Lady Hawks unable to sustain their rhythm in back-to-back playoff games

By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News 

The Tulalip Heritage Lady Hawks basketball team steamrolled their inner-league competition during the regular season, going a perfect 12-0 in those games. That momentum carried over in the first two rounds of the NW1B District Tournament when they crushed Cedar Park Christian 62-20 and Grace Academy 60-34.

Entering the NW1B Championship game versus the Mt. Vernon Christian Hurricanes, played at Lummi High School on February 7, the Tulalip girls had won an impressive four straight games by 25+ points. However, for the first time in a long while they’d be facing an opponent who had an equal amount of talent and athleticism.

Both teams played a well-matched 1st quarter that finished with a 7-7 tied ball game. The Hurricanes were double-teaming forward Deandra Grant early and often, which made it difficult to get her the ball in her usual spots. After taking a 17-11 lead in the 2nd quarter, Tulalip’s zone defense fell victim to hot outside shooting by the Hurricanes. With a little over three minutes left in the 3rd quarter the score was 20-19 Tulalip.

Senior guard Keryn Parks then did her best to take over the game. She was beating everyone down the court in transition and her teammates her throwing her half court passes she could gather and score off of. The strategy was working as the Lady Hawks ended the 3rd quarter on a 14-3, giving them a 34-22 lead.

In the 4th quarter, the Mt. Vernon Christian coaching staff made some crucial adjustments that changed the game completely. They started double-teaming the hot-handed Keryn even when she didn’t have the ball, basically forcing other Lady Hawk guards to handle the ball. They also implemented a full-court trap that caused the Lady Hawks to turn the ball over several times on errant passes. Add in Tulalip’s foul trouble and it was the perfect storm of doom and gloom that led to the Lady Hawk’s eventual collapse.

Tulalip’s once double digit lead in the 4th quarter gradually disappeared and with only thirty-five seconds remaining, the Hurricanes took their first lead of the game 41-40. The Lady Hawks were unable to regain the lead and lost 40-44, to take 2nd at the District Tournament.

Days later, the Lady Hawks returned to the court as their 2nd place showing at Districts gave them a Tri-District home game. Heritage hosted Clallam Bay at Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium on Tuesday, February 13.

The Tulalip girls jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before Clallam Bay fought back to tie the game at 11-11 going into the 2nd quarter. The offense was running their usual plays and getting the shots they wanted, but the ball just wouldn’t go through the hoop. In the 1st half the Lady Hawks shot an abysmal 8-38 from the floor.

Nearing the end of the 3rd quarter, the Lady Hawks were still struggling on the offensive end and saw their biggest deficit of the game, 32-44. Over the next five minutes of play Tulalip finally found their rhythm and knocked down shot after shot. They went on an impressive 17-3 run to take a 49-47 lead with only minutes remaining in the game. The long quiet home crown came alive and was cheering on their team.

But, the Lady Hawks tendency to pick up so many early fouls came back to haunt them in this game, similarly to what happened in their last game. Several Lady Hawks players found themselves in foul trouble early on and in the game’s closing minutes they were fouling out. Clallam Bay was knocking down their free-throws and in the end their 17 made free-throws proved a difference maker. Tulalip lost a heartbreaker, 55-63.

As a team the Lady Hawks shot 21-76 from the field, a 28% shooting percentage that is difficult for any team at this stage in the postseason to overcome. Keryn led her team in scoring with 23 points, while Deandra finished with 16 points and 23 rebounds.

Next up, the Lady Hawks play a loser-out game vs. Rainier Christian.

Build your career with the Tulalip Job Ready program

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News 

Searching for a job can be frustrating, time consuming and discouraging. Especially when you apply for an entry-level position that requires prior experience. When working with money, it’s important that an applicant has at least a working knowledge of accepting and distributing cash, especially in gaming establishments like the Tulalip Resort Casino, Tulalip Bingo and Quil Ceda Creek Casino. For positions within the Resort, it’s expected that a future team member understands how to communicate with guests in a professional manner to uphold the AAA Four Diamond rating. To maintain these standards and ensure that each guest is treated with respect and receives quality service, the Tulalip Gaming Organization (TGO) requires six months of prior cash handling experience and/or guest service experience for entry-level positions.

Many people who are job hunting might have found themselves on the Tulalip career website thinking, ‘how do I get experience if all entry-level positions require experience?’ Although that question may be rhetorical, TGO has an answer in the form of a week-long training known as the Tulalip Job Ready Program. Originally open to Tulalip tribal members only, the trainings expanded upon gaining interest from spouses of Tulalip tribal members as well as from other natives. Beginning last September, the trainings have now opened up to applicants who are identified as Tier 5 in the Tulalip hiring process, or non-natives who are current team members.

