A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2015
SPORTS
around the inherent violence
of MMA and the desire to re-
move violence from schools.
Williams said, to overcome
Hermiston head wrestling the School Board’s concerns,
coach Shaun Williams and he came with research. He
*UHJ &RUWDEHUULD D ORFDO said he learned that some
QDWLRQDO JXDUG RI¿FHU DQG high schools on the East
supporter of local wrestling. &RDVWKDYHFOXE00$WHDPV
Because wrestling is such an High schools there host sanc-
integral part of mixed mar- tioned MMA cards regularly,
WLDODUWV&RUWDEHUULDVDLGWKH\ although that hasn’t quite
thought the perfect fundraiser caught on out West yet.
would be to host a sanctioned
Bobb said, initially, doubts
card at the high school. Once about a high school hosting
the new fairgrounds are built, mixed martial arts events are
the event, if successful, will common as the violent nature
move there and become a lo- of the sport seems to disagree
cal staple.
with what high schools stand
It wasn’t a smooth process for. He added, however, other
to convince the School Board sports, such as football, are
to sign off on the event, how- violent in nature and are com-
ever.
mon at high schools.
“It was like ‘Gladiator,”
Bobb said, overall, MMA
Williams said of the pitch.
is safer than football with 38
The concerns centered percent fewer injuries than
MARTIAL
in high school football and 8
percent less steroid abuse.
With the event scheduled
to take place, Williams said
he hopes the team will raise
enough money from the event
to store in the wrestling pro-
gram’s account and purchase
all sorts of things, from buy-
ing shoes for an underpriv-
ileged athlete, to taking his
team to national tournaments
so his wrestlers can get more
exposure, something he said
he really hopes to do.
Hermiston and Knuckle-
head Promotions have agreed
the wrestling program will get
$5 per $20 ticket. Williams
said he has 1,500 tickets, and
if the team were to sell half,
that would net $3,750 for the
program.
His eventual hope is to
help convince area colleges
like Eastern Oregon Univer-
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wrestling or for wrestlers to
be recruited at the collegiate
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seven colleges with wrestling
programs in Washington, Ida-
ho and Oregon.
“It’s not enough,” Wil-
liams said. “It’s important to
get our kids out there to where
coaches can recognize the tal-
ent that they have and recruit
them, and, not only that, I
think, if we can demonstrate
that Oregon does have the
kids to compete at the next
level, it will also boost getting
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will boost getting wrestling
back at EOU.”
The main event March 21
features a three-round bout
between welterweights Jason
Lambert (2-4) — who has
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CHAMPIONS:
said it meant a lot to him
and his teammates that so
many peers and commu-
nity members attended to
congratulate the Bulldogs
on their successful season
Thursday afternoon.
He said, while the
wrestling team has been
dominant, an observation
the eight titles in nine
years supports, Hermiston
athletics, as a whole, are
just an indication of where
Hermiston is as a commu-
nity.
“With wrestling, we’ve
found a little niche, like
watermelons and Herm-
iston, where it’s known
everywhere and pretty
frickin’ amazing,” he said.
“I mean, everyone loves
Hermiston watermelons.
Hermiston wrestling —
my freshman year, we
were 25th in the nation
in rankings. It’s not all of
Hermiston, but it’s a good
side of it.”
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other teams that are just as
successful and well known
as the wrestling team,
such as boys cross coun-
try team, which is known
statewide, and the girls
basketball team, which is
the top seed heading into
the state tournament. Then
there’s the football team,
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title in November in con-
vincing and dominating
fashion. He mentioned
the speech and debate
program, which, in just
its third year, already has
state champions, as well
as the chess club, which is
growing and quickly be-
coming successful.
“It’s just showing that
Hermiston’s on the rise,”
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new schools in Hermiston.
It’s showing through the
community’s support. It’s
showing through the ath-
letic programs.”
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gym Thursday afternoon
not only speaks to the lev-
el of support for the wres-
tling team and athletics
as a whole, it speaks to
the level of growth in the
town.
“We won (a title) in
football, and everyone’s
behind us,” the junior
said. “We win it here,
and, as you can tell, ev-
eryone’s behind us. It
shows even through the
community
members,
the school administration
help us get this assembly
done. The student body
was here supporting us.
It’s a pyramid, and ev-
eryone is behind and they
get behind every sport in
Hermiston.”
calendar for you, hands
down,” he said Thursday.
