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Mosher archives
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This crazy world drives me wild
I’m in one of those moods where not much means much anymore. It’s all right to feel this way as long as you stay away from tall bridges and even taller buildings.
What has gotten me to this point, I believe, is all the things I see and read these days. I gobble up everything I can that’s in print or online and try hard without a lot of success to stay away from the terrible news that fills up the cable news 24/7 and can give you a stiff dose of depression in a hurry if you stay too long.
The other night I watched a show that was not news or sports for the first time in a long, long time, and I actually started to relax a bit even though the show was full of shoot-’em-up scenes and the bad guys being handcuffed by the good guys before they could use their homemade bombs to blow up us regular people.
The news from around the world of floods, fires, earthquakes, wars and famine shook me the night I was watching a collection of news headlines and realized this all sounded a little too close to the end times the Bible talks about to suit me. So for emotional relief I switched to sports news where athletes were only losing their seasons to injuries and to battles with the law over their criminal activity. That sure picked me up.
Then there’s the incredible amount of greed in this age we live in. Prices keep going up while the product keeps getting smaller. Minerva, my 81-year-old sister, was recently in the hospital back east and had no TV or phone in her room because she would have had to pay an extra $10 a day for them. She had a phone, but could only receive calls. If she made a call, bingo, she would be billed $10.
Wow, even the sick are getting taken.
Then there is the Chelsea Clinton wedding to consider. It reportedly cost between 3 to 5 million. About the same time, Michelle Obama went on vacation to Spain, a trip that cost God only knows, but likely in excess of $150,000. a New York Daily News columnist called her “A modern-day Marie Antoinette.”
Is there no shame in these bad economic times of the Great Recession? I mean c’mon, the long list of jobless is swelling upwards, companies are failing, and the rich and greedy show by their actions they don’t care. Let the middle class, the poor grovel.
When will it end? Maybe I would be better off if would just divorce myself from news and wander off into the forest somewhere, or maybe to some remote beach where the only seen violence is seagulls dropping clams on rocks so they can eat, and the greed would only be a distant nightmare.
But it’s difficult to feed two teenage kids from the solitude of a remote beach, so I guess I’m stuck here in Bumerton while the rest of the people my age golf for six months around here and six months more a year down south where the weather is warm and the food is even warmer.
Am I jealous of those who have more than enough to play in retirement in sun and fun? You betcha, as one former Alaska governor would say.
Life, though, isn’t always fair and so we do what we need to do to do the right thing even as the world crumples around us in greed, floods, fires, earthquakes, wars and famine, rattling the nerves and giving us wonder to what else can be added to climate warming before everything falls apart in one giant bursting ball of horror.
There is at least one important person out there in readership land who wishes I would lighten up and quit writing about the sad things that I see all around me. So for that person, I will try to snap out of my depression right before your eyes, ignoring the bumblebee who right now is trying to experiment with my flesh even as I write this.
He just went out the window. So I guess I’m safe, for now.
I saw the other day a preseason all-state high school football list. I wasn’t surprised that Central Kitsap senior Brett McDonald was listed on the defensive team. McDonald is the younger brother of Howie McDonald, who terrorized the gridiron around here both as a running back and linebacker and is now using his considerable talent as a sophomore linebacker for Eastern Oregon in La Grande. And the talent level doesn’t drop off in the McDonald family, so expect Brett to have a wonderful season for the CK Cougars, barring injury (knock on wood).
As I watched the good guys blow away the bad guys on that TV program, my mind wandered to sports (as it always does) and I couldn’t help think that the population shift around ere has certainly juggled school classifications for athletics.
North Kitsap, thanks to the relatively new district high school – Kingston – has slid down the athletic totem pole from 4A to 2A. I would have never thought that would happen in a million years. Then, again, I never thought we’d spend almost a decade fighting a meaningless war in Afghanistan, so what do I know?
