Page 1 - Dinuba Sentinel 10-11-18 E-edition
P. 1
New Leadership class
Six members of the community make up the 25th class of LNTC
Established 1909, Dinuba, California
Community, A7
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Light in the sky
50 Cents
Community to rally behind locals in big college football game for Dinuba
Sentinel staff report
This Saturday will mark a milestone date for the city of Dinuba and its athletes produced here. For perhaps the first time in city and Emperor Athletics history, two Dinuba High School graduates will face each other on the gridiron of Bulldog Stadium as Division I college football players when the Fresno State Bulldogs
host the Wyoming Cowboys.
The two names are both legends on the campus of Dinuba High, Marcus McMaryion and Isaac Leppke.
McMaryion is the
starting quarterback for
Fresno State and a 2014
graduate of Dinuba High
School. Leppke plays
wide receiver for Wyoming. Both teams will face each other in a Mountain West Conference matchup this Saturday night.
There to root for both Dinuba alumni will be over 300 citizens, many of whom are staff and faculty of Dinuba
High School.
Alta Family
Health Clinic
acquired by
Valley Health
Team
By Rick Curiel
Editor@thedinubasentinel.com
You may have noticed a new sign on the building located at 888 North L Street recently. The new sign reads Valley Health Team, replacing the long- standing sign of Alta Family Health Clinic.
The owner of Alta Family Health Clinic was current city council member, and Vice-Mayor of Dinuba, Kuldip Thusu.
This left many in the community wondering if Thusu had sold the practice. Rumors were floating around town about a merger between the two clinics. However, a recent article published in The Business Journal seems to dispel that rumor.
The article states that Valley Health Team, Inc., a Federally Qualified Health Center headquartered in San Joaquin, “acquired” Alta Family Health Clinic.
Valley Health Team announced the acquisition on Sept. 14, stating that the transfer process began on Sept. 11. The first day of operations for the new clinic was reportedly on Sept. 17.
According to the article, all of the Alta Family Health Clinic employees were hired by Valley Health Team. It also states that in 2017, Alta Family Health Clinic served more than 14,000 patients.
The new clinic will now be formerly known as Valley Health - Dinuba Community Health Center (DCHC).
Thusu recently lost a court battle with the city of Dinuba over payments owed to the city for a deal involving the downtown Dinuba Vocational Center. The court held Thusu liable for over $150,000.
To date, according to city records, Thusu still owes over $120,000 to the city of Dinuba.
Marcus McMaryioon
Saturday's night sky was aglow with what appeared to be some comsic event. The light, however, was from the SpaceX rocket that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The SpaceX rockets have the ability to launch and land remotely on a given target. Previously, the rocket had only landed on floating platforms in the ocean. Saturday was the first time the rocket landed on soil, landing on a new platform on the air base. Vanderberg Air Force base in located on the coast, between Pismo Beach and Santa Barbara.
Coats of honor
Orosi Cardinals' coaching legend Ed Coats travels to Washington D.C. on Honor Flight
Contributed
To celebrate the special occasion, the school also reserved an entire section of Bulldog Stadium for Dinuba residents looking to take in the game.
McMaryion is a 2014 graduate of Dinuba High School, where as quarterback for the team he led the Emperors to a Division III Valley title his senior year.
Leppke graduated from Dinuba High School in 2016 and was the starting quarterback the two years prior to McMaryion. Leppke was also a three-time letter winner in basketball and track and field.
Saturday’s game begins at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, the faculty and staff of Dinuba High School will also be hosting a 150-person tailgate near Bulldog Stadium. The tailgate will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. near the North Gym, near the Cedar and Barstow avenues intersection.
Isaac Leppke
Ed Coats holds the rifle of a Marine in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Coats recently flew in the Central Valley Honor Flight.
Photo by Charlotte Jones
By Rick Curiel
Editor@thedinubasentinel.com
If you’ve lived here long enough, chances are you’ve heard the name Ed Coats. The field at Orosi High School is named after him – and rightfully so. Coats was the varsity football coach for the Cardinals for 32 years, over which time the school brought home four Valley titles.
He retired from Orosi High School with a winning record of 185-127. And, over an era which included
one of the Valley’s greatest rivalry games,
the legendary coach split his series with the
Emperors 16-16; something he admits was a
victory in itself.
In Orosi, and even here in Dinuba, Coats is a coaching legend. Now among the honors of his legendary status is a flight to Washington D.C., where he and more than 60 other local Veterans saw just how much this country honors them by way of Central Valley Honor Flight.
What some people don’t know is that the legend of Ed Coats goes back long before
the days on the field of Orosi High School. They began on the fields of Dinuba’s school district, followed by the field at Reedley College and then onto the fields of Korea, where Coats served 18 months as an Army Security Service High Speed Radio Operator.
In 1953, Coats went from the X’s and O’s of football to the dots and dashes of Morse code.
“We ran radio operations for the Army Security Service 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Coats of his duties while serving in the Korean War.
Coats served in the Korean War from 1953 to 1954. Only four years earlier, he had graduated from Dinuba High School as a star football player.
After graduating from Dinuba High, Coats went on to play football for Reedley College, where he played both halfback and cornerback. While at Reedley College he was recruited to play running back for San Francisco State University.
It was around that time that the two biggest things of his young adult life happened. He married his
fiancé of three years and one month later was shipped off to Korea.
“We were copying Russian and Korean call signals to find out which direction they were coming from,” said Coats. “We tried to use those as ways to find out where units were.”
Coats said he was thankful to have been deployed near the tail end of the Korean War. He was fortunate to not have seen much combat.
“They were just getting into a cease fire,” Coats remembered.
“We only got shot at once,” he added. “And that was by South Koreans, who were supposed to be on our side.”
Coats spent 18 months deployed in Korea, then immediately went back to play football
at San Francisco State, where he had two more years left of eligibility left. While there, his Gators played the likes of Cal Poly, San Diego State and yes, Fresno State.
“It was good for me to go into the service,” Coats said of his military experience. “I hadn’t nailed down what I
See Coats, Page A7
Lady Emps on a roll
Win over Immanuel makes three straight victories Sports, Page B1
"It was good for me to go into the service. I hadn't nailed down what I wanted to do. I came back home and changed my direction."
-Ed Coats
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