Come to be entertained and leave inspired!
The Jet City Rollergirls are excited to bring you our 2nd bout for our 6th season of hard-hitting, fast-paced flat track derby action on March 16, 2013. You will see Camaro Harem, Hula Honeys, Pink Pistols and Terminal City’s Public Frenemy in this double-header that will have you out of your seats and cheering for more!
The first bout of the night pits the Hula Honeys against Terminal City’s Public Frenemy. Visiting from Vancouver, BC, this team will be bringing international derby to Everett Community College. There will be tons of on the edge of your seat action!
In the second bout the Camaro Harem will take on the Pink Pistols in a fierce battle. Will the Pistols get the draw on the crafty Harem? Come to Everett Community College and see it live for yourself.
Discounted tickets available for groups of 10 or more. Gather up some friends and family and save $2 on each ticket!
Northwest Indian College Cooperative Extension Traditional Foods and Medicines Program’s 4th Annual Tribal Community Garden Coordinators Forum: Connecting Plants, People & Place
Thursday March 21, 2013 10:00-4:00
Hosted by: Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project
This gathering is an opportunity to share successes, challenges and resources with others who are doing tribal community garden work. Through sharing stories, resources, and models for building community resilience, we can help each other grow!
Featured speakers:
Brett Ramey (Ioway) has been reconnecting people to land-based knowledge in both urban and rural Native communities through on-the-ground food sovereignty and public art projects for over a decade. He works as a Tribal Health Liaison with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He is also a co-instructor of a course at Haskell Indian Nations University titled “Growing Change: Next Generation Responsibilities, Food Sovereignty and Climate Change.” Visit www.horagewi.com for more about Brett.
Miguel Hernandez and Valerie Segrest will lead us in a tour of the Muckleshoot gardens and give an update on program developments, teaching tools and more.
Meet at the Muckleshoot Tribal College
39811 Auburn-Enumclaw Road SE, Auburn, Washington 98092
This pear crisp is easy enough to make on a weeknight and doesn’t require fully ripe pears. Photo: Matthew Mead / Associated Press
By Sara Moulton, Associated Press
Sometimes, even on a weeknight, you really crave a little dessert. But making dessert takes time, and you already are spending time cooking up the main event, namely dinner.
That’s where this recipe comes to the rescue. It’s a quick, easy and delicious pear crisp that calls for just five ingredients: pears, granola, lemon juice, apricot jam and a pinch of salt.
Pears are just now at the tail end of their season. Yes, I know we can find pears all year these days. But believe me, those specimens are going to be nowhere near as electrifying as a fully ripened, in-season local pear.
The problem is the relative rareness of such pears. Ralph Waldo Emerson was onto something when he wrote, “There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.”
In other words, most of the time, no matter where it comes from, our pears aren’t at the peak of perfection. And for those times, when pears are unripe and you don’t have time to let them ripen, this recipe comes in mighty handy. Baking an unripe pear not only makes it tender, it also crystallizes and magnifies the fruit’s flavor.
Happily, any kind of pear — and there are many varieties — will work in this recipe, as will a mix of varieties.
Pears also have a lot to offer in terms of health. They’re a good source of vitamin C and a great source of fiber.
As for granola, there are a zillion brands in the cereal aisle of the supermarket. The problem is that many of them are laden with fat and sugar even as they masquerade under a healthy halo.
That’s why the recommended portion on the back of most granola boxes is just 1/4 cup. Pour yourself a normal, adult-sized portion and you might as well be tucking into a breakfast of waffles and sausage.
So when you shop for granola, look for a brand that’s lower in fat, sugar and calories than the competition and which also contains lots of nuts, seeds and dried fruit. And if you want to bump up the nutritional value of this recipe even more, you also could add 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed.
With all of that said, I wouldn’t worry too much about the amount of granola in this recipe. Per serving, it’s about what the granola box recommends, and mostly serves to put the crisp on this pear crisp.
Heck, you’d be much better off serving this dessert for breakfast than dogging a big bowl of nothing but granola.
Speedy pear crisp
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon apricot preserves or sweetened fruit spread
4 pears (about 2 pounds), peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Table salt
2 cups purchased granola
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a shallow 6-cup baking dish with cooking spray.
