SPORTS/NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
EOL HONORS
EASTERN OREGON LEAGUE SELECTIONS
Irrigon, Umatilla have fi rst-team players
GIRLS
First Team
Allie Hueckman, so., Burns,
Gracee Jacobs, sr., Vale; Ana
Zacarias, sr., Irrigon; Shai
Skinner, sr., Burns; Samantha
Moore, sr., Nyssa; Matyson
Siddoway, so., Vale.
Second Team
JaLay Burns, fr., Irrigon;
Aundraya Ceja, so., Burns;
Faith Rose, sr., Riverside;
Taylor Durfee, fr., Umatilla;
Alexia Arredondo, sr., Nyssa;
McKenzie Hoyt, sr., Burns;
Emersyn Johnson, so., Vale.
Honorable Mention
Brendy Avalos, sr., Riverside;
Mileah Skunkcap, sr., Burns;
Madyson Hartley, sr., Nyssa;
By ANNIE FOWLER
STAFF WRITER
Irrigon
senior Ana
Zacarias was named to the
Eastern Oregon League
fi rst team, and freshman
JaLay Burns to the second
as the all-league selections
were announced last week.
Zacarias averaged 13.8
points and three steals per
game for the Knights (12-
11). Burns averaged 13.3
points and 3.2 assists per
game.
Sopho-
more Allie
Hueckman
of
Burns
was named
MVP, and
H i l a n -
Zacarias
ders coach
Brandon
McMullen took the coach-
ing award.
Also named to the fi rst
team were Gracee Jacobs
and Matyson Siddoway
from Vale, Shai Skinner
of Burns, and Samantha
Earl
Garcia
Moore of Nyssa.
For the boys, Umatilla
junior Andrew Earl and
senior Uriel Garcia were
named to the EOL fi rst
team, while senior Trent
Durfey was named to the
second team.
Riverside
sophomore
Francisco Barajas was
named to the second team,
as was Irrigon senior Keith
Fleming.
Rounding out the fi rst
team are Omar Jaquez of
Nyssa, Kade Haueter of
Vale, and Dakota Ceja of
Burns.
Nyssa junior Pedro
Chavez was named MVP,
while Bulldogs coach
Aaron Mills took the coach-
ing award.
Kyla Wright, sr., Vale; Hailey
Castro, so., Nyssa.
BOYS
First team
Pedro Chavez, jr., Nyssa;
Omar Jaquez, sr., Nyssa,
Andrew Earl, jr., Umatilla;
Uriel Garcia, sr., Umatilla;
Kade Haueter, sr., Vale;
Dakota Ceja, jr., Burns.
Second Team
Zane Taylor, sr., Burns;
Francisco Barajas, so.,
Riverside; Agustin Trujillo,
sr., Nyssa; Tanner Hamilton,
sr., Vale; Trent Durfey, sr.,
Umatilla; Keith Flemming, sr.,
Irrigon.
YOUNG RAPPER
RIDING THE BEAT
Contributed photo
Lil X-Rey, an up-and-coming rap artist from Hermiston engages the crowd during Feb. 15 performance at the Funhouse in Seattle.
Lil X-Rey soaks in music
streams, live shows
By TAMMY MALGESINI
COMMUNITY EDITOR
T
he pulsating beat and poetic
words of urban rap and hip-
hop provided an escape from
boredom for a 16-year-old
Hermiston youth.
Lil X-Rey has parlayed his talents
into hundreds of thousands of listens
and gigs across the Northwest. A sopho-
more at Hermiston High School, Rey is
interested in business and marketing as
a way to promote himself in the future.
One of his classmates came up with
the moniker Lil X-Rey from his given
name of Rey Rodriguez. The teen was
the sophomore prince on the HHS
homecoming court in the fall.
“It’s kind of a popularity thing,” he
said about being crowned. “A lot of peo-
ple know me for my music.”
While he used to play a lot of basket-
ball, Rey spends a lot of his time these
days writing lyrics. He admits he’s just
an average student, instead focusing his
energies on riding the wave of his popu-
larity on music platforms, writing lyrics
and performing at shows.
“I currently have over 250,000
streams of my music, 13,000 Instagram
followers and have concerts all over
Boise, Seattle, Tri-Cities and recently
had one in Umatilla,” he said.
Rey started out performing with his
friends and putting a couple of his songs
on Soundcloud and other music plat-
forms. His fi rst song attracted 1,000 lis-
tens within a week.
“I thought that was a lot,” Rey said.
“Then one song did like 20,000 in a
week.”
Currently, “Zooted Up,” a collabo-
ration with Ghoulavelii, has more than
87,300 plays on Soundcloud. After net-
working with other artists in the region,
he got the attention of promoters. Last
spring, Rey said his fi rst packed house
performance in the Tri-Cities drew
upwards of 500 people.
“My Hermiston area crowd and Tri-
City area crowd came supporting me,”
he said. “It just blew up from there.”
Rey is currently under a management
company. He’s hopeful with continued
success and additional knowledge, he
can learn more about the business end
of decision-making, managing and pro-
moting himself.
“I like making music,” he said. “I
write all my stuff. I pretty much put on
some LED lights for the mood and put
on the beat.”
