issaquahpress060612

COMMUNITYs s

The Issaquah Press

�Section

B WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012

Jeff Anderson – Issaquah Trophy & AwardsBusiness Person of the Year

Barbara de Michele and Master Sgt. Richard ‘Top’ DeMarcoHall of Fame

Larry SchwittersEnvironmental Excellence

Barbara de MicheleGolden Apple

John RittenhouseHuman & Spiritual Values

Bill MokinPublic Education Advocate

Joe ForknerSalmon Days Spawnor Roll

Denise SmithKiwanis Volunteer of the Year

Vickie HoffmanParks Volunteer of the Year

Ileah HoekeSalmon Days Volunteer of the Year

BY GREG FARRAR

Renee Zimmerman reacts to a standing ovation May 31 after receiving the Citizen of the Year award from Issaquah Chamber of Commerce board chairwoman Dianna Reely, during the 33rd annual Issaquah Community Awards at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Greg BartonEFR Lifesaver Award

Tucker Goodman LHS, Nicole Migotsky IHS, Audrey Johnson TMCHSRotary Students of the Year

By Christina LordsIssaquah Press reporter

As Issaquah celebrated its very best at the 33rd annual Cham-ber of Commerce Community Awards, two residents — cel-ebrated for their lasting contribu-tions to the community — were inducted into Issaquah’s Hall of Fame on May 31.

Barbara de Michele and Mas-ter Sgt. Richard “Top” DeMarco received top honors at the May 31 ceremony, which included recognition for Issaquah’s fin-est in 18 categories, including awards for standout volunteers, businesses leaders, organiza-tions and youth.

Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger said the Hall of Fame awards were based on several criteria, including inspiration, leader-ship, civic mindedness, fund-raising efforts for public good and length of service to the community.

None more so affected by the awardees are Issaquah’s youth.

De Michele, a longtime educa-tion and youth advocate, has helped provide a safe place for at-risk youth and create strong families in Issaquah by promot-ing healthy living as the executive director for the Issaquah Com-munity Network. She also won the Issaquah Schools Foundation-sponsored Golden Apple Award

during the ceremony.DeMarco has proven himself a

worthy recipient after instruct-ing the Issaquah High School Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps for the past 10 years, Frisinger said. A 2007 IHS graduate nominated DeMarco for the award, citing his profound positive influence over students’ lives.

“Rick instills in young people a commitment to their community, a strong, strong love of service, a willingness to volunteer for the public good, and he instills in them a love of country,” Frisinger

Michele BretlLEO Caring Community Person Award

Ava FrisingerLEO Caring Community Group Award

Elliot RobertsParks Sportsperson of the Year

Allie LustigParks Youth Leadership

Youth advocates take top honors at Community Awards

By Ana Sofia Knauf

Maybe you’ve seen “Whip It,” Drew Barrymore’s 2009 film about a fictional, rebellious teen pageant queen-turned roller derby enthusi-ast. While the film offers a glimpse into the world of roller derby, the portrayal of the sport is a bit exaggerated, according to local residents Beckie Bogart and Sheri Greenman, who both skate in the OneWorld Roller Derby league.

On June 10, OneWorld’s Seattle and Bellevue teams will go head-to-head in an old-school roller

derby game.OneWorld Roller Derby was

founded in Seattle in 2010 by

former Rat City Rollergirls skater Donna “The Hot Flash” Kay. Instead of forming an exclusively competitive league, Kay developed an instructional side to roller derby for those who were interested in derby, but who may not have the time to dedicate hours to practices or who were interested in the ath-letic aspect of the sport. Above all, Kay wanted roller derby to become an accessible sport that could be used to build players’ self-esteem

CONTRIBUTED BY SHERI GREENMAN

Sheri ‘Jamaica Hurt’ Greenman (far right) stands at the starting line seconds before the start of a OneWorld league game. As her team’s ‘pivot,’ Greenman is marked with a striped helmet and sets the pace of the 90-second jam.

B1

See AWARDS, Page B3

Issaquah skaters carve out their niche in roller derby community

IF YOU GOOneWorld Roller Derby 4Skate King42301 140th Ave. N.E., Bellevue46:30 p.m. June 104Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for ages 6-13, and children 5 and younger will be free.