In a small saucepan over medium-low, heat the preserves until melted and easily stirred.
Set the sliced pears in a large bowl, then drizzle the preserves over them. Add the lemon juice and salt, then toss well. Spread the pears evenly in the prepared baking dish.
Sprinkle the granola evenly over the pears, then cover the dish loosely with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes, or until the pears are tender. Serve hot or cold.
Makes 8 servings. Per serving: 210 calories; 25 calories from fat (12 percent of total calories); 2.5 g fat (0.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 50 g carbohydrate; 5 g fiber; 27 g sugar; 3 g protein; 55 mg sodium.
WASHINGTON — A deeply divided Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Republican Chuck Hagel to be the nation’s next defense secretary, handing President Barack Obama’s pick the top Pentagon job just days before billions of dollars in automatic, across-the-board budget cuts hit the military.
The vote was 58-41, with four Republicans joining the Democrats in backing the contentious choice. Hagel’s only GOP support came from former colleagues Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Dick Shelby of Alabama as well as Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The vote came just hours after Republicans dropped their delay of the nomination and allowed it to move forward on a 71-27 vote.
Hagel, 66, a former two-term Nebraska senator and twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran, succeeds Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Hagel is expected to be sworn in at the Pentagon on Wednesday.
Republicans had opposed their onetime colleague, casting him as unqualified for the job, hostile toward Israel and soft on Iran.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said several GOP lawmakers had “a lot of ill will” toward the moderate Republican for his criticism of President George W. Bush over the Iraq war and his backing for Democratic candidates. McCain voted against his onetime friend and fellow Vietnam veteran.
Obama portrayed the war-tested Hagel as a man who understands that conflict is not an abstraction and called him the “leader that our troops deserve.”
Hagel joins Obama’s retooled second-term, national security team of Secretary of State John Kerry and CIA Director-designate John Brennan at a time of uncertainty for a military emerging from two wars and fighting worldwide terrorism with smaller, deficit-driven budgets.
Among his daunting challenges are deciding on troop levels in Afghanistan as the United States winds down its combat presence and dealing with $46 billion in budget cuts set to kick in on Friday. He also will have to work with lawmakers who spent weeks vilifying him.
Republicans insisted that Hagel was battered and bloodied after their repeated attacks.
“He will take office with the weakest support of any defense secretary in modern history, which will make him less effective on his job,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate GOP’s No. 2 Republican.
Not so, said Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, who pointed out that Hagel now has the title and the fight is history.
“All have to work together for the interest of the country,” said Reed, D-R.I.
The vote ended one of the most bitter fights over a Cabinet choice and former senator since 1989 when the Democratic-led Senate defeated newly elected President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of Republican John Tower to be defense secretary.
In the course of the rancorous, seven-week nomination fight, Republicans, led by freshman Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, insinuated that Hagel has a cozy relationship with Iran and received payments for speeches from extreme or radical groups. Those comments drew a rebuke from Democrats and some Republicans.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, dismissed the “unfair innuendoes” against Hagel and called him an “outstanding American patriot” whose background as an enlisted soldier would send a positive message to the nation’s servicemen and women.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., questioned how the confirmation process devolved into a character assassination in which Hagel was accused of “having secret ties with our enemies.”
“I sincerely hope that the practice of challenging nominations with innuendo and inference, rather than facts and figures, was an aberration and not a roadmap,” she said in a statement after the vote.
Obama got no points with the GOP for tapping the former two-term Republican senator. Republican lawmakers excoriated Hagel and cast him as a radical far out of the mainstream.
McCain clashed with his onetime friend over his opposition to Bush’s decision to send an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq in 2007 at a point when the war seemed in danger of being lost. Hagel, who voted to authorize military force in Iraq, later opposed the conflict, comparing it to Vietnam and arguing that it shifted the focus from Afghanistan.
Republicans also challenged Hagel about a May 2012 study that he co-authored for the advocacy group Global Zero, which called for an 80 percent reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and the eventual elimination of all the world’s nuclear arms.
The group argued that with the Cold War over, the United States could reduce its total nuclear arsenal to 900 without sacrificing security. Currently, the U.S. and Russia have about 5,000 warheads each, either deployed or in reserve. Both countries are on track to reduce their deployed strategic warheads to 1,550 by 2018, the number set in the New START treaty that the Senate ratified in December 2010.