The trainings are held on a monthly basis and will take up to ten participants, requiring a minimum of four to conduct the classes. In the course of a week, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., participants gain the equivalent of six-month cash handling and guest service experience. Upon successful completion, participants will be able to apply for any ‘frontline’ position at any of the Tulalip gaming establishments as well as Tribal positions with the Hibulb Cultural Center, the Chevron gas stations and the liquor store. To help ensure further success, the trainings also cover interview skills. At the end of the week, the students participate in mock interviews and discuss their strengths and areas to improve. Trainees also get to turn the tables and interview the trainer. The idea behind the role reversal is that by seeing the hiring process from a different perspective, the applicant will essentially be rooting for the trainer during the interview and think of new ideas and answers they want to hear as the person conducting the interview.

“I learn as much as they do, it keeps me within the community which is important to me,” states Tulalip Resort Casino Training Manager, Lisa Olver. “I’m hoping to build the future of our workforce and whatever I can do to help people realize their potential is what I’m aiming for.”

Now that the trainings are open to Tier 5 team members, many TGO employees have attended the classes in order to move up within the organization. On recommendation from his supervisor, Eagles Buffet Host, Nicholas Leech, attended the trainings and plans on using his newfound knowledge to obtain a new position.

“With the knowledge I’ve gained, I plan on reaching for a supervisor position and move up in the near future,” states Nicholas. “But with all the stuff that I’ve learned, I can also take it and apply for a number of positions as well as to my everyday life. I think everyone should take the class, it gets people in the door. It gives you that experience and gets you going. It gives you a reason to say, I’m willing and able to get that job.”

Lisa explained that often times, participants like to take the trainings with their significant others with hopes of beginning careers at Tulalip to support their families. Family members and friends are encouraged to attend the classes with each other to help build support and confidence in one another. Recently Tulalip mother and son, Danelle and Danicio Gomez, successfully completed the training together and are ready to start applying for positions at the casinos, preferably somewhere in the cage.

“Everything about the class is good,” says Danelle. “It gives you a different point of view. I’m forty-six, I came in to do the classes with my son. This class got me thinking outside of the box, they have honestly helped. It’s important because you gain knowledge and skills in these classes and the trainers are here to help you get into these jobs.”

“It’s actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” adds Danicio. “I learned a lot about cash handling, using the ten-key [calculator] and how the cage handles cash. It helps everybody. Anybody who wants to work in the cage or somewhere in the casino, they have to know the regulations and this is like a crash course to teach them.”

To sign-up for the next Tulalip Job Ready Trainings please contact the TGO Hiring and Resource Center at (360) 716-1562.

Snohomish County provides free Household Hazardous Waste disposal in Everett

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average U.S. household generates more than twenty pounds of household hazardous waste (HHW) each year for an estimated total of 530,000 tons nationally. HHW items include products for your car, such as anti-freeze, motor oil and brake fluid as well as products around the house, like fluorescent light bulbs, paint, cleaning products and pesticides. These items are often accompanied by warning labels that read caution flammable, poison or corrosive. Improper disposal of these items, like pouring excess paint, oil or chemicals down the drain, in the trash or off the side of the road, are leading to serious concerns for Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants.

“For environmental pollution prevention purposes, trying to control storm water pollutants or toxins in the environment is paramount to folks who are interested in protecting salmon,” states Tulalip Planning Code Enforcement Officer, David Nellis. “It’s very important that we are working to prevent toxins like paint, spent fuels and these types of things from entering storm water runoff. When it rains, it hits paint that was spilled on the ground and the paint rushes off and gets into the creek and then flows downstream and salmon eggs get that covered on them. It’s either causing damage to the salmon eggs by affecting their DNA or killing them.”

At the turn of the 21st century, the EPA conducted a study which showed that pharmaceuticals and personal health care products (PPCP) in bodies of water were becoming an ‘emerging concern’ for fish. Overtime, the PPCPs bio-accumulate in the fish’s tissue, which can lead to endocrine system disruption causing reproductive and behavioral problems for the fish. Though that particular study did not focus on HHW like motor oil and paint thinner, it did show that the chemicals eventually work their way back up the food chain and now pose a problem for people.

“You can only eat an x amount of salmon and tuna now because of mercury; we have mercury in our light bulbs,” David explains. “These are called PBTs, or persistent bio-accumulative toxins, that the EPA tries to keep out of the environment. Some of them are in paints, light bulbs, and pesticides – a lot of these things we spray outdoors or spill accidentally. When they get into a body of water, they get into our body by getting into the bodies of the things we eat. And when that accumulates it can cause problems.

