Question of the Week: What was your sportiest moment?
By Tom Peterson
Welcome to Question of the Week, a weekly news column that poses timely questions about life, politics, culture, economics, health, and more to people out and about in our communities. Our hope at CCC News is this column dedicated to being curious about common experiences will help us to understand each other better.
This week’s question: What was your sportiest moment?
Ireva Odegaard, almost 76, The Dalles- just came from a massage.
“I’m the least sporty person you could have asked that to,” she said.
“Oh no, it could be anything, like, are you good at balancing plates or are you good at juggling do you have a kind of a gift for some feat or unusual talent,” I said.
“I recently joined the gym with my daughter on the west end of town,” she said. “We’re not to the point of being addicted, but we feel crappy if we don’t go. We try to go five times a week, but one of those days we swim.”
“Who is your daughter?”
“ Michelle Wilson,” Ireva said.
Hmm… well, Ireva and Michelle, CCCNews calls that pretty darn sporty! We’ll be giving you a shout-out when we get our frisbee team put together:)
Carlos Meza, 32, The Dalles
“I’ve played a lot of basketball, soccer, tennis, baseball.”
“But the one moment that stands out. It was when no one was looking. I would go to the park and try different trick shots. Once I threw a hook shot from 3/4 of the court. I had to celebrate by myself. I was 14 or 15. That was in Earlinert, California at the middle school. Home of the Tigers.”
Carlos comes in at 6 foot 7 inches and 320 pounds; he played center for his high school and middle school teams, he said.
Carlos Madrigal, 14, The Dalles
A couple of years ago, he was the reason the McDonald’s little league team won the tournament. He was a golden glove and a most valuable player.
“I don’t remember much,” Carlos said. “I remember winning and going home.”
“He was all smiles and got a lot of atta boys,” said a friend. “He was pumped up.”
Giant Killer Bill Welch.
Bill Welch, 52, The Dalles
“It was sixth grade,” Welch said. “It was Joseph G. Wilson against Dry Hollow Elementary, and I shot the winning basket.”
Welch said it was sweet to vanquish their arch-rival in the world of elementary basketball.
“I was the shortest on the team,” Welch said.
But you got to respect the shot!
Welch, you’re a giant killer!
I stand 5 foot 5 and 180 pounds and I’ve lost two inches in height since I was 18. But don’t count us little guys out.
Oh, and Joseph. G Wilson was on East 12th Street just east of The Dalles Middle School before the school district sold the property and a beautiful neighborhood was constructed after the demolition of the school.
Michelle Adams, 54, The Dalles
“I had an awesome rowing team at Oregon State University. In ‘88 our crew took the west coast championship. It was at Loma Linda, California,” she said. “It was an 8-person team with a coxswain.”
The coxswain is responsible for steering the boat and coordinating the power and rhythm of the rowers.
“They wanted me to be Coxswain because I was little,” she said. “I had to prove myself.”
Adams said she was seated and rowing second from the stern of the boat.”
Nobody puts Michelle in the corner! Nice work Michelle. Another win for us little people!
Tom Peterson, 53, The Dalles
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Question of the week: Who helps us write this column? You do.
“It would have to be the charity basketball game at Kurtz Gym back in the mid-2000s. A group of us from The Dalles played retired Trail Blazers in a game to raise money for… something. These guys were huge, ah, but old like me now. Anyways, I had 6 points in that game - an all-time high in my basketball career. On one play, I faked a pass to my wing and then took the shot for 2 halfway through the paint. Score. Best part? One of the Trail Blazers looked at me and said, ‘nice play.’ Unreal.”
