Page 4
:he ra - February 20, 2008
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cfentiman @comcast, net
Jim Gourley,
Jim Bean, Councilor
367-8467
401-0839
Counciior
367-8536
;y, Counci or
School DistrictNo. 55
a, Superintendent
LarrycHorton@ Sweethome.
k12.or.us
367-5601
= Diane Gerson,
Chanz Keeney, Holley
367-7999
im Jeff Lynn, Liberty
(w)
;uschwander,
Cascadia
367-5655
Jason Redick,
Member at Large
367.5098
Ken Roberts,
Member at Large
367-6396
David VanDerlip, Craw-
fordsville
367-3856
Linn County
Board of Commissioners
Roger Nyquist, Chairman "
RNyquist@co.linn.or.us
John K. Lindsey
CWooten @ co.linn.or, us
Federal Government
Sen. Ron Wyden (D)
(202) 224-5244
e-mail: h p:llwyden.senate,
(202) 224-3753
e-mail: http://gsmith.senate.
gov/webform,htm
gov/emailme.shtml
(503)
M706
Rep. Phil Barnhart (D,Dist. l)
l l:zq
p
1
Having just returned from one of
the greatest sporting spectacles in the
state of Oregon- the OSAA wrestling
championships -I was moved once
again to consider the sorry develop-
ments down the road in Eugene.
In the coaches' room I saw a pile
of fliers imploring folks to donate
funds to save Ducks wrestling.
As I've mentioned once before
in this column, Kilkenny (a die-hard
baseball fan) has decided to bring that
game back to the university. He says
he's not trying to compete with the
Beavers up the road, but he's hired
one of the best coaches in America,
George Horton, and they're openly
talking about championships.
To do this, Kilkenny has to add
a female sport to satisfy the require-
ments of Title IX. and so he's chosen
competitive cheerleading. And he's
killing wrestling.
As I watched the wrestlers at the
Portland Coliseum, the short-sighted
foolishness of that decision reeked.
Why wrestling? It's still a popular
sport in high schools, with an esti-
mated 33.000 high school wrestlers
in the Northwest alone.
But at the college level, thanks
mainly to Title IX, it's been sacrificed
on the altar of economy, in favor of
sports that draw bigger crowds and
make money. Oregon will become
the 448~h college wrestling program
to be shut down since Title IX was
introduced in 1972, according to the
NCAA.
Even once-proud programs, such
as Fresno State, haye been shut down.
In the Pac-10, only three schools will
field wrestling squads after this year's
NCAA finals - Oregon State,Arizona
State and Stanford.
This really isn't a Title IX issue.
Oregon has been compliant with
gender-equity rules and, frankly, there
were plenty of other women's sports
the university could have added to
its stable.
How about women's wrestling?
Oregon likes to be on the cutting edge
A locally owned newspaper founded Sept. 27, 1929.
Scott and Miriam Swanson, Co-Publishers
f
www.sweethomenews.com
Office: 1313 MainSt Sweet Home, Oregon
Mailing address: The New Era, Box 39,
Sweet Home, OR, 97386
Phone: (541) 367-2135 Fax: (541) 367-2137
Editorial Staff Contacts
Scott Swanson. Editor/Co-Publisher scott@sweethomenews.com
Scan C. Morgan. Staff Writer sean@sweethomenews.com
Advertising Staff Contacts
Miriam Swanson. Advertising Manager, Co-Publisher
miriam@ sweethomenews .com
Firiel Severns, Advertising Sales firiel@sweethomenews.com
The New Era (USPS 379-100) is published each Wednesday.
Periodical postage paid at the Sweet Home, Ore 97386 Post
Office. Postmaster: Please send address changes to
The New Era, Box 39, Sweet Home, Oregon 97386
Subscription rates
In Linn County: $27 Elsewhere: $35. Snowbird: $31
Y
Notes From
The Newsroom
Scott
Swanson
Publisher
(check out their football uniforms)
and women's wrestling is one of the
innovative trends in modern sports
It's even (newly) in the Olympics,
somet:hing that isn't likely to happen
with czompetitive cheer.