See DERBY, Page B3

SPORTSs s

The Issaquah Press

�Wednesday, June 6, 2012Page B4

B4

By Matt CarstensIssaquah Press reporter

Event organizers are crossing their fingers and singing, “Rain, rain go away,” this week leading up to the 16th annual Tastin’ n Racin’ at Lake Sammamish State Park June 8-10.

Marketing Coordinator Craig Cooke, who has been with the festival since its inception in 1996, knows that weather is always a determining factor in how the weekend goes.

“You figure that weather’s always going to be chancy,” Cooke said. “And if luck is on your side you’ll have decent weather dur-ing the event, because weather is always key to outdoor festivals.”

Tastin’ n Racin’ was designed to showcase hydroplane racing on Lake Sammamish, but also features quite a bit of land-based entertainment — everything from food booths and rides to a music stage and a beer garden.

For Cooke, his dreams came true when he was able to intro-duce Lake Sammamish to his favorite boats.

“When we started the event I al-ways wanted to dump a couple of the old unlimiteds on the water,” Cooke said.

Unlimited hydroplanes are the boats that are used in Seafair. They use turbine engines from Vietnam War-era helicopters. The engines allow the hydroplanes to keep up their high speed in turns, as opposed to the old World War II airplane engines that used to be deployed.

The hydroplanes that will be featured this year are known as Grand Prix hydroplanes. They are slightly smaller, and slightly slower, but make up for it in the noise department.

“The cool thing about them is that they are loud,” Cooke said. “That’s why you call Lake Sam-mamish State Park ‘Thunder Val-ley’ during our weekend, because you can hear those boats from miles away.”

The proximity of the boats to the shore also makes Lake Sam-mamish a thrilling venue.

“When you get six of those Grand Prix coming down the starting line, you feel them,” Cooke said. “If the wind is just

right, some of the mist will actu-ally make it to the shore.”

This year, Tastin’ n Racin’ will feature the Mastercraft X-Treme Wakeboard Exhibition for the first time. Cooke said he is excited to see what they bring to the already jam-packed weekend.

“They’re just wild men on water with their flips and stuff like that,” Cooke said. “And they’ll be very close to the shore. It’ll be an awe-some sight to see that. I’m anxious to see what that looks like.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit the H.I.D.R.O.S. Inc. and the Issaquah Explorers, which bring awareness to recreational activities in the Issaquah area. With the state park system losing funding, the parks are dependent on Discover Pass sales. Discover Passes will be available at a discounted price of $20 instead of the usual $30.

“The state park is really trying to get people to come enjoy the park,” Cooke said. “And it’s look-ing beautiful. They really got that place looking nice and they’re just hoping to inspire people to make the park a monthly visit for picnics and things like that.

“So we like putting on our show and hopefully people are impressed and enjoy the family outing, and want to come back for weekends in July and August and September and enjoy the state park.”

Matt Carstens: 392-6434, ext. 236, or [email protected]. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

IF YOU GOTastin’ n Racin’49 a.m. to 7 p.m., June 949 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 104MGD Hydro Happy Hour: June 8, 4-8 p.m. — free admission4Lake Sammamish State Park2000 N.W. Sammamish Road4General Admission: $105 years and younger: freeJuniors (ages 6-16) and seniors (65 and older): $54Learn more and purchase tickets at http://tastinracin.com.

Tastin’ n Racin’ enters its 16th year

on Lake Sammamish

PHOTOS BY DEBBIE ALDEN

Skyline High School sophomore Kara Alden wrestles Dec. 1, 2011, in a match against a wrestler from Issaquah High School.

Skyline sophomore wrestles her way to stateBy Matt CarstensIssaquah Press reporter

For Skyline High School sophomore Kara Alden, it’s not that she’s a girl participating in a sport dominated by guys or that she’s the only female on a male wrestling team. Rather, it’s the fact that her desire to compete and her passion for the sport have allowed her to succeed despite a lack of experience and physical disadvantages.

“Wrestling guys is harder as a girl since we don’t have as much muscle mass as they do,” Kara said. “You have to have really perfected technique to do well against a guy.”

On a daily basis and through-out the season, she faces adver-sity in the form of her male op-ponents. At practice and during dual meets, her options are often limited to wrestling just guys, un-less it’s the postseason.

But for Kara, the option to wrestle both guys and girls pres-ents a unique catch-22. Facing girls means a higher probabil-ity of winning. Wrestling guys, however, is where she can gain the most experience and learn technical moves she wouldn’t otherwise be afforded.

Although her win-loss record in two years of competition tells one story, her wrestling ability and results reveal another.