In an echo of the 2012 presidential campaign, Hagel faced an onslaught of criticism by well-funded, Republican-leaning outside groups that labeled the former senator “anti-Israel” and pressured senators to oppose the nomination. The groups ran television and print ads criticizing Hagel.
Opponents were particularly incensed by Hagel’s use of the term “Jewish lobby” to refer to pro-Israel groups. He apologized, saying he should have used another term and should not have said those groups have intimidated members of the Senate into favoring actions contrary to U.S. interests.
The nominee spent weeks reaching out to members of the Senate, meeting individually with lawmakers to address their concerns and seeking to reassure them about his policies.
Hagel’s inconsistent performance during some eight hours of testimony during his confirmation hearing last month undercut his cause.
On Feb. 12, the Armed Services Committee approved the nomination on a party-line vote of 14-11. Two days later, a Democratic move to vote on the nomination fell a few votes short as Republicans insisted they needed more time to consider the pick.
Hagel’s nomination also became entangled in Republican demands for more information about the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last September. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in that attack.
Classical radio station KING (98.1 FM) is accepting entries for its 2013 Young Artist Awards Competition through April 5 at www.king.org.
Young musicians can compete for a chance to perform on live radio in May. The competition also is sponsored by the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
The competition this year will be broken out into two categories, one for younger musicians ages 6 to 13 and another for more experienced musicians ages 14 to 20.
Non-professional acoustic instrumentalists, vocalists and chamber groups should submit an entry form and YouTube video lasting no more than five minutes.
New light fixtures are now hanging over Hoyt Avenue in downtown Everett. Photo: Mark Mulligan / The Herald
By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist
Picture peas in pods, or lilies of the valley, with white flowers hanging in symmetry from green stalks.
Now take a walk or drive along downtown Everett’s Hoyt Avenue. There’s a new look, inspired by the plant world. Soon, there will be more to see.
Eleven light sculptures were recently installed along Hoyt, from Wall Street to Everett Avenue. Created by Seattle artist Susan Zoccola, the light pods hang from green metal arches that canopy over the sidewalk.
Futuristic and eye-catching, the light sculptures are finishing touches on the city’s $5.2 million Hoyt Avenue streetscape project, mostly completed in 2011. Along with lighting and infrastructure for art, the project included improved pedestrian features, trees and utilities.
The lights are unique to the three-block stretch of Hoyt considered the city’s arts district.
“A lot of our key cultural institutions are already on Hoyt Avenue,” said Carol Thomas, the city’s cultural arts manager. The Everett Public Library, Imagine Children’s Museum, Schack Art Center and Artspace Everett Lofts, along with the Library Place apartment complex, are near each other on Hoyt.
Thomas said the new lights visually unify the area. “It’s fun because it’s unique and defines a special area,” she said Tuesday.
There’s more to come when the installation is complete. Just above the light sculptures, which were attached to existing street light poles, are “gobo” projectors connected to the same poles. Those devices, not yet in operation, will project images onto the sidewalk below.
In her proposal for the sculptures, the artist Zoccola wrote: “I see the gobo projections as glowing colored circles of light drawing visitors down Hoyt Avenue.”
Zoccola said projected images could be changed seasonally or for specific events. “The lit sculptures with their nighttime gobo companions would be beacons, clearly identifying the Hoyt Avenue arts district,” she wrote.
The artist has created major public works around the region. Among them are a wave wall at the Seattle Aquarium, pieces replicating water drops at the Lynnwood Recreation Center, and the soaring “Grass Blades” sculpture at Seattle Center.
Kate Reardon, the city’s spokeswoman, said that altogether the lighted sculptures cost $110,000. The $5.2 million price tag for the Hoyt renovations included design, utilities, streetscape work and inspection. All capital projects within the city include a 1 percent expenditure for the arts, Reardon said.
Thomas said the lights in Zoccola’s sculptures use energy-efficient LED bulbs.
Allan Giffen, Everett’s director of planning and community development, said the Hoyt project was born of a downtown plan approved by the City Council in 2006. In 2009, he said, the streetscape plan was adopted. “This is getting down to the costly but fun part, actually building some of these projects,” Giffen said.