Poor Bremerton, which has struggled with its overall athletic program for some time now, is still 3A, but barely. That means the Knights will have to battle much bigger 3A schools to get into the postseason, which is a tough enough challenge already but now is double tough.
There are now just two 4A schools left here – Central Kitsap and South Kitsap. I don’t know how CK manages to be 4A with sister district schools Klahowya and Olympic hanging around, but it has done it. Maybe it’s because the school is seen as very attractive academically and parents try hard for their kids to land there.
I can understand why South Kitsap remains 4A. It has a district that stretches almost to Purdy and to Gorst and Belfair in a large arching triangle that covers a lot of homes and territory. South is the second largest school by enrollment (2,335 students) in the state, only behind Marysville (2,560 students), which is in the center of that large growth that stretches up the I-5 corridor from Seattle to Mount Vernon.
Bremerton, by the way, is the second smallest 3A school with 1,092 students. Juanita, with four fewer students, is last among the 67 3As. When I say Bremerton is the smallest that is not really true in the truest of sense because some schools have opted to play up a classification even through their enrollment doesn’t fit 3A (1, 086 to 1,303). Twenty-four of the 67 schools have opted up, including Lakeside with 382 students, the smallest by enrollment of the 3As.
Mount Vernon made 3A right on the button, with the maximum level of 1,303 students. So if you go by enrollment as a means of determining success in athletics, then expect Mount Vernon to be hanging around the trophy room for at least the next two years. That might especially apply for football, where large numbers can help overwhelm a determined, but decidedly smaller school.
This thought just popped in my head: how would you like to see South Kitsap play a school like Raymond (125 students) in football? I didn’t think so.
Olympic (1,079), Port Angeles (1,066) and North Kitsap (1,044) are the three biggest 2A schools in the Olympic League, but are not much smaller than Bremerton. Sequim has 772 and Kingston 702 students. North Mason is at 641 and Klahowya has 573.
Bainbridge plays in the powerful Metro League as a 3A with 1,121 students.
Port Townsend (432) and Chimacum (283) are 1A schools. Crosspoint Academy is a 2B school with 105 students.
Two other things before I let you go.
I find it amusing how writers and broadcasters and online writers can go from so much hope for the Seattle Mariners in the spring to where they are grousing now how bad the M’s are, mainly because they don’t have any pop in their lineup.
Where were all these people this past spring? Where they all out playing golf, instead of watching the team work out in Arizona?
I know it’s easy to get brainwashed when you are covering a team. You get too close and start to believe all that is said without trusting your eyes. I’ve had to fight that urge in the 29 years I was around the club.
There were people forecasting a possible pennant for the Mariners as they came out of spring training. No way, Jose. I’m a firm believer that power (pop) makes contenders. Sure, you have to have pitching. Pitching is the main key. But without any power in the lineup, you are inviting disaster.
And the Mariners were courting disaster when they left Arizona.
Now everybody who was on the Mariners’ bandwagon out of Arizona, are finally getting off and complaining about the lack of power.
Well, no kidding.
Second is the Seattle Seahawks. No matter what happens during the regular season, the Hawks are sure different with the smiling, gregarious Pete Carroll at the helm. They are doing things the Carroll Way, and while that may not produce the wins fans are all hungry for, it sure has been fun seeing the fun the team is having while it builds toward the regular season.
If positive attitude and a great atmosphere are key ingredients for success, the Hawks may fly this winter.
Hey, I’m feeling much better. The fog of darkness has lifted, the sun is out, and maybe I might even do a dance on the lawn.
Have a great month.
You are loved.
