A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2016
HeraldSports
A serendipitous
voicemail
I
n November, we ran a
history piece about the
1957 Stanfield Tigers
football team which went
undefeated and won the
state championship. Carl
Banker came in the office
with these old pictures
of the team that were
forgotten and found after
nearly a half century.
It was a cool look at
local sports history and
those are the
things I ab-
solutely love.
I’m a self-de-
scribed histo-
ry buff, and
any sort of
history will
Sam
do: Medieval,
Barbee
American,
FROM THE
SIDELINES
ancient...it’s
all fascinat-
ing.
But this history was
living history and perti-
nent to folks in the area.
You wouldn’t believe how
much work it took to iden-
tify the players after 60
years, but it was fun and
ended up paying off in a
small way.
About a week or so
ago, I received a voice-
mail from my editor, Gary.
In the email, he said it was
a guy asking about the
Stanfield history feature
we ran in November, and
I should give him a call. I
listened to the voicemail
— which oddly remind-
ed me of my grandfa-
ther, however weird that
sounds. It was from a man
named Paul Kangas, who
was a member of the 1957
Stanfield Tigers.
He proudly said he was
the smallest player on the
team — and he speculated
he might be the smallest
player in the program’s
history — and that he
would very much like a
digital copy of the old
team photo.
Banker gave me a cou-
ple of copies to hold onto,
and I was more than happy
to send Kangas the digital
copy we ran in the news-
paper. Kangas is living in
San Francisco and is writ-
ing about climate change
issues, and, he told me,
he had forgotten about his
high school football mem-
ories until Banker sent
him a copy of the Nov.
18 Hermiston Herald with
their football team gracing
the front page.
It just so happened that
Nov. 18 is Kangas’ birth-
day. What a coincidence.
We chatted a little
about that year and what
he’s currently doing now,
and I hung up the phone
with a certain sense of
gratification. It’s honestly
not often we get genuine
thank-yous from readers
about the content we cre-
ate, but Kangas was happy
we did it. It made me think
of a hokey phrase my high
school football coach gave
the team when I was a ju-
nior: four years to play, 40
years to remember.
Though Kangas had
forgotten about it, the
memories were still kick-
ing around in his head.
When he received the
paper from Banker in the
mail and saw his team on
the front page, the memo-
ries were there as if they
never left.
Sports can do that. The
bonding experienced and
relationships formed are
lasting. It was fun work-
ing on that piece, and it
was fun getting the reac-
tions of Banker and Kan-
gas when they saw it.
———
— Sam Barbee is a sports
reporter for the Hermiston
Herald and East Orego-
nian based out of Herm-
iston. He can be reached
by email at sbarbee@
hermistonherald.com or
on Twitter @SamBarbee1.
Follow Herald Sports @
HHeraldSports.
Follow sports on Twitter
@HHeraldSports
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14-3 fourth
quarter lifts Grizzlies
By SAM BARBEE
STAFF WRITER
For three quarters, the Griswold
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Cougars in a 1A Old Oregon League
girls basketball game on Saturday at
The Cougar Den in Echo.
The Cougars held a 27-19 lead
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due to 19 Grizzly turnovers in the
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Helix turned in a 14-3 fourth quarter
and downed Echo 33-30.
“(The players) played great de-
fense, and that’s what’s won us a lot
of ballgames all year long,” Gris-
wold coach Kirk Flerschinger said
of the comeback. “We held ‘em to,
like, seven points, eight points in
the second half total. That’s our de-
fense. That’s how we win games.”
Echo (9-10, 2-5) led by as many
as 10 in the third quarter. Kelsey
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up between Echo and Helix (a 45-
29 Helix win) hit a 3-pointer with
5:20 remaining in the third quarter
to put Echo up 27-17.
“Kelsey’s a big deal for them,”
Flerschinger said.
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Helix’s Paden Flerchinger (in black) wrestles with Echo’s Erika Parks for a
rebound during the Grizzlies’ 33-30 comeback victory on Saturday in Echo.
Echo built its lead with an ag-
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play from the Grizzlies (13-4, 6-1).
“Most of my timeouts were,
‘Hey, guys, settle down. to win
this game you gotta settled down
and play defense. And you gotta
score. Get the ball inside, and we’ll
score,’” Flerschinger said.
But in the third quarter, the Griz-
zlies started to settle down. They
started to work the ball into the
post to Paden Flerschinger, Mak-
enzie Mize and Sadie Wilson, all
of whom are 5-foot-10 and all of
whom are bigger than any player
for Echo.
Despite the effort, Helix still
trailed by eight heading into the
fourth quarter at 27-19. Helix’s de-
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third-quarter points, but its offense
was still lagging behind, netting
only two points.
“We try to go inside all the
time,” Flerschinger said. “We got
big girls. We can throw four of
them at you all night long. That’s
what we do.”
That began to take effect in the
fourth quarter.
Helix started the period on a
10-0 run to take a 29-27 lead, and
Echo pulled back even on Hannah
McCarty’s runner with 2:55 on the
clock. The Cougars took a brief lead
when Lizzie Cox hit one of two free
throws to move the count to 30-29,
but Mize rebounded her own miss
and scored with 51 seconds left to
move Helix back in front at 31-30.
