Lucy is going to the Semi Finals! Again!

Hello Hodge fans! Well our little Lucy is going back to the Section Semi finals! After a great volley ball season, they actually made it to the final and lost to Hamilton High School. Well, if they beat Colusa next Tuesday, they will be in the final for basketball, most likely against Hamilton. Colusa will be a very tough game for the girls, but they have a chance. Hold on, I am getting ahead of myself. Week before last, the girls final league game was cancelled due to a snow storm, so they started the playoffs last Tuesday. Here is my story.

Lucy packs a Durham layup!

The Portola Lady Tigers basketball squad advanced to the North Section semi finals last week with a pair of playoff wins at home. The girls defeated the Durham High Trojans 47 to 43 on Tuesday February 22, and then whipped the Quincy Trojans 55 to 33 on Saturday, February 26.

The Durham girls came to Portola Tuesday looking to avenge an early season loss to the lady tigers. However, the Cats pounced on the Trojans early pulling to a 4 point lead by the end of the opening act, 10 to 6. In the second quarter, the fighting tigers outscored Durham by 5 to lead 24 to 15 at intermission. A key factor was Portola's aggressive full court trapping press. They kept relentless pressure on the Lady Trojans, nabbing 15 steals in the first half. After the break, Durham came back hard and gained 3 points on the Tigers closing to within 6 points after the third period. The final frame was intense as both teams turned up the heat. The referees were busy, and both squads went into double bonus as the fouls piled up. Durham took advantage of numerous trips to the foul line to chip away at the lead, but the Cats hit their share of free throws as well. Overall, Durham hit 20 out of 35, while Portola drained 17 out of 37 giving Durham a 3 point edge. It wasn't enough however, as the Tigers kept the defensive pressure up, and made the shots every time it looked like Durham was on a run. At the buzzer the Lady Cats were on top 47 to 43.


Lindsay Compton picked off 5 steals to lead Portola, while Senior Ellie Kibble, Senior Anna Roach, and Freshman Rachel Wehrman swiped 3 each. Lucy Wilbanks blocked two shots, and snagged 2 steals as well. Total steals for the Cats was 24. Leading the scoring for the purple and white was Sophomore Center Kaitlin Boyd tallying 12 points, Roach, Kibble, and Compton sank 7 apiece, and Lucy Wilbanks netted 5. The Tigers were strong under the glass as they have been all year with Roach grabbing 8 rebounds, while Marissa Wehrman, Boyd, and Wilbanks pulled down 7 each.

Next on the Tigers dance card was a rematch with the Lady Trojans from Quincy. The Red and White spoiled Portola's perfect record at home on February 8th, 34 to 47, and the Lady Cats were looking for revenge. Once again the Tigers came out hard and fast in their full court trapping press. Their aggressive defensive play caused numerous Quincy turnovers, 16 in the first half, and 30 for the game. The Portola girls capitalized on most  of the steals putting 27 points on the board to Quincy's 14 at the halftime break. In spite of two power outages , the Cats kept the pressure on in third period, outscoring Quincy by 5 to lead 42 to 24 going in the the last period. The Lady Tigers smelled victory as the clock ticked down, and kept up  the pressure on the Trojans. At the final horn, the Tigers closed the book on Quincy 55 to 33.

Hodge drives left, lays it up...and in!!

Scoring for Portola was well distributed. Once again leading the Cats in scoring was Boyd with 11, Emma Briggs drained 10, Marissa Wehrman tallied 7, Roach and Rachel Wehrman, netted 6, while Compton, Bailey Holt, and Wilbanks notched 5 each. Roach led the Tiger rebounders collecting 9, Compton and Boyd grabbed 3 apiece, and Marissa Wehrman, Holt, and Wilbanks wrestled down 2 each.

The two victories improve the Lady Tigers overall record to 24 and 3, and put them in the Northern Section Division 5 semi final against Colusa on Tuesday March 1. No scores were available at press time.

Lucy was absolutely awesome against Durham, She had 7 rebounds, and she had to fight for every one. No "easy bouncers" for her this time. I have never seen her play with as much intensity. It was a wonderful game for me to watch. Looking forward to next Tuesday's game. Colusa is ranked 3rd, and we are ranked 4th. However, they are beatable, as Durham beat them earlier this year. So, stay tuned!!

