Wednesday, Mar. 12, 2008

A curious hiring at Hermiston, and some YouTube

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

I was at the 3A state basketball tournament when someone (I can't remember who right now; everything is still a blur from the past week, although it might have been Mindi Rice of our sister paper in Tacoma) broke the news to me.

You heard about the new football coach at Hermiston?

Nope.

Huh? No way.

Yes way. Which may lead some to wonder, what was the brass at Hermiston thinking hiring someone like Mark Hodges with such a shaky past?

It's not just that offensive lineman Kevin Hart made up his recruitment by several D-I schools, then announced his decision to sign with Cal before a school assembly.

It's not just that the school district was recommending that Hodges' contract not be renewed -- in part because he learned three days before Hart's assembly that he in fact was not being recruited by the Golden Bears. Hodges also allegedly spent $26,000 in unauthorized funds for two sets of brand new uniforms.

It's that Hodges has a history of playing fast and loose with the rules. When he took the job at Fernley High in Nevada, he brought three players with him from his previous job at North Medford. Turns out, at least one was ineligible and it cost his team all its wins in 2005.

He's said that "too much was made of that, and the story wasn't fully explained." Well, coach, it's been three years. How about fully explaining what happened that would cause your team to forfeit all its wins that year?

The scariest part is the quote by Hermiston principal Buzz Brazeau (who worked with Hodges in Medford) in the Reno newspaper article: "I have no idea what goes on down there."

Well, Mr. Brazeau, the stories to which I linked concerning the ineligible players and other shenanigans were all easily found doing a Google search of Coach Hodges. Perhaps you should have done so as well.

Here's hoping Hermiston AD Mike Kay gets some overtime pay keeping tabs on Coach Hodges. I have a feeling Mike is going to need it.

On a positive note for the Bulldogs, the boys basketball team kicks off the 5A state tournament this afternoon at McArthur Court in Eugene, taking on Corvallis at 1:30 p.m. Coach Larry Usher wasn't sure exactly when the Bulldogs had last qualified for the main draw of a boys tournament -- "1982 or '84" is what he told Herald reporter Kevin Anthony after their 70-65 win Friday over Crater got them through.

Turns out Larry was right -- it was 1982. The Bulldogs had made 11 subsequent trips to the state playoffs (1983, '96, '98, '99, 2000, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06 and '07), coming up short of the Big Dance each time.

Finally, it's up to 178,010 hits and counting -- the video of JJ Ross' dunk against The Dalles-Wahtonka on YouTube. The highlight made ESPN's SportsCenter, which probably accounts for some of its popularity.

Til next time ...