A sister and brother in rodeo earned the WyoPreps Athlete of the Week honors based on performances from June 2 through June 8, 2025. Hadley and Turek Thompson excelled at the Wyoming High School Rodeo Association’s State Finals in Buffalo on June 5-7. Hadley scored in five events, and Turek finished in the top three in the average of two events at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.

WYOPREPS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK WINNER 6-13-25

Girls Winner

Hadley Thompson won the goat tying average, placed in the top six in barrel racing, breakaway roping, and team roping, and scored in pole bending. She finished with 151.50 points across the five events. Hadley finished in the top five of all events in the season-long points standings. She qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo (NHSFR) in Rock Springs next month in four events and is the alternate in the fifth.

Read More About Previous Athlete of the Week Winners from WyoPreps

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 6-5-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-29-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-21-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-15-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-8-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-1-25

Boys Winner

Turek Thompson won the steer wrestling average at the State Finals. He and his partner, Trigg Thompson from Cheyenne, took third in the team roping average in Buffalo. Turek scored 90 points across his two events last weekend. Turek and his partner finished second in team roping in the season standings and qualified for the NHSFR. He placed sixth in steer wrestling during the season.

WyoPreps spoke to the sister-brother duo about their efforts at the state finals. We asked Hadley about scoring in all five events and placing first in goat tying, and she discussed the conditions during the competition. Turek described his feelings on capturing the bulldogging and his team roping weekend as the header. We asked both Thompsons about reaching the NHSFR.

Congratulations to Hadley and Turek on being selected as the WyoPreps Athletes of the Week!

From Bidwell (the park’s 120th birthday celebration) to Biggs (the Wolverines’ incredible CIF NorCal softball championship) and from Plumas (firefighters make quick work of lightning strikes) to Pride (Chico’s annual celebration), there were no shortage of things to celebrate around Butte County and beyond this week.

But, just a week after going all-positive with a multi-hit column, we’re going to have to mix in the bad with the good this week. There are a lot of discouraging things going on right now — so bad that even our hits have a bit of a weary feel to them …

HIT — We’ll start with news that Chico is advertising for an in-house city attorney.

Two words, spoken with always-perfect 20/20 hindsight: about time.

The legal landmines that were Martin v. Boise and Warren v. Chico have left an impact that’ll be felt in our community for years to come. It’s impossible to look at the present-day situation objectively and not come to this conclusion: Chico should have done better, and the legal advice from out-of-town attorneys often wasn’t up to par.

How else to explain the fact the city is still playing Whac-A-Mole with expensive homeless camp evacuations — more than three years after the City Council entered an agreement it thought would make enforcement easier, not more difficult?

And, how else to explain that the city will be bound by terms of that agreement for another two years, while the rest of the western states are free of Martin v. Boise?

To be fair, some of the judges’ rulings haven’t helped much, either. But better legal counsel ahead of time could have and should have helped prevent that.

There’s no guarantee things would have gone better with a local attorney, but we’re having a hard time imagining a scenario where it could have gone much worse.

With less than two years left on that agreement, it’s a good time for the city to start coming up with a better plan. Hiring a new city attorney is a great start.

MISS — There are times that the headlines of the day leave us wondering what in the world has happened to our humanity.

“Man arrested for allegedly dropping infant on street while on cocaine” is among the worst we’ve seen in ages.

The story is just as horrifying as the headline implies. According to Oroville police, “Witnesses reported seeing the suspect place the child on the street, walk in and out of traffic and describe him as ‘flinging the child around like a rag doll’ … At one point, the suspect was reportedly armed with a knife and made motions as if he were attempting to harm the child.”

Again, this was the infant’s father.

There’s no kind or politically correct way to say it: Some people are simply a danger to society and should not be allowed to live freely on our streets. Law enforcement officials are frustrated that it’s so hard to keep criminals locked up these days; who can blame them?

HIT — We’ll go uplifting again for a moment and offer congratulations to the thousands of area high school and college graduates who received their diplomas in the past few weeks.

Even there, we can’t help but wonder if it might be time for some schools to have a change of heart.

From Paradise to Butte Valley and beyond, there was an unwelcome sight at some graduations this year: EMTs giving medical care to spectators who had spent too much time in the heat.

Some schools have moved graduation time back to 8 p.m. or even later, which beats the often-still-blazing-hot sun of 6:30 or 7 p.m. There just isn’t a lot of shade at most of our facilities, and spectators — often the elderly — are at real risk of serious health issues as a result.