He added that a four-block renovation of Rucker Avenue downtown is also part of the plan. Reardon said the design of the Rucker project was completed along with the Hoyt design. “There’s no money and no timeline, but we have the design,” Reardon said. Rucker renovations will happen when funding is available, she added. The work on Rucker will have a more traditional look than artsy Hoyt, Reardon said, and will resemble Colby Avenue’s streetscape.
Thomas said Hoyt is already becoming an Everett attraction. About 3,400 people came to the Everett Craft Beer Festival, a one-day event held last August along Hoyt between Hewitt and Pacific avenues. “We had 27 Washington state breweries, over 60 craft brews, and live music,” she said. “From the feedback of restaurants downtown, they saw a lot of people.”
That event will happen again on Aug. 17. “It brings a lot of first-time visitors to Everett, exposing what a jewel Everett is,” Thomas said.
Hoyt is a street becoming a celebration.
“It’s really our focal point for the arts,” Reardon said. “With a hub for the artists we have here, we want to build upon that in years to come, and celebrate that.”
Laura Waterman Wittstock, Indian Country Today Media Network
Hundreds of travelers left their home areas from points all over the United States and Canada last weekend to meet in the tiny village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. There, they will observe the 40th anniversary of one of the most unusual military undertakings the United States has ever engaged in—or we could say entangled in—during the 20th century. Wounded Knee is located in the southwestern corner of the 11,000 square mile Pine Ridge reservation.
According to then Senator James Abourezk, when the American Indian Movement arrived in Wounded Knee on February 27, 1973, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and federal marshals were already there on alert for armed activity on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The marshals were there in the event of a civil disturbance that might occur during a possible attempt to impeach the tribal chairman.
There were many issues on the table but two that emerged at the top of the list were the torture death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, which took place in Gordon, Nebraska. Yellow Thunder was from Kyle on the reservation. AIM leaders were incensed at the brutal death and what appeared to be a lack of concern for the victim. The other issue was Pine Ridge tribal chairman Richard (Dick) Wilson’s presumed disrespect of traditional Lakota culture. So strong was the sentiment that Gladys Bissonette and others formed the new organization OSCRO: the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization.
According to AIM’s national chairman Clyde H. Bellecourt, it seemed that as soon as a meeting with OSCRO and traditional leaders got underway, word of the movement of FBI and federal marshals toward Wounded Knee was taking place and a defense perimeter was needed. By the next morning, an armed standoff began to take shape. There were three governmental groups lined up: Dick Wilson’s GOONS, the federal marshals, and the FBI. The federal group brushed aside Wilson’s government and took over the tribal offices with its only telephone, which made reporters on the scene wait in line for their turn to call in stories.
Newspapers across the country blared headlines about the “occupation of Wounded Knee.” At that time the name “Wounded Knee” was also part of the name of an American best seller by librarian Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. The book title was taken from the poem, “American Names” by Stephen Vincent Benet, and a strong sense of American romanticism attached itself to what was happening at Wounded Knee. Of course distance added much to the élan presumed to be part of the takeover, but a close up showed unarmed women and little children becoming increasingly pinned down with little prospect for food and the daily necessities of life. February was cold and March was no warmer. Blanketed Indians were photographed moving around the compound and it could be seen in Kevin McKiernan’s photographs that nearby cattle were being sacrificed for food.
With little time to plan, all action was about response and reaction. Help poured in as Indians from all over the U.S. came to help, as did Vietnam Vets and the traditional government of the Haudenosaunee of the Six Nations in Iroquoia.
Negotiations began to end the standoff and secure direct communication between the traditional chiefs and the U.S. government. Representatives of the Richard M. Nixon administration, primarily Assistant U.S. Attorneys General Kent Frizzell, were sent to secure a peace. Presumably, an internal fight over how much violence to use against the occupiers was underway, but the president did not want dead unarmed civilians to be among the casualties.
Some help was less evident, such as that of screen star Marlon Brando, who helped the negotiations through support of the work of Hank Adams. These were pre mobile phone and pre Internet days. Official government papers had to be typed out and signed. At one point, between May 3 and 5, Adams was in the process of delivering a letter with terms to the chiefs and it had been decided that the letter would be delivered at the reservation border. The chiefs, headmen and their interpreters numbering 100 feared breaking the government seal until they could carry the letter into Wounded Knee, Adams writes in the Hank Adams Reader.
