PALISADES WRESTLING COACH DIES

T he worlds of traditional sports and the outdoors crossed in a very tragic way on Nov. 29, the Sunday before the opening day of firearms deer season in Pennsylvania.

Jason Gilligan, the former head wrestling coach at Palisades High School, suffered a case of acute respiratory distress and later died at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

A likeable person who had his work cut out for him while trying to revive the Palisades wrestling program, Gilligan had planned to hunt with family members at their cabin in Western Pennsylvania when he collapsed and was found in the woods by his father, Jere.

The 29-year-old grew up in Brookville and won a state championship for Brookville High School in 1999 after placing third in the PIAA Class 2A Championships the previous two years, finishing his scholastic career with a 118-23 record. He was also a four-time District 9 champion and was inducted into that district's hall of fame earlier this year.

He was a three-time NCAA Division I Championships qualifier while wrestling for Lock Haven. I had the pleasure to watch him wrestle both in high school at states, and again at collegiate nationals, and was thrilled when a person of his caliber and character took on the tough job at Palisades.

Gilligan was a driver's education and physical education teacher at Palisades at the time of his death, working on his principal's certification at Wilkes College.

He was involved in a serious car accident in the spring, and injuries from that accident are believed to have caused his death.

He leaves behind a wife, Jaclyn, and their son, Liam; along with sister Holly Pangallo of Brookville, parents Jere and Janie of Brookville, and maternal grandfather Earl Eberling of Portersville.

Santa at Cabela's: Take the kids for free pictures with Santa at Cabela's in Hamburg the next two weekends. The jolly old elf will be visiting the Hamburg Store on Saturday and Sunday, and Dec. 19 and 20.

Free pictures with Santa will be available 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day in front of the African Diorama at the back of the store.

Cabela's will also offer free brief seminars those days on insulated camo clothing, waterfowl hunting clothing, tool kits for fly fishermen, proper gun cleaning, fishing tips, food tips and many more outdoors hints.

A complete calendar of events for the rest of the year is available at http://www.cabelas.com/hamburg .

Photo tips for submissions: Our online outdoors photo gallery has plenty of submissions, and people e-mail me and mail me many, many more, but most of them are just pictures. They haven't been thought out -- the photos are either taken partly shaded or whited out by the sun, or worse, gory, and that's a shame for that 16-year-old who bagged a 12-point buck because we can't use those kinds of pictures in the newspaper.

Sure, they are hunting and fishing photos, but we're not going to run a picture of a deer with its tongue hanging out, nor are we about to run a photo of an animal with blood dripping from its mouth or nose, or with a view of how it's been field dressed.

Take a few moments to think about your photo before taking it. Clean up the animal by washing off blood, opening the eyes and making sure the tongue is in its mouth. If the animal has been field dressed, try to pose to hide it. If the hunter is wearing a bill cap, tip the bill upward so there is no shadow on the eyes. Knit caps are always a good choice, and try to make sure the hunters are in their hunting clothes in the pictures you do submit.

Also, try shooting both horizontal and vertical shots, and experiment with angles by getting low to the ground and looking straight up or at the hunter and game. Do not shoot toward the sun if possible.