Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 7

Sitka Wrestlers Top 1986 Sports Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska, Wednesday, December 31,1986, Page 7 By ALLEN SYKORA Serind Staff Writer The Sitka High School wrestling team made such a strong showing at the 1986 state tournament that the Wolves undoubtedly will be const-, dered one of the teams with a legitimate shot at winning the state championship later this winter. As a result, the Wolves' finish in the state year ago has been selected by the Sendnel as the top local snorts story of :986. Two Sitkans, Kelly Stocker at 119 pounds and Todd Denkinger at 126 pounds, captured individual state titles as the Wolves finished fourth in Division 4A, the state's largest enrollment classification, with 94 team points. Traditional state powerhouse Anchorage Service own the meet with 114 1-2 points. Two other Sitkans took third -Kevin Stocker at 132 pounds and Adam Wade at heavyweight And one other Sitkan, Glenn Max, was fourth at 177 pounds.

Kelly Stocker was the only senior among the state placers and Wade has moved, but that still leaves a solid nucleus giving local wrestling boosters hopes of another strong showing this year. Longtime Sitka Coach Mike Turner recalled that the highest finish of a Sitka team in his 18 years was a third place approximately a decade ago. But the 1986 fourth place was just as impressive, he suggested, because the Anchorage schools' enrollments have students at the newly reopened board- Joomedin the decade since, making it ing school who had never played more difficult for a smaller Division together in an organized program. The 4A school such as Sitka to place high. Braves lost six straight high school enrollment is a But then they began winning, and they kept on winning despite playing several times with as few as five Sitka's little over 400, whereas some Anchorage schools hover around the 2,000 mark.

'Td like people to know it was an outstanding achievement for a school our size to be in the top four," said Turner. "The kids could hardly have done any better than they did. Except for one or two two-point matches, we could have been right up there with No. 1." Turner, meanwhile, was No. 1 -being selected by his peers as 1986 Alaska wrestling coach of the year.

"It's something I've been after for 18 years. It's pretty special to me," he said afterward Braves basketball Another top news story from 1986 was the Southeast Division 3A championship won by the Mt. Edgecumbe High School boys basketball team. What made this story significant was not that the Braves won the title but how they won it. In one year, Coach Bob Chastain and his charges had to overcome more adversity than most coaches face in a lifetime.

The season began with odd practice hours such as 6 a.m. or 11 p.m. at various gyms around town, while the MEHS fieldhouse was remodeled. Chastain was starting with a group of Sentinel Iowa Kicker Says Prayer, Wins Game By The Associated Press For a long moment before he kicked the game-winning field goal in the Holiday Bowl, Iowa place-kicker Rob Houghtlin was bending over on the field, saying a prayer for his grandfather, who died just before Christmas. Houghtlin, who missed two field goals and an extra point earlier in the game, kicked a 41-yarder as time expired to give the 19th-ranked Hawkeyes a 39-38 victory over San Diego State in the ninth Holiday Bowl Tuesday night.

"I said a prayer and the last thing I said was, 'Dear Lord, I dedicate this game to grandfather (Robert Germain Houghtlin who died Dec. 22). I used to call him 'Pops' said Houghtlin, whose game-winning kick marked the third lead change in the last 41-2 minutes of the game. San Diego State, playing its first bowl game since 1968, had taken a two-point lead on a 21-yard Kevin Rahill field goal with 47 seconds left. Mark Vlasic had two TD passes for Iowa, 9-3.

In the only other bowl game Tuesday, No. 15UCI routed Brigham Young 3110 in the Freedom Bowl. Eight more games on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day precede the Fiesta Bowl on Friday between No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Perm State.

The New Year's Eve bowk are No. 18 North Carolina State, 8-2-1, vs. Virginia Tech, 8-2-1, in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta; Colorado, 6-5, vs. No. 14 Baylor, 3-3, in the Bluebonnet Bowl at Houston; and Indiana, 6-5, vs.

Florida State, 6-4-1, in the All-American Bowl at Houston. The New Year's Day bowl games have No. 3 Oklahoma, 10-1, against No. 9 Arkansas, 9-2, in the Orange Bowl at Miami; No. 4 Michigan, 11-1, against No.

7 Arizona State, 9-1-1, in the Hose Bowl at Pasadena, No. 8 Texas AM, 9-2, against No. ll'Onio State, 9-3, in the Cotton Bowl at Dallas; and Southern Cal, 7-4, against No. 10 Auburn, 9-2, in the Citrus Bowl at Orlando, Fla. The drug issue in college football moved into the courts' Tuesday aftermath of a testing scandal that saw a number of other players, including All-American linebacker Brian Bosworth of Oklahoma, banned from postseason play.

