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See Baskets, Page A4

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See Reyes, Page B1

See Hospital, Page A4

Photo submitted by Kathy Lomax, Othello Chamber

Members of the Othello High School Leos club help decorate Pioneer Park in preparation for the Christmas Light Parade on Saturday, Dec. 12.

By John Becerra Jr. Staff writer

As the state legislature pre-pares to convene in January of next year, the Othello Commu-nity Hospital is awaiting pos-sible cuts that would impact the way they do business.

Mark Bunch, the hospital’s chief fi nancial offi cer, reported at last Thursday’s board of di-rectors’ meeting that the state faces a $2.7 billion budget def-icit, up from $2 billion accord-ing to several lobbyists Bunch has talked to in Olympia.

Sixty percent of the state’s $30 billion budget is constitu-

tionally protected, with federal regulations putting the protect-ed amount over 70 percent.

That leaves an estimated 36 percent to be removed to bal-ance the two-year operating budget, which means health care and human services may take the biggest hit. It also means the Basic Health Plan program may be one of several state-funded programs to go.

The program, designed to support those who are on a fi xed income, has 79,000 currently enrolled in the pro-gram, with another 78,000 on the waiting list.

Hospital braces for state cuts

By John Becerra Jr.Staff writer

Back in 1975, Merritt John-son knew of seven families who were having a tough time making ends meet at Christ-mas time.

So, he and six other men from the fi re department got together to chip in some mon-ey and buy them some food so they wouldn’t go hungry.

Thirty-four years later, the Othello Christmas basket pro-gram has grown into a com-munity drive that benefi ts hun-

dreds of families in Othello.“It’s something else,” John-

son, a volunteer fi refi ghter and the Othello 2007 Citizen of the Year, said. “This community really gets involved. We’re re-ally lucky to get the support we’ve had.”

This year’s basket drive kicks off Dec. 6 with a community breakfast buffet at the Eagles Lodge from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s sponsored by the Othello Fire Department, with tickets going for $8 for adults and children 10 and under are $4.

From there, Johnson, along

with Richard Johnson, the owner of Johnson Glass Com-pany, works with the pastors of several churches and lo-cal schools to get referrals of families that need help.

Johnson said they had to turn to referrals because too many people were taking ad-vantage of the free baskets.

Those churches, along with several other groups, collect food and toys for the baskets that are handed out. Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) is raising money to put smoke detectors in the baskets, while

the Friends of the Othello Li-brary is collecting books for donation toward the program, as well.

Johnson gave credit to Othel-lo High School and McFarland Middle School for their assis-tance in gathering donations.

“They do a really fantastic job of collecting,” he said.

Once they get enough dona-tions, volunteers put together baskets containing toys and foodstuffs, such as ham, tur-key, onions, potatoes, fl our, sugar and an assortment of

Christmas basket program is still going strong

File photo

Fundraising for the Christmas Basket program kicks o� with the annual Fire-man’s Breakfast on Sunday, Dec. 6.

By John Becerra Jr. Staff writer

In January, Washington state superintendent Randy Dorn said the WASL would be no more.

Now, he is proposing more changes to high school gradu-

at ion re-quirements, r e c o m -m e n d i n g the deadline for assess-ing students under the

math and science learning standards be pushed back sev-eral years.

Under the current rules, in 2013, students must show pro-fi ciency in math and science in order to graduate.

Dorn feels the current grad-uating class won’t be able to make that deadline because they still need time to learn the new math and science learning standards being im-plemented across the state.

“It doesn’t take a mathemati-cian to see we have a big prob-

lem in our state,” Dorn said in a press release. “Less than 50 percent of our 10th grad-ers are passing the math and science exams. We need to be fair to our students and give them time to learn the new standards. It’s simply a matter of doing what’s right.”

Dorn plans to ask the state legislature to push back the deadlines to 2015 in math and 2017 in science and keep the current requirements.

He also wants to establish a two-tier bar for the math re-

quirement so, in 2015, students who don’t reach the Profi cient tier can still receive a diploma if they meet the Basic tier require-ments. Under that tier, students would take a fourth year of math in order to graduate.

Othello school district su-perintendent George Juarez said he understands what Dorn is trying to do.

“If we were going on course with math and science re-quirements, a lot of kids would not graduate,” Juarez said. “It would concern a lot of people.

Even when I was a teacher, if there was a large percentage of the class that couldn’t pass, you had to analyze what you did, go back and take another course of action.”

One person who is not a fan of Dorn’s proposed change is Gov. Chris Gregoire.

“We can’t lower our stan-dards in math nor can we communicate that science is not important,” she said in a prepared statement. “We must prepare our students for their future. There is every reason

to focus attention on the math and science learning needs of our students so they can suc-ceed after high school.”

