Wins and losses: A year of big victories and tears in the Yakima Valley

The year 2011 will be remembered as one of triumph and heartache for Yakima Valley sports.

While several teams and athletes reached the pinnacle in their respective sports, the Valley also was touched by the deaths of two young athletes.

The Yakima Valley Community College women’s basketball team experienced those divergent emotions all within a matter of days.

Wapato graduate and Yaks freshman Hannah Cordova was killed in a car accident on Feb. 28, just five days before the start of the NWAACC tournament.

Her teammates considered not playing in the event, but after the urging of Hannah’s father, Bobby Cordova, the Yaks competed — and won the championship.

YVCC’s victory amid the loss of a teammate was voted the Yakima Valley’s story of the year by the Sports staff of the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Each of the six staff members voted for the top 10 stories of the year. After tabulating the votes, here are the results:

 

1 FOR THEM, FOR HER: YVCC women’s team won its first NWAACC title since 1991 eight days after teammate and Wapato graduate Hannah Cordova was killed in a car accident.

The Yaks entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed from the powerful East Region. After dispatching Bellevue and Clackamas in the first two rounds, YVCC defeated conference rivals Spokane and Walla Walla to claim the title. Yakima Valley won its four games by an average of 14.5 points a game.

 2 PROSSER POWER: With two-time Class 2A player of the year Tamara Jones leading the way, the Prosser girls basketball team won the Class 2A state tournament in the SunDome.

The Mustangs lost just one game — a one-point decision to three-time defending Idaho Class 5A champion Coeur d’Alene — and won their four state tournament games by an average of more than 15 points a game — including a 17-point victory over Burlington-Edison in the final.

Fellow Prosser senior Tayshia Hunt would join Jones on the all-tournament and first-team Associated Press all-state squads.

3 (tie) WIAA CHANGE: In a decision that had been coming for a while, the state basketball tournaments — embraced by the Yakima Valley since 1999 — were reduced from 16-team, four-day events to eight-team, three-day tourneys proceeded the previous weekend by regional-site games.

Many were unhappy with the change, believing the regional sites took away from the state experience and that an eight-team event would never be as good as the 16-team format.

As one Class 1A coach told the Herald-Republic: “We all got blindsided. It’s the most ridiculous thing the state has done in, maybe, ever.”

3 (tie) SHOCKING DEATH: Former Zillah three-sport star Andy Collins died at 27 of a heart attack while working out just 10 days after getting married.

After starring with the Leopards in football, basketball and track and field, the 2002 Zillah graduate was a standout quarterback at Occidental College, where he led his team to 26 straight victories and became the first three-time Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference offensive player of the year. He also played several seasons of indoor football.

The football field at Zillah High School was renamed Andy Collins Memorial Field in October.

3 (tie) PERFECTION: How does a team improve on a 31-2 season an a third-place trophy the year before? By being perfect.

That’s what the West Valley volleyball team did. The Rams finished the season with a 35-0 record, capping the year with a Class 3A state championship victory against Eastside Catholic at St. Martin’s University in Lacey.

6 FOUR SURE: Zillah’s Chris Castillo won his fourth state wrestling championship, becoming the first Valley wrestler and eighth in the state to accomplish the feat.

Castillo, who is now a freshman on the powerful Boise State squad, finished his career with a record of 167-2 and was unbeaten his junior and senior seasons, going 75-0 in that span.

7 PIRATE TREASURE: With a trip to Tacoma and its season on the line, the Davis boys basketball team put together a supreme effort, dropping second-ranked Ferris 78-69 to advance to the Class 4A quarterfinals.

Once at the Tacoma Dome, the Pirates won their first game before falling to Curtis and Garfield to claim fifth place.

Davis finished the season 21-6, with its last three losses to the Class 4A champion (Gonzaga Prep), runner-up (Curtis) and third-place finisher (Garfield).

8 BEARS BATTLE BACK: With off-field questions about the team’s future and after a first half to forget, the Yakima Bears battled back in season’s second half to nearly make the playoffs.

The Bears’ playoff pursuit went down to the last couple days before they were eliminated from contention.

Off the field, the team’s pursuit of a new stadium continues to be fruitless. Most recently, Clark County commissioners did not approve a proposed 5 percent admissions tax seemingly ending a proposed move to Vancouver, Wash.