Meanwhile, it’s been several years since Chico State rolled many of its ceremonies back to 9 a.m. With each passing year, it’s making more sense to us.

It’s time to consider replacing “it’s easier to be off on a Friday night” with “it’s safer to have these ceremonies in the coolest part of the day” as the mindset for this sort of thing.

MISS — Meanwhile, President Trump says he’s going to phase out FEMA — tough to not think of the valuable post-Camp Fire trailers whenever we see those four letters together — and the City of Oroville is making a push to ban fluoride from the city’s drinking water, following a trend that’s even seen the entire state of Utah adopt a similar stance.

We are glad Cal Water has agreed to the Oroville City Council’s request to hold some public hearings on the matter. Regardless of which path Oroville follows, this is a topic that cries out for the highest levels of public participation.

Hits and misses are compiled by the editorial board.

WILKES-BARRE — Ethan Van Gorden, Research Analyst at The Insitute, this week said although income is the most widely used metric for economic mobility, it is also impacted by factors such as education, health and home ownership.

“Even things like access to preschool and broadband make a big impact,” Van Gordon said.

A recent report from The Institute explores the factors affecting upward economic mobility in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Economic mobility refers to people’s ability to improve their households’ economic conditions, and it is usually measured by a person’s change in income over the course of their life.

Van Gordon said home ownership is a significant contributor to upward mobility because it is an act of asset building, for example, yet the strength of the asset is shaped by the value of the home. Home values can reveal important information about a region, such as economic health, desirability, and investment potential.

In the cases of Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne counties, there are larger shares of housing units in lower- to middle-valued brackets compared to the entire Commonwealth. Factors that can influence home values include location, size, condition and age, and market conditions. Low- and middle-value housing stock is good for lower- to middle-income households attempting to obtain affordable home ownership. For them to continue moving upward, however, higher-value housing must also be available.

Van Gordon said health and well-being affect upward mobility as well. Historically, structural barriers in core aspects of economic mobility — (i.e., housing, health care, education, and employment) — have limited the progress of people with disabilities toward upward economic mobility.

For example, Van Gordon said people with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses have numerous expenses (e.g., medication, personal care equipment, and personal care attendants) that others do not incur. Additionally, unreliable paratransit services may impede access to employment.

“These structural barriers cause adults with disabilities to experience poverty at nearly twice the rate of those who are not disabled,” added Van Gorden. “As such, Medicaid is often the only option through which those with disabilities can access long-term services and support.”

Van Gordon said the program restricts coverage to people with limited incomes, however, so these individuals may risk their Medicaid coverage by entering or returning to the workforce.

Van Gordon said research points to several options to help foster upward mobility. Home-ownership programs offer valuable support for asset building, and zoning reform may support more housing development at multiple price points. It is also important to address the ‘benefits cliff’ and ensure that workers are equipped with high-demand skills.

The benefits cliff refers to the decrease in public supports that can occur with an increase in earnings. As the loss of benefits is often greater than the newly increased income, lower-wage workers are prevented from achieving upward economic mobility or climbing the economic ladder.

Critical areas affected by benefits cliffs include housing, childcare, and healthcare coverage. Although living expenses in the region are generally lower compared to the Commonwealth as a whole, there are significant childcare gaps as well as a considerable share of residents with public health care coverage — (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, and VA health care).

“Upskilling refers to the enhancement of an employee’s existing skillset,” Van Gordon said. “Reskilling is a matter of learning new skills unrelated to the employee’s current job. Consequently, the likelihood of sustainable employment may be increased, along with quality of life and economic mobility.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The Western Albemarle girls soccer team got goals from Chloe Gates and Sadie Bruton leading the Warriors to a 2-0 win over Cave Spring winning the class 3 state championship Saturday at Fluvanna County HS.

The Warriors had been state runner-ups the past two seasons.

“We have been working all season for this,” says Gates. “The last two years we did not win a state championship. This year we said we have to get into them, this is our year, third time is the charm.”

“It means everything,” says senior Reese Coggeshall. “I’m so proud of all of our teammates. We wanted it so much last year. To be able to win in it this year, it’s so amazing.”

The Western Albemarle boys soccer team lost to Meridian 2-1 in the class 3 state championship game. It was the second straight year the Warriors settled for the runner-up trophy.

