Sports
Getting ‘even’
Mariners beat Yankees
to climb back to .500
Page B2
Sidelines
Quotable
“This is a low-risk
proposition. If it doesn’t
go as planned, it’s not
the end of the world.”
Las Vegas Wranglers
president Billy Johnson,
on the team’s plans to
host “Rapture Night”
as part of its home
opener Oct. 21, the
revised doomsday date
of California preacher
Harold Camping
Thursday
Wenatchee Valley Night with
Cougar Athletics
Banquet
5 p.m., Wenatchee Center
WSU athletic director Bill
Moos, men’s basketball coach
Ken Bone, and football coach
Paul Wulff will all speak at the
event. Tickets are available at
the Larson/Allen, Mel Henkle
CPA, and Mitchell Reed
Insurance offices.
Section
Sports editor
Stephen Maher
(509) 664-7154
[email protected]
Saturday, June 4
Tri-Cities Fever at
Wenatchee Valley Venom
IFL football
7:05 p.m.
The Venom wrap up the
season against rival Tri-Cities
at Town Toyota Center.
College football
UW RB pleads guilty
SEATTLE — University
of Washington running
back Johri Fogerson
recently pleaded guilty to
resisting arrest, paying a
$150 fine, but had a charge
of marijuana possession
dropped in connection with
an arrest on March 3.
Those outcomes
conclude the legal
proceedings resulting
from an incident in which
Fogerson was arrested
and later charged in
Snohomish County District
Court’s South Division
with resisting arrest and
marijuana possession
Snohomish County
Deputy Prosecuting
Attorney Kathy Jo Blake
said the court imposed
90 days jail to Fogerson
for resisting arrest, but
deferred all 90 days for
three months on the
condition he has no new
criminal law violations and
pays the $150 fine.
Blake said the possession
of marijuana charge was
dismissed “pursuant to
office standards and the
defendant showing proof
he completed alcohol and
drug information school.”
Fogerson had been
scheduled for court dates
next month.
—The Seattle Times
Quiz time
Who are the youngest
men’s and women’s
tennis players to ever
win the French Open?
Answer in today’s
Scoreboard, Page B4
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Class 4A fastpitch softball tournament
Friday and Saturday | at Spokane | Scores: www.wenatcheeworld.com
Panthers softball lives to play another day
Craddock three-hits Richland in elimination game to get team through to Saturday
BY BRIAN ADAMOWSKY
World sports writer
SPOKANE — The longer the
season goes, the better Bri Craddock
and the Wenatchee fastpitch softball
team gets.
Craddock, a sophomore, pitched
every inning of the Panthers’ three
Class 4A state tournament games on
Friday, capping the day with a threehitter in a 5-3 victory over Big Nine
foe Richland that got WHS to the
second day of action.
It was Wenatchee’s first victory
over Richland in four tries this season,
as the Bombers beat the Panthers in
two regular season meetings and once
at the district tournament.
It was also Wenatchee’s sixth win
in elimination games during the
postseason.
“It’s really exciting,” said Wenatchee
shortstop and leadoff hitter Haylee
Douglass, a senior playing in her first
state tournament in four seasons of
varsity athletics. “It shows that we
really deserve to be here, and it was
one of the best things ever to finally
beat Richland in a game that counts.”
Wenatchee scored all of its runs in
the fifth inning on two extra-base hits
— a two-run triple by freshman Katie
Kansky and a bases-clearing double
by Lindy Holmberg.
Craddock did the rest, getting 17
of the 21 outs in the game via ground
balls.
“I asked (pitching coach) Jason
(Michael) for adjectives to describe
Bri today, and he just said, ‘Awesome,’”
Wenatchee coach Brent Grothe said.
“She was hitting spots and working
corners the whole day. The kid just
gets better and better.”
Wenatchee played Tahoma in yet
Please see PANTHERS, Page B3
A BAD BREAK,
A SPIRIT UNBROKEN
C4, C5, and C6
vertebrae together
after he broke his
neck in a rugby
game at
Confluence
State Park on
March 26.
Friday
Kitsap BlueJackets at
Wenatchee AppleSox
WCL baseball
7:05 p.m.
It’s opening day for the
West Coast League summer
collegiate baseball season at
WVC’s Paul Thomas Sr. Field.
B
Photos provided by Peter Collier
Wenatchee High School junior Peter Collier, right,
and his grandfather, Bill Travis, pose for a photo
after competing in the Apple Capital Triathlon at
Daroga State Park in Orondo last August.