Many of his songs have the Paren-
tal Advisory label for explicit content.
With lyrics featuring strong language
and depictions of substance use, sex or
weapons, Rey said it’s not really what
he’s about.
“It’s just part of the show,” he said.
“I don’t really smoke. I don’t do drugs.
It’s just all part of the show. You know,
it sells.”
Rey describes himself as a fun person
who likes to make jokes and hang out
with his friends. He’s excited about the
future and a bit surprised by his success.
“It does blow my mind, though,
because I’m from Hermiston,” he said.
Campus Life directors follow calling to teen ministry
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Jeff and Ashley Umbarger
know Campus Life can do
good things. It’s where they
met.
The husband and wife
duo have been leading the
nonprofi t, which provides
wholesome activities and
hangouts for teens, since
September. But when they
were teenagers themselves
(Jeff grew up in Pendle-
ton and Ashley grew up
in Hermiston) they spent
plenty of time in the blue
metal-fabricated building
across the street from Herm-
iston High School.
“It’s really cool that we’re
here doing this, because
there are so many stories we
have here,” Jeff said.
Jeff moved away after
high school, but when he
came back years later he
looked Ashley up on social
media and couldn’t believe
she was still single. After
asking a mutual friend to
make sure she really was
available, he asked her out
for a day of four-wheeling
and fi shing. The rest, as they
say, is history.
Although they had ini-
tially followed different
career paths, both felt called
by God to work with youth.
They eventually ended up
running Jubilee Leadership
Academy, a Christian board-
ing school for troubled boys
in “the middle of nowhere”
near Prescott, Washington.
The atmosphere there
was different than Cam-
pus Life — it was all boys,
who were being forced to
be there. But Ashley said a
lot of the experience she and
Jeff got at Jubilee has helped
them better relate to the
teens that hang out at Cam-
pus Life.
“We had a lot of training
relating to kids with a lot of
hurts, habits and hang-ups,”
she said.
Jeff said he learned to
“look past the attitude” and
realize that kids who were
acting out were often doing
so because something else
was going on behind the
scenes. Seeing former gang
members from big cities get
scared of coyotes or a rus-
tling in the bushes helped
him remember that even
though they had seen a lot,
they were still “just kids.”
And there were students at
Jubilee who started out try-
ing to make his life miserable
and later trusted him enough
to confi de about trauma they
had experienced.
“You defi nitely have to
have a heart for (working
with teens),” he said. “You
can’t just be doing it as a
job.”
Now the Umbargers host
Photo contributed by Ashley Umbarger
Jeff and Ashley Umbarger have been directors of Campus Life
since September. For photos of recent Campus Life activities,
see A11.
high school night on Mon-
days and a newer middle
school night on Tuesdays at
the Campus Life building,
plus take groups of teens
out on weekends for snow-
boarding or rafting trips.
They also open up the build-
ing after high school football
and basketball games to give
students a safe place to hang
out together after the game.
On Monday, teens started
to trickle in after 7 p.m. A
group of boys and girls sat
on a circle of couches, chat-
ting, while one teen grabbed
dinner from the snack shack
and ate it while scrolling
through his phone. Other
groups gravitated toward air
hockey or ping pong, and a
few sophomore boys started
a game of pool.
At the pool table, Con-
nor Carr, Logan Ham and
Nate King said Campus Life
provided a safe place where
they could hang out with
friends without being under
the watchful eyes of their
parents.
“It’s nice to slow down
on a Monday,” Nate said.
Connor said he liked that
the Umbargers were cool
and “not very strict.” There
are also more activities to
choose from at the Campus
Life building than at friends’
houses.
Logan appreciated the
Umbargers, too.
“They’re really chill and
easy to talk to,” he said.
After free time on Mon-
days and Tuesdays, students
usually gather for some ice-
breaker games and a 20-min-
ute message. The high
school night usually attracts
about 30 students and the
middle school nights some-
times get as many as 50.
Campus Life is an inde-
pendent nonprofi t not run
by a specifi c church, but it
does have Christian over-
tones. Sometimes the talks
at the end of the night dis-
cuss religious themes. Other
times they show scenes from
uplifting secular movies
such as “Up,” then use it to
discuss bullying, peer pres-
sure or other topics relevant
to high school and middle
school students.
Jeff said Campus Life
isn’t meant to replace church
youth groups, and he and
Ashley try to make sure they
aren’t infringing on local
church activities. But some
students who would never
set foot in a church are will-
ing to come play pool with
their friends and might hear
a positive message about
Christianity in the process.
Ashley said they are also
planning on starting a Cel-
ebrate Recovery night on
Thursdays that will help
teens deal with addictions,
bad habits and “hang-ups”
they might have.
On Saturday, Campus
Life is hosting a fundraiser
dinner to support its mission.
“The Gathering” will take
place at 6 p.m. at the Herm-
iston Community Center,
415 S. Highway 395. Tick-
ets are $20 per ticket or $140
for a table seating eight,
and the event will include
a silent auction, dinner and
live music. For more infor-
mation or to purchase tickets
contact Ashley Umbarger at
541-969-1017.