second prayer with
the Mustangs down two.
He would hit all three,
and Heppner slipped
past.
Then Saturday
happened.
I know exactly how
the Tigers feel. I know
exactly how seniors Milan
Davchevski, Hunter
Braithwaite and Erik
Galarza feel. More than
likely, they’ll never get
to play a competitive
basketball game again.
They’ll never don a jersey
and shorts, run out onto
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home fans and play a
game that has reporters in
attendance and postseason
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never run out of the locker
room with more energy
and adrenaline than should
be allowed. They’ll never
feel the uplifting joy of
a big win or the abysmal
feeling of a tough loss.
SAM BARBEE
FROM THE SIDELINES
Sports reporter
Man, I feel for them.
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bunch, and they had a
right to be. They could
play basketball. They
gave Irrigon a run for
its money, a game that
had Irrigon re-evaluating
itself.
This loss, though,
won’t ruin these players’
lives. The losses certainly
didn’t ruin mine. But they
haven’t left yet. The sting
of those losses is still as
sharp now as it was six
years ago. It’s just another
memory and another thing
to talk about. Every time
I see the guy who was
catching me in the home
playoff game, he asks why
I shook off a curve ball
and went to a change-up.
He knows I should’ve
thrown a bender, and we
laugh about it now. That
doesn’t change the fact
that we lost and that it
was my decision, but we
don’t stew over it and let
it consume us. I hope the
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that. I hope they use that
feeling to drive them into
whatever’s next, be it
another basketball season,
college or life.
Famous college
basketball coach John
Wooden once said,
“Sports don’t create
character. They reveal it.”
Now I’m not trying to go
toe-to-toe with a sports
icon who can’t rebut me,
but I only subscribe to
that partially. Sports do
reveal who we are as
people. Adversity brings
out the true, if you will,
from people. You see their
mental makeup. You see
their decision-making
process right in front of
you. You see how they
handle pain and how they
handle joy.
But sports do create
character. Tough situations
only make tough people
tougher. It’s a slippery
slope. The more adversity
a person deals with, the
more that person can cope
with and move through
adversity.
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boys do with Saturday’s
loss will be the biggest
legacy of the game. It
won’t be easy because
these things aren’t.
They’re inherently
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do is pack it up and say,
“Well shoot, that was our
best chance. We won’t be
that good again.” The hard
thing to do is to sit down
and say, “You know, that
ended horribly. Let’s make
sure it never happens
again.”
I’ll bet on the latter.
I’m hoping for the latter,
and I’m excited to see
what they do with it.
You might see a
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a mission.
— Sam Barbee is the
sports reporter for the
Hermiston Herald. He can
be reached at sbarbee@
hermistonherald.com
GO SEE IT
Wednesday, February 25
No events scheduled
Thursday, February 26
No events scheduled
Friday, Feburary 27
Boys Basketball
Umatilla @ Dayton, 7 p.m.
Saturday, February 28
Girls Basketball
Umatilla @ Amity, 6 p.m.
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
Early on in the final
girls installment of the
War on 84, Hermiston
couldn’t shake the pesky
Buckaroos of Pendleton.
The ninth-ranked Bucks
matched
Hermiston
score-for-score in the first
quarter and had a chance
to either come within a
point or tie things up in
the final 10 seconds.
Hermiston junior Jan-
sen Edmiston wasn’t hav-
ing any of that, however.
The point guard picked
off a forced Pendleton
pass and laid it up at the
buzzer to give Hermiston
an 18-13 lead to end the
first quarter, providing
the Bulldogs with a spark
they carried to a 53-44
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in Pendleton.
“If we’re just in their
heads and just get the ball
on defense, obviously it’s
going to convert into of-
fense,” Edmiston said af-
ter the game. “It was just
natural.”
Edmiston led Hermis-
ton with 15 points, and
Kynzee Padilla scored 11
for the Bulldogs. None
were bigger, though, than
Edmiston’s six in the sec-
ond quarter.
Up 24-21 with about
two minutes left, Edmis-
ton picked off a Pendle-
ton pass and raced to the
other end for a layup. Af-
ter a Bucks’ miss, Edmis-
ton got the outlet pass and
again scored an easy two.
Immediately following,
Edmiston picked off an-
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
Hermiston’s Jansen Edmiston (left) is closely defended by Pendleton’s Shelby Greb during the
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other pass and converted
it into points at the other
end, prompting Pendle-
ton head coach Michelle
Gomez to take a timeout.
The 6-0 run by Edmiston
pushed Hermiston’s lead
to seven at 28-21, and a
Tavin Headings’ three-
ball seconds later pushed
the lead to 10.
It was a run that Herm-
iston head coach Steve
Hoffert said he was wait-
ing for.
“It was just telling
(Edmiston) that there’s
nobody out here that she
SEE BULLDOGS/A7
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
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Echo boys’ season over, girls play Saturday
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
On Monday night at
Echo High School, the
boys basketball team was
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gathered in the cozy school
library and read good-luck
letters from young students.