Echo’s chance to take a lead with
about 30 seconds left went beg-
See ECHO, A12
HERMISTON’S KOPACZ BECOMES HAWK
Bulldog shortstop
signs with Columbia
Basin College
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
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Mikayla Kopacz signed a
National Letter of Intent
Tuesday to play softball at
Columbia Basin College in
Pasco, WA where she will
study nursing or business.
“I think last year it hit
me (softball) was gonna
be the sport I would go far
in,” she said.
Competing in the North-
west Athletic Conference
(NWAC), the Hawks went
28-23 (14-14 NWACC),
good for fourth in the East
Region. The Hawks were
ousted in the fourth round
of the NWAC Tournament
in Portland in May after a
7-2 defeat from SW Ore-
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At CBC, Kopacz was
recruited by and will play
for Adrian Ochoa, who is
entering his eighth sea-
son as head coach of the
Hawks after working as
an assistant at the school
for two years. In the last
four seasons, the Hawks
under Ochoa have turned
in a record of 80-99 (47-65
NWAC) with the best sin-
gle season being a 26-21
(16-12) effort that put the
Hawks in third place in the
East.
Ochoa also coached
the Washington Angels,
on which Kopacz played
this past summer. She said
Ochoa “helped her out a
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Hermiston’s Mikayla Kopacz (center) poses with parents Kristi and Marek after signing her National Letter of Intent to play
softball at Columbia Basin College in Pasco.
lot” both in terms of devel-
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““He actually saw what
I had and what I was bring-
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said. “He helped me tre-
mendously in hitting and
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offer I couldn’t really pass
up.”
For various reasons,
Kopacz was behind in her
recruitment and had trou-
ble earning scholarship
offers. Two Division I
schools back east, Bradley
University in Peoria, Illi-
nois and Campbell Univer-
sity in Buies Creek, North
Carolina, were interested
in Kopacz’s services, but
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which wouldn’t be covered
by a scholarship, led her
to CBC, where “the best
offer” laid. Plus, the famil-
iarity with CBC’s coach
made it an ultimately easy
choice.
Kopacz said she knew
as a sophomore she wanted
to continue playing soft-
ball. During that season,
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at-bat resulted in a home
run, Kopacz realized she
enjoyed softball more than
her other sport. That sea-
son, Hood River had star
pitcher Kayla Byers, who
is now a member of East-
ern Florida University’s
program, and Kopacz was
the only Bulldog who was
making consistent contact
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“I think I’ve kinda
known I could (play colle-
giately),” she said, “but un-
See KOPACZ, A12
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The Hermiston Bull-
dogs
completed
the
Reser’s Tournament of
Champions on Saturday
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ond place with 177 points.
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tournament with three
individual
champions,
with Valen Wyse at 152
pounds, Bob Coleman at
182 pounds, and Sam Col-
bray at 195 pounds. The
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back of Crook County,
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At 152 pounds, Wyse
advanced to the champi-
onship match as the No.
6 seed and faced No. 8
seed Cole Ovens from
Crook County. Wyse did
not waste much time to
grab the victory, as he
earned the victory with a
pin at the 1:26 mark of the
match. The win improved
his season record to 25-4,
according to TrackWres-
tling.com.
Later at 182 pounds,
the No. 2 seed Coleman
faced off against the No.
1 seed Tyler Self from
Glencoe. The match went
the distance, and Coleman
earned his 27th win of the
season with a 4-3 decision
over Self.
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pounds, the No. 1 seed
Colbray needed overtime
to earn his win, defeating
Century’s Jamarcus Grant
by 3-1 decision. Colbray
moves to 27-1 on the sea-
son now with the win.
Other
placers
for
Hermiston included Liam
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at 120 pounds, Andy Wag-
ner taking fourth place at
126 pounds, Brock Mc-
Donough taking third at
170 pounds, and Beau
Blake taking sixth at 285
pounds.
Wyse, Coleman and
Colbray each entered the
bracket with seeds and re-
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round matches before
winning twice to reach the
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Wyse, the sixth-seed-
ed 152 pound wrestler,
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in just 42 seconds over
Redmond’s Tamione Dun-
ningham. He then ousted
third seed Austin Harris of
Roseburg with a 9-3 deci-
sion. He’ll face No. 2 seed
Tanner Earhart of Dallas
in the semis.
Coleman was the No.
2 seed at 182 and earned
a major decision in his
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Roseburg’s Gage Maddux
13-5, then pinned sev-
enth-seeded Joey Vigue of
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nal matchup is against No.
3 seed Cavin Gillispie of
Crater.
The top seed at 195,
Colbray didn’t let either of
his matches on Friday get
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pinned North Medford’s
Joshua Robbins in 1:57,
then pinned Sprague’s
Justin Vazquez-Ellis in
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nent is No. 4 seed Carson
Raymond of Crook Coun-
ty.
Five other Hermiston
wrestlers will still be try-
ing to earn team points in
the consolation bracket to-
day as well: Liam Tarvin
(113), Andy
Wagner
(126), CJ Hendon (138),
Brock McDonough (170)
and Beau Blake (285).
Hermiston has an uphill
battle to bring back the
team title, though, after
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place with 91 points.
Crook County trailed
Roseburg by 3.5 points at
the top of the standings,
but with six wrestlers in
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boys are poised for a big
boost with a strong Day 2.
Roseburg can hold
them off with four wres-
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third-place Redmond (94)
advanced three.