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RAMBLINGS
June 23 --- What are we doing in Afghanistan and Iraq? We should never have gone into these two countries. We need to get out. Now. We are killing our ecomony and our sons and daughters, and for what? Let the terrorist devils have Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, too. We can't fight these devils by ourselves. Unless the rest of the common sense world wakes up to the threat they pose (read Russia and China), then we should leave them alone and let them do what they do best --- kill people. Only when the rest of the world is directly affected, will they wake up. In the meantime, bring out people home, repair the damage to our economy, and build our strength back up for the larger war that is sure to come. This country needs jobs. And some day, our government will wake up and send all the necessary resources and manpower down to the Gulf of Mexico and repair another threat to our way of life --- leaking oil. That should have been done from day one. What is going on here? Do something.
June 11 --- So now the powerful college football industry starts to raid its own in search of the all-mighty dollar. What happens, I wonder, when the CFI runs out of schools to raid? Will the industry then collapse like a house of cards? The human nature in all of us seek bigger-is-better in everything we do. But at some point we run out of bigger-and-better and then we implode. Just like the stock market, just like the Lehman Brothers and all the rest of the big corporations, including banks, who can't resist the greed that also is in all of us.
June 8 --- Would have loved to be a fly on the wall at the Seattle Mariners war room for the 2010 draft. Twice the Tampa Bay Rays snatched local players from the Mariners. The Rays took Central Kitsap produce Drew Vettleson with the 42nd pick, just in front of the Mariners' 43rd selection. Then the Rays took Highline High School's Ryan Brett with the 98th pick, just in front of the Mariners' 99th selection. Wow! The Rays also took Josh Sale of Bishop Blanchet High School with their first draft choice (17th overall). I guess you can say the Rays' spotlight shined bright over the Pacific Northwest.
June 2 --- Ken Griffey Jr. has retired. A great guy and a great baseball player certain to be in the Hall of Fame, but at this point in his career he was done, and he finally realized it. It's sad when great athletes get old and can not do anymore what made them great. But Griffey certainly will be remembered for a long time. I never seen a better centerfielder (I did not see Willie Mays play in person). He was incredible. And he had a sweet swing, with a load of power. And he was great around the clubhouse and with the media. It was fun knowing you Ken, take care.
May 1 --- The Kentucky Derby runs today and sad to say I don't have the winner. Last year while watching the pre-race broadcast for the Belmont Stakes the winner came to me just like things do on occasion. Telephathy, the words Summer Bird were placed in my mind and while the network broadcasters were predicting who was going to win, I started yelling at the TV screen: "Summer Bird, Summer Bird, Summer Bird, is going to win." No one heard me, of course. Knowing the winner in advance took all the fun out of watching the race unfold. It was like watching a replay for the 1,000th time. So the good thing about not knowning the winner in advance, I get to enjoy the actual race.
April 8 --- Impressed with the large amount of good things and meetings with key people he attends, I emailed a mayor of one of our local cities to ask him how he does it. Where does this guy get all the time to do all these things? I should have known better. He's way too busy to email me back. At least I now know how he does it all; he cuts out people like me.
April 6 --- Is it amazing when good, Christian people turn their back on health care reform? I've heard some of them complain about giving health care to the poor and, yes, to those who refuse to work for whatever reason. Their argument is that they work hard for what they have, including good health care, and those that don't work as hard (or not at all) don't deserve to have the same health care as they do. What happen, I say, to those good, Christian values? Should we not help others? These Christians who turn their back on others should ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" Those in Congress who voted against health care reform, should ask themselves the same question. Any time you can help, that is good, right?
April 5 --- We need to leave Afghanistan. Our economy is in shambles and we are spending far too much money trying to bring democracy to a country that has never had that and resists it even as we try to impose it. On top of that, its president (Hamid Karzai) rails against us and threatens to join the Taliban. Let's get out of there. Leave that part of the world to the evil forces. At least then the the rest of the civilized world will finally realize only a truly combined effort against the evil will do. As it is, we are almost alone in combating forces that we likely cannot defeat by brute force, unless we destroy the whole country.
