Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2008

Notebook: Othello boxer has Chicago following

By Jeff Morrow, Herald staff writer

Othello’s David Torres took his boxing game outside of the state of Washington on Friday and found out he’s as popular in Chicago as he is in Tacoma.

For the record, Torres raised his record to 20-0 with a fifth-round knockout of Oscar Leon — a former world title challenger — in a lightweight battle at the Odeum Sports and Expo Center in Chicago.

Torres has had most of his fights at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, and he has a large following from that area. He in no way expected the same type of reaction to him in Chicago.

“I was just surprised,” Torres said. “It was my first time out of state. As soon as I walked out of the locker room, people were on my side. As we were fighting, as soon as I started taking punches they were real quiet. When I started hitting him, they got loud, and when I put him down they went nuts.”

It wasn’t an easy fight, Torres said.

“I’m pretty sore,” he said. “He had more experience. He fought for the world title four times. He’s a southpaw. I’m not used to fighting a southpaw. And we really didn’t have enough time to get ready for this guy. We were told about two weeks before we were going to fight him. They sent me a tape of him, and that was it.”

Torres was supposed to get together with his managers, Othello’s Lalo Martinez and Chicago’s Saul Rodriguez, on Monday night to figure out the next fight.

“It could be May 24 in Seattle, or we might wait for an ESPN fight in June,” Torres said.

The Tri-Cities Sports Council has announced its newest induction class to the Central Washington Sports Hall of Fame.

Former world bareback riding rodeo champion Clint Corey, ex-women’s professional basketball player Debbie Sporcich and the Moses Lake High School wrestling program will be inducted into the hall at a special luncheon May 9 at the Pasco Red Lion Hotel.

Corey lived in Finley during some of his most productive years on the PRCA circuit. Sporcich is a Pasco High School graduate who went on to star at the University of Oregon before playing pro ball in Europe.

Moses Lake’s wrestling program gets the nod for its overall excellence, numerous individual and team state championships.

These nominees join a hall, with shadow boxes displayed at the Toyota Center, that includes Prosser track star Kelly Blair-LaBounty, former Pasco and WSU football star Duke Washington, sports official CJ Mitchell, Olympic skiers Phil and Steve Mahre, and ex-Richland standout Gene Conley, among others.

Former Kamiakin athletic director Randy Dolven will be honored as a special contributor for his years of service on the WIAA executive board, Kamiakin and the Big Nine Conference.

Tickets to the lunch are $25 and can be purchased through the Tri-Cities Visitors and Convention Bureau (735-8486) through May 2.

Prosser’s Kellen Moore made enough of an impression during Boise State’s spring football camp that he could be the first freshman to contend for the starting quarterback job since Bart Hendricks did so in 1997.

“For a freshman, he probably is as good as we’ve had around here since I’ve been here (2001),” BSU coach Chris Petersen told the Idaho Statesman. “The thing that’s interesting about it is, when we play in the fall, it can’t be ‘It’s good for a freshman.’ It needs to be, ‘This is the level we need to play at to win.’ ”

Even Moore’s closest competition, senior Bush Hamdan, can’t help but like what he sees in the redshirt freshman.

“He’s definitely way farther along than any of us probably were,” Hamdan told the Statesman. “He’s a great, great guy and he works his butt off. So from that standpoint, you’re happy for him. It will be interesting.“

Now that we know Tony Bennett is coming back to coach the WSU men’s basketball team for another season, we can all rejoice with him.

Bennett, along with new football coach Paul Wulff and athletic director Jim Sterk, will be at Canyon Lakes on Saturday for the 23rd annual Cougar Golf Classic.

We ran a story a few weeks about Kennewick’s Stan Toland, who was competing in the Desert 100 motorcycle race while in the midst of battling colon cancer.

Toland had won his division title, Over 60, in four of the previous five years, and the one year he didn’t win he didn’t compete. Toland did it again April 6, finishing ahead of the other 15 competitors in his division for a first-place trophy.

He completed the 50-mile lap for his division in 1 hour, 53 minutes and 47 seconds.

Yakima’s BJ Tidrick won the Apple Cup ASA 150 at Yakima Speedway on Sunday. Pete Harding of Surrey, British Columbia, finished second.

Kennewick’s Mike Zamora was the highest Tri-City area finisher at seventh.

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