Most of those suspended, including Bosworth, were found with steroids in their systems. While Bosworth said he would not fight the NCAA action, Louisiana State defensive end Roland Barbay asked a state court in New Orleans to allow him to play under an injunction in the Sugar BowL Another hearing in the Barbay case was scheduled for today. In the Freedom Bowl, junior tailback Gaston Green rushed 33 times for 266 yards, the most ever in a major college bowl game, to lead UCLA to its easy victory over Brigham Young. Green ran for three touchdowns and passed for another as UCLA, 8-3-1, won its fifth straight bowl game. The previous major college bowl game rushing record was 265 yards by Dickie Moegle of Rice against Alabama in the 1954 Cotton Bowl a game better known because Alabama's Tommy Lewis came off the bench to tackle Moegle on a long run down the sideline.

The Cougars, who were appearing in a bowl game for a ninth consecutive year, wound up 8-5. Green's scoring runs were from 3, 1 and 79 yards, and he added a 13-yard touchdown pass to Karl Dorrell on an option play. Lawrence Taylor Named MVP in NFC EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -A crunching tackle on Gary Anderson of San Diego for a 2-yard loss. A cross- the-field sprint to nail Rueben Mayes of New Orleans for no gain.

Busting in on Jay Schroeder of Washington to cause a fumble in the biggest game of the year. Lawrence Taylor was again all over the field in 1986, and on Tuesday the New York Giants outside linebacker was named both the NFL's Most Valuable Player and its Defensive Player of the Yearly The Associated Press. "He's one of the few players in the league who can go out and dominate a game," CBS-TV sportscaster and former NFL coach John Madden said. "He's the only guy who can dominate a game on defense if he's playing at his top notch." In the 1985 offseason, there was some question whether Taylor would be at the dominating level again despite having a fifth-straight All Pro season. Many felt the outside linebacker wasn't playing up to par, and he eventually was treated for substance abuse.

"My first couple of years, I was real happy," Taylor said. "This year has been a lot of pressure and I have been able to do what I've had to do. Right now, I happy and the MVP is one of the biggest highlights of my The season has been a highlight as well, although Taylor, 27, says his third year in the league was his best. Taylor, who has been named the league's defensive player of the year three times, led the NFL with 20 1-2 sacks, helping the Giants to a 14-2 season and the NFC East championship. It was New York's first title of any kind since 1963.

Taylor got 41 votes in the MVP balloting by sportswriters and broadcasters from each of the NFL's 28 cities, to 17 for runnerup Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams. Dan Marino of Miami was third with nine votes, followed by Joe Morris of the Giants, with five, and John Elway of Denver, three. Jerry Rice and Joe Montana of San Francisco, Tony Eason of New England, Mark Bavaro of the Giants and Walter Payton of Chicago got one vote each. Taylor got 74 votes in the defensive player voting to four for Manley and one for Chicago's Wilber Marshall. "It's something I really didn't expect going into the season," Taylor said.

as tew as players due to short-term academic and disciplinary suspensions. If one player had fouled out, the Braves' ship would have been sunk. But none ever did, and the Braves won virtually every game they played with nobody on the bench. "My magic five," Chastain once called them. At one point, the Braves won 16 of 20 games, before finishing with an overall mark of 17-14.

They won one game and were fifth at state. Chastain, in particular, impressed Southeast sportswriters who came to Sitka for the region tournament, because he never compromised principles for the sake of winning. It would have been easy to overlook a missed practice, but he never did; even when it meant playing with five. Sitka girl cagers The Sitka High School girls basketball team enjoyed a new view from the top when they won the Southeast regular-season title and made their first trip to the state tournament in a decade. In recent years, Ketchikan and Juneau had been among the state powerhouses, so Sitka girls had to settle for third in the three-team Southeast Division 4A field.

Until Jan. 10 and 11 1986. Juneau came to town to close the regular season with a 4-2 conference record, while Sitka was 3-3. Sitka proceeded to win 46-41 and 42-40 before large home crowds to win the regular-season crown at i-3, leaving Juneau 4-4. "This is the best," beamed guard Juli Hanson.

