Page 9 - Sanger Herald 6-27-19 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2019
Final Edition special
Mike Nemeth, editor
nemethfeatures@gmail.com
An accident decades ago didn't slow him down
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Larry Koester’s not a big guy. Not physically, anyway. Not anymore.
But he’s got presence, a charisma that comes from racing highly modified tractors that pull weighted sleds down a 320-foot track in front of thousands of people. He’s a national spokesman for sponsor Shell Rotella, a line of high- performance engine oils specifically designed for the agriculture industry.
So that’s why he attended Shell’s exhibitor display at the World Ag Expo in Tulare in mid February.
Soon after arriving at the bustling ag show Feb. 13, he attracted a crowd. But not by any splashy antics. He’s a natural storyteller, just not necessarily imbued with a carnival barker’s ability to draw attention. Although, by all accounts, he would
Mike Nemeth / Snager Herald
Larry Koester talks with fans at the World Ag Expo.
Tractor Pull Association events. The racing season begins in March and wraps up in October.
“How much does it weigh?” Johnson asked of the tractor.
“With me in it, it weighs 2,050 pounds,” Koester said. And the engine, built by Adam Koester, produces more than 3,000 horsepower, said Joe Sousa, owner of Sousa Dairy in Turlock. He was part of the group listening to Koester talk about racing. But Sousa already knew all
about Koester Racing.
“I used to watch him all the time,” Sousa said of Koester. “He gets some
wild rides.”
Koester, 64, explained
how he races. “I put straps on my legs,” he said, demonstrating by levering himself into the race tractor cockpit. “You go like this. I strap my legs. Then I attach the steering
wheel. The throttle’s here.” Koester said how, with all that horsepower, the nose of the tractor stays airborne most of the high- octane pull. That requires him to steer by individually braking each wheel,
accordingly, he said. Johnson drank in the
details. So did everybody else standing around as Koester demonstrated. “I like him,” she said. “He’s neat.”
After Johnson and her group left, Koester talked about the accident that robbed him of his legs and required that he strap what remains of them to the seat in his tractor. He has big shoulders and massive, calloused hands, worn from years of slinging his body from his chair to whatever other location he has in mind, whether it’s the tractor or the driver’s seat of the motorhome he pilots from race event to race
event during the season. And he’s got a sense of humor that doesn’t quit. “I got no feet,” he said. “You
gotta have big hands.”
A day after his fifth wedding anniversary on July 5, 1986, Koester’s tractor, a regular farm model he was using to cut grass around his rural property, rolled down an embankment on top of him. The steering wheel pinned his legs. Fuel dripped from the tank and ignited. Koester received burns over 40 percent of his body. His legs were too damaged
to save.
“Burnt to nothing,” he
said. “They didn’t even do a good job (of cutting them off). I have a limp now when I walk.”
Koester grinned. His cousin Jim Koester, who is four months older or younger, grimaced like he’s
See Koester, Page 2B
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
At the inaugural Sanger Swish Shootout, David Garza watched his son Eric coach a team of elementary school boys as they battled another team.
The former Sanger High girls basketball coach had skipped cleaning his garage June 15 to take in some hoops action. He appeared to enjoy what he saw, joining hundreds of others packing three gymnasiums to see 40 teams from across the central San Joaquin Valley play a total 64 games.
It was amongst this backdrop that Sanger’s girls varsity basketball team tested out next season’s lineup. Garza had to leave after warmly greeting some of the girls. He’s a busy guy these days, having taken an administrative job with Visalia Unified School District and getting promoted to principal of Valley Oak Middle School.
Despite his new job, he’s still an Apache fan.
Sanger’s girls struggled last season, ending up with a 7-20 record and missing the California Interscholastic Federation’s Central Section Division III playoffs. At the Shootout, the Lady Apaches took on Frontier High of Bakersfield.
And after a slow start for both teams, the pace picked up and the athletes began honing their ball handling skills and making a greater percentage of their shots.
Ana Delfin pulled down a good number of rebounds on both the offensive and
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Coach David Campbell talks with Ana Delfin, No. 25, at the Sanger Swish Shootout. The event provided a preview.
working out so far. They’ll do good things this year.”
Lopez had planned to step aside from basketball in the fall. She intended to enroll at Clovis Community College on her way to pursuing a degree. But that didn’t happen.