“I don’t care what hap-
continued from page A7
pened the rest of the sea-
produced seven individual son. So everything that
champions. Williams was we do during the season
also named 5A Wrestling culminates at the state
&RDFK RI WKH <HDU IRU WKH tournament. So there’s no
2014-15 season.
doubt about that. But, in
Williams said, for him, terms of winning and los-
winning state champi- ing, like I tell my kids: If
onships isn’t the most the best that we can do is
important thing to him. VHFRQG LV ¿IWK ZH EHWWHU
What’s most important is WDNHVHFRQGRU¿IWK7KDW¶V
his wrestlers perform to our goal. We need to live
their best potential.
up to our potential.”
“The state champion-
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ship is probably the most was the state runner-up at
important event on the 170 pounds last weekend,
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
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LEARNING:
continued from page A7
two of them you can just
show up and win. That’s
not the case against 5, 6A
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well and play well.”
Then, he said, on top
of that, the Bulldogs had
to play Pendleton, Hood
River and The Dalles three
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off from the Intermountain
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Hermiston has been in a
four-team league that plays
three league matchups. It
eliminates any secrets a
team might have and makes
coaching that much more
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“They counter what
you’re doing, and you have
to counter the counter,” he
said. “It’s a game of chess
and adjustments.”
The learning curve
wasn’t limited to just McEl-
ligott and his staff. He said
his players had to learn new
system, new plays and even
had to relearn some ways
of doing things on the court
according to how McElli-
gott wants the game to look
and his team to play.
These aren’t things that
just happen overnight, he
said: They take time to in-
stall and even longer for
players to become comfort-
able with them.
“The thing is, to teach
a style and system, some-
times it takes until the
second or third year to put
a system in place,” McEl-
ligott said. “(Assistant
coach) Dennis Stefani and
I talked about this. It takes
until the second year for
WINNERS:
continued from page A7
his army with many a war
elephant from present-day
Tunisia to Rome, crossing
the Alps to get there. Most
guys to know what we want
from them.”
Early on in the Bulldogs’
season, the players didn’t
quite know what was ex-
pected of them. McElligott
called those early season
games “apathetic.” In their
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dogs went 0-5 and were out-
scored 318-217, an average
margin of 20.2 points. The
offense was stagnated, and
the defense lacked effort.
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with a record of just 2-7,
and the season appeared to
be getting away from them.
Things were at their
worst when a winless Sun-
nyside team came into the
Dawghouse and shocked
the Bulldogs with a nar-
row 47-45 win. Hermiston
had the lead in the fourth
quarter but couldn’t hold
it against a hungry Sunny-
side team. After that, things
started to change. Games
were tighter for longer and
a spark emerged that wasn’t
there early in the season.
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didn’t like to lose,” McEl-
ligott said of his players.
“They would go down 10
points — in (the playoff
game against Sandy) they
went down 10 points in the
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way back. They showed
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toughness. I thought we did
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games. That’s a sign of im-
provement: that a team has
heart and character.”
Though Hermiston won
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over The Dalles and Hood
River Valley — and found
of his elephants died in
the mountains, and his
army was obliterated
by the Romans, but the
Roman generals still wrote
of him as great in their
memoirs — even though
his decisions were bad
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
Austin Nailon (10) of Hermiston rises for a layup as Hood
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the Dawghouse.
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ings in the process — it
couldn’t keep that momen-
tum down the stretch. Af-
ter the 2-0 start, Hermiston
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the regular season to put
the Bulldogs in third in
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for their play-in game. The
Bulldogs went to Sandy and
went cold down the stretch
in a 46-42 loss Tuesday.
“They left the door
cracked, and we couldn’t
kick it down,” McElligott
said.
Despite the disappoint-
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the loss hasn’t diminished
his players’ enthusiasm. He
said many are clamoring to
play basketball, to know
the spring, summer and fall
basketball schedule.
“Guys are really excited
about what’s next,” McElli-
gott said. “It’s good to have
that hunger back.”
and his tactics worse — so
they could be remembered
in higher regard for their
military prowess.
Williams does the
same but the opposite.
That’s only part of
his program, though.
Acting with class is
something each of the
wrestlers possesses.
They aren’t show-boaty,
and they aren’t overly
cocky either. For how
successful the program is
in terms of banners and
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champion — and Tyson Jef-
feries (11-9), who hails from
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in Bellator MMA, a lower
level promotional company.
Lambert last fought on Oct.