"This is our dream. This is what we wanted." Juneau defeated Sitka at the Southeast tournament, but the unranked Wolves rebounded to pull off one of the biggest upsets in Alaska last winter when they edged No. 2-ranked West Valley 58-57 on a last-second 15-foot shot by then-freshman Karen Rocheleau in the opening game of the state tournament. The Wolves lost their next two games to finish fifth at state, and had an overall record of 16-9. Sitka volleyball The Sitka High School girls volley ball program had an unusual year by winning two Southeast tournaments within six months, using contrasting routes and two different coaches.

Last spring, like a snowplow steam- rolling down an expressway, the Wolves obliterated everyone in sight in piling up an 18-0 record against Southeast schools, almost always winning by lopsided scores. At the end of the season, Aleeta Bauder retired from coaching, Jan Turner became the new coach, and volleyball was moved from the spring to fall this school year. This time, the Wolves traveled to of the regular season. The Wolves then upset favored Juneau in the region championship by rebounding from a 2-0 deficit to win three straight games hi a best-of-five match. Juneau swept Sitka four times previously, including once when Sitka had held the 2-0 advantage.

"To turn the tables at tournament time was real exciting," said Turner. Both seasons, Sitka lost two straight at state, finishing 18-2 in the spring and 16-11 in the fall. Burnett stars Perhaps the most impressive individual performance during 1986 was compiled by Sitka High School senior Charlene Burnett, who placed in four events and set three school records at the state high school track meet. She was second at state in the 200- meter dash in a school record 26.7 seconds, was fourth in the long jump with a record 16 feet, six inches, and ran on the sixth-place 800 relay team that set a school record of 1:51.8. She also took third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.9 records, an event in which she already held the school record but did not better it.

Cross country sweep Two Sitka High School runners swept the individual titles at the Southeast large school cross country meet here this fall. Senior Heath Barger romped to an easy win in the Division 4A boys race, covering a course of about three miles in 16:45, a half minute faster than the runner-up. Meanwhile, sophomore Phaydra Newport, in her first season, outsprint- ed Juneau's Erin James at the finish to win the girls meet in 19:52. Barger went on to finish seventh in the state, while Newport was eighth. A Mt.

Edgecumbe runner, Jennie Pilcher, was second in the Southeast Division 1A-3A girls race, and was fourth at the small school state race. SJC cage improvements While there were many other noteworthy individual and team performances in 1986, one more item in particular deserves mention: strides made by Sheldon Jackson College in developing its intercollegiate basketball program. In late November, the college dedi- 'cated a new physical education center that includes a gymnasium, swimming pooL offices, and classroom space. Other features include nine handsome hand-carved totem poles at the entrance. SJC also launched a new women's basketball program, and the second- year men's team is vastly improved from a year ago.

In fact, 6-3 forward Glenn Padgett and 6-7 post Shane Todd, both freshmen, are among NAIA District 1 statistical leaders and show potential of becoming two of the top players in the district within a few years. Both the men's and women's teams are winless, but each may be only a couple of players away from being at least a .500 team. The virtually all- freshmen men's and women's teams Local Cage Teams Returning to Action By Sentinel SUIT With finals week and Christmas turkeys and fudge behind them, four Sitka-based high school and college basketball teams return to action this weekend, including three who will be playing in town. Each of the teams is returning from a layoff of some two weeks. The Sheldon Jackson College men's team will host Oregon Tech, from Klamath Falls, Friday and Saturday nights.

Tip-off time in the Hames PE Complex is set for 7:30 PJIL SJC officials reported today that both games have been designated as Buck Night. Fans will be admitted for only $1, a 75 percent savings off the normal adult rate of $4. "Happy New Year (from) SJC," said school official Jim Lackey. Meanwhile, across O'Connell Bridge on Japonski Island, ML Edgecumbe High School's boys and girls will be hosting Kake. Friday's schedule is junior varsity boys, 3:30 p.m.; junior varsity girls, 5 p.m.; varsity boys, 6:30 p.m.; varsity girls, 8 p.m.

The order will be reversed Saturday, with girls games coming first. The Sitka High School boys team is traveling to a holiday tournament in Ketchikan, and opens play with Metlakatla at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Other opening-round games include Homer vs. Ingraham, 4:30 p.m.; Juneau vs.

Lakeside, 6 p.m.; and Ketchikan vs. Clarkston, 9 p.m. If Sitka beats Metiakatla, it plays the Ketehikan-Ciarkston winner at 8:30 p.m. Friday. If the Wolves lose their opener, they meet the Ketchikan-Clarkston loser at 3 p.m.