FEBRUARY 26 --- Until Mark McGwire comes clean and admits that he took illegal drugs not only to boost healing time but to enhance his performance in baseball, I will refuse to vote him into the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure that if he hadn't done drugs he would have been good enough to make the Hall. But as long as he continues in denial, than he will never get my vote.
February 23 --- FDR once said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. This was said during the Great Depression. There also was this story of that time: A man sold hotdogs on the streets of New York and was so successful at it he was able to send his son to Harvard. The son was there for a couple years studying economics and came home for a spring break to find his dad still selling hot dogs and still making a big profit. He was agast. He had learned in economics that because the country was in a depression it was difficult to get work and stay in business. He told his dad, "You can't sell hot dogs. We're in a depression." The father, assuming his son knew what he was talking about because he was going to Harvard and studying economics, quickly closed up and quit selling hot dogs. Soon, the man didn't have enough money to afford to keep his son at Harvard. So soon enough both father and son were homeless. The lesson, as FDR said, is the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So get with it.
February 23 ---Why is everybody except Sarah Palin afraid to hit Iran? Now, I don't want to be associated with Palin, but she is right on this one. The later the world waits to do something about Iran's Nuclear ambition, the tougher it will be to do anything. A nuclear Iran will be very dangerous. So why wait? Do something.
January 13 --- It is impossible to know why bad things always happen in Haiti. I feel for the loss this earthquake dealt it. It's tough to go to sleep at night knowing the death and destruction that has occured there. I have a sister-in-law who goes there every year on a mission. Now the mission is more important than usual. I expect she might go there soon.
January 12--- After years of research and study on the topic, I have finally concluded legendary Bremerton basketball coach Ken Wills killed himself in 1962 because he thought his world had ended. According to a person who spoke with Wills the day after he was informed he was no longer the West Bremerton HS coach, but was now the coach at Olympic College, he was extremely depressed over the situation. He came to this person's house and was as low mentally as this person ever saw him. He said he wasn't wanted at West (the administration and some of the educators there wanted him gone because he had gotten too big) and he wasn't wanted at OC (players there wanted another guy who was the assistant there). Wills had created a Hall of Fame career at West and going to OC was a step backwards in his mind. And now they didn't even want him there. That leaves only one question, which will always be left unanswered: Why didn't Wills' wife Ta leave work on the fatal day (a Monday) and share lunch as usual with her husband at their home? She must have known his poor state of mine and if there was one day she needed to be home with him at lunch, this was the day. Instead, she stayed at work and had lunch with her friends. A few years ago, Ta told me that she stayed at work and had lunch with friends because of the bad weather. Indeed, the weather was bad that day, according to weather reports from back then. But the person who Wills spoke to told me that Ta always walked from home to downtown Bremerton no matter how bad the weather. Why didn't she on this day? And, this person said, Ta must have known that Ken was thinking of killing himself. He had the whole weekend to discuss it with her. Maybe, this person said, Ta thought she might be in danger, that he might turn the gun on her, too. No matter. She didn't go home and now she is gone. When she died a year or so ago she took with her the answer.
January 11 --- So President Barack Obama might levy a fee on banks to help recover some costs from the bailout. That's about the most stupid thing available for him. Why? Because the banks will turn around and charge depositors a similar fee to recoup the money they will have to pay the government. So the taxpayers will wind up getting stuck again.
January 11--- It must be nice to be a football owner like Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks and you can buy anything your heart desires, including Pete Carroll. I'm not sure, though, whether this hire is the right one. It is the right move, but maybe not the right choice. Jim Mora was not good. He didn't have the umph needed to lead and when his players found that out they dropped out. Carroll is a leader that Mora was not, but his place in history may not be as high as some people think it will be. Some of his game-day decisions this year at USC weren't the best ones and if he brings that to Seattle, the Seahawks still will be in trouble. The good thing is that if Carroll doesn't work out, and eventually he won't because that's the nature of the beast, the Seahawks have an owner who can afford to make another mistake.
