After dropping his second state match, Garret Miyake went on a five-match win streak to land a spot in the third- and fourth-place bout. Last year, Miyake was eighth in the same tournament.

By Sean Patterson

The grit and determination of two wrestlers highlighted Canby's trip to the Class 4A state high school wrestling championships in Portland last week.

Junior Garret Miyake and freshman Lucas Hambleton, the former wrestling with eight stitches in his right eyelid, placed a respective fourth and sixth in action from Memorial Coliseum Thursday through Saturday.

And while it wasn't exactly the finish the Cougars had hoped for - the team wound up 17th among scoring schools - the season was anything but a bust.

"Some great efforts made this tournament a success," Canby head coach Dan Nugent said. "We had two state placers and five of our seven guys scored points. Of course, we had hoped for more, but after you look back on our season we can feel very good about the overall results."

All told, the Cougars went 20-3 during the regular season before finishing third at the Pacific-8 Conference district tournament in Forest Grove. At state, Canby scored 42 points to edge South Medford (41) for 17th place.

As expected, Crater (181) outlasted Newberg (156) for a state title, with Sprague (152) and West Linn (97.5) taking the third and fourth spots, respectively.

Leading the way for Canby were Miyake and Hambleton, who combined to win 11 of their 16 matches in scoring 34 of the team's points.

Miyake, who would win six of eight at 125 pounds, opened with an 11-5 decision of Justin Beedy of Roosevelt. But he met his match in the second round, dropping a tight 3-1 decision to eventual state champ Gabe Hamel of South Eugene.

That only seemed to inspire the CHS junior, who went on a five-win tear to reach the third- and fourth-place match. Along the way, he beat Mike Wetts of Grants Pass (9-1), Matt Travis of Lakeridge (16-2), Scott Radmacher of Madison (3-1), Kyle Adamson of Crook County (7-2) and Jacob Thompson of Hood River (5-4).

That landed him in the battle for third place, where he dropped an 8-3 match to Orlando Perez of Hermiston on Saturday.

Hambleton, meanwhile, won five of his eight bouts at 112 pounds. Canby's lone district champ pinned a talented Cody Lathop of Crater to open the tournament, but like teammate Miyake, he couldn't get past the second round, where a 9-4 loss to Dalhin Hendrickson of Hermiston dropped him into the consolation round.

Once there, Hambleton went on a pinning spree, putting three of his next four opponents on the mat. First came a first-round pin of Travis Aplet of Gresham (in 1:49), then a decision of James Montgomery of Sprague.

But perhaps his biggest win came when he pinned No. 1 seed Joey Rossknecht of Grants Pass (in 4:40), ensuring a state place as a freshman.

Hambleton followed with still another pin, over Jeff Farnes of North Salem, before he met up with district rival Luke Bobeda of Dallas. Bobeda, a 10-7 loser to Hambleton in the district finals the week before, scored a 5-0 win this time.

That sent Hambleton to the fifth- and sixth-place match, which he lost 6-4 to friend and former Canby wrestler Jake Leino of Pendleton.

Still, in finishing sixth, Hambleton became Canby's highest placing freshman since Brian Watson's third place six years ago.

Also making the trip to Portland was Steve Schrader, who won his first two matches to earn a spot in the championship quarterfinals.

Schrader, a junior wrestling at 215 pounds, defeated Grant's Ben Schnedler 2-1 in double overtime and upended Matthis Gehring of Lake Oswego by a 6-2 count.

He then lost a close match to Ross Williams of Corvallis in the quarterfinals, then endured a questionable defeat at the hands of David Flack of Gresham in two overtimes.

"The ref made a potential dangerous call just as Steve was about to get away on his feet," Nugent said. "So, with seven seconds left to go, he had to go back down."

Canby also got some points from Johnny Lugo (125) and Jared Wilson (160), who each won a match. Wilson lost his first match to Josh Middleton of Roosevelt but came back to beat Joe Kruger of Gresham 4-3.

He was eliminated from the tournament with a 7-3 loss to Darek Hopp of Mountain View.

Lugo dropped his opening match to Joe Selmaer of Benson but picked up three points when his second opponent, Jeff Thomas of Westview, failed to show. He then lost a close 5-2 match to top seed Jeremy Mclean of Grants Pass.

Ben Kraxberger and Benny Cazares also went to state but failed to win either of their two matches at 145 and 152 pounds, respectively.

