FROM A1
A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SCHOOL
Continued from Page A1
for having the highest partic-
ipation in the run, which was
also a school supplies drive.
Monday morning also
marked the start of a year of
bus riding for many Hermis-
ton students, including Herm-
iston third-grader Neely Fos-
ter, who just couldn’t wait to
hop aboard.
Foster, 8, joined many of
her peers on the way to West
Park Elementary on Mon-
day morning, the start of the
school year for the Hermiston
School District.
“I love riding the bus,”
said Foster, who was priming
for her second year of riding.
She said she prefers to sit
in either the front or the back,
and was ready to get to school
so she could show off her
donut-themed lunchbox and
backpack.
As the bus pulled up to her
block, Foster and two of her
friends ceased all conversa-
tion to dash across the street,
bustling with energy on an
otherwise dead morning.
According to Stefani
Wyant, principal at Rocky
Heights Elementary, the bus
provides an entirely separate
ecosystem from the class-
room, complete with its own
set of challenges.
“One of the biggest things
on the bus is that there is one
adult, and that adult is driv-
ing. Students sometimes tend
to know that they are unsu-
pervised,” Wyant said.
She said that at Rocky
Heights, teachers have con-
versations with students about
how to ride the bus properly.
“It’s an opportunity to be
kind, include everybody and
notice each student,” Wyant
said.
Things can get sticky
when a parent fails to reregis-
ter their child for the coming
school year. If a child’s regis-
tration is not up to date, their
bus route may not be made
clear to the bus driver, Wyant
said.
Mid Columbia Bus Com-
pany — which contracts with
the Hermiston School District
— runs 28 routes in Hermis-
ton, with buses holding any-
where from 15 to 84 students.
Christie Sutherland, the
manager for the company’s
Hermiston offi ce, has just
stepped into her new position
this month. She said the fi rst
day of school was a smooth
ride for bus drivers.
She noted that when a
child isn’t registered with
the school and doesn’t know
if they’re on the correct bus,
the bus driver will fi rst con-
tact the “bus barn” to see if
their address is on fi le with
the company.
If the company doesn’t
have the child’s address,
the bus driver will radio the
school to assure the child
arrives home safely, whether
that means getting dropped
off at a stop or heading back
to the school for a different
bus or parent pickup.
“It can be a process some-
times,” Sutherland said. “But
we always fi gure it out.”
Chuck Moore, vice-pres-
ident at Mid Columbia Bus
Company, said that during
the fi rst week of school, bus
routes often run a little slower.
“We don’t mind,” he said.
“We don’t want anyone to get
hurt.”
He said they are off to a
good start this year, as the
company is seeing a lot of
employee retention from last
year.
“We love having folks
come back with us. Most of
our drivers take the same
route each year. They know
their students and their loca-
tions,” Moore said.
As parents and students
alike gear up for the school
year, Moore said there’s one
thing that sticks in his mind
— safety.
He said students should
refrain from running after the
bus, and to wait until the bus
is at a full stop before hopping
aboard.
He also said that drivers
need to remember to stop traf-
fi c in either direction when a
school bus has its stop sign
out.
“We don’t want any motor-
ing public to pass when stu-
dents are getting on that bus,”
Moore said.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019
FRIENDS
Continued from Page A1
The two men, both 34, grew up
in Lake Oswego. They played mid-
dle school basketball on the same
team. In high school, they started
Laker Broadcasting at Lake Oswego
High School, broadcasting foot-
ball and basketball games. They
enrolled in University of Oregon’s
School of Journalism and Com-
munications with Strong studying
electronic media and Olson headed
toward a career in print journalism,
preferably with the San Francisco
Chronicle.
“My dream was to be the beat
writer for the San Francisco Giants,”
Olson said.
Strong, however, pressed him to
do various broadcasting gigs with
him and Olson good-naturedly
helped him out. Normally, Strong
did play-by-play and Olson pro-
vided color. As sophomores and
juniors, they announced the Univer-
sity of Oregon softball games for the
campus radio station. For that job,
Olson was asked for a demo.