The return of the man and his pipe, and the Green Hornet
When Bill Bumerton left town on a secret government mission years ago he left his Hudson Green Hornet parked in my driveway. I hadn’t heard hide nor hair from him since and was about getting ready to sell the old Green Hornet when, what do you know, the mystery man himself showed up.
As usual, he was full of himself.
“Well, I see you have turned into an old man,” said Bumerton, after walking into the house without knocking one day late last month. “Of course, you always have been an old man, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Where did you come from, I asked?
“None of your business, old man,” Bumerton shot back, filling our living room with smoke from that ever-present pipe of his.
Can’t you at least say hello, and it would be good if you didn’t smoke in the house, I said.
“You’re all smoke and mirrors anyway,” Bumerton retorted. “So what is the difference?”
Hey, really, where have you been? You haven’t written or phoned or anything. I was about ready to get rid of your Green Hornet.
“If I tell you what I’ve been doing, I will have to shoot you,” Bumerton said. “Which might not be a bad idea, anyway. So don’t ask and I won’t tell. What the Sam Hill do you care for anyway? I need my keys, dumbo. You do have them, don’t you? Or did you lose them along with your mind.
“We need to go for a ride”
It felt weird riding in the Green Hornet again. I kept it in shape by driving it back and forth in the driveway once in a while, but to get back in the passenger seat with Bum driving, and with smoke curling out from his pipe, seemed like a pipe dream because he’s been gone so long I forgotten what riding with him was like.
Bum is a former fighter pilot who I thought had retired a long time ago. But about seven or eight years ago he suddenly left one day, leaving me in charge of the Green Hornet, but not much else. I knew nothing of where he disappeared to, and was eager to learn what he had done and where.
But all I got was smoke.
“Old man,” Bum said, “all you need to know is how to turn on your computer, because that is about all your are good for. Leave the rest to us big boys. You just worry about those Marinaros of yours. I read on the way over here that they picked up this bad boy, or is it bat boy?”
You mean Milton Bradley?
“Whoever, Bum said. “I understand he’s been with a zillion teams in the last few years, that he’s punched out more than a few guys. He’s somebody I might like. How did your punch and Judy Marinaros come to get this wacko? He’d be a better fit with us in Afghanistan. We would win a few battles with him charging in the front lines.”
What do you know about Mr. Bradley and the Mariners? You have been gone to who knows where for a long time. And, hey, watch out for that pothole.
“I don’t care about your Marinaros,” Bum said as he steered the Hornet around the latest hole in the street. “I find it amusing that your friends over there are still clueless and don’t have the slightest idea of how to put a power team together. They must have taken lessons from you.”
You haven’t changed, I said, and then I began quizzing Bumerton, trying to discover what he’s been doing since I last saw him. But getting through to Bum is like sawing a log with a kitchen knife; you don’t get far.
“You think too much,” Bum said as he wheeled the Hornet up to the Red Apple parking lot in the North Perry Mall.
I asked Bum what we were doing here and, of course, he blew a big puff of smoke in my face. Just what I needed, I thought, as I used my hands to wave the smoke away. Nice to have Bum back, but boy, I forgot how difficult he could be. Being a big shot means never having to answer to guys like me, and I certainly wasn’t getting any answers.
“What happened to that basketball team that you used to have,” Bum suddenly said as he opened the door to get out.
The Sonics? Some interloper from big oil in Oklahoma came to town and stole them out from under us West Coast coffee drinkers. They are playing now in Oklahoma City where the whiskey runs almost as deep as oil.
“Wow,” Bum said, knocking the fire out from his pipe. “It wouldn’t have happened if I would have been here. Not that I liked your team, anyway, but nobody takes anything of mine. If you got any money on you, hand it over. I doubt you got much, but what the Sam Hill, it’s your turn to buy and you better have some.”
I guess there is no free lunch, I thought, as I fumbled around for the few dollars I did have. I handed them over and just like old times, Bum didn’t say anything. He just grabbed them and grumbled how much a cheapskate I still was.