Still, Nugent praised both seniors for "their great careers at Canby," adding that "they can be very proud of the things they have done for the wrestling program the last four years."

The Cougars will honor their athletes with an awards night on Wednesday, March 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the Canby High School cafeteria.

ADD FRESHMAN: Chris Sandner was a district champ for the Cougars at the freshman/novice meet in Silverton at 135 pounds. Information turned in last week inadvertently left off his name.

DISTRICT AWARD: Once again, Canby was honored as the top coaching staff in the Pac-8 at this year's district tournament. It was the second straight season Nugent and company were so honored.

Walt Hamer has a simple explanation for his team's demise Saturday night. Put simply, when your team doesn't execute down the stretch, it isn't going to win many ball games.

In this case, that team was Hamer's North Marion High School boys basketball squad, which dropped a 61-47 decision to Stayton in a Capital Conference seeding game Saturday night at South Salem High School.

Ryan Cupp's hot hand in the final period spelled trouble for the Huskies, who watched the Eagles fly past them in running off a 25-11 spurt that turned a close game into a rout.

The result drops North Marion into the No. 3 position for the league playoffs this week. Monday night, Molalla and Central met to determine the Capital's fourth seed, and the survivor of that will visit North Marion for a 7 p.m. contest Wednesday.

The winner of that game will advance to the subtournament of the Class 3A state playoffs and visit the Cowapa League's No. 2 school on Saturday.

"We just need to put Stayton behind us and play like we know how to play," said head coach Hamer, who recently logged the 500th win of his high school coaching career. "When you don't play hard, you don't win. (Saturday), we allowed them to take control in the final quarter. They played harder and they deserved it."

The game, required to break a second-place tie between the two schools, started out in North Marion's favor. The Huskies jumped out to a 15-11 lead in the opening quarter and still led 26-25 at the halftime break.

But after another relatively even period, Stayton awoke to blow it open in the fourth.

Cupp sank two three-pointers and was virtually unstoppable from the corners, and teammate Matt Olsen complicated matters for the Huskies with his ability to penetrate.

In the end, North Marion (10-5) was forced to foul, only to see the Eagles make their free throws.

"We didn't rebound and we weren't making our shots," Hamer said. "When that happens, you're in for a long night. Let's just say it wasn't one of our better efforts."

Ryan Krause scored 11 points for North Marion, while teammates Tucker Brack and Mark Briant poured in 10 and nine, respectively. Adam Kraft also had nine points, and Kory Casto finished with eight.

For Stayton, Cupp scored 16 points and Olsen contributed 14.

The long and winding coaching road that Walt Hamer has traveled has taught him many lessons, the most important of which is not to value wins and losses above the kids.

Hamer, who is serving his second season as the North Marion High School boys basketball coach, recently notched his 500th coaching win, pushing him into elite status in the coaching fraternity.

But he's having none of it. "I don't think 500 wins is important," he explained. "I think the kids are what is important. Wins are just a stat - the kids are what make it important."

It's a philosophy that has shaped his coaching destiny from the outset, even as a disgruntled junior high coach at West Linn many years ago.

"I thought I was ready to be a varsity coach," he said. "I didn't get the job and left for California. Looking back, getting the job would have been a big mistake."

Still, the situation pushed Hamer south, where he ended up in the city of Orange, at Orange High School. After a year coaching the "C" team, he took the reins of the varsity program, a squad he guided for 14 years. In that time, his teams won five league titles and eight tournaments.

In 1972, he came back to Oregon to coach at Sprague High School. He stayed for 15 years, coaching the boys for seven and the girls program for eight.

In all, he had four state playoff teams at Sprague, then moved to Woodburn for a season of coaching the boys team in 1981.

"I came back to Woodburn in 1992 to help Greg Baisch coach basketball, and then became the head coach in 1993," said Hamer.

Two years later, Hamer had his greatest success, guiding the 1995 Woodburn boys to the state tournament, then into the state championship game.

He left Woodburn two years later but hadn't lost the desire to coach. He joined Kevin Barbarick at North Marion three years ago, then took over the head job two seasons ago. Since then, the march to 500 wins has been steady.

"I've enjoyed the kids a lot, and I've had some awfully good parental support throughout the years," he explained, "but there's also been some very poor support.

"The real fun has been with the kids," he added.

Hamer knew he was going to be a coach when he was young. He went to high school in Eugene, where he played point guard. He was the starting point at Oregon College of Education before a bad knee took away most of his senior campaign.