Friday. Another Sitka-based team, the SJC women, have already resumed the second half of theii schedule, losing both games in a four-team tournament at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Monday and Tuesday nights. The sixth local team, the Sitka girls, are idle Friday and Saturday. They do not resume their schedule until next weekend when they travel to Juneau. Lewis and Clark State Outlasts SJC Women tne southeast championship on an up- have been either ahead or behind by and-down road -with some clear only a few points until just stretches but with other sections filled with potholes.

The Wolves started strong, then lost five straight at the end By Sentinel Staff The lead exchanged hands seven times in the first half Tuesday night in a back-and-forth contest between the Sheldon Jackson College and Ijewis and Clark State women's basketball teams. "Then in the second half we ran out of gas," said SJC Seals Coach Rick Capella about an 81-56 loss in a holiday tournament at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. Sheldon Jackson led 22-17 with 4:40 left in the first half, before Lewis and Clark rallied for a 29-26 halftime lead. "We played a real good game the first half," said Capella, whose team had neither played nor practiced for 16 days prior to the tournament due to finals and then Christmas break. "We were moving more on offense.

We were much more active. "We got back on defense real well. The game before (a one-sided loss to Puget Sound), we had trouble getting back on defense. "We shut off all the fast breaks (against Lewis and Clark). That helped us.

They didn't get an easy basket on those. Seals captain Terri Hadley, a 5-3 guard from Buckland, Alaska, paced Sheldon Jackson with 22 points. "She made quite a few outside shots," said Capella. "She was shooting real Hadley also had a team-high three only a few points until just before etQo1 halftime 50 percent of their games to second in assists with five, date, while playing established upper- an as TM ird in with five, classmen-dominated teams top everything off, she was namea to the all-tournament team," continued Capella by telephone from Tacoma today. The five-player all- tournament team was announced after Puget Sound downed Central Washington University for the championship.

"She (Hadley) was the first one they called," said Capella. "She was kind of embarrassed to walk out on the floor. They gave her a trophy and it was real nice." Other Seals scoring included Sandy Patterson, 14 points; Michele Copsey and Bev Mierzejek, five each; Molly Coolidge and Leona Kriska, four each; and Lavonne Wilson, two points. Wilson had a team-high six assists, and Mierzejek led the Seals with nine reobunds, followed by Patterson with six. Lewis and Clark State controlled the backboards by a 62-32 margin.

Debbie Thach, a 5-10 forward, led Lewis and Clark with 25 points, followed by 5-5 guard Marie Frost with 10.. Capella expressed pride in the way the Seals conductaed themselves on the playing floor, even when losing twice. He related an instance in which a spectator approached him and shook his hand after a game. "He said he enjoyed watching our team play. Even though we were losing, we never got upset or nasty at the other team.

He said it was a pleasure watching us play. "We represented the school and Sitka well, I think." The SJC women, 0-6 so far in their first seson of intercollegiate play, host Alaska Pacific University Jan. 6 and 7 Drug Woes Cloud Sports World in '86 By JOHN NELSON AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) The blight of drugs, which took its toll in both lives and careers in 1986, has been voted the top sports story of the year by Associated Press sports editors. The story was woven through almost every sector of sports. Cocaine took the lives of promising young athletes such as basketball player Len Bias and football player Don Rogers.

John Drew and Micheal Ray Richardson were banned from the NBA for life for drug violations. And baseball handed down drug penalties involving 21 players, including some of the game's biggest stars. The subject of drugs received 1,474 points in balloting, in which AP member sports editors were asked to rank their top 10 stories in order of importance. A first-place vote was worth 10 points with nine points given for second, eight for third and so forth. Drugs was named the top story on 101 of the 174 ballots cast.

The New York Mets' comeback victory and yet another Boston failure in the World Series was second with 1,260 points and 37 first-place votes. The rest of the Top Ten: Chicago Bears boast dynasty after winning the Super Bowl, 983 points. At age 46, Jack Nicklaus wins a record sixth Masters, 841. The USFL is dealt an almost sure death blow when a jury awards the league just $3 in its $1.62 billion lawsuit against the NFL, 821. The Boston Celtics win their 16th NBA title, 508.

Proposition 48 tightens academic restrictions for college athletes, 487. Recruiting and eligibility scandals i ,469. aid officials, 339. Roger Clemens sets a major league single-game record with 20 strikeouts, 330. Although drugs was by no means a new story in 1986, its devastation came crashing home with the deaths of Bias a University Maryland basketball player who appeared headed toward stardom in the NBA after being drafted No.

