Seahawks score big with Toppenish kids

TOPPENISH — On a day that saw one of his city’s park filled with the pounding of drums, the joyous shrieks of children, the oohs and aahs of appreciative adults, Toppenish Mayor Loren Belton learned first-hand that which he already knew: An NFL quarterback is a bigger draw than a small-town mayor.

“Seneca Wallace was more popular than me today. I just don’t understand it,” Belton said with a laugh.

Wallace, the Seattle Seahawks’ backup quarterback, was quite the popular attraction at Toppenish’s Pioneer Park on Tuesday afternoon, when representatives of the NFL team helped the city dedicate the park’s new playground.

The Seahawks had donated $50,000 worth of playground equipment, ranging from the basics, swings and see-saws, to a more new-age climbing wall, all in the Seahawks’ blue-and-green team colors. It’s part of Seattle’s participation in NFL Play 60, a program designed to prevent childhood obesity by keeping kids active or playing for at least 60 minutes a day.

“We helped Toppenish build a playground. It was a partnership between the Seahawks and the city of Toppenish,” said Paul Johns, a former wide receiver with the Seahawks (1981-84) and now the team’s assistant director of community outreach. The team also plans to hold a football clinic.

But why Toppenish?

“We were lucky enough — even though I think we’re deserving anyway — to have an old Topp-High boy who works for the Seahawks now,” Belton said, referring to Toppenish native Carlos Oseguera, now the Seahawks’ coordinator of fan development.

“Paul Johns was heading up this NFL Play 60 thing,” Belton said, “and every time there was a meeting and Carlos was involved, he’d say, ‘What about Toppenish? Let’s not forget about Toppenish.’”

They didn’t forget. And on Tuesday, some 250 people — “a huge crowd,” Johns noted — were on hand, along with the Seahawks’ “Blue Thunder” drum corps, the Toppenish High School band and numerous local and Seahawk celebrities, for what turned out to be a three-event dedication.

First came the ribbon-cutting for the playground, which was followed by the happy shrieking of children dashing to play on the new equipment.

Then, the majority of the adults moved on to dedication of the city’s new, 1,200 visitor center, also at Pioneer Park, where small-version replica paintings of all of the city’s famed murals are on display. Belton credited Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, for helping secure the funding that completed the project, which city leaders had initially hoped to finish during Toppenish’s centennial celebration in 2007.

Since it didn’t get done for 2007, though, that left one final ceremony for Tuesday’s Pioneer Park celebration — the burying of the community’s time capsule, which had been generated during the centennial process but held until completion of the visitor center.

Then, of course, came the autograph signings. And as for who drew the longest line, no, it wasn’t Johns, who was an immensely popular player with the Seahawks during the early 1980s and played on the first Seattle team to reach the conference championship game (January 1984). It wasn’t Fred Anderson, the 1973 Toppenish High graduate who went on to an NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seahawks. It wasn’t longtime Seattle TV sports icon Tony Ventrella. Nor was it the mayor.

No, the longest autograph- and photo-taking line on Tuesday was for the two members of the Seattle Sea Gals, the Seahawks’ cheerleaders.

No surprise there.

Filed under Area sports, Pros, Seattle Seahawks/NFL