The invisible hand and pocketbook of Brando helped bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion on the weekend of May 5-6, 1973, and arms were laid down. The Sioux National Anthem filled the air with a heart-filling swell of notes at sunrise on May 8 and around 125 Wounded Knee defenders surrendered to federal authorities in three predetermined groups. Federal authorities then overran the village, searching for arms and explosives. Returning residents were searched. No arms or explosives were found and the marshals went to their cars and drove out of Pine Ridge.
Laura Waterman Wittstock’s book with Dick Bancroft’s photographs, We Are Still Here: A Photographic History of the American Indian Movement, will be released in May, 2013.
There’s a consensus in the United States of America that the wearing of blackface is a racist act. It’s something you just don’t do, and if you do it you can expect to be rightly pilloried. For American Indians, it’s often frustrating that racism toward Native Americans that feels very overt is somehow harder for the mainstream to detect.
With some ill-advised costume choices, and a thoroughly unapologetic apology, a New York State Assemblyman is doing his part to connect the dots.
Dov Hikind of Brooklyn is being rightly pilloried for hosting a Purim party wearing blackface. Costume parties are a tradition of the Jewish celebration of Purim, and Hikind had decided to host his in the costume of “basketball player,” which necessitated an orange jersey-ish garment, an afro wig and dark makeup.
Hikind’s getup earned him plenty of press. His initial response was a shrug of acknowledgement in a post to his blog entitled “It’s Purim. People Dress Up.” “I am intrigued that anyone who understands Purim—or for that matter understands me—would have a problem with this,” he wrote. “This is political correctness to the absurd.” Hikind was fixated on the idea that the costume only seemed racist because people didn’t understand Purim. Also on Monday he held a news conference to address the criticism — but didn’t. He explained again that costumes are part of the Purim celebration. (The “it’s not racist, it’s a costume” argument is one Natives hear every Halloween.) In addition to explaining what a costume is, he offered a classic first-draft non-apology: “Anyone who was offended — I’m sorry that they were offended, that was not the intention.”
Hikind posted a more genuine apology to his blog on Tuesday. Unfortuately for him, the New Yorker and the Daily Show were still reacting to Monday’s news.
African Americans have plenty of cause to be incensed by Hikind’s ignorance — but so too do American Indians. On Monday, when Hikind was still trying to defend himself with the “political correctness to the absurd” argument, he told a New York Times reporter that the outcry was making him rethink his plans for next year’s Purim.
“Next year I was thinking I’d be an Indian,” he said. “But you know, I’ve changed my mind about that. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Somebody will be offended.”
Of course, it’s hard to know whether (or to what extent) he was joking about dressing as an Indian. (It is also hard to know exactly which kind of Indian he had in mind, but that’s beside the point.) If he didn’t know blackface was a no-no, there is really no telling how unenlightened his thinking may be when it comes to Native stereotypes. Many have seen a unique irony that it is Hikind who would be in this position — Hikind is well known as a zealous, perhaps overzealous, defender of the Jewish community against anti-Semitism or perceived anti-Semitism.
“Dov Hikind is the first person who will holler about something when he thinks or hears a whisper that it might be anti-Semitic,” said Assembly member Annette Robinson, according to the Wall Street Journal, “but does not recognize something is disrespectful to another community.”
As part of its mission, Tribal Energy Program provides Native communities with education and training to build the knowledge and skills that are essential to developing, implementing, and sustaining energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Indian Country. Because future generations have an important role in fulfilling that mission, each year the program offers summer internship opportunities for full-time technical undergraduate and graduate students interested in gaining on-the-ground experience in clean energy technology deployment in Indian Country.
The 12-week 2013 Tribal Energy Program Summer Internship will be located at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Working closely with experienced renewable energy program staff and Tribes interested in deploying renewable energy systems, interns will benefit from direct tribal energy project experience and exposure to a variety of issues concerning tribal renewable energy technology use and application. Frequent travel will be required, as interns will participate in field visits to current tribal energy projects.
The application period is March 1–March 15. Interested students may apply via the SNL website beginning March 1, by searching on the key word tribal energy:
http://www.sandia.gov/careers/index.html
Deadline for submitting applications is March 15, 2013.
