Good Enough for State but are they Good Enough for Scouts?
The Wampus Cats’ undefeated season carries no scholarship guarantee. Can rural students compete for college dollars?
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JESSICA LYMAN AND PETER FINSTUEN took a little time out from their wedding festivities to practice sharing just one River Journal.
Looking for Lee and Finding Hope A Journey of Discovery by Meridee Dunn and Steve Skinner
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s a hobby, genealogy is our number one pastime and there’s almost as many resources for the genealogical researcher as there are people doing research. Meridee Dunn of Hope is one such resource. She’s a volunteer with a website promoting “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness,” and she does local research in county, museum and cemetery records for people all over the world. Ruth Skinner grew up in England, not knowing her American father, but the internet makes for a small world, in particular for genealogists. Ruth learned from the Social Security Death Index records online that her father had died in this area, and through RAOGK she asked Meridee to take a photograph of his tombstone. “Our meeting was as simple as that,” Meridee explained, and
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Dock of the Bay open 3pm On Hwy. 200 in Hope
what follows is their story. There are a few precious times in life when we are given blessings beyond measurement. Meeting Steve and Ruth Skinner will always be one of those rare blessings for us. Ruth Skinner was born in 1945 in England. The child of an English mother and an American G.I. stationed during World War II at Ridgewell Airbase in England, she grew up knowing very little of her father or what had happened to him. But as with so many of these children in distant lands, she had a deep desire to locate this man she called “Dad.” It was a journey that would span 58 years and, ultimately, bring her to America with her husband Steve. Life’s blessing would not include knowing this dear man, but it would reward her with one gift she thought she would never see.... a photograph of the man her mother had loved and an answer to many questions about him and his family. Her father had stayed in touch with (Continued on page 14)
lark Fork’s Wampus Cats are playing some awesome football this season, untouchable as of this writing and reveling in an undefeated season. As host to the Mullan Tigers last week, in the first division play-off game, they left the field slightly after the half under the “mercy” rule, defeating Mullan 50-0. They hope to repeat the experience this week, again at home in Clark Fork, against the Horseshoe Bend Mustangs and, if they do, Clark Fork’s 8-man ball team will be heading to the Kibbie Dome to play for the state championship. They’ve played ball like this all s e a s o n a n d , a s C o ac h F r a n k Hammersley puts it, “These kids have only played two full games this season. All the rest have ended in the third or fourth quarter under the mercy rule.” Quarterback Clayton Hewitt, a senior this year, has played for the varsity team all four of his high school years and has racked up some impressive stats along the way, even though he and the rest of the team haven’t played many “four-quarter” games this year. Hewitt has 714 yards rushing, with an average of 1.31 yards per carry and 574 yards passing, averaging 19.79 yards per pass. He’s matched teammate Brian Young with 15 touchdowns (as a quarterback) this year. He can pair that with a 3.8 GPA, leadership on the student council, a decade of 4-H and other activities outside of school, plus a strong desire to go straight from high school to university, and maybe play some ball when he gets there. It may sound like he’s the epitome of the desired student for a university program, but scholarships are not a guarantee— students from rural schools, if they
by Trish Gannon
want financial support to continue their schooling, have to work a little harder to get it. With about 130 students in both junior high and high school, Clark Fork is as rural as they come. But even the bigger schools in this area are still rural when you start talking college—you won’t find college scouts sitting at many of the local games, picking and choosing which students they’re going to approach. It’s up to the student to get the attention of the scout. And competition is fierce. “I’m down in the mail room every day and there’s probably 25 requests a day,” explained Dee Menzies, Director of Compliance and Eligibility at the University of Idaho at Moscow. “During a given year, we’ll hear from hundreds of students who want to be considered for a scholarship here.” U of I Moscow offers scholarships in 16 sports, with 25 handed out each year for football. Those 25 are highly prized, as they’re a full ride offer to become a Vandal. In National Collegiate Athletic Association schools, there are 21,537 scholarships available just for football. For a student wanting to apply for scholarships, the first thing they should understand is that the athletic programs of almost 1,000 colleges and universities are governed by the NCAA, which puts out a 480-page manual full of rules regarding recruiting and scholarship offers. There (Continued on page 20)
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