A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016
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Hoffert retires after eight seasons
Bulldogs coach steps
aside after seven
state tournament
appearances
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
After eight years at Herm-
iston and more than 30 years
in coaching, girls basketball
coach Steve Hoffert is retir-
ing.
“I just felt that it was time,”
Hoffert said. “I’ve been think-
ing about it for a little while
now, and I always said that I
wanted to get out when I still
had the passion for the game,
not when I was tired of it, and
I still love it so everything just
sort of fell into place.”
Hoffert had been trying
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announce the decision and
decided that the banquet on
Tuesday evening was the best
form since the players and
families tied to the program
would all be in attendance.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston girls head basketball coach Steve Hoffert announced that he is retiring from coaching basketball and plans to
focus on his business and his family.
The announcement came as
a shock to numerous play-
ers and parents at the ban-
quet, but the reaction quickly
turned to loud cheers and a
standing ovation.
“It made me feel good to
see the support from the com-
munity and to know that my
time here was appreciated,”
he said.
Hoffert compiled a 159-57
overall record in eight sea-
sons in Hermiston, includ-
ing seven trips to the OSAA
state tournament in which the
team earned six trophies —
most recently a fourth-place
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those accomplishments with
those teams will be one of
the things that stick with him
moving forward.
“It means that what we
were doing was successful.
If I’m on the outside looking
in it would be hard to ques-
tion this program because
we’ve been able to sustain
that success,” he said. “And
what we’ve built makes you
only feel better about the fu-
ture.”
Aside from success on
the state level, the Hermiston
Bulldogs were dominant in
conference play under Hof-
fert’s leadership, compiling a
59-1 record during that time
— with the last league loss
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on the road at The Dalles.
Hoffert also led the Bulldogs
to an unbeaten record against
their rival Pendleton Bucka-
roos.
Hermiston athletic direc-
tor Blaine Ganvoa said that
the school would like to
have a quick search for the
new coach, but the school
See HOFFERT, A11
Robles pitches
perfection against
Parkrose Broncos
Hermiston
baseball shuts out
Parkrose for sweep
IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN THE GAME
Hermiston lacrosse
team plays fi rst
game after passing
of head coach
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
When Hermiston fresh-
man Jake Palmer took the
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tary on Friday night, he
couldn’t believe his eyes.
Hundreds of people
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lacrosse game against
the Lincoln Cardinals to
support the team and pay
tribute to Jake’s father,
Hermiston lacrosse coach
Trampis Palmer, who
passed away on Sunday at
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“It was great ... families
of people he coached 15
years back even came out
to support him and support
us,” Jake said. “He’s been
coaching youth sports for
so long and it was cool to
see them here.”
Bulldogs coach Jacob
Arnold couldn’t really put
into words the emotions
and feelings he felt seeing
the large crowd.
“It was just unreal to
see,” he said. “It really
shows how many people
(Trampis) touched.”
Arnold has coached
lacrosse with Palmer
at the youth and high
school level for the past
six years, but has known
Palmer since both were
involved with coaching in
the Hermiston Grid Kids
youth football program
several years ago. Arnold
will now take over the
reins as the varsity head
the ball in play, but the
defense maintained the
perfect outing. Chase
Root made a diving play
on a bloop behind third
base on one, and Caden
Schwirse snagged a line
Hermiston senior R.J. drive at second base for
Robles pitched a per- the other.
Robles also helped his
fect game and the Bull-
dogs baseball team heads own cause going 3 for 4
into league play on the at the plate and scoring
strength of a doublehead- twice. Hermiston (7-5)
er sweep of Parkrose on SODWHGQLQHUXQVLQWKH¿UVW
two innings and Sexton (3
Friday.
Robles struck out 13 of for 4, 4 RBI) and Slade
the 15 batters he faced in *ULW]IRU5%,DOVR
the opener and the Bull- had big games on offense.
“We got a little bit
dogs supported him with
13 hits in an 11-0 win in KHDOWK\ LQ WKH ¿UVW JDPH
¿YH LQQLQJV 7KHQ LQ WKH with the bats,” Christy
night cap, Tyler Sexton said. “We made a lot of
and Chase Root combined contact, got a lot of hits,
to throw a shutout and the and the other balls that we
Bulldogs scored late to hit were really hard.”
Sexton added to his big
get a 3-0 victory.
“It was really nice to DIWHUQRRQ LQ *DPH E\
see,” said Hermiston as- JRLQJIRUZLWKDQRWKHU
sistant coach John Chris- RBI, and he pitched the
ty. “We really came out ¿UVW VL[ LQQLQJV DOORZLQJ
and, number one, R.J. just two hits and striking
Robles is pitching a gem out 11. Root struck out all
for us. He threw tons of three batters he faces in
strikes and really battled. the seventh for the save.
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It was tough for (Park-
rose) and he really over- starter Gunnar Schlicht-
whelmed them with his ing kept the Bulldogs
off balance through four
stuff today.”
The two batters Ro-
See BASEBALL, A11
bles didn’t strike out put
STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS
Top: Megan Palmer, daughter of Hermiston lacrosse coach Trampis Palmer, catches the coin
while performing the opening coin toss of the Bulldogs’ game against Lincoln on Friday in
Hermiston.
Above: Hermiston’s Jake Palmer goes to pass in front of Lincoln’s Sam Paris in the Bulldogs’
15-1 loss to the Cardinal on Friday in Hermiston.
coach, moving up from
his varsity assistant posi-
tion, while junior varsity
coach Carter Christiansen
takes on varsity assistant
duties.
Before Friday’s game,
a moment of silence was
held in Palmer’s memory
and then the honor contin-
ued as Palmer’s daughter
Megan performed the pre-
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with Luke Palmer serving
as the captain.
Once the game was
played, things did not go
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had hoped as the Cardi-
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ter a close opening quarter
to earn the 15-1 win.
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goal of the game two min-
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and then scored again
a mere 15 seconds later
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Hermiston was able to
battle back and get a goal
from sophomore Luke
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team-leading 17th goal
of the season — to bump
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teams would take to the
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But in the second pe-
riod, the wheels fell off
for Hermiston as Lincoln
turned up their intensi-
ty and held the posses-
sion for the majority of
the game. Lincoln scored
seven goals in the second
period, using their speed
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defense and get some easy
looks against Bulldog
goalie Beau Blake.
“We just kind of ran
into a better team today,”
Arnold said. “We played
with a lot of emotion in
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boys played hard with
what they had faced this
week.”
Walchi said he and his
fellow teammates were
very disappointed in the
result.
“Before the game our
emotions were running
really, really high and
everybody wanted to do
well for Trampis,” he said.
“But we just kind of got
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along and didn’t do what
we wanted to do.”
Friday’s game pre-
See LACROSSE, A11
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s R.J. Robles throws from the mound in a
game earlier this month. Robles earned a perfect game
for his work from the hill Friday on the road against
Parkrose.