That's All!

What's Your Story?

I was editing next week's edition of our Rotary Club newsletter and came across a very inspiring story on the web. It hit home for me in several ways. First, having read quite a bit about George Washington, I find him a fascinating and amazing person. The truth of his life is more incredible than anything you can find in a super hero comic. Also, one of my favorite musical plays of all time is the "Man of La Mancha". As a young man I was very moved and inspired by the story, and secretly identified with the heroic Don Quixote. I remember listening to the song "The impossible Dream", and being moved to tears at the nobelness of it. (I never let anyone catch me crying back then!) This story form the website http://www.inspirationalstories.com, written by Adam Khan, really put these things together with my deeply held conviction that we are at choice in our lives. It made the front page of the Screwdriver, and I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy! 

On his first military campaign, George Washington made a terrible mistake. The American colonies had not yet rebelled -- that was 20 years down the road. Washington was working for Britain, which was in a "cold war" with France. The two countries were tussling with each other for territory all over the world, including the area near Virginia. One day Washington and his troops spotted a party of French camping in their territory, and attacked them, killing ten men and capturing the rest.

George Washington, an amazing man.

He shot first and asked questions later. He found out it was a diplomatic party, and one of the men he killed was an important French ambassador. Washington had made a big mistake. The two major military powers of that time ended their cold war and entered a hot war.

Imagine, for the moment, that you were Washington, and you made that mistake. What would you tell yourself about it? How would the mistake fit into the overall pattern of your life?

In other words: What kind of story do you live in? Where do you think you come from and where do you think you're going?

You live by a story. Have you ever thought of it that way? Each of us has a story, and we are the main character in that story. If I interviewed you for a couple of weeks, I could probably piece together a coherent story that you live by even if youve never really thought about it yourself. Its your life story and it is the meaning of your life.

For example, one story Washington could have told himself was: "I am destined for failure." His father died young, his mother was a nag. Compared to his contemporaries, he was poor. Killing the French ambassador could have been a final straw. He might have concluded that he wasnt cut out for military work and given up, climbed inside a bottle and we might never have heard of him.

Thats one story. Thats one context within which he could have lived his life. And do you see that the story leads to certain feelings and certain actions consistent with the story?

Heres another possibility: He could have thought he was destined to make his mark in the world, and that his mistake was the most important lesson he was ever to learn. "Divine Providence," he could have told himself, "is preparing me for a great task. I must learn all I can from this mistake for it may affect the future of the world."

Do you think he would feel differently about the circumstances of his life with this story? Of course he would. Same circumstances, different story. But the heroic story would make him learn important military lessons from his mistake and it would help him persist and endure hardships that would collapse a weaker person. The story would give him strength.

Judging by the letters he wrote home, the story he lived by was a lot more like this second one than the first one. And because he lived by that more inspiring story, he persisted and he learned and he did make a difference.

Man of La Mancha, a musical made in 1972, is based on the story Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Its an entertaining story, but its also profound.

Don Quixote takes on an evil dragon!

Don Quixote sees the world as a quest, as an adventure, and he sees a poor kitchen maid as a lady of unsurpassed beauty and chastity. He dreams the impossible dream, he fights the unbeatable foe, he looks at life as a challenge to do good in the face of evil and make the world a better place. He wants to dedicate his victories to the kitchen maid, his Lady.

She is bitter about life, full of anger.

"Why do you do these things?" she asks him.

"What things?"

She bursts out in frustration, "Its ridiculous, the things you do!"

He answers simply, "I come in a world of iron to make a world of gold."

"The worlds a dung heap," she says, "and we are maggots that crawl on it."

Two different stories, same objective reality. Yet one lives in a life of nobility and beauty and adventure, and the other lives in filth and misery and hatred.

What kind of story do you live? Is it heroic? Or is it weak? Do you have a sense of destiny? Or do you have a sense of emptiness? What do you think is your destiny? The destiny of Earth? The destiny of the human race? The story you tell yourself -- the myth within which you live your life -- strongly affects your feelings and the ultimate outcome of your life. And it can change. You can change it deliberately.