1 by the world champion Boston Celtics, and Rogers, 23-year-old free safety for the Cleveland Browns, died of a cocaine overdose on June 27, the day before he was to wed. After a February drug scandal, the Mets put baseball back at the top of the sports pages on a more positive note. They lost the first two games of the World Series at home to the Red Sox, but came back. Then they were one strike away from elimination in the 10th inning of Game 6 before rallying for three runs to win, and they were three runs down in Game 7 before battling back a final time. The Red Sox, meanwhile, have not won a World Series since 1918.

The last four times they've been in the Series -1946, '67, '75 and '86 they have lost in the seventh game. While baseball dominated in the summer and fall, there was a particularly prideful group of Bears that stole the winter headlines. Led by quarterback Jim McMahon, the Bears beat the Patriots 46-10 in the Super Bowl on Jan. 26, then proclaimed themselves a dynasty. McMahon set the tone for the iconoclastic Bears with his own unique style.

He thumbed his nose at the league during the conference title game by wearing a headband on which he had scrawled "ROZELLE" after Commissioner Pete Rozelle told him to get the commercial endorsements off his forehead. He took acupuncture treatments for a bad back. And during a pre-Super Bowl workout, he mooned a passing helicopter. The rest of the Top Ten: Nicklaus rallied on the back nine at Augusta National to win his first tournament in two years. The victory was the 18th in a major tournament during Nicklaus' career, which many had written off.

After its courtroom setback, the USFL released its players to sign with other teams, but said it would try to resume play in the fall of 1987, Running back Herschel Walker went to Dallas quarterback Jim Kelly signed with Buffalo and running back Kelvin Bryant went to Washington as the NFL scooped up USFL stars. The Celtics finished the regular season 67-15 and lost just three games in the playoffs that they climaxed by beating Houston in the championship series, four games to two. The 82-18 overall record was the best in NBA history, surpassing by one victory the mark of the 1971-72 Lakers. An Associated Press survey indicated that as many as 500 high school seniors would be unable to play college football and basketball' under Proposition 48, which set minimum standards for eligibility based on the results of college entrance exams. Big-name schools were hit with recruiting scandals and charges of other rules violations by the NCAA.

Such schools as Memphis State, Nebraska, Texas Christian and, most notably, Southern Methodist were in trouble. SMU could be the first university to suffer the new "death penalty," which allows the NCAA to ban a sport at a school. The NFL instituted use of the instant replay, with an official in the press box to review video tapes of close plays. After some early controversy, criticism has died down. Tempers could flare again in March, when the subject is up for review.

The Red Sox's Clemens, whose 24-4 record earned him the American League's MVP and Cy Young awards, set the single-game strikeout record on April 29 against the Seattle Mariners. Giants' Bill Parcells Named Coach of Year NEW YORK (AP) Bill Parceils, who got the job he dreamed of when he became coach of the New York Giants four years ago, was named today the NFL coach of the year by the Associated Press. Parcells, a man close enough to his players to laugh when thsy douse him with a barrel of soft drink at. the end of each victory, coached New York to a 142 record and the NFC East titlo, their first championship of any kind 5n 23 years. He received 44 votes in the balloting to 19 for Marty Schottenheimer of the Cleveland Browns.

Mike Ditka of Chicago, last year's winner, got four votes, as did Jerry Burns of Minnesota; New England's Raymond Berry had New Orleans' Jim Mora 2, and Joe Gibbs of Washington and Bill Walsh of San Francisco one apiece. The 45-year-old Parcells, a defensive specialist whose team has what is probably the NFL's best linebacking corps, was a linebacker himself at Wichita State and was good enough to be drafted by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round of the 1963 draft. But he chose to take a job as an assistant coach at Hastings, (Neb.) College. "I never viewed myself as a top player. My interest was always in coaching," he says.

Bowling News BARANOF Team standings are Lakeside, 4717; ALP FCU, 33.5-30.5; First Bank 30.5-33.5; SEARHC, 30.5-33.5; Borden's, 27-37; Sea Dancer, 23.5-40 5 Splits were converted by Cyn Reed, Norma Novcaski, and Sue Frank, 3-10 Betty Hodnett, 4-5; Lucie Noble, 5-8- High game and series, Betty Hodnett, 241, 572. City Basketball The result of the game played Tuesday was Sitka Gems 66, Woodrush 43..