9 MORE MOORE HONORS. Prosser’s Kellen Moore capped his Boise State career by finishing eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting and becoming college football’s winningest quarterback.

He finished with a 50-3 record as a starting quarterback and has won or shared the Western Athletic Conference’s offensive player of the year award his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

10 STATS BUT NOT STATE: With the top two quarterbacks in the CBBN 4A and receivers aplenty, the Eisenhower and Davis football teams put up some gaudy offensive numbers in finishing second and third, respectively, in the CBBN 4A.

The teams were both within a win of advancing to the state playoffs, before falling in a Nov. 4 crossover doubleheader at Joe Albi Stadium.

 

Also receiving votes:

11 (tie) KNIGHTS CLASS: Sunnyside Christian wins another Class 1B state basketball tournament.

11 (tie) GOOD UNTIL THE END: Central men dominate the GNAC — winning the conference by three games and cruise in the tournament before Seattle Pacific stuns the Wildcats in a regional opener.

13 (tie) FOR PETE’S SAKE: Pete Harding is awarded his third Apple Cup title after the original winner is DQ’d.

13 (tie) SPEEDY RESULTS: West Valley’s Chantel Jaeger wins 100- and 200-meter sprints to lead Rams to a third-place.

13 (tie) ONE FOR THE NATION: Yakama Nation team wins Native American Basketball Invitational in Phoenix.

16 (tie) GOLD AGAIN: Yakima’s Joe Parsons wins his seventh X-games gold medal.

16 (tie) MUSTANGS STAY ON TOP: Prosser football team sweeps through the CWAC and advances to the Class 2A state semifinals.

Shootout will take over SunDome

YAKIMA, Wash. — Two full days of basketball, from noon to 10:30 p.m., on two courts, boys at one end and girls at the other, featuring top teams from around the state. Kind of sounds like a state tournament — and it should, since it will take place in the SunDome, home of the Class 1A and 2A state tournaments.

That, in a nutshell, is what the 2011 SunDome Shootout will be. Hosted by the Zillah basketball program and sponsored by Wilbur-Ellis, the event will feature 14 games — seven each on the boys’ and girls’ courts — on Thursday, and 14 more on Friday.

Some of the events will be of particular interest to locals either because of competition between Valley teams that don’t typically play except in special events like this one or because of intriguing matchups involving ranked teams from else.

Some of the games that figure to be of greatest interest include Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. boys matchup between White Swan — a contender for the Class 2B state title — against undefeated Granger, one of the top teams in the state’s 1A ranks. That game will follow another matchup of likely state-tourney teams, Zillah and 2A power White River, and be followed by La Salle against Lakeside.

The girls’ court will have its own dramatic matchups. On Thursday, La Salle — last spring’s third-place trophy winner — faces fellow 1A contender Vashon Island and Granger, a top-four state 1A placer for four straight years, goes against perennial power (now 2B) Colfax.

On Friday, Zillah will face Lakeside and La Salle plays Deer Park.

Prep basketball rounup: Davis boys win at North Idaho tournament

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — David Trimble scored 16 points, Devonte Luckett had 15 and LaVonte Allen added 12 as Davis bounced back from its first loss of the season Tuesday with 64-50 victory against Redmond (Ore.) at the North Idaho College Tournament.

The Pirates (5-1) today will play host Coeur d’Alene, a 62-38 winner against Foster.

DAVIS — David Trimble 16, Devonte Luckett 15, LeVonte Allen 12, Navarro 9, Acosta 4, Perea-Vijarro 4, Wright 3, Kupp 1, Lizotte 0, Jones 0, Knox 0.

Redmond — Tanner Manselle 12, Genz 10, Brown 7, Tavita 5, Reed 6, Jackson 4, Rodby 2, Lau 2, Bowman 1, Powell 1, Bordges 0.

Davis 16 15 19 14 — 64

Redmond quarter scores not available — 50

 

AUBURN 55, EISENHOWER 47: At Wenatchee, Wash., Harold Lee had 18 points and Nik Edwardson 14 to lead Auburn past Eisenhower (1-7) in the Wenatchee Holiday Tournament.

