S PORTS
Mustangs crowd all-state roster
Hermiston
A10
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2015
2015:
How I saw it
F
or the past few months I’ve
been ranking each of the local
teams based on their merits
and whatnot, so with the new year
approaching we at the Hermiston
Herald thought it would be fun
to rank the top sports stories that
appeared in our paper.
Those will run Wednesday, Dec.
30. But before they do, I wanted to
know what you thought were our
best sports stories. I’ll
give you my list and
you let us know what
you think of them. We
want this to be interac-
tive and fun, plus not
everyone sees things
the same way. This
Sam
list includes both your
Barbee
traditional sports sto-
FROM THE
SIDELINES
ries — things about
teams, players, etc. —
but also other things that are only
loosely connected to sports. Some-
times, through these games we all
love, other, more important points
are made. And I want to highlight
those just as much as the athletes
and teams. It only seems fair.
So, here we go.
. Hermiston girls basketball ¿n-
ishes second
2. Hermiston wrestling wins...
again
3. ‘More than a game’ — local
softball tournament ¿ghts skin can-
cer
. Stan¿eld football makes his-
toric run
5. Andre Allison loses sports,
¿nds self
6. Echo girls basketball hosts
playoff game for ¿rst time in de-
cades
. Stan¿eld girls basketball rises
from mat, makes playoffs
8. Hermiston boys soccer wins
playoff game, gets three all-state
players
9. Hermiston coaching carousel
That’s my list. I don’t want to go
into too much detail here, because
I’d be spoiling next week’s feature.
But I’ll give a few reasons as to
why I selected these in this order.
It would be too easy to put
Hermiston wrestling at the top, plus
it would feel like I’m disparaging
the girls basketball team for having
the best ¿nish in program history.
Sometimes it’s more important be-
cause it hasn’t been done before.
I just had so much fun writing
those two non-sportsy features
(‘More than a game’ and Alli-
son’s story) and I was grateful to
no end that they opened up to me
and shared dif¿cult details of their
lives. It’s a bit sel¿sh, I admit, but
they received a lot of positive feed-
back and they deserve it. As I wrote
above, sometimes sports provides a
gateway into a larger issues that can
be discussed, and both of those did
that. In ‘More than a game,’ Brandi
Howard used softball to battle mel-
anoma, which took her husband.
Allison, a Hermiston high schooler,
found his identity as a coach after
losing his identity after suffering a
serious back injury.
The next three are simply pro-
grams who hadn’t done something
in a long time and that needs rec-
ognized. Plus, the idea that Herm-
iston’s boys soccer team had three
all-state players needs celebrated,
too.
And, ¿nally, what a year it was
for Hermiston’s coaching staff. Five
Bulldogs coaches stepped down
this year, and all for different rea-
sons and three within weeks of each
other.
So that’s my list. Please let us
know what you think of it or if
something else should be in there.
We would like to run some of your
lists, as well, so it doesn’t feel like
I’m telling you how the year went.
Let’s make it a discussion.
— Sam Barbee is a sports reporter
for the Hermiston Herald and East
Oregonian based out of Hermis-
ton. He can be reached by email at
sbarbee@hermistonherald.com or
on Twitter @SamBarbee1. Follow
Herald Sports @HHeraldSports.
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
Patrick Collins, C.J. Kindle
named Players of the Year
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
The 2015 football season was
a special one for the Heppner
Mustangs.
They cruised through the
nine-game regular season with
relative ease, and then rolled
through the playoffs in similar
fashion on their way to winning
the Class 2A state title — the ul-
timate team honor.
On Thursday, the players in-
volved were honored on an indi-
vidual scale, as Heppner placed
12 players on the ¿rst team all-
state roster.
On top of that, Heppner
coach Greg Grant was chosen
as Coach of the Year, senior
running back C.J. Kindle was
selected as Offensive Player of
the Year and senior defensive
lineman Patrick Collins earned
Defensive Player of the Year —
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
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the second-straight year he has
taken home the award.
Collins said that the award
could not have been possible
without the help from his sup-
port system of coaches, team-
mates, and family.
“It’s a great feeling to know
that all of the hard work pays
off,” he said. “These individual
honors are great, and I really ap-
preciate that I was selected for
it, but the best honor I’ve gotten
was the (state title) trophy and
the satisfaction we received that
freezing cold Saturday night.”
Collins was the leader on a
defense that did not budge much
this season. He was third on the
team with 71 total tackles — be-
hind fellow ¿rst-teamers Kevin
Murray (87) and Tommy Bred-
¿eld (85) — and led the team
with 16.5 tackles-for-loss and
turned in three sacks as well.
And with the awards and tro-
phies all handed out, the book
of¿cially closes on the prep
football career of Collins and
his classmates, which is some-
thing that Collins said went by
too fast.
