Page 10 - Sanger Herald 12-14-17 e-edition

The day after Thanksgiving wasn't so good, but Shawn DePriest and his dad talked about more pleasant times on the race track. Wayne DePriest's home had just burned down.
DePriest
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until much later.
“Wayne raced it,”
Jackson said. “He hit the wall so hard, we heard it in the pits. Then he hit it again. He tore the car up. It was ugly.”
Just getting the car off the track and road worthy enough to get it back onto the trailer proved difficult. Jacks were involved.
“It was difficult to drive,” DePriest said. “And it got away from him. I was kind of bummed. He (Wayne) was bummed.”
Meanwhile, DePriest’s mom was going through cancer treatment.
It wasn’t a good day. And then it got worse. While heading home, the Ranger started to make some noise. “We blew the engine in the truck on the back, this side of Clinton on 99,” DePriest said. “Almost made it home.
“That was a horrible night.”
Jackson came through.
He returned to Sanger, dropped off his race car and brought another truck to pick up the trailer and haul the Ranger back.
And that’s the thing about racing folks. They’re generally nice people, Jackson said.
And they know how to deal with adversity. DePriest said he was doing really well in a race at Hanford. “I was in seventh,” he said. “Two cars spun out in front of me. Then I popped a tire. I could’ve possibly finished fifth. I’d like to do that again.”
He called it the DePriest luck. All those races and Wayne never got a first place. He had some seconds, but something always went wrong with the car when he had the lead. And there was the race night that Shawn broke his own rule, not to mention Thanksgiving day when Wayne’s house burned down and all his tools were incinerated.
“I’m hoping to break that
curse,” Shawn said about the luck thing. “I want to bring my mom a main event win.”
Mom, Sheila DePriest, recently beat cancer but remains in a rehabilitation facility.
The plan was to race No. 11 and another Eclipse, a gray one that sits in Wayne’s front yard. But the fire delayed those plans. Wayne, 77, was going to race one of the cars in the same races Shawn did.
Shawn DePriest mentioned something about his getting into racing that proved to be a big dividend. Huge, actually.
“It was something we did together,” he said. “It was a bonding experience for my father and I. He’s not just my dad. He’s my partner. He’s my buddy.”
And that’s better than any award.
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Little Apaches program returns
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Sanger Little/Junior Apaches Basketball League returns Jan. 20 and every Saturday after until Feb. 17 for a total of five sessions over five weeks. Start times begin with kindergarteners at 12:30 p.m. and continue in hour-long increments for first- and second- graders, third- through fifth-graders and sixth- through eighth- graders. Times may change due to enrollment numbers. "We will begin each session with some fundamental drills for 20 minutes and then play in games the next 40 minutes," said coach Al Alvarado, organizer. "The cost will be $70 and $15 for pictures. This breakdown to $14 per session all session will be at Sanger High's Dean Nicholson Gym. Details, Al Alvarado III 559-618-0052.
SANGER HERALD 2B THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Wrestling
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can get. “Since it’s my first year, I just want to improve on everything — each tournament, each match.”
Reyna said she was recruited by friends. “I like it,” she said. “It’s pretty fun.”
Stafford is the team’s veteran, and this season marks her third.
Stafford, a senior, said she attended a national level clinic and talked to a coach from a private university in Arkansas. She said her brother Vince, a sophomore, is a wrestler. She said she had been interested in perhaps trying the sport as conditioning for the softball season and mentioned it to her father.
He encouraged her. He also wrestled in high school.
Stafford won her match that night. “She was strong,” Stafford said of her opponent. “I knew she was going to be difficult. (But) when I went out there, I felt better and just went for it.”
Her goal is to take first or second in the Valley and qualify for state competition.
Water polo player and wrestling enthusiast Zaylynn Mangrum had injured her knee and helped out at the scorer’s table. She may sit out the season but had nothing but good things to say about the program. “It’s a lot of fun,” she said, also adding that wrestling and water polo can’t be compared no matter the intensity level. “I encourage anybody to just come and try it
because that’s what I did.” And the team? “They’re amazing,” Mangrum said. “I love meeting new people.
They’re all super nice.” Alexa Ortiz also made short work of her opponent, pinning her in short order. “It was pretty fast,” she confirmed. “I’m not always (like that). You don’t always know if you’re going to win. Ijustgoinandtrymybest to make my supporters, the
crowd, proud.”
Ortiz also seeks to reach
state competition. “If I wrestle hard and train
hard, I’ve got a chance,” she said.
Williams said said she joined the team for personal reasons. “It’s for me, testing myself,” she said.
And she, like her teammates, was eager to go again.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
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Holiday Deadlines
The Sanger Herald will be closed Monday, December 25, 2017 for Christmas and Monday, January 1, 2017 for New Years. We will have early deadlines for the holiday newspapers.
We will re-open for business on Tuesday, December 26, 2017 and Tuesday, January 2, 2018.
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