“I downloaded a 1989 San Fran-
cisco Giants/Chicago Cubs game
from the computer,” Olson recalled.
“I muted it and did the play-by-play.
My fi rst baseball demo is a game
from when I was 4 years old.”
They interviewed athletes during
a weekly half-hour show called
“Quack Smack” and did various
live-streaming UO sports broad-
casts. The OSAA hired them to
announce a state soccer champion-
ship and other games. For Olson, it
was all something of a lark.
“I was kind of along for the ride,”
he said. “I took it seriously because
John took it seriously. I was just
hanging out with John.”
Olson did some solo work, how-
ever. He was the public address
voice at UO women’s volleyball
games and news director at the cam-
pus radio station. By his senior year,
he wholly embraced the idea of a
career in broadcasting. After gradu-
ation, he accepted a job with sister
radio stations KOHU and KQFM in
Hermiston to broadcast sports and
news. He caught some attention with
his smooth and story-telling style.
In 2013, Olson was named Oregon
Association of Broadcasters Radio
Sports Announcer of the Year.
Strong got on an even faster track.
He was the fi rst radio and television
voice for the Portland Timbers and
he later worked for both NBC and
Photo courtesy of John Strong
FOX Sports soccer broadcaster John Strong got his start doing play by play at
Lake Oswego High School with his friend Erick Olson.
FOX. Olson watched his friend rise
with awe.
“By his mid-20s, he was a national
television broadcaster,” Olson said.
“It was a really fast trajectory.”
Olson’s fi rst foray into the world
of national broadcasting came in
2015 when Strong reached out to
Olson to ask if he would be his sta-
tistics and research assistant for
three weeks of women’s World Cup
games in Canada that summer.
“My reaction was ‘Yes,’ now how
do I make it happen?” Olson said.
The radio station gave Olson
the green light, though he contin-
ued to do news segments from hotel
rooms and airports. In between soc-
cer games, Olson researched play-
ers and teams and assembled notes
for the World Cup games. In the
booth, he supplied stats and inter-
esting tidbits for Strong to use in his
play-by-play.
“I had a dry erase board about the
size of a piece of paper,” he said. “I
wrote notes or used hand signals to
pass along statistics and updates as
the games progressed.”
When he learned of an impending
substitution, he alerted a Los Ange-
les producer, so graphics could be
prepared.
Last summer brought men’s
World Cup action in Russia. The
FOX team included Olson, Strong,
Strong’s broadcast partner Stu
Holden, producer Shaw Brown and
two Russian security guards. The
broadcasters announced 16 of 64
games, including the fi nal match
between France and Croatia in Mos-
cow’s Luzhniki Stadium. Between
games, the team found food, fl ew
to another city, tried to sleep on the
plane and started all over again.
The string of games and constant
travel was challenging — even more
than the 2007 Oregon state 1A bas-
ketball tourney in Baker in which
Olson announced 20 games in four
days despite having strep throat.
“Three of the matches we called
at the World Cup, we had not slept at
all the night before,” Strong said. “It
was a 24-hour adrenaline high. After
each game, you recalibrate and pack
your bag. You just go.”
Olson noted that the older air-
planes in which they fl ew didn’t
inspire trust.
“Each time you land, everyone
claps,” he said.
Strong said the team worked well
together.
“When I have Erick on my left,
Stu on my right and Shaw in my ear,
I’m fearless,” Strong said.
He called Olson his “information
sherpa” who has broadcasting expe-
rience of his own.
“Erick knows me so well, he
anticipates what I want and need to
know,” Strong said. “It becomes a
symbiosis thing.”
An added bonus for Olson is an
Emmy Award FOX Sports received
for its 2018 World Cup coverage in
the Outstanding Trans-Media Sports
Coverage category. He is listed with
some 70 other people, but it gives
him a thrill all the same.
Olson said he is enjoying the ride,
just like he did with Strong back in
the day when he was “hanging out
with John.”
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