“I hadn’t talked to any coaches,” she said. “Then the Reedley (College) coach contacted me and said he had a spot. And I said, ‘You know what? I’ll do it.’”
Also starting her third season on the varsity squad is Andrea Chapa. “We’re better than last year,” Chapa said. “Definitely. We have better communication. Better chemistry. And we have better people coming off the bench.”
While the roster is likely still a little flexible, the lineup indeed looked strong with a number of players moving up from the junior varsity squad and at least one freshman on the team.
Boys basketball coach Al Alvarado III said his Shootout did what it was supposed to do, build up Sanger as a hoops town. “Trying to get all these kids to play more basketball,” he said. “We’re finally able to get teams to come here. Hopefully it’s bigger and better (next year).”
Alvarado said a big problem was getting volunteers to fill in and perform all the necessary tasks.
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
appear to need something like that to stand out from the 1,480 exhibitors in 2.6 million square feet of show space to the crowd of about 106,700 attendees who showed up this year.
Koester’s just a real guy, raised in South Indiana farm country in an unincorporated community called St. Wendel.
On this early afternoon,
he drew a small crowd that included Paruss Johnson, 16, from Cedar City, Utah and some of her siblings and a couple cousins. She asked questions. The younger boys appeared a little too awestruck to talk.
Shell brought Koester’s son Adam’s racing tractor, which looks extremely similar to the one Koester himself drives in National
Lady Apaches embrace preseason
defensive boards and made her presence known on the scoreboard. Delfin, a senior this coming year, was injured most of last year but didn’t let that keep her from participating and urging on her team at every opportunity.
Delfin said she’s pleased with her team this year.
“They’re really good,” she said during a break in the game.
And Delfin’s taken on a leadership role. She’s expected to shoulder some of the responsibility with the departure of seniors Anelise “Annie” Lopez,
Submitted photo
Cu-Nisha Mitchell and twins Alyssa and Marissa Hansen.
“I had to step up,” she said. “Just do something to set an example. We have to keep pushing and we have to want it.”
Head coach David Campbell, who will be starting his third year in this chapter of his career, talked shop with Frontier coach Deran Smith before the game. They compared notes on talent and age and determined that both teams were on similar trajectories — a little youthful with untested talent and a lot of
potential.
“Our chemistry’s better
this year,” Campbell said afterward. “We’re young.”
He said his Apaches have another year of buying into his system before the results and conditioning send them into a competitive post season. In the meantime, they play. A lot.
“It’s a lot of basketball,” Campbell said.
The team will be playing alongside the Sanger boys and 18 other teams in the Evan “Shoot” Medina Memorial Basketball Tournament on June 29.
Organizer Al Medina said the purpose of the tournament is for everyone to have fun, setting aside the stresses of the regular season to just see what teams can accomplish.
Lopez was one of those at the Shootout. But she was working the officials’ table, keeping score. She did offer an opinion of her former teammates when offered the chance.
“I think they’re a good team,” she said. “They have a lot more chemistry. It seems they’re more united. I know they have 6 a.m. practices. I think it’s
Sanger all-stars help county take match in five
Apache coach Scott Okada, left, with his Apache all-stars.
By Scott Okada
Sanger volleyball coach
On June 15, Fresno State hosted the annual City/ County Boys Volleyball All- Star Match.
This year the city team included players from Clovis North, Clovis East, Central, McLane and Hoover. They were coached by Marcos Orro, head coach from Clovis East, who recently guided his team to its first Division II Northern Regional
championship.
The county team, coached
by myself, included players from Sanger, Clovis, Buchanan, Madera South, Merced, Madera, Reedley and Edison. (Okdada had just come off of the Apaches’ seventh County Metro Athletic League championship and seventh CMAC Coach of the Year Award.)
It was an exciting match that needed all five sets to be decided. In the end, the county team won 3-2,
taking the final deciding set with a score of 15-13. The game included many outstanding plays from both sides, which showcased the outstanding senior volleyball talent from the California Interscholastic Federation’s Central Section.
Sanger’s participants included setter John Her (first team All- CMAC), middle blocker Jesus Gomez (first team All-CMAC), outside hitter Aidyn Jalao and
libero Adrian Mercado. Throughout the match, the county team showed outstanding camaraderie and support as they provided one of the most energetic benches in the history of the all-star match.
It made the whole experience so much more enjoyable because the whole team was focused on competing while also really enjoying the opportunity to
See Volleyball, Page 2B