Even then, the die had been cast. Walt Hamer was going to be a coach.

But even as the victories have piled up, his coaching style has undergone a change.

"Oh, I've mellowed," he said. "I used to be a screamer and a yeller.

"I think the secret to being around as long as I have is that I've learned to adjust to the kids," he added. "You have to make the game fun. I decided that I wanted it to be fun, so we try to run, press and play all over the floor. We want to be a running, gunning, shooting team. That's what's fun for the kids."

This year's Husky squad is adapting well to Hamer's up-tempo style, staying right in the thick of race for a state playoff spot.

Once again, said Hamer, it all comes back to the kids.

"I don't give them the old Knute Rockne talk," he said. "It's their game, they've got to play it. My job during the game is to give them support and encouragement and never get down on them.

"They need to play through mistakes, and the way we play, we're going to have mistakes," he added.

That's part of the philosophy he's developed through watching coaches that have inspired him. Ray Henrikson in Eugene, John Wooden at UCLA, Barry Adams at South Salem and Mark Neffendorf at Glencoe were some of the names Hamer listed as influential to his career.

"I used to go watch UCLA practices for hours," he said of his time in Orange County. "I learned a lot from John Wooden."

And it would appear that those who played for him learned a lot as well. "I've had some outstanding kids over the years, and it has been enjoyable to see some of them get into coaching," he said. "I love the relationships you develop with the kids. A guy I coached from 1970 to 1972 always stops by when he's in Oregon. He's a salesman, but every time he's in the area, he stops by and chats for a couple hours. That's very important to me.

"The kids I've coached have been real supportive of me over the years," he added.

Adding support, he said, were three key athletic directors in his career: Cliff Saxton at Sprague, Dale Yuranek at Woodburn and his current AD, Hank Tautfest at North Marion.

"All of those guys have been part of the success," he said.

But don't be fooled, Hamer's climb to 500 wins wasn't accomplished alone - something he's the first to admit.

"You don't spend as many years in the coaching game as I have without the support of your wife," he said of longtime mate Patsy. "You can't go through the ups and downs of wins and losses without someone very loving and patient by your side.

"She's given me a lot of advice over the years.''

Now that the 500-win plateau has been reached, is it time to step away? "I haven't made up my mind," said Hamer. "I'm still thinking about it."

By Greg Thomas

These days, Larry Owings spends his working hours making sure the Molalla school buildings operate efficiently and safely.

An Aurora resident and a Canby High alumnus, Owings is the director of facilities for the Molalla River School District. He's also a father of three and grandfather of two.

But while he is a family man, many remember him for another reason. Thirty years ago this month, Owings achieved one of the great victories in the history of college wrestling and arguably pulled off one of the more memorable upsets in sports history - although he might disagree with the "upset" part.

"I don't think anyone could have beaten me that night," Owings said of the evening in March 1970 when, as a University of Washington sophomore, he defeated legendary wrestler Dan Gable for the NCAA wrestling championship in his weight class.

Gable would later earn a gold medal in wrestling at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and is considered by many to be the greatest wrestler of the modern era. He was 181-0 leading up to his match with Owings, who earlier that year had won the first of three consecutive Pac-8 wrestling titles.

In the 142-pound finals, held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Owings came back from a 11-9 deficit in the third and final round of his match with Gable, and scored a 13-11 win over the Iowa State senior, handing him the only loss he would ever have in amateur competition.

The match was televised on ABC's "Wide World Of Sports," and recently turned up again in an HBO documentary about Gable, who also went on to coach Iowa to a remarkable 15 NCAA team titles before retiring in 1997.

Owings felt that Gable, though favored in the match, was vulnerable in the finals, and Owings felt he had a psychological edge that carried him to the win.

"I think he was tired," Owings said of Gable. "In his previous matches, he hadn't had to wrestle a whole match in any of them. He had pinned all of his opponents, but so had I, and I had pinned my men about 30 seconds faster than he did."

And he had some valuable previous experience wrestling Gable. As a senior from Canby High, where he was a two-time state wrestling champion, he faced Gable in the 1968 Olympic Trials and lost by only two points.

In the 1970 finals, Owings jumped out to a 7-2 lead by the second round. In the third round, Gable rallied to tie the score at nine, then pulled ahead with 25 seconds left in the match.

"He had ridden me enough to have two points given to him for the riding," Owings said.

