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Valley People

LAURA WOOD has died at age 64. Laura was sister to Charlotte Triplett and mother of Alex Wood, both of the Anderson Valley. Laura lived in the Anderson Valley for many years before moving to Ukiah, and then Redwood Valley. A memorial gathering will be held at the Tripletts home on Gschwend Road, Navarro, this Saturday (1st September) 3-5pm.

FOOTBALL! Saturday noon kickoff at the Boonville Fairgrounds, the Anderson Valley Panthers take on Stuart Hall of San Francisco.

PIGSKIN NOTES: “Good start to the season yesterday. Missing 5-6 players, but the varsity was still able to manage a lot of success during the scrimmage in Laytonville. Senior QB Scotty Johnston got things going with a 50-yard touchdown run around the right side on an option keeper. He also completed a touchdown pass to newcomer Jonathan Ornbaun on a 12-yard strike to the corner.

“JOHNSTON clearly defined himself as the best all around player on the field yesterday adding a collection of vicious sticks and chop tackles from sideline to sideline while playing defense. Other defensive standouts included Drake Mezzanatto and Andrew Espinoza, the Panther's 500 pounds of interior pressure made it tough for anyone to run inside. Jesus “Chuche” Hernandez also made some great plays from his Inside LB position. Young Jared Johnston racked up a series of impressive tackles from his position at free safety, as the Panther's looked strong on the defensive side of the ball. A stark contrast to the offensive juggernaut that was the 2011 team.

THIS SATURDAY at noon, the Panthers host the Stuart Hall Knights in the preseason home opener. There is no JV game scheduled, so many of the underclassmen will be suiting up for this contest in what will be a rematch of the historic Kezar Stadium game from last season in which the Panthers steam rolled the Knights 64-39 in the first ever 8-man game played at Kezar. Come out and support your Panthers!!

COACH TOOHEY named Scott Johnston as Player of the Week.

INTERESTING exchange between a football parent and anti-football person. “That game is tough on kids,” the Anti said. “It's good something still is,” the football parent replied.

WITH FOOTBALL come the cheerleaders, and don't miss the bake sale fundraiser for AV Youth Cheerleading this Saturday (September 1st) in the front of the Fairgrounds office, 11am to 4pm.

IT WAS WINDY and overcast Sunday morning, the sun finally appearing at about 11, as a crowd gathered at Tom Smith Soccer Field for the weekly matches. Nearby, a sprightly pair of gents were at work refurbishing the tennis courts as I gazed at the recently installed row of solar panels remembering back to 1973 when Superintendent of the Boonville schools, Mel 'Boom-Boom' Baker, was selling domes as a break-through concept in classroom space and, not long afterwards, Jan and Steph got the tennis courts installed, and what the heck were Jan and Steph's last names? They taught at the high school only to disappear to the east. The domes are in their fourth decade, the tennis courts have never looked so good, the school is newly powered by Old King Sol, and all the kids are wired, electronically only, we hope, and all this change in the historical blink of an eye. Ditto for The Elementary School, and wouldn't you think this community could come up with a less Gradgrindian name for that fine institution? How about Blanche Brown Elementary after our pioneering botanist, Anderson Valley teacher and the woman who breathed our annual wildflower show into life? Or Shorty Adams Elementary after the man who has driven more accident-free school bus miles than any school bus driver in all of America?

LARGE SCALE rehab projects continue at both school sites, with a locker room project at the high school proving to be more complicated than first supposed. Rows of solar panels at the Rock Paper Scissors Elementary also power its array of prison-like structures, and to think only sixty years ago Anderson Valley's entire educational effort was located where the Elementary School alone rests today, and you can see in the old photographs how beautiful and gracious the old school was with its arched entrances and grandly louvered windows looking out at ovals of grass and trees with the very first school, the Little Red School House, across the road. The collapse of school architecture has never been explained. It's as if our whole population suddenly went blind in 1950.

HAVEN'T SEEN CON CREEK near the Elementary School this low ever, and have to wonder how much of its flow is being diverted by the usual upstream suspects.

AND WE'RE ALL wondering why mega-bucks Jeff Skoll at Shenoa is pumping out of the reduced flow of the Navarro for the first time in recent memory. What effect on the Anderson Valley Watershed all these new straws in our streams will have over the long haul is not known, probably can't be known.

THE ANDERSON VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY is in need of Valley folks to volunteer as back-up docents for the AV Museum, “the best little museum in the West!” We are now down to our regular crew with no back-ups and therefore have little room to maneuver if somebody cannot make their shift. We are open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1pm to 4pm each day, and having reliable people to ask to step in rather than close on any day would be a very comforting situation for us all. Please contact Bob or Sandra Nimmons at 895-9020. Thank you in anticipation — Steve Sparks, on behalf of the AV Historical Society Board.

PALMA TOOHEY REPORTS: “The Anderson Valley High School football team held a four-day overnight camp at Camp Rancheria from the 16th through the 19th of August. Practice has already begun at the high school with around 25 kids committing to the season. We should have a Varsity and a JV team this year for the first time since the 2008 season. This picture of Coach Toohey and a few of the players was taken last Saturday night after the North Bay Rattlers defeated the Pacifica Islanders 38-14 for the 2012 Minor League Football National Championship. The kids in the picture with John Toohey are Jared Johnston, Michael Delgado and Jacob Delgado. A lot of people from Boonville made it to the game that was held at Cardinal Newman High School. We thank the Boonville folks who came down and supported 'Coach 2e' and the Rattlers at what turned out to be an awesome game!”

OUR VERY OWN JEFF BURROUGHS has made it to the finals of the Lake County American Idol Competition. Jeff performs this Saturday night (September 1st) at the Lake County Fairgrounds, Lakeport. Part of the contesting scores are based on audience participation, meaning Boonville people have to be there to cheer Jeff on. The show begins at 5pm with the winner's award being a cool $500.

GREG KROUSE, host of the Toxic Trespass show on KZYX, will be interviewing author Brita Belli from 7-8 PM PST at 90.7 coast, 91.5 inland or www.kzyx.org  about her new book “The Autism Puzzle: Connecting the Dots between Environmental Toxins and Rising Autism Rates.” The film Temple Grandin is based on the true story of a high functioning autistic woman. Call-ins welcome at 707-895-2448 or at DJ@kzyx.org during the show.

AMONG THE ITEMS on this week’s Board of Supervisors consent calendar is a long list of ancient debt write-offs finally declared officially “uncollectable.” The list includes two bills from Anderson Valley: Jose Ochoa of Boonville is off the hook for $461 and Pedro Arguelles is no longer responsible for $544. Other names we recognized were Randy Bloyd who couldn’t cough up $3,300 and Troy Huron who has been absolved of forking over $2,500.

THERE WILL BE an organizational meeting on Wednesday, Sept 5 at 5:30 in the Career Center at the High School for all those who are interested in taking Spanish classes. The Spanish classes are offered through the Anderson Valley Adult School and taught by experienced teacher, Kathy Cox. Levels of classes, dates and times will depend on the students who attend the meeting. There are several options being considered: Beginners, Intermediate-Advanced to be taught in the Valley at the High School, and a Spanish Immersion trip to Oaxaca Mexico. The Spanish Immersion Program would include language classes at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca, with a choice of living with a family or independently. If you are interested in any of these options you should attend the organizational meeting. For more information you can contact Kathy Cox at 895-3955 or at kcox@mcn.org.

MO MANDELL, Anderson Valley's very own, will be headlining The Punch Line in Sacramento August 30 — September 2 — tickets are on sale now! A very funny guy who surely took a lot of material from his hometown experience.

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