REPORTER CENTRAL KITSAP
p K i Bremerton boy becoming Pokémon master b FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013 | Vol. 28, No. 19 | WWW.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM | 50¢
BY WES MORROW
WMORROW@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Andy Younger is well on his way to becoming a Pokémon master. At 9 years old, Andy is a globally ranked player of the Pokémon trading card game. Pokémon started as a video game for the Nintendo Game Boy, making its U.S. release in 1998. Since its beginning, Pokémon has become the second-most successful game-based franchise in the world, beaten only by Nintendo’s Mario franchise. The franchise has spawned more than a dozen movies, a television series, multiple soundtracks and books. The trading card game was created not long after the franchise first came across the Pacific Ocean to the United States. The trading card game is a strategy game similar to other popular games like “Magic: The Gathering.” Players face off oneon-one in a tournament setting. A winner is declared when one player’s Pokémon are defeated, a player collects all their prize cards or one player’s deck runs out. More than a decade after the card game’s release, the franchise is still going strong, adding a new generation of trainers, like Andy, to its ranks.
There are three divisions for competitive play of Pokémon – junior, senior and master. The master division encompasses all players born prior to 1997. The senior division encompasses players born in 1998 to 2001 and the junior division encompasses all players born in 2002 or later. All of the players in the junior division were born after the release of the trading card game, and none of the players outside the masters division were alive when the video game came to the United States. Among all competitors in the junior division, Andy is ranked 74th globally, and has been steadily increasing as he racks up wins throughout the northwest. On Dec. 28, Andy won his first City Championship in Richland, Wash. After his victory in the TriCities Andy and his family drove to Spokane, where Andy defeated the rest of the competition in Eastern Washington before heading to Tacoma and winning his third City Championship in three days. Washington hosted 14 city championships from November through the end of December. Players earn points for their wins that add to their rank and help them qualify for the game’s biggest SEE MASTER, A3
KITSAPweek J a n . 18 — 2 4 , 2 013
LIFE AND CULTURE
Noted Native-style carver Duane Pasco creates a scaled-down version of a Viking boat from 950 AD BY MEGAN STEPHENSON Kitsap Week
I
NDIANOLA — At first glance, Duane Pasco’s latest handiwork looks like another of his Northwest Native-style canoes — an unassuming, red cedar boat — but is, in fact, a boat from another famous seafaring place. Pasco and one of his apprentices, Spencer West, recently finished crafting a 21-foot replica of a 1,000-year-old Viking ship. “Some have dramatic bows,” he said, standing on a beach in Indianola, watching West row the boat out into Port Madison Bay. “This one is practical and beautiful at the same time. Every fjord had its own take” on the design. Pasco, 80, is an Alaska-born artist who creates Northwest Coast Native-style art; his wife, Betty, is a noted Suquamish weaver. Pasco has assisted Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish Tribal members in building canoes since the first Canoe Journey in 1989 (the Paddle to Seattle). He visited Norway in 1976, bringing back with him the plan for a 100-foot Viking ship. He has completed many projects in the last 35 years and said he decided to finally craft the boat now, or he felt he might never do it. So, on a recent Saturday, I met Pasco, West, West’s father Paul and West’s colleague Shane Knode. It was a cold, crisp day at Camp Indianola, but the sun was out, with Mount Rainier looming directly in front of us. After unloading the boat from West’s truck, carefully treading over the frost-covered logs, the men set her down on the rocky beach. Pasco said the boat is a faering, which means “four oars” in Norwegian. Pasco and West began tying the oars to the boat with rope; the oars are 11 feet long. Pasco straightened up and looked at me. “You want a ride?”
KITSAP WEEK Check out the latest activities and fun events INSIDE
See VIKING, Page 3
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Wes Morrow/Staff Photo
Tristan Lewis and Alex Morris play “Magic: The Gathering” at Discordia Games in West Bremerton Sunday. Discordia Games hosts Pokémon games on Wednesday nights.
BY LESLIE KELLY
LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Mahendra Reddy, pharmacist at Rite Aid in Silverdale, shows the only flu vaccine they had left Tuesday, which is the nasal spray version. They expected to have more flu shots by Wednesday.
Pages 8-11
A row back in time
Flu hits Central Kitsap residents
Leslie Kelly/staff photo
PAG E X X
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There’s no crisis here, but the flu has come to town. “We do have influenza in Kitsap County,” said Kerry Dobbelaere, clinical services program manager for the Kitsap Public Health District. “We do have reported cases widespread throughout the county.” But unlike many places in the country including the East Coast, incidents of flu in Kitsap County are not near the epidemic stage. Dobbelaere said the county does not record confirmed cases of
the flu, so she isn’t able to say how many cases there are in the county. “Flu is not one of our reportable illnesses,” she said. “We only record deaths from the flu. And so far we haven’t had any.” There have, however, been seven lab-confirmed flu deaths in Washington state — one was a 12-year-old boy. To date, flu has not been reported much in area schools. Bremerton School District Communications Director Patty Glaser said the district has not had a large number of students out because of the flu.
“Our numbers with staff and student illnesses are normal right now,” Glaser said. Central Kitsap School District reported it had a number of people out sick, but nothing abnormal for this time of year. “During flu season we do see a few more people out than normal,” said David Beil, the district’s community relations director. “But when we look at previous years we don’t see any spikes that are unusual for the flu season.” According to Dobbelaere, the flu has come to the county earlier than in past years. “Generally, we don’t see many cases until late January and into February,” she said. “But it’s here and it has arrived earlier this year.” That has been confirmed by local pediatrician Dr. Greg Hoisington, medical director for The Doctors Clinic, who practices SEE INFLUENZA, A3