“You better get yourself a job,” Bum said in disgust. “You can’t ride in the Hornet without some gas. You probably are still writing, aren’t you? If you call that writing. It’s mostly mumble.”
I thought to myself as we walked into Garguile’s Red Apple that I might not like having Bum around again. At the least, I have to get used to him saying what is on his mind without any filter. But, on the other hand, I find some comfort knowing he’s here
Bum quickly purchased some scented soap and used the money I gave him to pay for it.
Scented soap?
“You bet,” Bum said, “I got to douse you in it because you sure stink.”
Did You Know?
Tenino High School has a new football coach who in 1995 coached Central Washington, quarterbacked by Jon Kitna, to an NAIA Division II championship. That would be JEFF ZENISEK, who also becomes Tenino's athletic director. Zenisek seems to be going backward in regards to the normal progression for coaches. He has coached at two other colleges (Northern Iowa and Western State College in Colorado and takes over at Tenino after being defensive coordinator at Mercer Island High School. You figure out what is going on here.
HANK AARON was the last Negro Leagues player to play in the Major Leagues. He came up to the Big Show in 1954 with the Boston Braves. He came from a big family – seven brothers and sisters – that lived in Mobile, Alabama, and self-taught himself to play baseball. Aaron played in the Negro Leagues with Indianapolis Clowns. Aaron played in a record 24 All-Star Games and was the career home run leader (755) until Barry Bonds came along.
Blaine High School’s KYLE OLASON lost a pitching dual to his good buddy, Lynden’s TYLER LINGBLOOM, in a recent baseball game held in Blaine. Lynden won 5-4, although Olason, who is headed to the University of Washington to pitch for the Huskies, did strike out 12. Lingbloom will pitch in college at Southwestern Oregon Community College.
STEVE MORTON is back for a second football coaching stint at Washington State. Morton, the new offensive line coach, coached with Jim Walden 30 years ago and has been reunited with head Cougar coach Paul Wulff, who he coached at WSU in his previous stint.
GEORGE BURNS lived in retirement in Bremerton for many years, most of them largely unnoticed. Yet he was the Major Leagues record holder for doubles (64), was for one year the backup to Lou Gehrig, roomed with Babe Ruth during a barnstorming tour, played with and against Ty Cobb --- "I was his only friend" -- and was the first player in history to pull off an unassisted triple play.Oh, yes, he also hit a career .307 in 16 MLB seasons, and is not in baseball's Hall of Fame, although he probably should be. What seems amazing now is that Burns, also known as Tioga George (he grew up in Tioga County, Pennsylvania), first reached the Major Leagues (with the Detroit Tigers) almost 100 years ago in 1914.
Nebraska defensive lineman NDAMUKONG SUH is from Grant High School in Portland, Oregon. He didn't play footbal until his sophomore year. His mother said that he had to have 3.0 grade-point average to play and when he got that he started playing. He becam a Parade All-America his senior year and was the 2009 Associated Press player of the year at Nebraska. He's projected to go in the top five of the upcoming NFL draft.
Tri-Cities Prep recently beat up on Dayton in a baseball doubleheader that could not possibly be nice. The first game wasn't real bad (13-1), but the second game was 26-0 in five innings. Its difficult to keep the score down when players are swinging a hot bat, I suppose. But for some reason it just doesn't feel right.
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"The competition is great, the hospitality is awesome. They take care of us pretty good when we get up there." – Luke Branquinho a 30-year-old bulldogger from California, talking about the Kitsap County Stampede.
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Quiet man leads Wolves on gridiron
By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
You don’t have to be the big show to be the leader.
Sometimes it's the quieter guy who people are attracted to for leadership.
That may be the case of Jens Johnson, senior team captain and defensive end and fullback for South Kitsap.
He and Austin Cook, another senior defensive end, are the two seniors for this year’s edition of the South Kitsap football team.