“When I was a freshman I
was looking up thinking about
the four years in front of me
(and) then the years slipped
away until it was just one left,”
he said. “And then it went from
one year, to one month, to one
game, to one last play as a
Mustang. And I wouldn’t have
wanted to end it any other way.
See MUSTANGS, A12
From the bottom to the top
Freshman Andrew James goes
from the bottom group to a
starting guard after one game
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
When Dave Ego took over the
Hermiston boys basketball program on
an interim basis this season, some com-
munity members approached him and
said that Andrew James was his best
basketball player.
The thing about it, though, was James
was yet to play a high school basketball
game. An incoming freshman, he had
already impressed with his aggressive-
ness, skills and basketball I.Q.
“His aggressiveness and ability to
penetrate was pretty evident with the
freshman group,” Ego said. “So we
brought him up to the varsity group and
that was the same thing. He was ready.
It was pretty evident.”
James played summer league with
the varsity group, but started try-outs
with the freshman group before quickly
rising into the varsity and made the pre-
miere Bulldogs team out of the initial
three practices. Since then, he’s earned
a spot in the starting lineup and even
had a 20-point game to boot.
James burst onto the scene in Herm-
iston’s ¿rst game of the year, an 85-5
loss to Kamiakin Dec. 4, when he made
his ¿rst two shots — both 3-pointers —
and led all scorers after the ¿rst quar-
ter with ten points. He went to the free
throw line 14 times that game, made
11 and ¿nished with 21 points off the
bench.
“I was just playing, and it just kept
going up. And whatever happened, hap-
pened,” James said of his ¿rst game.
His basketball acumen was put on
display in front of a large crowd on the
road in his ¿rst varsity game.
“I was a little nervous,” James said.
“First varsity game, big crowd — I was
a little nervous. But once I got the hang
of it, it was basketball from there.”
“I was thinking, ‘I didn’t know he
could shoot the 3,’” Ego said, smiling,
recalling his thoughts during James’
¿rst appearance. “He’s not a great —
you know he was 4-16 that night — he’s
not a great shooter. He’s a great scorer.
A lot of his points are gonna come from
the free throw line.”
Even when he doesn’t have great
scoring games, like when he had just
eight points in Hermiston’s 74-57 win
over Southridge Dec. 11, he was 6-8
from the charity stripe. On Chance
Flores’ 12 trips bested the aggressive
freshman.
After that ¿rst game, Ego told the
team in the locker room he “can’t not
start” after the 21-point performance,
and he’s been staple in the starting ¿ve
since.
“We kinda saw it coming,” senior
point guard Austin Naillon said, re-
counting the story of Ego’s postgame
See JAMES, A12
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Hermiston freshman Andrew James rises for a layup
against Kamiakin’s Hayden Nelson (left) and Cooper
Ellison during the Braves’ 85-59 win Friday night in
Kennewick. James led all Bulldogs scoreres with 21
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Hermiston DT named to
second all-state roster
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
STAFF PHOTO BY GARY L. WEST
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quarterback Colson Yankoff during Hermiston’s loss at
Kennison Stadium.
For the second straight year, Tre
Neal is considered one of the best
defensive football players in the 5A
ranks in the state of Oregon.
The 6-foot-3, 250-pound defen-
sive tackle was named to the 5A All-
State ¿rst team this week, an honor
he earned last year as well after trans-
ferring from 1A Ione.
“It feels good to be recognized,
honestly,” said Neal, the two-time
Columbia River Conference Defen-
sive Player of the Year. “It’s a good
accomplishment and I’m thankful
for the coaching staff for getting me
there.”
The senior was a defensive force
for the Bulldogs.
Of the team’s 11 sacks, Neal had
seven in nine regular season games.
He also led the team in solo tackles
(36), total tackles (61), tackles per
game (6.8) tackles for loss (13.5),
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forced fumbles (three) and quarter-
back hurries (14). He also deÀected
one pass at the line and recovered a
fumble.
In league play, Neal averaged
about one sack, 7.6 tackles and just
more than two quarterback hurries
per game. His season worked into a
crescendo, with the ¿nal two contests
of the schedule arguably his best.
Against Hood River Valley, an ex-
citing 36-28 home win, Neal record-
ed eight solo tackles, three sacks, two
hurries and his pass deÀection.
The next week in the War on 84 at
the Round-up Grounds, Neal caused
havoc all night for rival Pendleton.
He sacked Buckaroo quarterback
Kai Quinn once, hurrying him a sea-
son-high ¿ve times while recording
3.5 tackles for loss, 10 total tackles
and four solos.
Neal also had good games against
Hermiston’s Idaho opponents, re-
cording 14 total tackles (10 solo)
while coming up with two sacks, four
tackles for loss, a forced fumble and
a fumble recovery on a strip sack of
See NEAL, A12