No individual statistics were reported for Ike, which plays Puyallup today.

EISENHOWER — Not reported.

AUBURN — Fisher 8, Ruffin 7, Harold Lee 18, Nik Edwardson 14, Frye 0, Maynard 0, Momi 0, Prater 0, Williams 0.

Eisenhower 8 10 7 22 — 47

Auburn 14 11 16 14 — 55

 

KITTITAS 59, PATEROS 53: At Kittitas, Wash., Isaac Johnson had a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds while adding four assists to help Kittitas (3-3) even its record.

Chance Foreman added 12 points and eight rebounds, and Michael Dohrman had 11 points for the Coyotes.

PATEROS — Ceniceros 6, Piechalski 2, Blaine Harvey 17, Wilson 2, Evans 0, Rylan Easter 26, Caballero 0, Marquez 0.

KITTITAS — Leaton 2, Driver 4, Chance Forman 12, McDaniel 0, Guisti 0, Grindrod 7, McIrvin 7, Michael Dohrman 11, Poole 0, Eslinger 1, Isaac Johnson 15.

Pateros 12 11 15 15 — 53

Kittitas 16 17 12 14 — 59

Highlights: Johnson (K) 10 reb., 4 assists; Foreman (K) 8 reb., Ty Poole (K) 8 reb.

 

NORTH CENTRAL 2B

WHITE SWAN 65, SOAP LAKE 41: At Soap Lake, Wash., Lawrence Fiander had a strong all-around game with 22 points, six steals and six assists, and Leandro Huereca added 21 points as White Swan (5-1) rolled in the league game.

WHITE SWAN — Leandro Huereca 21, K. Lewis 0, Lawrence Fiander 22, Zunga 3, Price 4, N. Lewis 8, Hull 5, Phillips 2, Andy 0.

SOAP LAKE — Besset 0, Coreas 3, Kapalo 0, King 6, Jason Kornaychuk 26, Korolak 3, Decker 3.

White Swan 16 19 16 14 — 65

Soap Lake 13 8 10 10 — 41

Highlights: Fiander (WS) 6 steals, 6 assists; Johnny Zuniga (WS) 8 reb.; Price (WS) 8 reb.

 

GIRLS

DAVIS 62, LAPWAI, Idaho 55: At the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the Pirates got tremendously balanced scoring with four players in double digits to win the game in the North Idaho Invitational Tournament.

Heidi Ceja scored 12 points and was joined in double figures by Alexis Perez and Katie Fowler with 11 points each and Cierra Juarez with 10.

Davis (3-3 overall) will play at 3 p.m. against Federal Way in the same tournament.

DAVIS — Cierra Juarez 10, Alexis Perez 11, Salazar 8, Alvarado 0, Braaten 8, Heidi Ceja 12, Katie Fowler 11, Johnson 2.

LAPWAI — not available.

Davis 11 15 25 11 — 62

Lapwai 17 11 6 21 — 55

 

KITTITAS 50, PATEROS 23: At Kittitas, Wash., Dakota Adams led Kittitas (3-3) with 14 points, six rebounds and six steals.

Jessica Lawrence added 10 points and six assists for the Coyotes, who allowed Pateros just 13 points over the final three quarters.

PATEROS — Bruno 0, Dowers 2, Wilson 2, Vasquez 7, Le Doux 4, Villa 8, Armstrong 0.

KITTITAS — Kilgore 6, Steiner 6, Reno 4, Dakota Adams 14, Jessica Lawrence 10, Ash. Sabin 2, O’Shaughnessy 6, Lakula 0, Baker 2, Al. Sabin 0.

Pateros 10 4 6 3 — 23

Kittitas 17 13 12 8 — 50

Highlights: Adams (K) 6 reb., 6 steals; Tori O’Shaughnessy (K) 6 reb.; Kilgore (K) 5 steals; Lawrence (K) 6 assists.

 

NORTH CENTRAL 2B

WHITE SWAN 67, SOAP LAKE 18: At Soap Lake, Wash., Amber Jones had 23 points, nine assists, seven steals and six rebounds, and Emily Botkins added 17 points and six rebounds as White Swan (5-1) rolled in the league contest.

Evelyn Hawk and Almarae Swan added 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Cougars.