The Western Albemarle girls lacrosse team beat Rockbridge 14-4 winning the class 4 state title for the third straight year.

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Copyright 2025 WVIR. All rights reserved.

It’s impossible to sum up the sporting contributions to Ventura County history in a single volume, never mind a single story.But the collective work under the bylines of Chuck Thomas, Jim Parker, Derry Eads, Loren Ledin, Rhiannon Potkey and their predecessors, colleagues and successors in these pages over the past century would get the job done.Since its inception, The Star’s sports department has covered the biggest moments and most minute details on and off the field over the past ten decades.As The Star marks its 100th anniversary, here are a few of the highlights:Taking the fieldHigh school sports had existed locally for years when The Star began publishing in 1925.Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

The Ventura County Athletic Association, consisting of representatives from Fillmore, Nordhoff, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Thacher and Ventura highs, had organized sports — including, baseball, boys and girls basketball, tennis and track — for more than a decade.

But The Star’s arrival coincided with the rise of high school football. Fillmore, Oxnard and Ventura contested the first local football season in 1923, with Moorpark and Santa Paula joining the next season and Simi Valley adding in 1925.More than 100 years and 114 games later, Fillmore and Santa Paula have built one of the most historic high school football rivalries in the entire country.Oxnard delivered the county’s first CIF championship in 1928, when the Ventura County champions were matched with Santa Barbara, the champion of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.Oxnard won 13-12 on “a long pass to McKenzie,” according to The Star’s Dec. 10 edition.“Oxnarders are Champions of Northern Grid Division,” blared the headline.Ventura followed in 1951, sharing the title with host Paso Robles after a 14-14 tie.Ernie Beyer’s “Preps Tie for CIF Championship” describes a title-sharing 81-yard fourth-quarter march. “Goodman” caught a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from “McCauley” and Brokaw followed with the game-tying conversion.There was controversy when spectators were informed that Paso Robles had won the game on the tiebreaker of the era — most first downs — but that was corrected.Beyer described Paso Robles final first down, its 11th to Ventura’s 10th:“It was very unspectacular — hardly the sort of thing that a CIF championship should be based upon. And, as it turned out, it wasn’t.”The competition expanded as the county and region grew after World War II.Camarillo and Hueneme were built in the 1950s. Agoura, Buena, Channel Islands, Newbury Park, Rio Mesa, Royal and Thousand Oaks came online in the 1960s. Calabasas, Oak Park and Westlake joined in the 1970s. Oaks Christian, Pacifica and Del Sol, the most recent addition, joined the fun this century.Olympic gloryBud Houser was the reigning Olympic shot put and discus champion when The Star arrived.At the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the Oxnard High graduate defended his gold medal in the discus, breaking his own Olympic record with a toss of 155 feet, 3 inches.The August 1, 1928, edition of The Star proclaimed him “One of Few United States Stars to be Victor.”Oxnard rower Peter Donlon also won Olympic gold in Amsterdam, as the stroke of the UC Berkeley eights. He helped coach the Cal team that won the eights in Los Angeles four years later.Labeled as the “senior citizen” of the U.S. track and field team at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, 30-year-old Fillmore school teacher Mike Larrabee won the 400 meters in 45.10 seconds.The October 19, 1964, edition of The Star was emblazoned with the headline “Larrabee Good As Gold In Olympics”The Ventura High grad, who tied the world record at the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier in the year, is still the oldest Olympic champion in the event. He was also part of the gold medal-winning team in the 4×400 meters in Tokyo.The stadiums at Oxnard High and Ventura High have been renamed in honor of Houser and Larrabee, respectively.Other local gold medalists include Simi Valley’s Angela Ruggiero (ice hockey, 1998); Camarillo’s Jessica Mendoza (softball, 2004); Thousand Oaks’ Will Simpson (equestrian, 2008); Ventura’s Phil Dalhausser (beach volleyball, 2008); Camarillo’s Bob and Mike Bryan (tennis, 2012); Moorpark’s Amanda Longan (water polo, 2020); and Agoura Hill’s Tara Davis-Woodhall (long jump, 2024).Of course, track and field superstar Marion Jones won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. But the Thousand Oaks High graduate was later stripped of the medals after admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs as part of the infamous BALCO investigation.The Olympics actually came to Ventura County in 1984, when the rowing and canoeing events of the Los Angeles games were held at Lake Casitas.The Olympic flame was run through Ventura and Oxnard a month before the athletes’ competed, when Highway 33 was bumper to bumper with traffic. But a reader summed up the Olympic experience:“The trials, tribulations and cost of the Olympics being held in Ventura County will be a short memory, but the honor will be savored for years to come,” wrote Dwight Cates of Ventura.Sporting meccasThe Conejo Valley has developed into a distance running mecca.  