They received food mon-
ey from the school. They
boarded a bus and headed
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escort from wrestling coach
Monte Tombs.
Unfortunately,
that’s
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season ended after they
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54-49 in the state play-in
round.
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or seven years, however,
the Echo boys team has
made it past districts, a fact
that isn’t lost on the team.
“It’s pretty crazy,” ju-
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said. “We’ve worked hard.
We’ve worked hard all this
year. Honestly, I thought
we’re gonna make it. I can’t
really explain it that well.”
Early on, it didn’t seem
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gars started 1-4, but a 65-33
win over Irrigon’s junior
varsity team got the ball
rolling positively. A four-
game winning streak in
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to 10-7, but a three-game
losing drought dropped
them back to 10-10. Then
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ankle injury, and Klay Jen-
son had to miss games for
academic reasons.
The wheels were start-
ing to fall off a little bit.
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remembered. “I was like,
‘Ooh, not sure how this
is gonna work out now.’
I recovered quick, thank
God. (Jenson) got eligible
again. We just played bas-
ketball.”
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four games — including
two at districts, before los-
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The Echo girls also left
for state Monday. Their
season hasn’t been quite
the roller coaster as the
boys, but it had peaks and
valleys, too.
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10-0 before dropping a
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Echo lost two more in
late January, a “wake-up
call” to Wallowa and an
emotional home defeat to
former league rival Dufur.
Two-straight losses at the
end of the slate to Nixy-
aawii and Powder Valley
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ating their team.
“I took it as a reali-
ty check,” senior guard
Bailey Strofe said. “Not
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those two games (and)
going 0-2 that weekend, I
took it as a reality check.
I think a lot of us did.
We just came back that
next week at practice and
worked harder because
we didn’t like that feel-
ing, that locker room. We
knew that we were better
than that.”
With a renewed focus,
Echo rolled through the
district tournament, de-
feating Wallowa and Pow-
der Valley. In the district
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nerves got to them, with
Strofe saying she was
close to vomiting on the
court. But a big third quar-
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recent memory. It sets up
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game in Echo in decades.
“It’s pretty cool to say
we’re a part of that team,”
Strofe said.
Neither head coach JD
Brazil nor the captains
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Kelsey Ranger and Stro-
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are peaking right now, but
they are happy with how
they’ve been playing these
past couple weeks.
“We’re in a good spot,”
Brazil said.
The Echo girls take on
Adrian at 7 p.m. on Satur-
day.
Hermiston’s Santoyo signs
with Kansas’ Tabor College
I only knew about the big
colleges — Oregon, Ore-
HERMISTON HERALD
gon State, not small col-
Luis Santoyo never leges, but once he talked to
thought about playing foot- me about it, I was hooked
ball in college. In fact, he on it.”
hadn’t thought about col-
After a successful senior
lege that much at all.
campaign that included
Then Hermiston High Bulldog league and state ti-
football coach Mark Hodg- WOHVDQGD¿UVWWHDP$OO&R-
es pulled the senior-to-be OXPELD 5LYHU &RQIHUHQFH
LQWR KLV RI¿FH EHIRUH WKLV pick for Santoyo, he signed
year’s football season and his National Letter of In-
said that if the guard worked tent Tuesday to play guard
hard and did everything he DW 1$,$ 7DERU &ROOHJH LQ
needed to, he could play at Hillsboro, Kansas, a short
a small college somewhere. drive north of Wichita.
“I just gave him a
The whole process took
EODQN VWDUH IRU DERXW ¿YH about two weeks, Santoyo
mintues,” Santoyo said said. Hodges sent out game
Tuesday. “I couldn’t imag- tapes and talked to coach-
LQHP\VHOISOD\LQJ$I¿UVW es, and, shortly after, Tabor
BY SAM BARBEE
contacted Santoyo. He said
the coach told him he saw
early starting potential in
the 6-foot, 240-pound of-
fensive lineman.
“That’s what caught
me,” Santoyo said. “I want-
ed to start early.”
Two weeks later, San-
toyo’s decision was made.
He would be a Tabor Blue
Jay.
Tabor competes in the
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the football team went 7-4,
missing the playoffs by one
game. The Blue Jays em-
ploy a triple-option offense
that relies on mobile guards
to pull outside and deal
with outside linebackers or
defensive backs. That im-
mediately caught Santoyo’s
attention, as he enjoys play-
ing in space but never got
the opportunity in Hodges’
SRZHUUXQKLJKÀ\LQJ RI-
fense.
Santoyo watched a Geor-
gia Tech game this season
and saw how the Yellow
Jackets ran their version of
the triple option and where
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he wasn’t convinced before
then, he was afterward.
“That’s what I always
wanted to do,” he said.
Santoyo hasn’t been to
Tabor yet but said he plans
to visit in April. While
SEE SANTOYO/A7