WHITE SWAN — Evelyn Hawk 12, Almarae Swan 11, Scabbyrobe 5, Spencer 0, Van Pelt 0, C. Jones 2, Sutterlict 0, Sheppard 0, Amber Jones 23, Emily Botkins 17.

SOAP LAKE — Piedra 4, Ramm 5, Shityba 9, Caballo 0, Kornychuk 0, Crane 0, Mickle 0.

White Swan 30 18 12 7 — 67

Soap Lake 5 8 2 3 — 18

Highlights: C. Jones (WS) 8 reb., 9 steals; A. Jones (WS) 9 assists, 7 steals, 6 reb.; Botkin (WS) 6 reb.

 

Valley’s state-ranked wrestlers

Heading into the Christmas break, here is a list of the Valley’s wrestlers in the top 10 of the all-classification rankings compiled by washingtonwrestlingreport.com I’ve included season records based on reported results.

BOYS

106: 7, Fidel Medina, Grandview (7-1).
113: 8, Joshua Salcedo, Granger (12-0).
132: 6, Cortez Hernandez, Zillah (14-1).
132: 10, Nathan Gonzalez, Sunnyside (12-2).
152: 8, Austin Wagner, Davis (9-1).
160: 9, Humberto Acevedo, Eisenhower (10-2).
182: 3, Tyler Coates, Ellensburg (8-0).
220: 1, Nate Sorensen, Kittitas (0-0).

Notes: Sorensen has recovered from an elbow injury that sidelined him for the entire football season and has been cleared to return to competition in January. … Tournaments this week: Hanford Winter Cup (Wednesday), Eastmont Cat Classic (Friday). … Hernandez and two unbeaten teammates — Shane McMurray (15-0) and Josh Aho (14-0) — will compete in the Pac Coast tournament at Hudson’s Bay on Thursday and Friday.

GIRLS

100: 2, Isabel Nunez, Eisenhower (6-0).
100: 9, Aimee Silva, Davis.
106: 7, Cynthia Montiel, Toppenish.
112: 8, Mary Gutierrez, Mabton.
118: 9, Jesenia Meza, Mabton.

Note: Nunez and Silva will compete in the West Coast tournament at Mountain View on Thursday and Friday.

As clear as mud: White Salmon River a polarizing subject

UNDERWOOD, Wash. — Once a steelheader’s paradise, now a century’s worth of silt.

That’s the way anglers look at the White Salmon River, bemoaning its present condition. Fish biologists and hydrologists look at it and see a bright future.

Avid fisherman Ken Taylor can’t count the number of times he’s made the two-hour drive from his Selah home to the mouth of the White Salmon — the big White Salmon in angler parlance, to delineate it from the Little White Salmon five miles to the west — in pursuit of steelhead or chinook.

Two months after Condit Dam was breached, though, looking at the sediment that has filled in the river channel, Taylor thinks those days are over.

“It was beautiful, probably one of the most beautiful spots in the world to fish up in that gorge, big boulders and pools,” Taylor says, adding that the dam’s Oct. 26 breaching “pretty much killed that.”

The first 300 yards upstream from the Highway 14 bridge, once 18 to 20 feet deep and a popular trolling spot for boating anglers, now just has a few inches of water running over a deep bed of sediment. Most of the estimated 2.4 million cubic yards of silt that accrued over 98 years in the man-made, 92-acre Northwestern Lake above Condit has now moved into or through the 3.3 miles of lower river.

“They took (the dam) out for fish passage, but fish can’t swim in two or three inches of water,” Taylor says. “It’s just a solid mud flat with three or four inches of water right now. They’re going to have to dredge that out.”

Anglers have long flocked to the White Salmon for winter steelhead, for hatchery steelies released below the dam, for its fall chinook fisheries on tules and upriver brights, and for the ultra-popular summer-run salmon escaping the Bonneville pool’s warm waters by “dipping in” to the White Salmon’s cool, glacier-fed waters.

Those days are gone.

Doug Pidduck of Yakima, a former state president of Northwest Steelheaders and the current Yakima chapter president of the Coastal Conservation Association, said he thinks it will be “probably 20 years” before the river will be reopened for any kind of fishing season.