Thousand Oaks’ Kim Mortensen (1996), Simi Valley’s Sarah Baxter (2013), Newbury Park’s Nico Young (2020) and Newbury Park’s Colin Sahlman (2022) have won Gatorade National Boys or Girls Runner of the Year honors.In 2024, Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt became the sixth local to win the Gatorade National Girls Track Athlete of the Year honors, joining Mortensen, Jones (1991-93) and Rio Mesa’s Angela Burham (1988).La Colonia Boxing Gym launched the careers of Fernando Vargas and Robert Garcia and made Oxnard synonymous with the sport of boxing.“The gym took this kid with anger issues and no father to success of becoming a world champion,” Vargas told The Star in 2019. “If it wasn’t for the gym, I would be locked up in jail or dead.”Garcia has the gym tattooed on his arm.“The gym is historic building,” Garcia said. “I started there when I was 5 years old. We always represented the club on our trunks wherever we fought. The gym is where we grew up. Thousands of kids learn the sport, learned discipline.”Ojai is an internationally known tennis capital, due to The Ojai, the tennis tournament which dates back to 1896.Some of the biggest names in tennis are enshrined in the tournament’s Wall of Fame, including Billy Jean King, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, and Pete Sampras.“There is nothing comparable to playing The Ojai as a young junior growing up in Southern California,” Bob Bryan told The Star in 2024.At the batBaseball had a half-century of history in the county before The Star was around to chronicle it.Babe Ruth twice came to Santa Barbara to play against Fred Snodgrass and his Ventura All-Stars.Snodgrass, one of Ventura’s first major leaguers, was a member of the inaugural class of the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.Babe Ruth Field was constructed at Seaside Park, where the fairgrounds parking lot sits today, and served as home to several minor league teams, including the Ventura Yankees (1947-49), the Ventura Braves (1950-52), and the Channel Cities Oilers (1953-55).The Ventura County Gulls, of the Class-A Advanced California League, played a season at Ventura College in 1986 with a roster full of several future Toronto Blue Jays, including World Series champions David Wells and Todd Stottlemyre.Santa Paula’s Jim Colborn served as the team’s pitching coach.“We hope we can shine some baseball sun on Ventura County and the Ventura community,” Colburn told The Star in January 1986.Star-Free Press reporter Eddie Ibardolasa spent a week with the Gulls at the Blue Jays’ spring training home in Dunedin, Florida.The Pacific Suns of the independent Western League played a season at Oxnard College in 1998.On the mapMany outside the state know Ventura County as the summer home of the Dallas Cowboys.They held their annual training camp at Cal Lutheran University before 27 seasons, from 1963 to 1989.Both the Cowboys and CLU — then Cal Lutheran College — were only a few years old when team president Tex Schramm struck a deal with college president Orville Dahl in 1963.“The relationship just seemed to grow out of a spirit of trust,” CLU football coach Bob Shoup told The Star in 2001. “We could be honest with one another. My relationship with Schramm and Tom Landry was marvelous. Landry became a fond admirer of Cal Lutheran University and the Conejo Valley.”The relationship with the county continues at River Ridge Fields. Owner Jerry Jones will bring “America’s Team” back next month for its 19th camp in Oxnard.CLU had a second act with the National Football League when the Rams returned to Los Angeles and set up their temporary football headquarters on CLU’s North Campus from 2016 until 2024.The facility is now home to Angel City FC of the National Women’s Soccer League.“This new dedicated performance center … lives up to our ambitions, setting a new bar for what professional athletes need to become champions on the pitch and support their needs off the pitch,” Angel City president Julie Uhrman said last year.Lately, soccer has also been a professional summer pastime locally.The Ventura County Fusion won the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League title in 2009, beating the Chicago Fire Under-23s 2-1 at Buena High.The Los Angeles Galaxy also moved its reserve team to CLU last summer, creating Ventura County FC and bringing MLS Next soccer to Thousand Oaks.Joe Curley has been a staff writer for The Star from 2000. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsjoecurley on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.