In the video below Jim Nabors plays the stereotypical lovable hick looser Gomer Pyle as some of his friends discover that Gomer's story is not quite what they expected. It's a great rendition of The Impossible Dream, from The Man of La Mancha. I think you will enjoy it, but don't forget to really listen to the words!

So, start thinking about your story. It is all too easy to start writing a tragedy when stories of inspiration, courage, and over coming great odds to persevere, are so much more enjoyable to read... and to live!!


That's All!!

Quincy Girls Defeat Portola

Bad news fans! Last Tuesday we dropped a home game to Quincy. The only consolation was that all the other teams (JV Girls and Boys, and Varsity Boys) won big.  Our girls were very tight, and could not make their shots (19%), even from the free throw line (4 out of 23). It was difficult writing a story for the paper with Quincy as the victor! This is what I wrote, not sure how much it will be edited.

Lucy and Bailey return to warm-ups
after the pre-game briefing with the refs.

On Tuesday February 8, the Quincy Girls Basketball team defeated the Portola Lady Tigers 47 to 34. The loss was the second in a row for Portola, and a sweet victory for the Lady Trojans. The Portola girls ended the week on an up-note however, beating the Williams Yellow Jackets 58 to 29 in Williams.

The Tigers faced the Trojans on Tuesday night in a crowded and noisy home gym. The game was intense from the beginning, with the Trojans outscoring the Tigers 14 to 11 in the opening act. Quincy's Senior Forward Korey Cline was unstoppable, netting 10 of her team's 14 first period points. The Lady Tigers turned up the heat in the second frame, with Senior guard Ellie Kibble hitting a jumper at the buzzer to even the score at 22 apiece. Portola struggled at the charity line during the first half, making only 2 of 8 tosses and missing an opportunity to take the lead into the locker room.

Lucy wrestles the ball away
from Quincy

Both teams came out determined in the second half and added 8 points each to play to a 30 to 30 tie by the end of the third period. In the final stanza, the Lady Trojans slowly pulled ahead and with about 3 minutes remaining held an eight point lead. The Lady Cats once again failed to capitalize on free throw opportunities, hitting only 2 of 13 attempts. Trojan Senior center Ashlee Nieman turned in a brilliant second half, scoring the bulk of her 19 points to keep Quincy ahead. As the game clock ticked down, the Trojans smelled victory, and continued to increase their lead over an ever more frustrated Tiger squad. The Red and White came out on top by 13 at the final horn, 47 to 34.

Free throw shooting was a significant factor in the outcome. The Lady Cats scored just 4 points in 23 trips to the line, as the Trojans shot 11 out of 19 for a net advantage of 7 points. In addition, while the Tigers minimized offensive turnovers, Quincy neutralized the powerful Tigers rebounders.  Leading the scoring for the Trojans were Nieman draining 19, Cline putting through 15, Senior guard Brittany Wilcox netting 7, and Senior forward Katie Barnes contributing 4. Scoring was widely distributed for the Lady Tigers with junior forward Marissa Wehrman tallying 7, Emma Briggs and Kibble scoring 6 each, Anna Roach putting in 5, and Lucy Wilbanks and Bailey Holt hitting 4 apiece.

Lucy pulls down a rebound
against Williams. Think she was fouled?

(I didn't add rebounding stats since I did not have any for Quincy. However, Lucy was the number two rebounder on the Tigers with 7, and more offensive rebounds than anybody!)

At Williams on Friday, the Portola squad notched its fifth league victory against no losses by swatting down the Yellow Jackets 58 to 29. The Cats leaped out to a 26 point lead by intermission, 35 to 9. However, the Jackets got tougher in the third period, gaining 2 points on the Tigers. Senior point guard Abby Cranford drained several three pointers to keep Williams from loosing ground.  It wasn't enough however, as Portola pulled down a season high of 56 rebounds, and drained 11 of  18 charity tosses. The final score of 58 to 29 gave the Lady Cats a 22 and 3 record overall, with a 5 and 0 record in the Mid-Valley South League.