“He's exactly the kind of leader you want,” says coach D.J Sigurdson of Johnson. “He’s a good football player and just a good kid. He will be a leader the rest of his life, whatever industry he does into, or if he stays in the Navy.”
The Navy explanation is that Johnson has applied for Navy ROTC at five different colleges – Washington, Texas, Auburn, Georgia Tech and Tulane. It won’t be probably until late October until he finds whether he is accepted at any or all of those schools. If he had to choose, he would pick Washington, but it’s extremely difficult to get into the ROTC program there, even counting his 3.92 grade-point average, which ranks 13th in his class of 617 students.
Johnson’s ability on the football field is not overshadowed by his work in the classroom, but it is a big part of who he is.
He carries that high GPA while taking high-powered classes. He starts school this year with Advanced Placement (AP) literature, AP calculus, AP government, chemistry and physics.
On the field, the 5-foot-10, 175-pound Johnson is not a speed merchant, but has a knack for getting the job done.
“He's not fast; he has average speed,” says Sigurdson. “But he is tough and never is going to give up. He will just keep figuring out a way to beat you.”
That characteristic is something his teammates apparently are aware of because they look to him for the guidance needed to be successful.
“He's a leader in a quiet sense,” says Sigurdson. “He's making great decisions, has an understanding what needs to be done and is an example for everybody.
“He’s extremely trustworthy. The kids just trust him to do the right things. He was a unanimous decision to be a captain by his teammates. They trust him, if for not for anything else, because of his work ethic, his intelligence and the way he treats people. He's a very soft-spoken person. He's not a big man on campus (type).”
If there is one thing Sigurdson would want Johnson to do better, it is to be a little more vocal. He’s working with him on it.
“I would really say that I’m not the most vocal person,” Johnson says. “That is probably the one thing I do have to work on. I try not to be (the big man on campus).”
There are three Johnson brothers. Dane is at the University of Washington and younger brother Nils is in junior high at Cedar Heights. Dane was a swimmer and so is Nils, who competes with the Puget Sound Swim Club.
“I did swimming for the first time last year,” Johnson said. “I did pretty good. I got to compete at state with the (SK) 200 free relay. We didn’t do great. We finished 11th, I think.”
It is football that is Johnson’s main sport (unless you consider raising rabbits a sport, because he also does that). He is on a SK team that last year went 9-0 in the regular season and lost in the state 4A quarterfinals. It is an experience team that should contend for a league crown once again.
“We got to the state playoffs last year and that was a good learning experience for all us,” Johnson says. “Those of us who got to play in those playoff games got to see what was going on and what it was like to get to that level.
“We lost a lot of good players (to graduation), but we have a lot of good players, too. We can replace those players we lost at those spots.”
Playing fullback in the traditional SK power-I formation means Johnson will do a whole lot of blocking, and probably not a lot of running with the ball. And being a bit undersized for a fullback doesn't seem to faze him.
“You don’t have to be big, you just have to know what is going on,” he says. “You just have to make plays.”
Being a big man in the weight room helps. He was pressing to get over 1,000 pounds in the three top lifting categories at SK: bench press, power clean and squat. The 1,000-pound mark is kind of the standard for players who take weight lifting serious.
While he awaits the decision on a college choice - he plans on studying some kind of engineering, maybe bioengineering - Johnson is working hard to make sure the SK season goes well.
“I’m just going to do my best,” he says, “to prepare to make our team successful and have a successful year.”
Spoken like a true leader.
MacDonald and Bowdoin show their passion for respective sports
Passion is a word we often throw around carelessly, sometimes without giving it much thought. But when people describe Bob MacDonald or David Bowdoin as passionate about their particular sport, not much thought needs to go into it to be correct in that assessment.
