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February 27th, 2019

2/27/2019

Tiger teams rewrite history with two league titles, fix their eyes on 3A tournament berths

February 21, 2019 by Luke Roth Tiger Times Staff Writer for OSAAtoday

It has been a special season for basketball in Clatskanie.
Not only did the girls team win its first league title since 1995, but the boys are league champions for the first time since 2007.
It has set up a pair of high-stakes home games in the Columbia River town as both teams play for berths in their respective eight-team 3A tournaments.
Clatskanie’s boys (14-7) will play their first home playoff game in 24 years when they meet No. 11 Burns (15-10) at 4:30 p.m. Friday. The fourth-seeded Clatskanie girls (17-4) play No. 13 Nyssa (12-12) at 2 p.m. Saturday.
If Clatskanie wins both games, it will be the first time in school history that its boys and girls teams will be in the quarterfinals at the same time. The boys won the B title in 1945 and placed third in 1954 and fourth in 1984. The girls have never won a trophy.
The girls team went 12-0 in the Coastal Range League, clinching the title with three games left. The Tigers’ league run included three wins against No. 7 seed Warrenton.
"We only returned two starters from last year’s state tournament team, so we know we had a lot of pieces to put in place,” said coach John Blodgett, who was voted the league’s coach of the year. “At our first practice we looked up at the league title banners and we all read ‘1974’ and ‘1995,’ our goal was set in that very moment. And it feels so great to achieve it.”
The Tiger girls have been carried by two sophomores in 5-foot-9 post Shelby Blodgett, the Coastal Range player of the year, and guard Olivia Sprague, a first-team all-league pick.
Blodgett has nine triple-doubles and is averaging 23.3 points, 17.3 rebounds, 7.6 steals, 3.3 assists and 1.4 blocks. Sprague is averaging 23.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.1 steals and 4.4 assists.
"Our sophomore girls play above their years,” said John Blodgett, who starts four sophomores. “I believe we can get in to the elite eight, and I really love our chances from there.”
The Clatskanie boys clinched the Coastal Range title after stifling Rainier 47-35 at home in the league finale Feb. 11. The Tigers finished tied with Rainier for first place at 10-2 but won the tiebreaker for the top seed by virtue of taking two of three games against the Columbians.
Tigers coach Deshaun Combs, league co-coach of the year, said the season has been fun.
“We won a lot of games, and the energy in the locker room always remained high,” Combs said. “We set out a goal at the start of the year to be league champions. The boys worked their butts of in practice and in the classroom, and it’s so exciting to see them achieve this.”
The team is much improved from last season, when the Tigers finished tied for fourth place in the Lewis & Clark League and ended with a 14-11 record after losing in the league playoffs.
Before every game, assistant coach Dwight Edwards went over a checklist of games remaining until Clatskanie clinched the league championship.
"It’s a great experience for all of us, and this is something most of the team have never been a part of,” said junior guard J’kari Combs, a second-team all-league pick. “We've been pushing ourselves so hard in practice and we don’t plan on our season ending on Friday night."

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My Senior Project: A Tale of Feeling Foreign in my Own Land

2/27/2019

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By: Jason Lebeck

   Have you ever felt foreign in your own country? An outsider among your own people? Well, I personally have -- but not in the way you might expect. No, I am not pushing for far-right propaganda that immigration is taking America away from the naturalized inhabitant of this country, rather, I am saying that I purposefully am putting myself in a position where I am outnumbered, a minority, and an outsider, which is part and parcel of my senior project. You see, ever since I traveled abroad for the first time in my life two years ago, I felt as if I had discovered my purpose in life. Indeed, it became clear as day: I’m meant to be a diplomat and work on the international stage to promote a better and more integrated world.

   In order to capture this aspect about my future, I’m interning for the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Korea, here in Oregon! I’ve had the privilege to meet current diplomats from Korea, as well as inspiring people who work with Korea and the Korean community in Oregon. For instance, I’ve met with Korean War Veterans who have told me incredible stories from their service in Korea, such as the story of how one Veteran recalled rescuing a Korean boy whose right eye was left dangling out of it’s socket after he unintentionally triggered a land mine. Besides that, I had an amazing conversation with a current South Korean diplomat who was visiting the Oregon consulate, and we discussed his experience in America and my experience in Korea. He also helped me with my Korean skills, and told me an interesting story about how his family actually visited my hometown (Astoria), and showed me a picture of them all at the Sunset Beach in Warrenton. It was really neat to discover how small the world really is, as well as how much two completely different people have in common!

   Truthfully, I’m learning a lot about how diplomacy works, as a result of my internship. I’ve discovered that diplomacy isn’t just old men in suits and ties sitting at a table discussing trade negotiations, rather, it’s community work to make the world a better place. In fact, most of my internship has been involved with the Korean community in Oregon, such as attending events that honor those who fought in the Korean war, or celebrating Korean American day by having University students from Korea come to Portland and play traditional Korean instruments. Indeed, most things in this internship have been about connecting the Korean community together, and strengthening their cultural vibrancy as a whole. It’s the Honorary Consul’s duty to make sure that all of the community is active, and keeping things in order and ensuring that all things continue to promote Korean culture and heritage here in Oregon. Clearly, my perception about what a consul does has been changed by actually interning for the consulate in person.

   As you can see, senior projects are an opportunity for students to discover themselves and dive deeper into the career path they would like to go down. In my case, this has given me an opportunity to learn more about what my own future will look like, simply by job shadowing someone who has the career I want to participate in. Indeed, senior projects shouldn’t be scary for seniors-- quite the opposite! Seniors should learn to be excited to get a head-start in their future by having the opportunity to complete a senior project that will give them an exceptional new look into their desired job field and career. Perhaps someones senior project might convince them that they aren’t really interested in the career they thought they wanted to pursue, which is also a good thing as it gives students freedom to rethink their lives-- before it’s already too late. No matter what, I don’t see any issue with senior projects and I believe they’re are generally good things for students to do. Again, in my case, it’s helped me put aside stereotypes, learn more about diplomacy, and really inspire me to dive deeper into international relations.

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CMHS Senior Projects: The Who, What, Where, When, How

2/27/2019

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By: Jason Lebeck

Who: seniors at CMHS must complete a senior project with a passing grade in order to graduate.

What: a project that could be anything from a simple job shadow to an intricate thing that somehow conveys accurately what you desire to do in the future. For instance, if you want to be a software engineer, your senior project may be to job shadow someone who works in that field. At the culmination of this project, seniors will be expected to deliver a presentation about their project before a panel of judges, whom determine whether or not the student’s senior project was passable.

Where: anywhere. Preferably local, though.

When: presentations are due before the end of March.

How: The way you do your senior project is up to you. Senior projects can be different for everyone, and no one specific project is somehow inherently better than another-- just chose a project that fits you the best! Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not in your project.

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