In two years of wrestling she has advanced to the state tourna-

ment twice, finishing sixth overall in her division at the Mat Classic XXIV earlier this year.

Nervous because she’d be the only girl, Kara convinced a female friend to join the team during her freshman year. Now a sophomore, she has accepted the “only” position and so have her teammates and coaches.

“My teammates are very sup-portive. We’re all in the same boat together, go through the same issues and deal with the same problems,” she said. “To them, I’m not a girl, I’m just another wrestler, another team-mate.”

In his nine years as head wrestling coach at Skyline, Gus Kiss said he isn’t surprised that girls come out for the team and he doesn’t believe in preferential treatment.

“We’ve had female wrestlers in the past,” Kiss said. “We say as soon as you walk into the room, ‘You’re on the team and we treat you no differently.’”

Kara’s parents, Marcus and Debbie Alden, were caught a little off-guard by her decision to wrestle, but they agree that the team structure and camaraderie fit her well, and now they can’t imagine her doing anything else.

Though her parents can’t attend every match, they go to as many as they can and especially the all-girl

See bike demos and races, and shop vendors June 9 at the Ever-green Mountain Bike Festival at Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park in Issaquah.

The free event is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There will be races and com-petitions; free bike demos all day; fun events for kids, both on and off bikes, including prizes and a special kids raffle; all the big bike brands with the lat-est bikes and gear for guests to check out; a beer garden with beer available for sale from the Snoqualmie Brewery; and food

available for sale from local vendors.

The competition schedule is:48-10 a.m. — “Duthie Dash”

Cross Country Time Trial Race, courtesy of Project 529410:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. —

“Dueling on Deuces” Dual Sla-lom Race (Pro/Open & Amateur classes)41:30-3:30 p.m. — Jump-Off

Huck Contest courtesy of Go Huck Yourself (Pro/Open & Amateur classes)

Learn more about the Ever-green Mountain Bike Festival at www.evergreenmtbfestival.com.

Alden had no qualms wearing a dress for a Christmas party, even though her arms were covered in bruises from wrestling.

By Matt CarstensIssaquah Press reporter

Isabella Gomez is just a nor-mal fourth-grader. Just your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill, bilingual, award-winning, national snowboarding cham-pion fourth-grader.

Growing up in Minnesota, Gomez was involved in a multitude of sports, including hockey, soccer and skateboard-ing. Just after starting kinder-garten, Isabella and her father Alex were looking for a winter sport and decided to give the slopes a try.

Despite Minneapolis’ reputa-tion for freezing temperatures, the flat terrain isn’t ideal for ski-ing or snowboarding. Most of the snow is manmade and the runs consist of smaller hills.

“It’s quite amazing how many

good snowboarders come from that region because there’s so much repetition,” Alex said. “There aren’t really any chairlifts, it’s all tow ropes, so they just go up and down, up, down, up, down. So the rep-etition gives them a lot more runs rather than going on the chairlift.”

Bringing home the hardwareAfter learning the ropes for a

year, Isabella got her first taste CONTRIBUTED

Isabella Gomez hits a jump with the Oregon Cascades in the distance in February during the USA Snowboard Association Slope Style Competition at Timberline Mount Hood.

Fourth-grader shreds competition on slopes

Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park hosts bike festival June 9

Father son duo post victories at swimming championships

Father and son duo Willy and Gentry Gevers recently competed in the Pacific Northwest Associa-tion Masters Regional Swimming Championships at the King County Aquatic Center and each came home with first place finishes.

The younger Gevers, Gentry, won gold medals in the 100-yard back (55.69), the 100-yard butter-fly (55.31), and the 50-yard back (25.73). Gentry was a four-year star at Issaquah High School, going to state in four events in his senior year. He will attend Concordia College in California on

a swimming scholarship. Willy Gevers came home with

age-group gold medals in the 50 and 100 breast stroke and has recorded the fourth-fastest age-group times in those events in Pacific Northwest Association history. They were also the only father-son duo at the meet and the high point scorers in the fam-ily division.

“It was a real treat to race with my son, and a family memory I’ll never forget,” Willy Gevers said.

The Gevers family are longtime Issaquah residents, with their four children all competing in swim-ming and track at Issaquah High School.

See WRESTLER, Page B5

See SNOWBOARDER, Page B5

ON THE WEBWatch Isabella Gomez snow-board at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxRwWPmTGOw.