Friday, May 24, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A7
Hoekstre: Athlete wants to be the best in the world
Continued from Page A1
she couldn’t compete that
spring, hindered by a serious
bout of mono, she went back
the spring of her sophomore
year and subsequently quali-
fi ed for state that year.
“I just fell in love with the
idea of an individual sport,”
she said. “It’s so much eas-
ier to not be reliant on peo-
ple to succeed in a sport. …
I always struggled with that,
because I’m a very competi-
tive person.”
Although she continued
to play volleyball her fresh-
man and sophomore years
and lettered in basketball
as a freshman, sophomore
and junior, she decided her
senior year to put all her
focus on discus-throwing
and shot-putting, along with
theater.
Small town, big goals
Throughout the year,
Hoekstre’s broken several
personal records and cap-
tured a couple key achieve-
ments: throwing 50 feet in
the shot to become No. 1
in the nation and throwing
the discus about 158 feet
at state to break the meet
record previously held by
Astoria’s Laura Bobek. She
also started planning for the
future.
“In a small town, you’re
always told, ‘You’re prob-
able not going to go D-1,
you’re probably not going
to be the best in anything,’
just because you come from
a small school and you
don’t have the opportuni-
ties provided for you,” she
said. “And I really wanted
to prove that wrong.”
She considered other
Seaside graduates — such
as Ben Archibald, a former
San Francisco 49ers offen-
sive tackle, and Maddi Utti,
Seaside’s basketball stand-
out who is currently playing
at Fresno State on a full ride
— and knew national suc-
cess was attainable.
“I want to be the best,
and if I’m going to com-
pete, I want to compete at
the highest level that I can,”
she said.
Her fi rst decision to make
was where to attend col-
lege. At fi rst, was hesitant
to sign with Brigham Young
University, in Provo, Utah,
uncertain about going to “a
church school” and being
“that typical Mormon girl,”
she said. One visit to the
campus, however, and she
saw an unparalleled oppor-
tunity for her athletic poten-
tial to be further cultivated.
“I fell in love with the
coach, the athletes, the
atmosphere, the idea of
going to a school of that cal-
iber,” she said.
Hoekstre knows she will
be challenged academically
and athletically, and also
fully supported in her jour-
ney to achieve success at the
next tier. She plans to com-
pete in a variety of indoor
and outdoor track events —
including the weight throw,
shot, discus and hammer —
during winter and spring.
SSD race: Gomez is
leader in Zone 5 race
Continued from Page A1
Shannon Swedenborg,
running unopposed for Can-
non Beach’s Zone 1, Posi-
tion 1, received 1,294 votes,
with 15 write-ins.
Swedenborg fi lled the
board seat after Patrick Nof-
ield stepped down in Cannon
Beach. Over the past two
years she has been a substi-
tute teacher at The Heights
Elementary School and
Broadway Middle School.
She taught high school biol-
ogy in the
Renton,
Wa s h i n g -
ton, School
District.
I
n
another
Sondra Gomez
uncontested
race, Mark
Truax, won 1,279 votes for
re-election to Zone 4, Posi-
tion 2, based in Seaside.
There were 15 write-ins.
Board president Truax is
a Seaside High School grad-
uate and Astoria fi refi ghter.
Continued from Page A1
Lindsey
Morrison
John
Chapman
the other three board seats.
Each of their terms expire in
2021.
The timeline for the tran-
sition will recognize the new
director and outgoing direc-
tors, executive director Sky-
ler Archibald said at a dis-
trict board meeting earlier
Tuesday.
The last day of service for
the outgoing directors will be
the last day of June.
New board members will
be sworn in at the July board
meeting, at which time the
board will select a board
president and offi cers.
McClaine has lead in Port race
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Challenger
Scott
McClaine has a healthy
lead on Commissioner Bill
Hunsinger for Position 3 on
the Port of Astoria Commis-
sion after initial results.
McClaine, who ran Clat-
sop Coin in Astoria, quit
his job as a security guard
at the Port to run against
Hunsinger. Originally from
central Washington state,
he has 28 years in the Coast
Guard, including tours on
the cutter Resolute at Tongue
Point and with Group Asto-
ria, the precursor to Sector
Columbia River.
McClaine has stressed
Going for global
success
Hoekstre’s
dreams
stretch
beyond
colle-
giate achievement, though.
Another massive one: Com-
peting at the 2024 Olympics
in Paris. She will need to get
her numbers up in the shot,
hammer throw, and discus
to qualify for the Olympic
trials, but she perceives that
as a manageable, and worth-
while, goal.
“I don’t want to just be
the best for a small town or
the best in the state of Ore-
gon,” she said. “I want to be
the best in the world. I want
to take that challenge.”
Hoekstre is no stranger to
making sacrifi ces to pursue
her passion. She has spent
countless hours weight-lift-
ing and practicing and put
other activities on the back-
burner, particularly during
her senior year.
“I’ve given up parties,
and a lot of friends, and
dates, anything you can
think of that a high schooler
or teenager would like to
do, to be able to succeed,”
she said. “I’ve given up a lot
already, and every time I PR
or I succeed on the fi eld, it is
worth it. Every time.”
She knows the Olympics
is a lofty goal, as only the
best athletes in the world are
given the chance to partici-
pate, and she has a backup
plan: Studying exercise sci-
ence, becoming a physi-
cian’s assistant, and work-
ing with the international
nonprofi t Doctors Without
Borders.
Given the opportunity
to participate in the Olym-
pics, though, she feels confi -
dent she can make the most
of it given her aptitude for
hard work and discipline.
Even now, when struck
with a sense of awe or dis-
belief about the goals she’s
already accomplished, she
recalls the massive amount
of work she’s invested and
feels justifi ed.
“Sometimes it is kind of
scary to think, ‘Wow, what
if I’m not the person that
people say I am?’,” she
added. “But I’ve proven to
myself, especially recently,
that the work I’ve put into
the sport is worth every-
thing and it has gotten me
to the point that I really can
succeed.”
SWEDENBORG, TRUAX LOOK AHEAD
SEPRD race: Morrison
wins; Chapman holds lead
In Position 5, Lind-
sey Morrison held about
42% of the vote in unoffi -
cial results, receiving 462 of
the 1,108 votes counted. Pat-
rick Duhachek garnered 386
votes, about 35% of the tal-
ley; Rodney Roberts fol-
lowed with 257 votes or 23%
of the total.
“I’m honored to be elected
to the Sunset Empire Board
of Directors,” Morrison said
Wednesday. “Thank you to
all who put their confi dence
in me. I will bring my very
best to this position and I look
forward to getting started.”
The seat had been held by
Rodney Roberts, appointed
earlier this year after district
board president Alan Evans
stepped down.
Veronica Russell, Jeremy
Mills and Michael Hinton fi ll
She was only recently intro-
duced to hammer throwing
last summer, but instantly
appreciated the track event
and how it could play off
her particular strengths.
“It’s very complicated,
it’s very demanding on your
body, but it’s a beautiful
sport,” she said. “The way
it’s done, it’s like a dance.
… Because of my build and
natural strength, and my
natural weight in my legs
and my trunk, I think I could
really succeed.”
Heading into her col-
lege career, she hopes to
place in two events by her
sophomore year and to be
a national champion during
her junior and senior years.
ELECTION RESULTS
See full election results
for Clatsop County at:
https://results.oregon-
votes.gov
the need for increased civil-
ity on the Port Commission,
often beset by infi ghting and
drama, and touted himself as
a set of fresh eyes.
Hunsinger, a retired long-
shoreman and commercial
fi sherman, has served on the
commission for 12 years.
He has emerged as a self-ap-
pointed whistleblower of
what he sees as misman-
agement by Jim Knight, the
Port’s executive director.
Shannon Swedenborg,
who was selected earlier this
year to serve the remainder
of Patrick Nofi eld’s term
through 2019, will continue
representing for another
four years. She looks forward
to being “involved in some
good decision-making” and
supporting students, staff ,
and administration.
“I think educating and
exciting young people for
the next steps of their lives
is just a great way to give
back, to be involved in the
community,” she said. “Lots
of people have their things
and education is mine.”
A former teacher, Swe-
denborg takes particular
interest in student-related
aspects of leadership, such
as student activities, curricu-
lum, and graduation rates.
“I’m excited to be
involved with the school
district in a higher capacity
than just a parent,” she said.
Mark Truax also was
elected to serve his sixth
term on the board in an
unopposed race. After this
upcoming term – which
he adamantly assures is his
last – he will have been a
board member 24 years. He
decided to run again to see
a couple of key projects to
Memoir: What it’s like
to be a white family in a
brown country
Continued from Page A1
had anything to learn from
them.”
It was this growing
awareness between the
lives of the Haitian people
and the distance created by
the white foreigners that
stuck with her. Haunted
her. Propelled her to write
a book.
She said it took her
nearly 15 years to write
“The Gospel of Trees.”
“I didn’t want to just
tell the story of our family,
but also to talk about the
history of colonization,”
Irving said.
As part of her process,
she worked from her own
journals, boxes of mis-
sionary newsletters, and
her parents’ own journals,
which they eventually
turned over to her. She said
what went less smoothly
was the inner work that
had to be done as she wres-
tled with the hard stories of
failure and shame.
“It was going back to
face those hard questions
that took me the longest,”
she said.
She sold the book
before she completed it,
and went back multiple
times to restructure. Due
to the vagaries of modern
publishing, she had mul-
tiple editors. One of them
asked her to go back into
the manuscript and be
kinder to herself.
Irving was born in Cor-
vallis and returned there
to fi nish her last two years
of high school. She is the
recipient of a Rona Jaffe
Foundation Writers’ Award
and Literary Arts Cre-
ative Nonfi ction Fellow-
ship. She’s taught litera-
ture and writing to students
in Indonesia, China, the
U.S., the U.K., and Ireland
and reported on post-earth-
quake recovery efforts in
the north of Haiti for the
radio program This Amer-
ican Life.
Being a white family in
a brown country is not an
easy story to tell, but Irving
approaches her subject
matter with lyrical writ-
ing and love in her heart.
She’s returned to Haiti
multiple times since the
catastrophic
earthquake
of 2010 and continues to
be deeply interested in the
future of the country and
its people.
“Restoring the earth is
not the work of one life-
time,” she said.
On June 19, Erica Bau-
ermeister, author of “The
Scent Keeper” will be
doing a reading and book
signing at Beach Books.
For more information or to
reserve space for Lunch in
the Loft, call Beach Books
at 503-738-3500.
BUSINESS
Directory
Shannon
Swedenborg
Mark
Truax
completion, including the
district’s strategic plan im-
plementation, the hiring of
a new superintendent after
Sheila Roley retires, and the
transition of three schools to
the new campus.
“I’ve been in the middle
of all of it,” he said. “We’ve
bitten off a lot in the last
year.”
During the next four
years, he looks forward
to “seeing a culmination
of a lot of hard work with
the buildings,” along with
improving high school grad-
uation rates and executing
the strategic plan.
After nearly 20 years of
service, he still fi nds the
work and devotion to the
district rewarding, partic-
ularly when school board
members get to give diplo-
mas to graduating seniors
or seeing individuals he
knew as high-schoolers now
serving on the board.
—Katherine Lacaze
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