Top scorers for the Cats were Briggs tallying 14, Wehrman and Roach sinking 9 apiece, Wilbanks putting through 8, and Senior center Camry Housel netting 6. As for the battle of the boards, high rebounders were Kibble snagging 12, Wehrman collecting 10, Wilbanks grabbing 9, and Bailey Holt pulling down 8.

The Portola girls play their final game of the regular season this Friday, February 18 at home against East Nicolas.

Well, Lucy stayed in Sutter with her Boyfriend's parents after the Williams victory. Yesterday, Kim and Luise went to Reno, so I was by myself with the animals. Beautiful weather, but a lonely day.

That's All!!

Standing Together

 Ok, I spent quite a bit of time writing a column for my club newsletter this afternoon. Kim liked it, so I thought I would post it for your perusal. Hope you enjoy:


World Understanding and Peace Month. That’s right - February is a month where Rotarians around the world are encouraged to focus on building international understanding, goodwill, and of course promoting peace.

Lately the headlines have been dominated by the protests and violence in Egypt, as the people there struggle to improve their lot in life. It is very hard to decipher from the news reports what is really happening. I was thinking about this and it occurred to me, “What about Rotary clubs in Egypt? Are there clubs there, how many, what do they do?”

Well, a little surfing on the internet produced some answers. Egypt is included in Rotary District 2450. This District encompasses 10 countries (in whole or part) and serves 140 clubs. The countries include Armenia, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, UAE, and the Palestinian Authority. Wow!

Egyptian Rotarians visit their street girls shelter project 
in Karmounse

I checked out one of the Egyptian club’s web sites (Rotary Club of Alexandria), and found that they are made up of 40% women and 60% men. Their web page indicates they are composed of 10 different cultures, and have chosen English as their “language of communication”. Their projects include a special emphasis on improving the lives of mothers and children. Their projects focus on “children in need, including blind, deaf and mute, orphans, and street children.”

They recently completed a project in partnership with a non-governmental organization to provide a shelter for “street girls”.

It was nice to look at pictures of local Rotarians doing good works in their local community on the other side of the world, especially in such a troubled part of the world. It reminded me of our work here: Rotarians at Work Day, helping local kids afford college, our literacy project, etc.

The District Governor of District 2450 had posted a letter to Rotarians on the home page of the website. Here is what he said:

“LETTER TO All ROTARIANS

Alexandria the 6th of February 2011
Dear Fellow Rotarians

I would like at first to thank all of you who either called me personally or contacted any of the Rotarians of Egypt during these hard times.

The past couple of weeks showed us all that we as Egyptians are strong, it showed us that we could stand up to anything and that we all cared for each other. 

It was not a time of weakness but a time of strength. Teens and youth stayed up all night to guard their homes, young men stood in the streets to monitor traffic and we all stood hand in hand in the streets to clean up the trash and sweep the streets. All the true colors really came to life. 

The situation now is bit by bit improving and we are gradually returning back to our day to day lives. Positive changes have been made and hopefully we will be living a better tomorrow” 

Living a better tomorrow - isn’t that a pretty universal desire? Again it was very heartening to read this message of reassurance from the leader of Rotary in 10 countries. The images I saw on TV were very different from teens and youth staying up all night to guard homes, young men stepping into the street to help with traffic control, crowds working together to clean up the streets.

Being a member of Rotary, is being a member of the larger world community in a very meaningful way. We can “stand together” as Rotarians and take action that makes the world a better place for people to live.

The first Rotary meeting took place in Chicago on February 23, 1905. Imagine a handful of businessmen sitting down together and talking about “stuff”. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians around the globe meet together and break bread and talk about “stuff”. Seems like that in itself does a lot to promote understanding, and maybe even peace.

It took over 100 years for Rotary to develop into the magnificent worldwide movement that it is today. We are where we are because of the hard work and dedication of individual Rotarians. The ball is in our hands. It’s our responsibility to keep pushing the movement into the future: build stronger clubs, get more members, do more service projects...just keep taking one step at a time.

It seems fitting that February is World Understanding and Peace Month. After all it is the month that Rotary was founded. Here’s to our next hundred years!!

That's All!!