Federal and state fisheries biologists, though, have a completely different view of the results of the breaching, which was done to open up 33 miles of additional salmonid spawning and rearing habitat.

Although there’s been only one heavy rain event since the breaching, they say, far more of the sediment build-up had already flowed downriver — including a lot of large boulders and rocky “cobble” — than hydrologists had expected by this time.

“One thing right now folks have to realize, we still haven’t gotten any sort of rain to speak of (since the late-November gully-washer),” says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rod Engle. “When I went up to White Salmon last week, I expected to see change but not a whole lot, and what I saw was the river — really at base-flow levels for the winter — is actively recovering.

“River are meant to move rock. That’s one of their huge purposes: They move rock,” he said. “What we’re seeing, at the tip of the reservoir the river has cut down and is back to finding its historical streambed elevation. We expected that to happen fairly quickly — I think some of us thought it would occur in about a year — and it’s probably near or at that level now … and it’s been, what, seven or eight weeks.

“So to me it looks like this is actually progressing very quickly, even though we haven’t had many flows. Once La Niña starts to show its force, we’re going to see a lot more sediment move out.”

The river just needs “some ‘pineapple express’ type events, rain-on-snow events to keep this stuff moving,” says fish biologist John Weinheimer of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Around Thanksgiving we had that high water, and since then we’ve been basically in a drought down here.”

Weinheimer says the “refugia” — the cooler, glacial-melt tributary waters sought by sweltering summer salmon in the Bonneville pool, and where anglers have traditionally had fishing success — will still exist. And anglers will find it.

It will just be in a different place.

The sediment bar pushing out from the mouth of the White Salmon into the Columbia could well become the new congregating point for those “dipping-in” salmon and steelhead.

“We don’t know how big that bar’s going to be yet, and exactly how the mouth of that river is going to end up,” Weinheimer says. “You’re still going to have that cold water coming down, but how it enters the Columbia and how it settles out is something we won’t know until next year, or the next couple of years, as this thing forms itself. We’re still going to have salmon and steelhead that want that cold water. How they’re going to enter and hold in that river is the big unknown.”

But the fish will eventually figure it out and so, too, will the fishermen who want to catch them, Weinheimer says.

“As a fishermen, we — because I’m a fisherman, too — we’re going to have to relearn to fish that river,” he says. “Guys had figured it out and were real successful at what they were doing. Give this some time and I know those same fishermen will figure it out.”

Considering the state of the sediment-filled mouth of the White Salmon River right now, though, makes it hard for anglers like Ken Taylor to imagine it ever returning to the angler’s Eden it once was before the removal of the Condit Dam.

“That just destroyed one of our best fisheries for steelhead,” Taylor says. “Everybody knew that was going to happen. That just makes me sick to my stomach.

“Just another good place gone.”

 

• Outdoors editor Scott Sandsberry can be reached at 509-577-7689 or ssandsberry@yakimaherald.com.

Phillips: Remembering a year of outdoor adventures

YAKIMA, Wash. — Another year is just about in the books, and as it winds down it’s always fun to try to reminisce about the many great days spent on the water and in the field during the past 12 months. I say try because the older I get, the more difficult it is to remember the details of each fishing and hunting trip. Some definitely stick out, though.

It’s easy to relive and enjoy those several great days of fishing for spring chinook salmon down at the Wind River. One day included hooking nine big, bright salmon and landing seven, but never being able to catch that eighth fish that would have been a limit for our boat of four anglers.

Trout fishing at Rufus Woods was good last spring, too, catching lots of the big, football-shaped triploid trout that live in the waters below Grand Coulee Dam.

There were a couple of fun summer salmon trips, too, including one below Wells Dam where not only were the big kings biting, but we had all kinds of fun action catching the sockeye salmon there.

Fishing some of the streams around the area was great fun as well, even if not all of them were filled with biting fish. But during the sweltering days of summer, wading one of the local streams up in the Cascades is a nice change of pace. Sometimes it is just good to get out.

I was also able to take my sons Kyle and Kevin up to Alaska for a few days to do some fishing. It had been something we wanted to do for a while, but with my work, their school, and then their work, it had been difficult to pull together. We made it happen in June, with some halibut fishing near Homer and salmon fishing on the Kenai Peninsula. We caught some fish, but the best part was spending the time together on a father/son trip with no work or school hanging over our heads.