This x-ray shows a steel plate that fused Collier’s
An impactful rugby tackle
left Peter Collier with
a shattered neck, but the
WHS junior is working
his way back into athletics
BY BRENT STECKER
World sports writer
W
ith one quick blow, Peter Collier’s rugby
career was over.
Lucky for him it didn’t put him in a
wheelchair — or worse.
While competing March 26 in just his second
game for Wenatchee Schoolhouse Rugby, the
Wenatchee High junior made a crunching tackle that
changed his life forever.
“Our outside center missed his tackle, so I had to
get the guy with the ball,” Collier recalls of the events
that day at Confluence State Park. “It was really
rainy and wet, but I got on some firm ground and
tackled just right (so) that when I wrapped around
him, all the energy went through my shoulder, sent it
through my body, and it shattered my vertebrae.”
It was a C4/C5 facet fracture — the C4 vertebrae
fractured around an artery, and the C5 was
fractured all the way across the vertebrae.
Not that Collier knew it at first. He left the game,
dazed but still standing on the sideline.
“I honestly thought I just hurt my shoulder really
Step by step: How Peter Collier’s shattered neck was treated
Early afternoon, March 26: Peter Collier is injured while tackling an opponent in a rugby game at Wenatchee
Confluence State Park.
Late afternoon, March 26: Collier is taken to the clinic in East Wenatchee and put in a neck brace. He later is
driven to the emergency room in Wenatchee, where a CAT-scan finds his neck has been fractured.
Evening, March 26: Collier is transported by ambulance to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he
undergoes several tests.
March 27: Collier is put in a halo, but by the afternoon doctors determine he will need surgery to fuse together his
C4, C5, and C6 vertebrae.
March 28: Neurologist Dr. Fangyi Zhang operates on Collier at Harborview.
March 29: Collier is released from Harborview and driven home to Wenatchee by family members to begin his
recovery.
— Brent Stecker, World staff
Please see BREAK, Page B3
Hollins returns, but Venom lose to Timberwolves again
Turnovers are costly
BY DOUG FLANAGAN
World sports writer
KENT — Down by 18 points at
halftime, the Wenatchee Valley
Venom needed something to spur a
sluggish offense Friday against the
Seattle Timberwolves.
Coach Brian Smith decided to pull
quarterback Charles Dowdell and
insert Devin Hollins, who had missed
the vast majority of the team’s past
six games with a knee injury. While
Hollins played well at times and gave
the team a different look on offense,
the Venom weren’t able to overcome
the early deficit and lost to Seattle for a
second straight week,
61-45.
“We anticipated
(going to Hollins in
the second half),”
Smith said. “He wasn’t
100 percent, and we
weren’t comfortable
starting the game with
him. But we made the Timberwolves 61,
decision to change
Venom 45
things up with a differFriday
ent approach in the
Next: vs. Tri-Cities
second half to get back Saturday, 7:05 p.m.
Radio: KPQ
into the game.”
Hollins threw a
14-yard touchdown
pass to Timothy Simmons early in the
third quarter to cut the Timberwolves’
lead to 27-16, and connected with
Simmons with two minutes left in the
period to get the Venom within 15.
But in the fourth quarter, Hollins
tossed two key interceptions, the
second of which was returned for a
touchdown by Seattle’s Xavier Hicks
with less than a minute to go to give
the Timberwolves a 60-39 advantage.
“We had two major turnovers that
hurt us,” Smith said. “It’s hard to win
a game when you have turnovers at a
crucial time.”
Hollins completed 13 of 29 passes
for 131 yards. Dowdell completed 11 of
22 passes for 77 yards in the first half.
Smith said that he will name a
starting quarterback for the team’s
season finale against Tri-Cities during
the week.
“Both quarterbacks played well,” he
said. “We’ll have packages ready for
both of them. We’ll have to evaluate
this game and break down some film
and make that decision.”
The Venom (3-10) couldn’t stop the
Timberwolves’ passing attack, led
by quarterback Charles McCullum
(260 yards, six touchdowns) and
receiver Andre Jordan (91 yards, three
touchdowns).
Seattle scored twice on its first three
offensive plays and never trailed.
“That’s arena football. It’s a fastpaced game,” Smith said. “We didn’t
panic. We wanted to get a stop on
defense and convert on offense and get
right back into the game. But when we
were in a position to get back into the
game, we turned the ball over, and we
couldn’t recover from that.”