Buckaroo volleyball team rebounds

SPORTS SHORTS
by Scott Boyle
The Monticello Buckaroo volleyball team bounced back from a home loss to the San Juan Broncos two weeks ago with three straight wins.  
On Tuesday, the Lady Bucks took out their frustrations on a hapless Green River Pirate team, overwhelming the Pirates in straight games, 25-4, 25-8, 25-6.  
Then, on Thursday, the Bucks walloped the Whitehorse Raiders in similar fashion, straight sets, 25-8, 25-6, 25-6.  
They followed that up with a rousing win over the Farmington Scorpions of New Mexico, blasting them in four sets, 25-11,  24-26, 25-14, 25-14 to run their season record to 6-5.  
Next up for the Lady Bucks is Navajo Mountain on Tuesday the 16th and Grand on the 25th, Thursday, both home matches.
Football
The Bucks lost to Kanab Friday night in Kanab, 40-7.  Turnovers were the name of the game Friday night as the opportunistic Cowboys returned three interceptions for touchdowns, tying a state record for the most in one game.  
The Buckaroos were only down 12-0 in the second quarter with the three interception TDs coming back to back to back.
A bright spot for the Buckaroos was a halfback pass for a touchdown from McKade Maloy to Andrew Torres.  Both Maloy and Torres lead 1A in an individual category, in touchdown passes for Maloy (4) and touchdown catches for Torres (4).  
This time the pass came after QB Talon Black handed the ball off to Maloy, who fired the ball down into the endzone, where Torres made a leaping catch for the touchdown from 50 yards out.  
Black, a sophomore, was the starting QB for the game with Maloy moving to running back.
Next up for the Buckaroos is another away game at Monument Valley on Friday.
X Country
The Buck harriers traveled to Provo for the 2014 BYU Autumn Classic cross country meet on a beautiful day in Provo.  The boys team finished 22nd out of 25 teams, led by Tyler Bird, who finished in 59th place out of 194 runners.  
Sheldon Black was the second Buckaroo finisher, in 99th place, followed by Jens Brewer (125), Everett Hatch (182), Brandon Clark (191) and Jared Crowley (192).    
Ryan Bird and Clay Goodwine ran in the freshman and sophomore race, finishing in 93rd and 227th place out of 285 runners.  Quinton Judi, Sportshort’s grandson, who runs for North Summit High School, finished 213th.
The girls team, competing in the girls JV race, finished in 13th place out of 15 teams.  Both girls and boys teams were the only 1A schools from Utah participating.   
Bailey Goodwine was the first Black and Oranger to cross the finish line in 59th place.  Cambria Welch was 67th, Kendal Harris 95th, Marin Clark 97th, Nathalie Reay (136), Aunika Hunter 150 and Lindsey Crowley 166 to round out the Buckaroo Ladies.
Birds
It was a good birding summer for Sportshorts.  Six new birds were sighted and identified, bringing the two-year total to 124 different birds.  
A yellow warbler still visits the backyard, along with a Say’s Phoebe the starts each morning singing to the world.  
A Brown Creeper was seen up the mountain in North Creek, flitting among the pines at the highest altitudes.  American Tree Sparrow was another first time bird sighted.  
It was seen up in the Coalville area along the Weber River, along with a Western Kingbird, which worked the river for bugs like a flyfisherman for fish.  
Finally, and my favorite of the summer, a Northern Bobwhite.  It was spotted in Herriman, UT in and around houses in a housing district.  
Bobwhite’s are quail-like animals that like the grasslands.  
This particular bobwhite announced himself to us early in the morning with a loud whistle.  The bobwhite whistle is three distinct blasts, powerful and throaty, reminding me of my next door neighbor growing up, Tom Burr, a giant of a man who was a football and wrestling coach at MHS 50 years ago.  
Tom Burr could whistle and would do so to summon his children for dinner or breakfast. When he whistled, his eight kids all came running, quickly, immediately.  
One could hear the whistle all over town.  I can still hear it in my head, and when I heard the Bobwhite whistle in Herriman, “Poor. Bob. White,” I had the urge to run home and have breakfast.  
I have a bird call app on my iPad, so I played the Bobwhite call for the real Bobwhite.  That sent him into kind of a tizzy; he became quite agitated, running around the lawn, flying back and forth, all the time whistling Poor. Bob. White, and looking at me curiously.  
One time he even flew right at me, veering off at the last second.  Slowly, he warmed up to me and my bobwhite call, and I stood within 10 feet of him for some time carrying on a bobwhite conversation.  
We became quite close friends I believe.  Hope to see him again someday.  
If you want to hear a bobwhite call, go to the website allaboutbirds.com and type in bobwhite.
Poor. Bob. White!