Summer steelhead fishing was fun and productive at times. Here’s where I get a little foggy. I know I caught several steelhead, because I have been smoking steelhead fillets during the holidays, but it seems those days came and went so quickly they all kind of blur together.

September brought the first of the hunting seasons with some good dove hunting early on, and since I only hunted doves one day, I can remember it like it was yesterday.

Then it was quickly time to start after big game …but the elk and deer in this area were extra tough to find this year. I can definitely remember the spike elk I had in the sights of my muzzleloader at 40 yards and, just as I was about to squeeze the trigger, the wind swirled and he was gone. In the moments that followed, I remember thinking, Did that really just happen, or was I imagining it?

Fortunately I was able to put some venison in the freezer, though, after a fun, successful hunt to Montana in November with Kyle and the Jewetts, Doug and Brandon. Since it happened about a month ago, I can definitely remember everything about that hunt, including the sub-zero temperatures and the four-mile hike back to the rig with the solid weight of a meat-filled backpack.

Upland bird hunting started out better than anyone expected and has been relatively good through the season. A little snow in the final days would sure help slow those wild pheasants down a little, but there seems to be plenty of birds around, so it always boosts the morale of both hunter and dog to see, and smell, all the birds.

Waterfowl hunting also started out with a bang. Lots of local birds gave hunters plenty of action and, for some, the good shooting has lasted through the season. The duck population in particular has been bolstered in recent weeks by the arrival of the “northerners” — ducks from Canada and other parts north. In fact, biologists with the Department of Fish and Wildlife say Washington is due to have the best fall flight of migrating ducks since 1955.

I was on the Snake River near Pasco last week doing some fishing with friends, and we saw literally thousands of mallards lining the shorelines of the river. That part of the river is closed to hunting, of course, but that tells you the northerners have arrived. So do the WDFW reports of upwards of 30,000 mallards in and around Potholes Reservoir during the first week of December.

With many of the local ponds now iced over, the best hunting in the area will be found on the open creeks and drains, or down along the Columbia near Paterson.

Most of the big-game hunting seasons are closed for the year, but the upland hunting seasons are open until mid-January (except on portions of the Yakama Reservation which close on Dec. 31) and waterfowl hunting goes until Jan. 29.

I hope you had time to make some outdoor memories this year. If not, there is still time to do so. And with a new year at our doorsteps, why not make a resolution to get out and make some memories in 2012. Best wishes and good luck in the New Year.

 

• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.

12/27/11 — Outdoors What’s Happening

Discover Pass needed to watch elk

The winter elk feeding program at the Oak Creek Wildlife Area headquarters hasn’t begun for the season, there having been minimal snowfall in the lowlands so far this winter. But when it does, people coming out to watch the elk will need something they’ve never needed before: a Discover Pass.

The new state pass, which generates operating funds for Washington State Parks, the Department of Natural Resources and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, went into effect last summer. And while Oak Creek officials and the WDFW haven’t been sticklers about requiring a WDFW access in the past, they will be with the Discover Pass.

“In the past, we would remove the requirement for the WDFW pass for viewers, but we don’t really have that ability any more,” said Ross Huffman, Oak Creek Wildlife Area manager. “It’s required on state lands now.”

An annual Discover Pass is $30 (plus $5 in transaction and dealer fees) for an annual pass, or $10 ($11.50 with fees) for a one-day pass. Any vehicle parked within the Oak Creek Wildlife Area must have a Discover Pass or WDFW access pass (which comes with a hunting or fishing license) visible.

Huffman said he didn’t anticipate the elk feeding program to get going before late January, considering the mild early winter weather.

 

Mount Rainier ranger honored

A Mount Rainier National Park ranger was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard’s Certificate of Valor last month for his actions last summer in rescuing a motorist who had fallen asleep at the wheel and driven off the park’s Nisqually Road and landed upside down in the Nisqually River.

The ranger, Peter Maggio, was one of the first to arrive at the vehicle in the river, flower with glacier runoff and the driver trapped, felted into his seat upside down, as water rushed into the broken back window. Maggio donned swift-water gear and entered the river, broke away the rest of the rear window and slipped into the vehicle. He cut away the seatbelt while struggling to keep the driver’s head above water and, after several tries, was able to cut the seatbelt and pull the driver free.

