As voted on by Del Norte High teachers, administrators, community members and the Del Norte Triplicate, the senior male and female athletes of the year, Blair Westbrook and Brittany Maready, were honored at the Del Norte scholarship banquet on June 6. 

Brittany Maready. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

JV boys coach succeeds Mike Ernest, who resigned after one season

Del Norte High is tapping an individual familiar to the fans in Thunen Gymnasium to take over its girls basketball program.

Jeff Cook, who coached the Warriors’ junior varsity boys team in the 2012–13 academic year, will become the varsity girls coach next season, according to athletic director Bob Hadfield. 

Cook, who has taken a job at Del Norte County Community Day School in Crescent City, has been involved with Warriors basketball for four years and has served as varsity head coach in an interim capacity. Next year will be his first season coaching a Del Norte girls team.

The Warriors finished 10-12 overall (1-7 Humboldt-Del Norte Big 5 League) in 2012–13 under former head coach Mike Ernest. It was Del Norte’s most successful season by wins in four years; the league win was the Warriors’ first in nearly two years.

Ernest resigned from his coaching position — which he held for one season — and his position as dean of counseling and student services at Castle Rock Charter School earlier this spring. 

Reach Robert Husseman at rhusseman@triplicate.com. 

Del Norte High defensive coordinator Jeremy Lacy shouts out instructions during the Warriors’ spring practice. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

Eighty Warriors varsity and junior varsity players made the trek up to the Gold Beach Football Team Camp for five days of practice, instruction and competitive opportunity.

Sixteen football teams from Oregon and California are participating in the 2013 Gold Beach Camp, divided into two pools of eight. Del Norte is part of the black pool, with California high schools Benicia High and Lassen High (Susanville) and Oregon high schools North Salem, South Medford, Bend, Summit (also of Bend) and Thurston (Springfield).

McKinleyville High is also participating in the Gold Beach Camp, in the gold pool.

The black pool is deeper and more talented than the gold pool, where the Warriors were originally slated. Offered the chance to move into the black pool by the camp organizers, Del Norte head coach Ray Rook didn’t hesitate.

“I told the coaches first, and they were like, ‘Heck yeah, that’s what we’re about,’” Rook said Thursday. “I told (the kids), and they just lit up.”

South Medford, Thurston and North Salem are Oregon School Activities Association Class 6A schools — the highest classification in Oregon — and Summit and Bend High are Class 5A schools. 

Lassen is a California Interscholastic Federation Northern Section Division 2 team, while Benicia advanced to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs last season in Division 3.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Kevin Yokoyama of Humboldt, Chuck Barnett of Danville, Dee Lehman of Humboldt and Pete LaCount of Humboldt show off their chinook salmon after a trip out of Eureka with Reel Steel Sportfishing. Courtesy of Reel Steel Sportfishing

Chetco River

Nice-sized cutthroat trout, 19–24 inches, are reportedly being caught in the Chetco using sculpin filets, often called “bullhead” filets.

Bait may not be used above the head of tide influence.

Crescent City ocean

Tally Ho II has stayed tied up due to rough ocean conditions most of this last week, but a break in the weather for the weekend looks promising, the ship’s captain said.

Anglers who  recently braved high seas out of Crescent City have not been able to catch much salmon as ocean temps have dropped into the 40s, according to Chris Hegnes at Englund Marine Supply. The lingcod bite is still good, but rockfish is kind of slow.

“There’s tons of bait around so that’s what’s kind of hampering us right now,” Hegnes said.

Ernest

Mike Ernest resigned following successful season

Del Norte High is searching for a new girls basketball head coach for the second time in two years. 

Mike Ernest resigned following the Warriors’ season in late February, according to Del Norte County Unified School District superintendent Don Olson. 

In Ernest’s only season atop the program, Del Norte posted a 10-12 overall record (1-7 Humboldt-Del Norte Big 5 League). It was the Warriors’ most successful season since 2009–10, and the league win was the program’s first in nearly two years.

Del Norte High athletic director Bob Hadfield had no comment beyond acknowledging that Ernest had resigned.

Ernest also resigned from his position as Dean of Counseling and Student Services at Castle Rock Charter School around the same time that he resigned from his coaching position, according to Castle Rock principal Jeff Napier.

“I can’t really discuss personnel matters,” Napier said. “That’s a violation of law.”

Napier would not comment on the nature of Ernest’s resignation but did note that Ernest “left on good terms.” 

When asked about the conditions surrounding Ernest’s resignation, Olson said, “That was the choice he made.”

“That’s all I’m really going to comment on,” he added.

Kings Valley hosts golf tourney Sun. 

Kings Valley Golf Course is hosting its annual Father-Son/Father-Daughter Tournament on Sunday, June 16.

Cost of participation is $15 for each team plus greens fees, with prizes to be awarded to all teams. 

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., and tournament play begins at 9 a.m.

For more information, contact Kings Valley Golf Course at 464-2886.

Ta-Tes Boulby, left, 13, of Crescent City finished seventh in the California USA Wrestling Kids Freestyle State Championships 136-pound Schoolboys (born 1999–2000) two weeks ago. Courtesy of Teela Robison

Bronc’s younger half-brother has excelled in wrestling’s youth ranks

Ta-Tes Boulby, a seventh-grader at Redwood Elementary School, signed up for football for the first time this past fall.

It was a change of pace from wrestling, Ta-Tes’ preferred sport, the one he was born to compete in. Ta-Tes played defensive end for the Del Norte Youth Football AA Blue Warriors. “I like the hitting,” Ta-Tes says.

At the beginning of the season, football was not kind to Ta-Tes.

“The very first game, they lost and they didn’t score a point,” Boulby’s father, Del Norte Youth Wrestling coordinator Roger Boulby recalls.  

Ta-Tes wanted to quit the sport immediately afterward. Roger asked him why.

“This sucks. I just want to win,” Roger recalls Ta-Tes saying.

“I think he just likes doing (individual) sports,” Roger says.

Ta-Tes’ self-reliance shines through on the wrestling mat. He has been wrestling for 10 years, under the tutelage of his father; while his exact record is difficult to quantify, he is believed to have lost tens of sanctioned matches and won hundreds of matches.

Seeking names for DNHS Hall of Fame

Nominations for the 2013 Del Norte High School Athletic Hall of Fame are now available at the following locations:

• Del Norte High School main office, 1301 El Dorado St., Crescent City

• Western Family Insurance, on the corner of 3rd and K Streets, Crescent City

• Del Norte County Unified School District offices, 301 Washington Boulevard, Crescent City

• Del Norte Triplicate office, 312 H St., Crescent City

Forms may be returned to any of these locations by June 29 for official consideration. Inductees will be announced in July. 

The induction ceremony for the class of 2013 will take place at halftime of the Del Norte High football game on Friday, September 6.

For more information, contact Dick Trone at 954-8582 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Youth wrestlers compete, fundraise

Seven wrestlers from Del Norte Youth Wrestling competed at the California USA Wrestling Kids Freestyle State Championships on May 31-June 2 at Selland Arena in Fresno.

Billy Lewis and Aidin King each took third place in their respective divisions. Lewis competed in the Bantam Boys (born 2005–2006) 75-pound weight class, while King competed in the Intermediate Boys (born 2003-2004) 55-pound division.

Eddie Hartwick finished seventh in the Bantam Boys 65-pound weight class, while Ta-Tes Boulby captured seventh place in the Schoolboys (born 1999–2000) 136-pound division.

Bert Taylor, Robert Kelsey and Riley Deshon also competed for Del Norte Youth Wrestling.