MacDonald is the former Washington and Navy baseball living in Port Orchard who can’t shake the clay from his shoes and the strike zone from his mind. He’s currently in Peoria, Ariz., where he’s been since January, helping out with the Seattle Mariners’ young baseball players in extended spring training.
Bowdoin is familiar to area coaches and athletes involved in track and field and cross-country. He is the creator of Athletic.net, the amazing on-line source for everything pertaining to running, throwing and jumping in the United States, plus to a lesser but growing extent in Europe, the Middle East and in the Pacific.
“A total of 13,000 coaches have used it in the past year,” says Bowdoin, 31, who grew up in New Hope, Ore, and was a 1A (smallest classification in Oregon) state 1,500 champion (4:08) for New Hope Christian, where for the past five years he’s been the track and field and cross-country coach.
Bowdoin’s passion started out with him compiling district and classification performances for his New Hope Christian coach. He then went to Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls and learned about computers, and then applied those skills to the accidental start of athletic.net about seven years ago.
He started with performances for the Mountain Skyline 1A League, and others saw it and slowly it morphed into the giant it is today – in all 50 states and overseas
You have to have a high degree of passion for the two sports to do something like this. For years I compiled lists of West Sound performers in track and field and while it was fun to do it was time consuming. I had a passion for it, but what were lacking were the computers, the foresight and the knowledge to do what Bowdoin has done.
“I’ve essentially developed the program,” say Bowdoin, who after college came back to New Hope Christian as the school’s IT person. “It’s been cool. It’ s changed how stuff works.”
Now, coaches can electronically post their results to Athletic.net immediately after meets, giving everybody who has a computer instant access to results not just from their own area, but also around the country.
Not all high schools in the country are aboard. But the list of schools that are using it is growing fast.
If there is a problem, it’s that Bowdoin does not turn a profit from it.
“I have never drawn a check from it,” says Bowdoin, who employees three others to help him. But you get the impression that making money is not a priority for him. It’s the gesture, the ability to help others, which motivates him.
That is true passion.
Same thing could be said of MacDonald, who in retirement could play a round of golf anytime he wished and just enjoy watching the sun come up and set (on the rare occasions around here we get to see the sun).
But he has a passion for hardball that surpasses the norm. He’s down at the Mariners’ complex offering his assistance wherever there is a need, and the organization is happy to receive his help.
MacDonald is enjoying it so much, he just last week purchased a condo near the ballpark and plans on making this a six-month gesture every year.
“Next year it will be a lot better for me,” he says, “because I won’t have to travel 25 miles each way to the ballpark from the place I was staying in at Scottsdale.”
MacDonald was the hitting coach for the Mariners’ short-A Everett last year – he stayed with retired Everett Herald sports columnist Larry Henry – but the structured work hours pounded on his 67-year-old body and even though the Mariners asked him to come back, he thought better of it.
But he couldn’t stay away from the game and despite the pounding on his body and recent laser cataract surgery, MacDonald is back on the diamond because, well, because that’s where he belongs. And until his eyes get back to somewhat normal, he’s taking his health into his own hands.
“I’m walking around with no lens in my right eye and it’s dangerous out there shagging balls,” MacDonald says. “I’m lucky I haven’t been killed.”
MacDonald has a front row seat in the transformation of the Mariners – and perhaps baseball – to small-ball. Major League baseball is coming out of the Steroid Era and it appears some teams at least want to get away from that black cloud as soon as possible and are foregoing big boppers for slap hitters, hit-and-run, and base stealing as the most important offensive tools.
“To me, this is what baseball is all about,” says MacDonald, “the small subtle’s of the game, the ability to handle a bat. It puts more of a premium on the team-game and doing the little things to win.”
MacDonald will be back home soon. He’s promised former New York Mets player Terrel Hansen (Hansen was with the Mets for two days) he would help with his youth baseball club – the West Sound Blaze ‑ and a promise is a promise.
Besides, when you have a passion for baseball, a chance to help out is like finding gold at the end of the rainbow.
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