A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2016
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Johnson bids adieu to Stanfi eld
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO COURTESY OF BETTY HIATT
The Hermiston High School trap shooting team poses with
its awards at the inaugural Oregon State High School Clay
Target League State Tournament on Saturday in Hillsboro.
Hermiston won the team title.
Hermiston wins clay
target state title
Bulldogs capture inaugural
Oregon clay target league
state championship; Echo
fi nishes third
Hermiston Herald
The Hermiston High
School athletic department
will need to update its re-
cord books.
On Saturday, June 25,
Hermiston’s clay target
league team captured the
fi rst-ever Oregon state
championship at the Hills-
boro Trap and Skeet Club.
Hermiston fi nished the
tournament with 476 points,
defeating second place
Oregon City (451 points)
and third place Echo (430
points).
In the fi rst year of com-
petition, the regular season
was dominated by Herm-
iston as well, as the team
fi nished in fi rst place in the
fi ve-week season with 384
points and held a 100 point
lead over Echo in the stand-
ings.
Hermiston
freshman
Case Hiatt earned over-
all High Gun honors of
the tournament with a 99,
holding off Oregon City’s
Dylan Nelson and Herm-
iston’s Devon Brittner —
both of whom scored 98s.
Hiatt fi nished the spring
season fourth with a season
average score of 23, while
Brittner was the best in the
state with a 24.2.
Other varsity competi-
tors for Hermiston included
Dylan Hunter (96), Tan-
ner Meads (89), Mitchell
Pimentel (84), and Kaden
Smith (94).
Hermiston holds on for district title
Hermiston Herald
The Hermiston all-stars
bounced back from their fi rst
defeat of the week and never
trailed in the championship
game of the 9/10-year-old
Little League District 3
tournament on Friday, July
1, in Burns.
Hermiston was undefeat-
ed entering the double elim-
ination championship round
where it met Baker, which
emerged from the consola-
tion bracket after losing to
Hermiston in the semifi nals.
Baker scored twice in
the seventh inning to beat
Hermiston, 8-7, and force a
second game, but JR Starr’s
sacrifi ce groundout in the
fi rst inning of Game 2 gave
Hermiston a 3-0 lead on its
way to a 11-7 win.
Baker answered with two
runs in the bottom of the
fi rst, but four more Herm-
iston runs in the second and
one in the third made it 8-2
before Baker’s next run.
Brian Davison pitched 4
1/3 innings for the win and
struck out nine. He allowed
four runs (two earned) on
fi ve hits, and Kaiden Dam-
meyer pitched the fi nal 1 2/3
innings. Dammeyer struck
out four and allowed three
runs (two earned) on three
hits.
Hermiston only had fi ve
hits in the game, but Davi-
son fi nished with four RBI.
He hit a sacrifi ce fl y in the
fi rst inning that scored Dam-
meyer for the game’s fi rst
run, a two-RBI double in the
second, and an RBI ground-
out in Hermiston’s three-run
sixth.
Wednesday, June 29, was
a bittersweet day for Bryan
Johnson.
After 10 years of serving
as an educator and baseball
coach at Stanfi eld Secondary
School, Johnson spent his fi -
nal day at the school packing
the remaining items from his
offi ce. He is moving back to
his hometown of Ephrata,
Washington to serve as the
athletic director at Ephrata
High School — the alma
mater for he and his wife
Katie — and his fi nal day at
Stanfi eld capped what has
been a long several months.
“It’s been an emotional
spring,” Johnson said. “I’m
happy about getting a new
job and having success with
baseball, but we’re sad to be
leaving because we’ve es-
tablished a lot of great rela-
tionships with great students,
staff and community mem-
bers.”
It was a very tough de-
cision to leave the Stanfi eld
school and the Eastern Ore-
gon commu-
nity, Johnson
said, but the
pull to head
back home
with a job
he called a
Bryan
dream was
Johnson
too good to
pass up.
“It wasn’t a snap decision
by any means,” Johnson
said. “Ultimately, Ephrata
was a place we wanted to
get back to, and having both
sets of parents there and a job
that’s the best fi t possible for
(myself) was what sold it.
“I wish I could have wait-
ed a year (with the players
we have coming back) but
the timing was bad.”
The 35-year-old Johnson
served as the athletic director
at Stanfi eld from 2007-2012
before moving into his po-
sition as secondary school
principal. He developed a
passion for the position over
that period of time, and he
knew it was something he
wanted to pursue full-time.
He will have to put a hold
on his high school coaching
career as his administra-
tive contract bars him from
coaching at that level in
Ephrata. But Johnson said
he’s happy to have a break
from the everyday grind of
coaching.
“I’m looking forward to a
little more narrow focus,” he
said. “
Baseball has been in
Johnson’s life for as long as
he can remember. He played
in college at the Universi-
ty of Washington and then
spent two years as a minor
leaguer in the Arizona Dia-
mondbacks organization.
After calling it quits on
playing, he knew he com-
pleted his teaching degree
and become a baseball
coach.
He developed experienc-
Johnson compiled a 201-81
career record (.713 win per-
centage) in his 10 seasons as
the Tigers baseball coach and
led his teams to nine playoff
appearances, fi ve league ti-
tles, fi ve district titles, four
state Final Four appearanc-
es, and two state champion-
ships.
He broke the news of his
impending departure to the
Tigers team before the sea-
son began, but insisted that
the focus not be on his fi -
nal games but instead be on
working hard, playing as a
team and reaching their goal
of a state championship.
Stanfi eld set a school
record with 29 wins on the
year as the team dominated
their competition. The Ti-
gers had the highest-scor-
ing offense of any team in
the state in 2016, and won
those 29 games by an aver-
age score of 12-2.
The icing on the cake
was their 10-inning, 5-4
victory over Santiam Chris-
tian to claim the Class 3A
state championship.
“It was a fairytale fi nish
and I couldn’t ask for any-
thing better,” Johnson said.
“It was a great year with a
great team and they have
a lot coming back, which
made it hard to walk away
from.”
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VOLUME 110 ● NUMBER 26
Gary L. West | Editor • gwest@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4532
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Alexa Lougee | Reporter • alougee@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4534
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