“The EPA states if you’re pregnant, you should only eat one meal of tuna a month,” he continues. “Because the level of mercury, it can interfere with the central nervous system development in children ranging from learning disabilities, to severe neurological damage to death being the worst case. What have we done? This is healthy food. We should be able to eat fish every day. All these things are impacted by things we put in the environment. Every salmon egg that dies is a salmon that won’t be smoking on the grill and providing food for ceremonies. Every one we can save, by not allowing pollution in the environment, will benefit our society. So, how can we make it better? By recycling and disposing these harmful products in a safe and proper way.”

The Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Station is located at 434 McDougall Avenue, off Broadway in Everett.

Snohomish County provides free disposal of HHW products for their residents at the Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Station in Everett. The station accepts a variety of HHW products and is located at 3434 McDougall Avenue, off Broadway, a block adjacent to the Brown Bear Car Wash. The station collects and separates HHW to be recycled, consolidated and disposed of safely. They will also accept hazardous waste from small businesses that qualify as a small quantity generator, by appointment and for a fee.

“We take household items,” explains Ginger Swint, Moderate Risk Waste Specialist at the HHW Drop-Off Station. “Unwanted cleaners, pesticides, automotive, florescent lamps, and all batteries including car batteries. We don’t take sharps, radioactives, explosives, ammunition or empty containers. All the fluorescent [bulbs] are taken down to Seattle where they capture the mercury and phosphate, and the glass and everything else is recycled. I think this station is essential because it keeps [HHW] out of the waterways and away from children. It gives us an opportunity as a community to dispose of it properly instead of throwing it in the garbage.”

“They do chemical manipulation and restore it, reuse it in another product or dispose of it entirely in a way that doesn’t negatively affect our health and resources,” says David. “We can take some these spent fuels like for boat engines, you put additives in it and after a year it’s not good anymore, it kind of turns into lacquer. You can take all this stuff and take it to the household hazardous waste disposal site and give it to them. If you’re a private home owner they’ll take it for free and that gets it out of our waste streams. You’re essentially taking this massive pile of stuff that’s causing our demise – the demise of salmon, shellfish and poisoning people, and making it a little less than before. It’s more consolidated and compact. If we can try to remove some of these from the environment, then we can curb some of these man made problems.”

The Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Station is open Wednesday through Saturday between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. To view a complete list of what the drop-off station accepts and does not accept please visit www.SnoCo.org

Contest winner Announced for National Problem Gambling Month Design

Tulalip tribal youth Jaycenta Miles-Gilford’s Indigenous Resilience design was chosen as the winner of the ‘Reclaiming Wholeness Through Recovery’ contest. The Problem Gambling Program will feature her art on t-shirts.

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News 

Tulalip Family Services held a contest during the month of January for the youth of the community. The contest encouraged kids to explore their creative minds to create a t-shirt design for the upcoming National Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March. Open to kids between the ages of twelve and eighteen, the theme for the contest was Reclaiming Wholeness Through Recovery. Family Services’ Problem Gambling Program has several special events planned next month to help bring awareness and education to the Tulalip community about gambling addiction.

The Problem Gambling Program often collaborates with the Tulalip Youth Council to brainstorm ideas for upcoming events. The t-shirt contest idea was so popular, the council spent an extended amount of time, excitedly discussing ideas and debating whether the design should be created on computer or by hand.

“We went to the Youth Council and asked for their input on awareness month and what they want to see, because we want them to know that they’re heard and that their voices mean something. We want them to know that they’re included in this process because a lot of times we hear how gambling, whether it’s them personally or a family member, this disease is impacting their lives,” states Robin Johnson, Problem Gambling Counselor.

Family Services accepted art designs through January 30th and received several submissions. On the first of February, young Tulalip tribal member Jaycenta Miles-Gilford was informed that her art was picked as the winning design. The Problem Gambling Program will feature her art on t-shirts that will be handed-out at all of the upcoming events during National Problem Gambling Awareness Month.

“It’s the ribbon of awareness,” states Robin. “And the color for National Problem Gambling Month is blue. She also incorporated the cultural aspect with the canoe and paddle. And I love the message, Indigenous Resilience, that’s exactly what it’s all about, not giving in and fighting back. The young lady who won is going to be honored at our Annual Community Dinner and will be presented with a three-hundred dollar Wal-Mart gift card.”

The program aims to provide as much education as possible about the addiction to the Tulalip Youth. Sarah Sense-Wilson, Tulalip Problem Gambling Coordinator, believes that many times the youth become gambling addicts because they find it taboo and thrilling because of the risk and reward, as well as exciting when competition is involved which is extremely popular in the sports realm.