Juarez said Gregoire is con-cerned about the graduation rate. He, on the other hand, is concerned about what he said is the bigger picture of prepar-ing kids for life.

“I think parents share that concern,” he said. “It will be in-teresting to see what happens.”

Changes may be coming to graduation requirements

Randy Dorn

Submitted photo

Andrew Reyes’ had no idea winning 1-mile relay in the 1996-97 nationals would open the world to him. Here he readies himself in the blocks for that life-changing race.

World class athlete o� ers servicesBy Bob KirkpatrickEditor

You can do anything you set your mind to. That’s the advice Olympian Andrew Reyes offers to future track stars. Reyes, 35, was a member of the 4 x 100 relay team that competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia and is world ranked in the 400 meters.

He also participated in the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, was an N.C.A.A. champion and an All-Ameri-can in 1997 and was ranked in the top 10 in the country in the 100 meters.

“I was a busy guy,” he said. Reyes was born in Liberia, but

grew up in southern California.“I was adopted by a Latino

lady when I was a week old,” he said. “I’ve been back a couple of times since then, but I’ve spent most of my life in the United States.”

An avid soccer player grow-ing up, Reyes got his fi rst taste of track and fi eld as a junior in high school.

“I broke my leg that year,” he said. “But my senior year, I took second at state in the 200 and 400 meter dash, and the 4 x 100 meter relay.

It wasn’t long after he re-ceived an invitation from the state to represent Arizona in the Great Southwest Track Meet.

“It was a competition be-tween the states of Nevada, California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona,” Reyes said. “And we won.”

After the competition, he de-cided to attend at Santa Moni-ca College to perfect his skills.

“I was thinking Santa Mon-ica College … Santa Monica Track Club … Carl Lewis runs for the Santa Monica Track Club and they often ran at the college,” he said. “I thought I might get a chance to run into Carl Lewis, so I decided to en-roll. But I never saw him.”

Reyes competed for the col-lege from 1994 to 1996 and in his fi nal season, his coach asked him if he’d thought about earning a living running track.

“Run track like the profes-sional athletes? Sure,” I said. “Then he told me if I could in-crease my speed, he could get me a scholarship to a major

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university to run track.”In 1996, Reyes won the con-

ference championship in the 400 meters and took top honors in the southern California finals.

“That made me No. 1 in southern California,” Reyes said. “Then I competed against the top guys in northern Cali-fornia and came in second.”

After his performances, sev-eral universities came calling.

“I accepted the offer from Abilene Christian (a Division II school) in West Texas,” he said. “They gave me a full-ride.”

While there, he was part of the 4 x 100 meter relay team that won the conference cham-pionship, was named an NCAA All-American and was nation-ally ranked in the 400 meters.

“After nationals, a guy from Nike came up to me and asked me if I wanted to run profes-sionally and I accepted the offer,” Reyes said. “I started competing for them in 1997.”

In 1998, a representative from Liberia contacted him to find out if he’d be interested in representing his native country in the 2000 Olympics.

“‘Sure, definitely,’ I said. “So they had me run in the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, as kind of like an audition, I guess. I came in 12th out of 60,000 athletes. It was my first time competing at such an elite event.”

It was an experience he’d not soon forget.

“People were checking you out as you were walking into the stadium and there were hundreds of cameras on you and people wanting to inter-view you,” he said. “Coming from state level track and field to national level of track in college to the world stage was such a different experience.”

But he was confident he could compete on a global level.

“My training and my coach prepared me well,” Reyes said. “He told me I was good enough

to compete with the best and that I was ready to do so.”

One of the things that felt odd competing on the world class level, he said, was the fact there was little if no com-munication between the ath-letes prior to the competition.

“When we came out of the tunnel toward the track, no one really spoke to anyone,” Reyes said. “It was then I ac-tually felt like we were rivals …. not like it was in college and when you wished each other good luck. It was pretty serious because a lot more was at stake.”

In 2000, he was off to Aus-tralia to compete on an even bigger stage.

“After the 18-hour flight, I stepped off the plane, looked around and thought, ‘Wow, I’ve really made it to the Olympics,’” Reyes said.

To make it to and com-pete at that level, Reyes said his preparation and training schedule was rigorous. His days began at 5 a.m. with a light breakfast. By 6, he was at the track. At 8, it was off to the physical therapist for an hour or so. After a mid-day break, he went back to the track at 2 p.m. for a second workout, then he hit the weight room at approximately 3:30. Approxi-mately an hour later, it’s back to the therapist for another rubdown and the rest of the day was his.

Performing on a world-class level required intense focus, he said, even when trying to block out crowd noise.