F;emale wrestling's big in Cali-
forniat high schools and in other states,
whicth have their own girl's state
tournaarnents. This year, two Sweet
Home girls made the finals of the in-
augural state high school invitational
tourntament. Oregon's tournament
included eight finals matches featur-
ing grids. Girls wrestling advocates
are pllanning their own Oregon state
tourn ament in two years.
Et really shouldn't be a financial
issue either. The entire Oregon wres-
tling budget is less than the salaries of
the a:ssistant football coaching staff,
according to figures I've seen.
The Ducks have not been domi-
nant college wrestling, though they
have produced occasional individuals
who have done well. But neither
have the men's tennis team. Or the
Looking back on 79 years covering the
Santiam Playground.
February 20, 1958
Our congressional delegates in
Washington are in favor of securing
funds for construction of Green Peter
dam, it was indicated at the monthly
meeting of the Sweet Home-East
Linn County Chamber of Commerce,
Monday, when letters from Senators
Wayne Morse and Richard Neuberger
and Representative Charles Porter
and Walter Norblad were acknowl-
edged.
February 23, 1983
A bill before the state legislature
which would ban the sale of wood
stoves and fireplace inserts, if they
did not meet state standards for air
pollution, is being actively opposed
by a local stove manufacturer, Sweet
Home Stove Works. according to
Richard Jenkins. general manager.
crl:
golf squad. But those are sports that cave drawings depicting wrestlers, person for all the bad things that hap-
are popular in San Diego, where Only track and field is older among pen to you. But all these helicopter
Kilkenny's from. sports that have been practiced con- parents, they just hover there and they
To be honest. I think the decline tinually over the millennia, want to take all that away from their
of wrestling in colleges is because Nearly every culture has some kids. They don't want them to fight
money, not education, dictates what sort of wrestling, from Sumo in Japan through it."
happens in college sports. And I be- to Glima in Iceland, Schwingen in Aerobically demanding sports
lieve that America is going soft. Switzerland, and Cumberland wres- such as running and wrestling and
True, we still play hard-nosed tling in Britain. swimming may be too basic for the
football, but even that has turned Although I never had the oppor- big crowds. They aren't very flashy
into a spectacle, at many levels, that tunity to wrestle competitively, I used sometimes. Chest bumps seem inap-
emphasizes showmanship as much or to work out with my friends who were propriate, somehow, after you've just
more than the man-to-man toughness wrestlers and I can attest that this is a run or grappled or swum to the point
of the leather helmet era. sport that requires mental toughness of exhaustion - and you can barely
Think about it. What is wres- beyond nearly any other. It requires stand to be acknowledged a winner.
tling? It's as basic a sport as one could critical decision-making and strategy But they prepare young people
possibly devise. As basic as running - usually accompanied by pain. for life because they demand a high
or swimming, all it requires is you Runners know pain - your legs level of personal discipline and ac-
and an opponent. Equipment costs hurt, your lungs hurt. your arms can countability. You can't share the
are almost nothing. It's one of the hurt. But in wrestling, utter exhaus- blame when you lose.
few sports where you're pitted against tion can be universal and complete. That's why killing wrestling
someone your own size- all the time. Everything hurts in a tough match, at the University of Oregon and all
As any kid knows, you don't need a It's not a sport for quitters, the other schools is such a travesty.
mat to wrestle, though some spongy Recently I've run across several Wrestling has a few clowns, just like
turf is better than hard-pack. And comments from prominent coaches other sports, but it has turned out mil-
the scoring is pretty black and white, about how Americans are getting lions of disciplined, responsible boys
although a rotten re( occasionally soft. Parents don't want their kids to young men who grow up and become
steals a close match, feel pain. Hardship is not in the cards a large portion of the crowd you can
I've never wrestled competi- most of us want to be dealt any more see in the stands at the Oregon state
tively, though I was pretty good in as we get exercise steering our motor- championships. They're clear-eyed.
the back yard. By the time I had my ized vehicles and playing Guitar Hero You know they have jobs and you
first opportunity to get on a real mat, in front of our TVs. know they do them well.