The driver was treated for hypothermia and helicoptered to a hospital.

Maggio began as a seasonal ranger at Colorado’s Dinosaur National Park in 2003 and in 2008 became a permanent ranger at Mount Rainier in summers and at Texas’ Big Bend National Park in winters.

 

BIRD ALERT

The big bird news this week comes from Palmer Lake in northern Okanogan County and, while it’s a little bit outside of Yakima County, it’s a rare enough bird sighting to warrant talking about. The Ross’s gull, an East Siberian arctic species that normally winters at sea, has only been documented one previous time in Washington state and that was in late November and early December of 1994, near McNary Dam on the Columbia River. Jeff Heinlen, the biologist who first spotted the little gull observed “This is like a holiday present for bird watchers. This is arguably the rarest bird currently in the state, and definitely worth a trip to the area to catch a sighting.”

A little closer to home we have reports from a local birder who spied a small bird on an upper limb of the huge elm tree on Fisher Golf Course’s fourth fairway. It was determined to be a merlin, once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk, plucking and eating prey. The birder was surprised to see a second merlin perched atop a conifer no more than twenty yards west of the elm. It is rare to see two merlins that close together outside the breeding season.

We also had a report of a northern saw-whet owl roosting on the exact same juniper twig that was used last year, about 10 miles south of Yakima in the Parker Heights area.

Please call bird sightings in to the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 509-248-1963.

— Kerry L. Turley

 

AROUND AND ABOUT

BOAT CLUB PROGRAM: Sgt. James Scott of the Yakima County Sheriff’s marine patrol unit will present a program on boating safety at the January meeting of the Yakima Valley Boat Club, open to the public at 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday (Jan. 3) at the Yakima Valley Museum, 2105 Tieton Dr., Yakima. Scott will discuss safety tips, regulations and safety-standards enforcement within Yakima County. For more information on the YVBC or the presentation, call JB Hanna at 509-713-3213. LATER: The boat club’s next public meeting, set for Marcy 6, will feature a presentation by the Bureau of Reclamation’s Chris Lynch regarding water maintenance at Rimrock Lake.

STURGEON RULES: Washington and Oregon officials will possible changes to sturgeon sport-fishing regulations at a Jan. 26 joint state hearing Jan. 26 in Oregon City. The reservoir behind Bonneville Dam in the Columbia Gorge has an abundant population of sturgeon, numbering about 50,000 legal-size (38 to 54 inches) fish and more than 300,000 overall. The sport retention guideline has increased from 700 in 2009 to 1,400 in 2010 and 2,000 this year, with sturgeon retention to open Jan. 1 on a daily basis.

 

ON THE CALENDAR

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies will head out to Oak Creek Road for a trek most suitable for trail conditions, which at this point looks like it will probably be a hike. For meeting time and place, call Rudy Labernik at 509-248-7304.

SUNDAY, JAN. 1: If you’re planning ahead for a New Year’s Day outing, whether it’s to welcome in the new year with a bang or to clear any residual cloudiness from celebrating the end of the old one, the Cascadians have their annual New Year’s Day cross-country ski trek at Round Mountain. For meeting time and place, call Mike or Sue at 509-972-2615.

JAN. 28: Just looking ahead here, this is when the Cascadians and the cross-country ski council will host their White Pass Cross-Country Ski Jamboree that has become so popular with beginning XC skiers the last few years. We’ll have more on the particulars as it gets closer. But if you’ve been putting off learning to XC ski, the last Saturday in January would be a great place to start.

Quarterback Club to meet Tuesday this week

YAKIMA, Wash. — The Monday Morning Quarterback club has moved its weekly meeting this week to Tuesday at 7:15 a.m. to accomodate the Christmas holiday.

The club meets at Shari’s restaurant at 1402 Lakeside Court near the intersection of Fruitvale Blvd. and N. 40th Ave. All in-season coaches and sports fans are invited.

What to watch for in the NBA this season

Michael Moreno/Toppenish High School

YAKIMA, Wash. — After a delayed start because of a months-long lockout, the NBA season finally starts on Christmas day.

Here are some of the things to look out for while watching the games.

