Scooter Chapman
Hello campers, goodbye Pirates
Published on Wed, May 26, 2010 by Scooter ChapmanRead More Chapman
The sound of the Elwha River rushing by, the chirping of the birds, the sighting of deer wandering around the Altaire Campground must mean it's Memorial Day camping for the Chapman clan.
I can't count the number of times the family has camped on this weekend, but suffice to stay it's been many. It started with Mr. and Mrs., a 9-foot by 9-foot orange canvas umbrella tent, four kids, a lot of sleeping bags and air mattresses, wet nights in the rain and plenty of memories around the campfire.
Now, it's the trusty fifth-wheel for Mom and Dad, with numbers one, three and four sons and their families in tents scattered among the 31 campsites along the river. The No. 2 son? He's coming from New Jersey with one of his boys in July to experience Altaire one more time before the Glines Canyon dam comes down.
Since it's Wednesday and I don't have a laptop, I penned a few items from the desk before leaving Monday.
Pirates say so long
He was a big bear of a man. He came to the Peninsula in 2002. He didn't fare well at first, but he was a class act all the way.
The team was about 0-18. I had a radio show live from Haguewood's Restaurant at the time and Peter Stewart brought four or five of his players to have breakfast and talk about the season. It was a tough show, but the players were poised as their coach and they had no excuses. All agreed things would get better.
The team finished 3-21. Then it was 23-7, 15-15, 20-9, 18-10, 25-8, 10-17 and 13-14 this past year. Six trips to state, with two third-place finishes.
Stewart's teams had most of their losses in December when he took them on the road for tough games. The Pirates always did well in January and February in their division, the result of solid coaching with fundamentals a priority and hard work the norm.
He leaves for Minot State University in North Dakota, his home state. We wish Peter, Julie and the kids lots of success. I know they will do well, but they will be missed.
Another goodbye
The last season of women's fastpitch at Peninsula College ended in a doubleheader loss to Shoreline, but coach Jim Cheney's team battled to the end against a good Shoreline team even though solid starting pitcher, Carly Swingle, from Sequim, did not hurl the last weeks of the season due to injury.
What caused the demise of fastpitch and the new women's sport of soccer to enter the picture? The many coaches employed by the college did not do a very good job of recruiting Olympic Peninsula players or at least they could not convince a lot of players to attend Peninsula.
Many good players went on to solid careers at other community colleges, much to the chagrin of coaches who tried to get them in black and gold uniforms.
The first team in 2001 was led by former 'Rider pitcher Jackie Cheney who went 14-14 that season. Carla Umbehocker, Nylene Munyagi, Leslie Miller, Val Cathers, Ellie Scilly, Sally Sabin, Starria Stevens and Tia
Skerbeck were on the roster. I wonder what they think of the Pirate program being dropped at the end of 2010.
Work already has started to renovate the Wally Sigmar Athletic Complex to a complete field turf facility with room for two soccer fields. The field will be ready by August, but the school left in the base pegs just in case.
Youth football
What's with the new Sequim Wolf Pack Youth Football program? I thought Sequim had a pretty fair youth system that was feeding outstanding kids into the Sequim High football program, but I understand there was some grumbling and a new tackle football program has been formed. The new group will join teams from Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Neah Bay, Forks and Chimacum with teams for ages 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12.
The new program is trying to raise some $40,000 for uniforms, insurance and expenses for the first year, but it will cost $150 per player or so.
Tough soccer fate
The Sequim Wolves took a tough 1-0 loss to Bellingham at North Kitsap last week in the first round of the 2A soccer playoffs. They had a great season.
Fastpitch delay
It was a tough weekend for the Sequim and Port Angeles girls fastpitch teams with rain in Tacoma washing out last Friday and Saturday of the West Central District playoffs.
The teams had to play Monday and it will have been more than a week for Sequim and nearly two weeks for the Roughriders between games and they had to play Monday and Tuesday with drastic speed-up rules.
Pitchers were limited to three warm-ups each inning, catchers could not throw to second after the third and there was no infield warm-up so the time of the games could be accelerated.
Although not desirable, it was necessary and all teams were faced with the same limitations.
