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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2017)
Sports B1 Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com Wednesday, April 19, 2017 OSAA Committee updates grouping approach After testimony, new proposal moves away from a five classification system BILL POEHLER STATESMAN JOURNAL ANNA REED / STATESMAN JOURNAL Stayton’s Kurtys Hernandez (3) moves past Seton’s Ben Owen (11) in the Stayton vs. Seton Catholic boy’s basketball game on the first day of the Capitol City Classic tournament. The OSAA’s Classification and Dis- tricting Committee demonstrated in its latest update that it listened. After receiving a large amount of tes- timony against a five classification sys- tem in the April 10 meeting, the commit- tee released its latest update with pro- posals for five and six classification sys- tems on Thursday. Stayton High School was well repre- sented at the meeting in its dislike of a five classification approach with nine speakers representing the school among the 41 people who testified at the meet- ing. But there was also a groundswell of support for six classifications from schools other small schools from throughout the state. “I’m glad that they’re exploring six again,” said Stayton athletic director Darren Shryock, who testified at the past two committee meetings. “And I appre- ciate what they said in the notes for their last proposal knowing it would spur the discussion. “They got their goal, especially on the negative side. If they had come out with the same exact thing, that would have meant that they would have not lis- tened.” After the committee’s March 22 meet- ing, it released an update indicating that it supported a five classification ap- proach over the current 6A model. In both the five and six classification models in the latest proposal, the num- bers for current 4A schools like Yamhill- Carlton, North Marion and Baker would See OSAA, Page 2B LETTERS OF INTENT BILL POEHLER | STATESMAN JOURNAL Silverton seniors Elijah Nielsen, left, Dustin Gubbels and Lance Cline sign to play college football on Thursday. FROM TEAMMATES TO RIVALS Silverton seniors sign to play football at Linfield, Willamette BILL POEHLER STATESMAN JOURNAL SILVERTON - A group of teammates signed up to become rivals Thursday. Silverton High School seniors Elijah Nielsen and Dustin Gubbels signed cele- bratory signing forms to play football at Linfield and Lance Cline signed to play football at Willamette. The three have been friends since first becoming teammates at Silverton four years ago. “For me it’s really special and really meaningful,” said Cline, who plans to major in psychology. “I’ve known them since freshman year, we’ve grown to- gether. “We’ve learned to work together as a team and as friends. Over the four years I’ve gotten to known them.” Cline was a first-team all-Mid-Wil- lamette Conference selection as a senior and was recruited to play linebacker at Willamette. That the three signed as part of the same ceremony at the school is a show of their friendship. But now they’re going to opposing schools. “I’m sure we’ll still be able to be friends and meet after the games and stuff,” said Gubbels, who will play offen- sive tackle. Gubbels was a first-team all-league tackle as a senior and Nielsen was a sec- ond-team all-league tight end. Nielsen and Gubbels will both major in nursing at Linfield. “Dustin this week made his decision,” said Nielsen, who will play tight end. “I made my decision about a month or two ago so I’ve had my mind made up for a while. “He decided to commit and sign to- day, so I’m really excited to be able to have a teammate coming with me and play.” bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler Stayton shows the power of speaking up to OSAA PETE MARTINI STATESMAN JOURNAL The OSAA is listening, and that’s a good thing. Many have been critical of the constant reclassification and redis- tricting of high school sports in our state, including myself. But what took place last week shows that an organized effort to voice con- cerns can influence these decisions. The OSAA’s Classification and Dis- tricting Committee recently announced that it supported a new five-class system to replace the current six-class system. That would have put schools like Stay- ton (608 students) and Cascade (683) into the same league as much larger schools like Silverton (1,149), Wilsonville (1,077), North Salem (1,404) and Woodburn (1,256). The people responded, particularly the Stayton community. At Monday’s meeting at the OSAA, 41 people gave testimony, 31 of whom sup- ported keeping Oregon athletics in a six- class system. And nine of the 31 were with Stayton. As a result of that testimony, the OSAA is backing off the new five-class system, which would have created many competitive balance issues for schools like Stayton and Cascade. The victory for Stayton is temporary at the moment, as the Classification and Districting Committee still is consider- ing two proposals — both a five-class and six-class system. But at this point, it would seem foolish for the OSAA to go down the five-class path again. Kudos to the people who spoke up, and STATESMAN JOURNAL SPORTS AWARDS * What: Statesman Journal Sports Awards * When: June 6, 2017 * Where: Salem Convention Center * Tickets: www.statesmanjournal.com/sportsawards kudos to the OSAA for listening. This is exactly how massive reorganizational changes should happen.