Still, Owings felt he had his man where he wanted him. Taking advantage of his conditioning and confidence, he maneuvered an escape, takedown and near fall in the match's final moments, scoring four points and claiming the title.

When his hand was raised in victory, Owings gained an instant notoriety that he says hasn't always been easy to deal with over the years.

"I see it less and less as a burden," he said. "But it was real difficult to adjust to at first - I went from being a 'nobody' to being 'the best guy in the world.' I was kind of introverted, but now I'm not quite as shy as I used to be."

Owings competed in three NCAA tournaments - he wrestled, but did not place, in the 1969 championships - but 1970 would be his only title. In 1971 and 1972, he finished second in the 142-pound category, losing in '71 to Darrell Keller of Oklahoma State and in '72 to Michigan's Tom Milkovich.

Owings seemed a good bet to make the U.S. Olympic Team in 1972 and contend for a medal. He had beaten Gable, as well as 139-pound world champion Lloyd Keyser, and twice had beaten Oklahoma State's Gene Davis, who went on to win bronze at 136.5 pounds during the Munich games. (He'd also been a national champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling).

Unfortunately for Owings, his quest for Olympic glory would be a star-crossed affair. In 1972, having just graduated from UW, he was married and had a child on the way, due at the time of the Olympics.

"I was coming out of college, looking for work - and these were the days before wrestlers got sponsorships," Owings said. "With the baby due, I felt obligated to my family to focus on supporting them. Training and competing for the Olympics would have taken me away from that."

So Owings opted to skip the '72 Olympics, although he did wrestle in the Olympic Trials that year, and in fact finished third at 149 pounds, losing a rematch with Gable.

By finishing third, Owings qualified for a mini-camp for the top three finishers in his weight class, which would determine the two U.S. wrestlers who'd be sent to Munich from that class. He chose to turn down an invitation to the camp.

He then set his sights on the 1976 Olympics, while living in the Seattle area with his new family. But as the Montreal games approached, economic concerns would again keep Owings off the team.

"I taught school in Seattle for three years and then worked up there in construction," Owings said. "But by '76, I had lost the construction job, and found myself unemployed again, at a time when I needed to train hard for the coming Olympics."

Owings returned to Oregon in 1976, was hired on at Oregon City High School (becoming an assistant coach for the varsity wrestling squad), and continued to train and compete, hoping that with the 1980 Moscow games, his third time trying to make an Olympic team would be the charm.

But it was politics, not economics, which interfered this time. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics effectively ended Owings' quest, and he wrestled his last competitive match that same year.

"1972 had really been my best shot," Owings said of his Olympic dream. "But I kept working at it - it just never did work out. After 1980, it was clear that was the last chance."

By that year, Owings had expanded his involvement with coaching. In 1977, he'd been hired as wrestling coach at Clackamas Community College, and he stayed several years at Clackamas before being hired by the Molalla School District.

He taught wood shop at Molalla High and served as coach of Molalla's varsity wrestlers for one season (1997-98), taking over after former coach John Olson took a one-year leave of absence due to budgetary shortages in the district.

"I volunteered to take the job," said Owings. "John's a friend of mine, and I didn't want to see the program go downhill when he left."

Owings recalls that as a very busy year. He'd transferred to the district office by 1997, and juggled his duties there with the coaching responsibilities he'd taken on.

When Olson decided to not return to coaching the Indians after his sabbatical, Owings decided to not go beyond that one season at the helm, and he passed the job along to his assistant that year, current Indians coach Mike Campbell.

Since 1997, Owings has been director of facilities for the district, a job he says keeps him on-call 24 hours a day.

"Anything that needs to be upgraded, remodeled, fixed - I take care of," he said. "I'm responsible for all the safety and security issues."

Remarried since 1981 - "very happily," he says - Owings said he looks toward a possible return to volunteer coaching after he retires from his current position. Since the early '90s, he has lended his name to the yearly Larry Owings Invitational wrestling tournament at Canby High, where he is a member of the school's sports hall of fame. (He is also a member of the sports hall of fame at the University of Washington).

His athletic career, he said, "gave me the fortitude to do a lot of things that was thought couldn't be done. I rise to the challenge when people say it can't be done - and I think you can accomplish a lot in life if you do that."

Owings was not the first in his family to win a state title in wrestling for Canby - as the sixth of seven siblings, he was the fifth state wrestling champ in his family.

"And they thought I would never be a wrestler," he says of his brothers, with a chuckle