Columns by KONP 1450 AM sports announcer Scooter Chapman appear weekly in the Sequim Gazette. He can be reached via e-mail at scooter@olypen.com.
I can't count the number of times the family has camped on this weekend, but suffice to stay it's been many. It started with Mr. and Mrs., a 9-foot by 9-foot orange canvas umbrella tent, four kids, a lot of sleeping bags and air mattresses, wet nights in the rain and plenty of memories around the campfire.
Now, it's the trusty fifth-wheel for Mom and Dad, with numbers one, three and four sons and their families in tents scattered among the 31 campsites along the river. The No. 2 son? He's coming from New Jersey with one of his boys in July to experience Altaire one more time before the Glines Canyon dam comes down.
Since it's Wednesday and I don't have a laptop, I penned a few items from the desk before leaving Monday.
Pirates say so long
He was a big bear of a man. He came to the Peninsula in 2002. He didn't fare well at first, but he was a class act all the way.
The team was about 0-18. I had a radio show live from Haguewood's Restaurant at the time and Peter Stewart brought four or five of his players to have breakfast and talk about the season. It was a tough show, but the players were poised as their coach and they had no excuses. All agreed things would get better.
The team finished 3-21. Then it was 23-7, 15-15, 20-9, 18-10, 25-8, 10-17 and 13-14 this past year. Six trips to state, with two third-place finishes.
Stewart's teams had most of their losses in December when he took them on the road for tough games. The Pirates always did well in January and February in their division, the result of solid coaching with fundamentals a priority and hard work the norm.
He leaves for Minot State University in North Dakota, his home state. We wish Peter, Julie and the kids lots of success. I know they will do well, but they will be missed.
Another goodbye
The last season of women's fastpitch at Peninsula College ended in a doubleheader loss to Shoreline, but coach Jim Cheney's team battled to the end against a good Shoreline team even though solid starting pitcher, Carly Swingle, from Sequim, did not hurl the last weeks of the season due to injury.
What caused the demise of fastpitch and the new women's sport of soccer to enter the picture? The many coaches employed by the college did not do a very good job of recruiting Olympic Peninsula players or at least they could not convince a lot of players to attend Peninsula.
Many good players went on to solid careers at other community colleges, much to the chagrin of coaches who tried to get them in black and gold uniforms.
The first team in 2001 was led by former 'Rider pitcher Jackie Cheney who went 14-14 that season. Carla Umbehocker, Nylene Munyagi, Leslie Miller, Val Cathers, Ellie Scilly, Sally Sabin, Starria Stevens and Tia
Skerbeck were on the roster. I wonder what they think of the Pirate program being dropped at the end of 2010.
Work already has started to renovate the Wally Sigmar Athletic Complex to a complete field turf facility with room for two soccer fields. The field will be ready by August, but the school left in the base pegs just in case.
Youth football
What's with the new Sequim Wolf Pack Youth Football program? I thought Sequim had a pretty fair youth system that was feeding outstanding kids into the Sequim High football program, but I understand there was some grumbling and a new tackle football program has been formed. The new group will join teams from Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Neah Bay, Forks and Chimacum with teams for ages 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12.
The new program is trying to raise some $40,000 for uniforms, insurance and expenses for the first year, but it will cost $150 per player or so.
Tough soccer fate
The Sequim Wolves took a tough 1-0 loss to Bellingham at North Kitsap last week in the first round of the 2A soccer playoffs. They had a great season.
Fastpitch delay
It was a tough weekend for the Sequim and Port Angeles girls fastpitch teams with rain in Tacoma washing out last Friday and Saturday of the West Central District playoffs.
The teams had to play Monday and it will have been more than a week for Sequim and nearly two weeks for the Roughriders between games and they had to play Monday and Tuesday with drastic speed-up rules.
Pitchers were limited to three warm-ups each inning, catchers could not throw to second after the third and there was no infield warm-up so the time of the games could be accelerated.
Although not desirable, it was necessary and all teams were faced with the same limitations.
Columns by KONP 1450 AM sports announcer Scooter Chapman appear weekly in the Sequim Gazette. He can be reached via e-mail at scooter@olypen.com.
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