The Spartans, Bulldogs and Braves

Hello sports fans! Another week in the can for the Lady Cats! They played three games this week, so I was a busy Dad. Here's how it all went down:

This week was a busy one for the Portola Lady Tiger cagers. Three games in 5 days. The week started with 2 wins, but ended on a down note, with a loss on Friday to move their overall record to 21 and 2. The two wins came back to back on Monday and Tuesday of last week as the Tigers mauled the Esparto Spartans, 46 to 20, and put down the Los Molinos Bulldogs 50 to 30. The Lady Cats second defeat of the season came on Friday against the highly rated Hamilton City Braves, 28 to 54.

On Monday, the Tigers leaped ahead of the Spartans by 9 points in the first quarter, and 11 points in the second, to make the score 30 to 10 at intermission. In the first half Portola shot 50 percent from the field and drained 6 out of 8 free throws.  The Spartans toughened up in the second half, but Portola still increased their lead by 6, to end the game at 46 to 20 and improve their league record to 5 and 0. Turnovers continued to plague the Tigers as they gave the ball away 20 times during the game. The Cat's defense almost balanced out the offensive miscues however, stealing the ball 16 times. Senior Bailey Holt led with 5 take-aways. Leading scorers for Portola were Emma Briggs with 16, Marissa Wehrman and Ellie Kibble with 7 apiece, and Anna Roach with 6. Roach also grabbed 7 rebounds, Lucy Wilbanks and Wehrman hustled 5 each, and Briggs pulled down 4.

Against Los Molinos , the Lady Tigers steadily outscored the Bulldogs through out the entire match. At halftime, the girls led 24 to 13, and after the break the Cats outscored the Dogs by 9 points to notch their 21st win of the season, 50 to 30. Briggs led the scoring with 14, senior center Camry Housel netted 8, Kibble tallied 7, and Holt lit up the board for 6. Portola overcame 21 offensive turnovers with 23 steals of their own, led by Briggs with 8. The Tigers dominated the glass pulling down 48 rebounds with Roach getting 11, Wehrman, snagging 10, Briggs retrieving 9, and Wilbanks hooking 7.

On Friday, the Hamilton City Braves, ranked number one in the Northern Section Division 5, brought the high flying third ranked Tigers back down to earth. Portola struggled from the outset with a very quick and aggressive Braves squad. The first quarter was the toughest for the girls as they sank only 1 of 23 shots from the field, and Hamilton outscored them 21 to 3. By halftime, the Lady Cats trailed 31 to 6. After the intermission the girls settled down a bit, playing the Braves nearly even with a final score of 54 to 28. Portola had their poorest shooting game of the season, sinking only 19 percent of their field goal attempts, although credit needs to be given to the tough Hamilton defense as there were very few uncontested shots to be had. At the charity line the Tigers did only slightly better, making 6 out of 20. Holt was a bright spot on defense stealing the ball 5 times. Leading the scoring for Portola was Roach with 8 points, junior guard Ida Pruitt knocked down 6, and Briggs contributed 5. The top Tiger rebounders were Wehrman and Briggs with 8 each, Wilbanks with 6, and Roach with 5.

On Tuesday February 8, the Portola girls took on their arch rival Quincy at home. No scores were available at press time.

In addition to my sports writing, and ride coordination duties, Kim and I have become the Team Statisticians. We have kept statistics all season, and have now entered them into the online statistics website maxpreps.com. Here is the link directly to their specific team page: http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/I_3RQ3AaAUOSZGW729Cr5w/portola-tigers/girls-basketball/stats.htm . It has been very enjoyable to do, and the girls enjoy looking at the site. Well, next Tuesday is the "BIG GAME" against Quincy, wish us luck!

That's All!!

New Photos/ Old Posts

Hello sports fans! Just a very short post to let you know that I added some great photos to my two previous posts on Lucy's basketball exploits. Check out "Lady Tigers Take Down the Wolverines" and Lady Tigers Sweep Home Stand" to see action photos of your favorite Tiger!  The Mom of one of the players is a pro photographer, and she takes some really nice pics. Make sure you enlarge the photos by clicking on them to see all the great detail!

The girls whipped Esparto yesterday. They play Los Molinos today, and Hamilton City at Hamilton on Friday. I, your humble correspondent, will of course bring you all the exciting details this weekend!!

That's All!