1. How Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers respond to their conference finals loss to the eventual champs, the Dallas Mavericks. Will being swept by the Mavs give Kobe the motivation and hunger to go after a sixth championship, or will this season be the beginning of a decline in his career? Stay on the lookout for Kobe and his team.

2. Derrick Rose’s season as reigning MVP. Will he defend this title well, or will he disappoint his fans and confirm his critics skepticism? The addition of Richard Hamilton to Chicago might help Rose and the Bulls be a threat this season.

3. The Miami Heat vs. the Dallas Mavericks. Will this be the season of redemption for LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh (collectively known as The Big Three), or will the Mavs again show that they are the better team? With the additions of Vince Carter and Lamar Odom to the Dallas team, combined with the virtually invisible offseason moves for Miami (with the exception of Shane Battier to add to the Heat’s defense), the edge goes to the Mavs. Sure, the Heat have James and Wade, but how well they come back to the court this season will be the biggest question.

4. Chris Paul’s first game for the Los Angeles Clippers. Will Paul and Blake Griffin play just like Paul and Tyson Chandler did when the two played for the New Orleans Hornets? It will take some time for Paul and Griffin to mesh, but it could eventually happen, and the pair could be just what’s needed for the suddenly resurgent Clippers to be relevant in the league.

• Michael Moreno is a student at Toppenish High School and a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed youth journalism program.

Familiar faces at Davis-Ike game; CWU men head north

Holidays are great for a lot of reasons, including seeing college students while they’re home on break.
And one of my all-time favorite Davis Pirates, Jackson Marquis, stopped by to say hello at the recent Davis-Ike basketball game.
Jackson’s going to the University of Washington and said he’s considering business as a major. He went to several Husky football games and testified to the athleticism of some of the Dawgs, saying he’s played with or against them in intramural or pickup basketball games.
Of course, Jackson exchanged warm greetings with coach Eli Juarez and several of his teammates, then cheered Davis on to a rousing victory while wearing a purple and gold UW cap.
Afterward, Juarez said he’d enjoyed seeing Jackson as well as Markus McClurkin and Amaris Carter, the only seniors on last season’s Pirates squad that placed fifth in the Class 4A state tournament.
“All of what this team has been recognized for, with the ranking (No. 1 by The Seattle Times) and all, those guys were an important part of it,” he said. “They helped this group get to the position it’s in now.”

CENTRAL HOOPS’ LONG AND WINDING ROAD
NCAA Division II regulations, with the intention of providing athletes time with families and friends on Christmas, forbid team activities including travel for five days leading up to the holiday, plus one after.
So Central Washington’s men, who last week played in the Great Western Shootout in Las Vegas, have according to coach Greg Sparling been shut down since Tuesday and will remain so until midnight Monday.
“We stayed in Vegas, rented a gym and practiced for three days after the shootout,” Sparling said. “Everybody headed home on Monday afternoon. We’ll meet up again on the 27th (Tuesday) at Sea-Tac for what’s arguably one of the toughest road trips in (NCAA) Division II basketball.”
Since the Wildcats must fly to Anchorage, Alaska for a Thursday night GNAC game with the Seawolves, Sparling sought a travel exemption for Monday that the NCAA denied.
So, he hopes to remove some of the layoff rust via practices Tuesday and Wednesday in Anchorage, plus a pregame shootaround Thursday.
CWU then flies to Fairbanks for a New Year’s Eve matchup with the Nanooks. The game is scheduled for 1 p.m., Alaska standard time.
Sparling thought he’d get his guys home for New Year’s Day, but later was informed that a flight he’d booked for the night of the game had been cancelled.
“So we’re spending New Year’s Eve in Fairbanks,” he said. “I’m a little nervous about our timing being off a little after the layoff, and with the trip up there you’re always keeping an eye on the weather. But we’ll get through it.
“And I’d rather get that trip out of the way sooner rather than later.”
The Wildcats are 7-3 overall and 1-1 in the GNAC, with their conference loss coming to a Western Oregon team that’s 9-2 (2-0 GNAC) under first-year coach Brady Bergeson.

FROM THE QUOTE FILE
“The loneliest feeling in the world is being the only man between Earl Monroe and the basket.”
— Bill Russell

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