“When you first walk onto the track, you notice every-body in the crowd is shouting,” Reyes said. “But when the gun goes off, every noise around you is gone. You tune out and if you are running a relay, you wait for your teammate to hand you the baton. That’s your focus.”

His 4 x 100 relay team from

Liberia came in 12th in the world but broke four national records along the way.

Reyes said the decision to represent Liberia, his na-tive country, in the Olympics and not the United States was difficult to make, especially after conducting all of his training in America.

“I was a little reluctant when I received the letter,” he said. “But when you get asked to run in a big event, your first loyalty is your country, then your college and then your club. So I said yes.”

After the Olympics, he re-turned to Wilmington, Calif. There, he made an appearance at the BET and Soul Train Mu-sic Awards, appeared on the TV sitcom Private Practice and was given an opportunity to model, make a Nike commercial and to run for the Nike Club.

Several other doors opened up for him. It allowed him to put on track camps in Hawaii and speaking engagements at schools in California talking to kids about staying off drugs, off the streets, reducing teenage pregnancy and get them moti-vated to participate in athletics.

Reyes got married in 2003 but divorced shortly thereafter.

“I was training for the 2004 Olympics and my wife told me I had to make a choice between her and my career,” he said. “That was a tough year for me.”

He chose to stay with his wife but lost all of his sponsors be-cause he wasn’t competing. Faced with the possibility of losing everything he worked so hard for, Reyes decided to dis-solve the marriage.

However, the layoff from com-petition took its toll. He eventu-ally made his way back on the track scene but not on an inter-national level.

“I still competed on the lo-cal level, but it was then I de-cided to start training kids,” Reyes said. “The love of com-

peting for me was still there and I did receive letters from some of my former sponsors inquiring of my interest to run again. I told them I was.”

He is now beginning to train for the 2010 World Indoor Championships in March and the World Cup for track and field in September in Croatia.

Reyes relocated to eastern Washington in 2007.

“My mother moved to the Tri-Cities about five years ago,” he said. “After making a few visits, she asked me to come live with her two years ago this Christmas.”

It was a tough decision be-cause all of his connections, both personal and profession-al, were back in California.

“She told me she didn’t know anyone there and it would be nice if I moved up here,” Reyes said. “So, I did.”

He ended up living in Rich-land and while there, met and started dating a girl who told him she was from Othello.

“Her name is Maria Men-

doza,” he said. “When she told me where she lived, I said I’d never heard of the town.”

Now that he is here, Reyes said he’d like to find a venue for his speaking engagements and is offering his services at Envision Sports Management to help local athletes perfect their craft and fulfill a dream to compete on a national or international level.

He is also currently work-ing a couple of up and coming athletes in Othello, helping them to hone their skills.

“I have been coaching Justice and Alex Garcia since July and with Johnny Mendoza and Chris Dorow’s sons to establish a rap-port,” Reyes said. “I also help them or anyone who is interested in making a career out of sports obtain a scholarship and establish connections with sponsors.”

Reyes said 95 percent of the kids he’s worked with ei-ther obtain a full-ride schol-arship or end up participat-ing in the Junior Olympics.

He has solicited his services to the Othello High School

track team but, so far, hasn’t been taken up on his offer.

“I think people are intimidat-ed by my experience as a world-class runner,” Reyes said. “It’s like I am trying to take athletes from their program, but I am not. I typically train them dur-ing the off season to make them better, which actually helps their program.”

He proposed to Maria Men-doza last Wednesday. She said yes. They will marry in 2011.

Reyes also operates Olympi-an Fitness in the Tri-Cities and has rented a space at Colum-bia Physical Therapy on South First Avenue.

For more information on Reyes and his training pro-gram, contact Andrew at (509) 948-2602 or visit his Web site at andrewgreyesfoun-dation.giving.officelive.com.

Local sponsors for Reyes at the 2010 World Indoor Championships next spring are Charles Garcia Trucking, Mendoza Trucking and the Othello Dental Art Clinic.

Photos by John Becerra Jr.

From left: Othello wrestling assistant coach Mark Kondo uses Reuben Lopez (in the referee’s position) and Eduardo Martez to work on a drill in practice; Andrew Ortiz fires a pass to Chris Garza (in gray jersey) as David Garza (in black shirt) tries to defend; Kylee Mollotte performs a dribbling drill. All three Huskie teams start their respective seasons this week. The basketball teams took part in a scrimmage this past Tuesday night, with the girls traveling to the Connell Jamboree and the boys hosting several teams. Both squads open season play at home Dec. 11 against Prosser. The wrestling team starts its season today as they host Wapato in the Othello Jamboree.

Reyes: From the Olympics to Othello, a life well rancontinued from page A1

Submitted photo

Reyes (blue t-shirt) at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, with teammate Terrence Trammell (white jacket). Trammell won the silver medal in the 110m hurdles.