“March is identified as National Problem Gambling Month because of March Madness and the mainstream promoting of gambling during the entire month,” Sarah explained. “It’s really a campaign to promote awareness. Three years ago, we initiated the campaign in the tribal community here in Tulalip. We really want to show people that this is a real illness, this is an addiction and that it’s something that affects tribal communities just like it affects non-tribal communities. And given the proximity of the casino and other gambling establishments, we want to let people know that there is treatment and that treatment does works. We’re available and accessible to everyone.”

Sarah explained that when the Problem Gambling Program was in early development, they chose to focus on two age groups, the elders and the youth, who are statistically more vulnerable to the disease. For the elders, she attributes the addiction to an excess amount of time due to retirement, as well as an escape from both physical and emotional pain caused by grief and loss. Studies conducted by the American Society of Addiction Medicine show that gambling causes a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain, which seemingly appear to ‘numb’ the pain receptors, when in actuality the gamblers found a way to temporarily mute their problems and relieve their pain.

“We wanted to do community outreach, supporting these groups so they know that we’re a resource,” states Sarah. “If you want to come and learn more or see about setting up an intervention for a family member, we’re here to offer support, education, materials and anything we can do to help promote the wellness of our community. We strongly encourage people to get their families involved because statistics and data show that the more the family is involved – spouses, extended family, friends and the important people in their life – then the likeliness of that individual getting well increases dramatically.”

The upcoming National Problem Gambling Awareness Month events include the 3rd Annual National Problem Gambling Month Community Dinner on March 3rd at the Hibulb Cultural Center from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., a community movie night on March 17th at the Boys and Girls Club beginning at 5:00 p.m. as well as the Annual Honoring Elders Luncheon at the Tulalip Senior Center on March 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

For more information, please contact Tulalip Family Services at (360) 716-4304.

 

Two dominant playoff Ws give Hawks chance at 1B District crown

By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News 

The Tulalip Heritage Hawks basketball team ended the regular season with a (17-3) overall record, which included a (12-2) record in league play. Both those two inner-league losses came at the hands of a Cedar Park Christian team that finished their season undefeated. When the NW1B District playoff bracket was announced, many expected Tulalip and Cedar Park to meet in the Championship game.

Tulalip entered the tournament as the #2 seed, which allowed them to host an opening round game. Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium was jam packed with friends and family who came out to root on their team on February 1st, when then hosted Shoreline Christian.

These two teams had faced off twice during the regular season and in each the Hawks came away with 30+ point victories. Because of the lopsided nature of those wins, the Hawks started the game sluggish. The defensive rotations weren’t there and the boy just weren’t playing hard. At the end of the 1st quarter, the home team only led by 1 point, 17-16.

During intermission, the Hawks coaching staff lit a fire under the team to get them playing their usual brand of up-tempo, aggressive basketball. The whole squad responded, but none more so than senior guard, Jr. Shay. He was absolutely on fire in the 3rd quarter, scoring 18 points on 7/8 shooting. His intensity was contagious and defensively the Hawks only allowed 16 points the entire 2nd half.

Heritage ended up routing Shoreline 70-39 in front of a crowd of cheering fans. Jr. Shay led all scorers with 21 points, Alonzo Jones added 14 points, and Rodney Barber chipped in 12 points.

Moving onto the 2nd round of the tournament, the Hawks traveled to Lummi where they played the Grace Academy Eagles on February 3rd.  During the regular season Tulalip had defeated Grace by 20+ in both their matchup. This game would mirror those previous ones.

Grace had no answer for the length and athleticism of the Tulalip boys. Center Rodney Barber was corralling rebounds on both ends of the floor and scoring at the rim over the shorter Grace players. After the 1st quarter, the Hawks led 17-12 and would balloon their lead from there.

Hawks players continued to move the ball well offensively, leading to all five starters finding their groove and knocking down shots. Defensively, the Hawks hounded the Grace ball handlers into committing several turnovers. In the 2nd quarter Grace would only score 8 points because of the defensive pressure.

When the buzzer sounded signaling end of game, the Hawks had notched a 67-46 victory, advancing them to the Championship round. Rodney led the Hawks in scoring with 15 points, Nashone Whitebear added 14 points, and Alonzo chipped in 11 points.

Next up, the Hawks will face off against Cedar Park Christian tonight for the NW1B crown. The Hawks nearly beat them the last time they matched up and are looking to ride their recent momentum to an upset victory over the undefeated Cedar Park.