11, when he was TKO’d in
the second round. Jefferies is
coming off a win over Rocky
Johnson with an arm bar sub-
mission in the second round
at Knucklehead 10: United
We Fight in Salem.
The co-main event, which
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rounds, features two more
welterweights: Mike Dubois
(4-0) from Georgia and John
Bartlett (1-1) from Oregon.
In Dubois’ last bout, he sub-
mitted Josh Snodgrass with
just 27 seconds remaining
in the third round by way of
a choke. Bartlett lost his last
match, just his second as a
professional, to Ryan Walker
by way of a rear naked choke
in Portland on Jan. 24.
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tin Milani (0-4-0) vs. Dar-
rio Mobley (2-5-0), Samuel
Sprauer (2-1-1) vs. Ricardo
Martinez (11-4-0), Michael
Gonzalez (7-4-0) vs. Freddie
“The Humble” Bailey (6-3-
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vs. Justin True (6-2-2), Mark
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Mansken (2-0-0), Rafael Pal-
ma (3-0-0) vs. Ray Gonzalez
(2-2-0), Wyatt Passentino (1-
0-0) vs. Jesse Ibarra (0-0-0),
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Brandon Miller (1-1-0), An-
drew Perri (1-0-0) vs. TBD,
Weston Simonis (0-1-0) vs.
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Evans (0-2-0) vs. TBD and
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TBD.
Doors open at 6 p.m.
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
Hermiston’s Tavin Headings (22) moves in for a basket
against Hood River’s Breanna Weekly (43) and another de-
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girls basketball game Feb. 10t in Hermiston.
BULLDOGS:
continued from page A7
of Hermiston’s record
(and) what they were do-
ing. It was all about Sil-
verton, and now it’s back
to all about La Salle.”
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place votes, and we hav-
en’t lost any games (since
we beat La Salle),” Hof-
fert continued. “That’s
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us or drives us, but it’s
what’s going to be in the
back of our minds from
this point on.”
Before
Hermiston
gets its second shot
at La Salle, however,
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lis next week by win-
ning their home play-in
round matchup against
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Valley of the Mid-Willa-
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The Raiders are 10-
0:& ² LURQ-
ically the same league
in which Silverton com-
petes — and are in the
playoffs despite suffer-
ing through an eight-
game losing streak that
started in December and
sprawled into January.
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North Eugene 45-41 —
a team Raiders lost to
during their eight-game
skid — in a mild upset to
earn its spot against top-
ranked Hermiston.
In all honesty, Hoffert
doesn’t care much about
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does. Not that he knows
very much. He said it has
been a struggle for him
to learn anything about
the Raiders, but he’s fo-
cused on doing what got
his team to the top-ranked
position in the state: run,
defend, be relentless.
trophies, it’s even more
successful in building a
program the right way
and building men the
right way.
“(Hermiston) likes com-
petitors, but they also like peo-
ple who put Hermiston in a
“They’re gonna have
to stop what we do,” Hof-
fert said. “We’re gonna
do what we do full speed
the entire 32 minutes, and
we’re gonna see if they
can do that for 32 minutes.
I don’t know if they can
play that way for 32 min-
utes. Like I said, they’re
gonna have to come here
and stop what we do well,
and we’re not gonna al-
low that. We’ll make ad-
justments on their scorers,
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and make sure those key
players don’t score, and
we’ll shut them down and
let them deal with their
problem facing us be-
cause they’re gonna have
a tough time matching up
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Hoffert said, in a way,
La Salle being ranked
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Bulldogs and takes pres-
sure off them, similar to
what happened with the
Hermiston football team.
At that time, the team
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Silverton was premature-
ly crowned champion in
September and used that
perceived slight as moti-
vation. Then the Bulldogs
unseated Silverton when
it counted.
Hoffert said fans can
expect the same from the
girls basketball team.
“Everything’s coming
together for us,” he said.
“We expect to make a
deep run and to be playing
Friday (March 13). We
expect to have a shot at
what we’ve been working
for all year. ... Anything
can happen, but we expect
to be in that position.”
Tip-off to today’s game
starts at 3 p.m. Gates open
at 1:30 p.m. Tickets cost
$6 for adults and $4 for
students.
positive light,” Williams said.
“They’re good ambassadors,
is really what my kids are.”
— Sam Barbee is
the Hermiston Herald
sports reporter. He can
be reached at sbarbee@
hermistonherald.com