I was attending an NCAA Division I "Parents today want to take all Because that's what wrestling
universxty where one of my friends the pain, all the heartache and sad- teaches.
was a freshman All-American 142- ness. out of their kids' lives," said And that's what Pat Kilkenny
pounder and one of my roommates basketball coach Rick Majerus in a (and all the other athletic directors
was a 177-pounder. I learned quickly recent Sports Illustrated article. "All who apparently rarely bothered to
that I really knew little about the true the things that make you a better try to understand a sport that people
sport of wrestling, person, a better coach, a better teacherhave competed in for millenia) have
It's a discipline that dates back, - all the things that are so much the missed in their haste to make money
past the ancient Greeks and the Olym- fabric of life. and satisfy government dictums.
pics, to Egypt 5,000 years ago and to "You become so much better a What a travesty.
Questions ab out district can take over, but it then has to
find funding somewhere else for the
library district building. How does this make the new
library district a good deal?
Editor: Because the LLL's proposed
There is much talk these days new library district board of directors
about the Linn Library League (LLL) could only have so many people on
creating a new library district. After the board, my small town would be
checking out the Web site for the one of at least four who will have to
league. I still wonder about the actual share a representative. If that repre-
changes this will cause and the costs sentative is not someone from our city
that are not accounted for. At this the decisions on the board will most
point I do not think it would be in the likely not reflect our needs and con-
best interest of the citizens or of the cerns. The district board would have
cities involved, the ability and power to decide what
First of all. the published costs of books would be on the shelves of the
creatmg the library district would be Brownsville Library among other
a new tax of at least $.60 per $1,000 business decisions. If you talk to our
for all residences of Linn County. librarian today, he can tell you that he
The average value of homes in Linn is able to choose books because of his
County is $150.000. which means the demographic knowledge of the users
library district tax would average $90 of the library.
per year per household. The cost of There are times when combining
a library card in Brownsville is $15 efforts and resources can help a situa-
per family per year. Someone needs tion, but I don't see that it would do so
to explain to me how the new library with the creation of the Linn Library
district is a cost savings for citizens. League's proposed library district.
On top of this tax. each city The cities are struggling enough With
involved with the Linn Library budget issues right now, don't create
League's new district would need to a huge dilemma by switching how
find another way to budget the owner- and where funding will come from
ship responsibilities of the building for the new library district. Browns-
housing their library The district ville has opted out of the proposed
would own the business and inventory district, but I live outside of the city
of the library but not the building. All limits and would be affected by the
maintenance will be up to the city. So. new district.
this tells me the city gives up the tax Linda McCormick
base and budget it already has so the Brownsville
LETTERS TO TIlL DITOR
SH could learn and became "the stepchild of other
folks who were always trying get
from city to south
through us to go somewhere else."
Luckily, there just happens to
Ediltor: be a small video on youtube that
Thank you for your coverage of documents this turnaround; the
the meeting with Pam Silbernagte direct link is http://www.youtube.
and Vicki Dugger and your continu- com/watch?v=-4xEsBy2rIw (l think
ing contribution to the momentum it can be typed directly into the url
of at subject that is both painful and of your browser) or go directly to
hop,eful, youtube.com and type in the search:
After, I read the article I did some "Escape from Suburbia returns to
research and was struck by the many Willits CA."
sirr~ilarities between Sweet Home I hope that others might find
an& another community, the town of some inspiration in watching this.
Wilflits, Calif. If Willits can do it, can Sweet
Though the galvanizing force Home?
behind Willits' turnaround might be . Leslie Mendoza
comtroversial, it brought their com~ Lebanon (but closer to Sweet
munity together and created goals Home)
with a clear focus. Willits was also a
logging town that ran into hard times
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