Visit the Tribal Energy Program website to learn more about the Tribal Energy Program College Student Summer Internships.
The Mat Classic High School State Wrestling Championship celebrated it’s 25th year at the Tacoma Dome, February 15-16. The top wrestlers from each region in Washington at every weight class came to battle it out for the elite title of State Champion. For a high school wrestler there is no greater goal than making it to the Dome, and most can only hope to be there by their senior year. Beyond high school every serious wrestlers dream is the Olympics. As you can imagine the topic of conversation this weekend centered on the IOC’s suggestion to remove wrestling from
the Olympics, which will be voted on by 2014. “It’s a tough blow,” said Marysville Pilchuck head coach Craig Iversen. “Our sport is very successful. We’re filling up the Tacoma Dome, and for the top level to not be recognized would very damaging to this sport. But for now, kids are excited to be here and we are focusing on today.”
Marysville Pilchuck had six competitors make it to state this year. For sophomores Ryan Daurie at 126 lbs., Killian Page at 145 lbs. and Drew Hatch at 160 lbs. this was their second time at the Mat Classic. As freshman Drew and Killian both took 6th place and Ryan attended as an alternate. Marysville Pilchuck is one of the few schools to have under classmen make it to the dome in the higher weight classes, much less place. Seniors Jory Cooper at 285 lbs., Ignat Gabov at 220 lbs., and Ishmael Perez at 195 lbs., fought through both district and regional qualifying tournaments to represent the Tomahawks for their first time. The Tomahawk wrestlers are led by Craig Iversen, who was named “Coach of the Year” in 2012, Tony Hatch, “Assistant Coach of the Year” for 2013, Tony Delpozo, and John Hodgins.
Killian Page took 2nd place.
The two-day tournament was long and exhausting. After day one, Marysville only had three wrestlers left in the folkstyle tournament, Ignat Gabov , Drew Hatch and Killian Page. The other three had been eliminated after suffering two losses. Killian, ranked number six, was up first in a semi final match that would determine whether he would wrestle for the championship or be bumped into the losers bracket to fight for third place. His opponent was the number three-ranked senior Dylan Schmidt from Shadle Park. (Rankings are established through last years placing, wins, losses and number of tournaments wrestled). It was a battle match that lasted over 12 minutes with injury and stoppage time. The score was tied almost the entire match in the final 10 seconds Killian rallied with a 2 point take down to end the match and put him in the finals. Although he lost his finals match to senior John Hoover from (Mt. Spokane) Killian was still so excited to be there. “I am okay with second” Killian said. “That guy was a beast and a cool kid he deserved it. Besides just being in the finals felt like a dream.
Next up was Drew Hatch in the 160 lb. bracket. Recovering from a torn meniscus, Drew had his first loss of the season the day before against senior Morgan Smith of Meadowdale, and needed every win to stay in the running. His first match of the day was against freshman Mason McDaniel and ended with a win by injury forfeit. Next up Drew wrestled the number 3 ranked sophomore Bryson Pierce from North Central. It was a tough match, but Drew dominated and won 8-5 securing his spot on the podium and ending up with a fourth place medal. “I put alot of pressure on myself to do better than last year, but I can’t say I am not a little disappointed.” Drew said. “ I just can’t wait for next year when I am completely healed and hopefully my teammates and I will get another chance.”
Iggy Gabov took 8th place.
Ignat or “Iggy was last to wrestle in the semi final round. Iggy’s story is the most interesting. He and his family moved from Russia to Marysville several years ago. After dominating at football he decided to try wrestling. It was difficult for him to communicate with the coaches at first because English was his second language, but Iggy didn’t give up. In only his second year he made it to the state championships on pure brute strength. He won three matches with a “head and arm” and moved on to place 8th.
The sophomores of Marysville Pilchuck are all ready looking forward to Mat Classic XXVI and the future. Killian, Drew and Ryan all shared the same words; “There are many promising wrestlers in the Marysville Wrestling Club and coming up from the middle schools. We are going to have a strong team next year and the year after, and hopefully we will just keep going.”
Both the wrestlers and coaches are hopeful for the State Championships in 2014 as well as the IOC’s final vote on the fate of Olympic Wrestling.
