Alvord: Victory tastes good in Castle Rock
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 3:27 PM PDT
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E-mail this articleColumn by Rick S. Alvord
Sports Editor
Notes on a napkin as we contemplate what a Phillies-Rays World Series will do for Fox’s television ratings ...
• God forbid they run out of popcorn at Castle Rock High School football games, because it could interfere with the Rockets’ bid for a Trico Division championship.
Moments after Castle Rock crushed rival Kalama 43-0 on Friday night, first-year head coach Art Walsh was attempting to answer questions from a newspaper reporter when someone interrupted.
It was Walsh’s 5-year-old daughter, Riley, who had trotted onto the field to congratulate her daddy and deliver something very, very critical to the Rockets’ playoff run.
A missing page to the playbook, perhaps?
A new flea-flicker she drew up in kindergarten class?
Neither. Little Riley, an energetic bundle with a big smile, was bringing her daddy a bag of popcorn. Make that a big bag of popcorn.
“This is our postgame ritual,” Walsh said, motioning to several of his assistant coaches, who also were holding jumbo bags of ’corn. “If there is one rule we religiously follow around here, it’s the popcorn rule.”
This wasn’t the healthy microwave stuff, either. It was classic stadium ’corn, with the imitation butter popped right in.
After delivering the goodies to her daddy, Riley joined her mother and waited for the winning coach to finish his interview.
No word on whether the coach had to actually polish off the bag for the ritual to be official.
• The fact that the Rockets defeated Kalama on Friday wasn’t a shock. But the final score certainly was.
After leading 13-0 at halftime, Castle Rock stormed out of the locker room and went 57 yards in seven plays for a touchdown, with senior quarterback Kyle Karnofski hitting Travis Johnston from 25 yards to make it 19-0.
Two straight Kalama turnovers led to two more TDs, giving the Rockets a 35-0 lead with 3:15 left in the third quarter.
Walsh substituted offensive reserves for the next drive, but when an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Chinooks moved the ball to the Kalama 14-yard line with five minutes remaining, Walsh sent his first-stringers back in.
Karnofski passed to a wide-open Zack Gehring on the next play to make it 41-0, and Jed Lomer ran in the two-point conversion to complete the rout.
Several Kalama fans shouted from the sidelines that the Rockets were, indeed, unnecessarily running up the score to pad statistics and grab the attention of those who vote in the state polls.
The Chinooks entered the game seventh in the Associated Press 1A rankings, while the Rockets were just outside the top 10.
If Kalama coach Mark Buchanan was upset with the Rockets’ final touchdown — who scored it and how it was scored — he didn’t show it after the game.
“That’s just a really, really good football team over there,” Buchanan said, glancing at the Rockets. “I still like my team, but we obviously have work to do before we can play with a team like that.”
• Mark Morris senior Eric Hutchison recently made a verbal commitment to play college basketball at the University of Montana next year (read more about Hutchison’s decision later this week in The Daily News).
Montana, coached by Wayne Tinkle, competes in the Big Sky Conference (Division I).
Hutchison, a 6-foot-9 post, transferred from Kalama to MM following his freshman year. Tulsa, Utah State and Sacramento State also showed interest in the Monarchs’ star.
Two other Mark Morris players are entering their senior seasons at Big Sky schools — Josh Wilson at Northern Arizona and Mickey Polis at Portland State. Wilson is a three-year starter at point guard for NAU, while Polis was a backup point guard last season for the Vikings, who lost to eventual national champion Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
• It’s not too late to register for the Dudley Beck benefit golf tournament Saturday at Three Rivers. The personable Beck, 58, is the longtime Three Rivers pro shop manager who is battling cancer. He was initially diagnosed last October with a fast-moving, small-cell form of cancer that started in one of his lungs and spread to other parts of his body.
Beck began working at Three Rivers in 1988 for former head pro Fred Bader.
Saturday’s tourney is a four-person scramble, with a 1 p.m. shotgun start. Entry fee is $50 per person, and all proceeds will help pay Beck’s medical expenses. A barbecue will be held afterward.
• With the Phillies and Rays both leading 3-1 in the NLCS and ALCS, respectively, it’s time to remind everyone that it’s never over ’til the fat guy burps.
Last year, Cleveland raced out to a 3-1 series lead against Boston in the ALCS, only to lose Game 4 at home. Traveling back to Fenway Park, the Indians had aces C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona scheduled to start in Games 6 and 7.
Boston won both — then swept Colorado in the World Series.
But wouldn’t it be fitting for the Tampa Bay Rays — perennial doormats supreme — to win the World Series, mere days before we elect either the first black president or first female vice president in American history?
It’ll be fun to watch. Can somebody bring me a bag of popcorn? And not that healthy microwave stuff, either.
Originally published Oct. 15, 2008.
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