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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2016)
12 Wednesday, March 16, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon PGe Sisters High School fields a softball team “I was figuring this was 2015 (5-16). had McIntosh, Ferrell and Foundation By Tom Mauldin going to be a meeting about The Outlaws will be Yount wanting to step up and not having a program, when returning four players – start learning how to pitch.” grant benefits was Sisters High School (SHS) the girls just started walking seniors Zoey Nason and Leah The issue of declining in jeopardy of not field- into the room,” noted Smith. McIntosh and juniors Kylie enrollment at SHS is notice- ing a softball team for the “The freshman girls had gone Stiener and Amanda Smith. A able. In 2006-07, SHS had local kids first time in nearly 20 years, out and recruited the new third junior is transfer Shauna an enrollment of 558, and Correspondent The Americana Project Arts Outreach Scholarship fund (APAOS) received a $5,000 grant award from the PGE Foundation last spring. The grant provided schol- arships for 37 low-income/ high-risk students in Sisters. Because of the foundation’s gift, these students had a safe place to go after school and a long-term activity that devel- oped their confidence, love of the arts, and new friendships. Most of the scholarships were for long-term tuition. “Sequential learning, espe- cially for at-risk children, is such a gift,” said Katy Yoder, Sisters Folk Festival’s devel- opment director. “We’ve heard so many positive reports from their parents and teachers.” APAOS was started by Sisters Folk Festival Inc. (SFF) five years ago to pro- vide arts and music scholar- ships for children in Sisters. PGE Foundation has helped the fund grow over the years as SFF works to keep pace with local needs. “We can’t thank them enough for their financial support,” said Yoder. “When children attend these classes, they’re more involved in their community, they develop lasting relationships but a final last-minute recruit- ing push will enable SHS to field a 2016 varsity team. The prospects for an Outlaw squad was looking very bleak late last week as numbers were at an all-time low and most practices con- sisted of a half-dozen players. However, a handful of players recruited five addi- tional players, and Coach Dave Smith believes he’ll have a roster of 13 when the Outlaws open the season on March 15. “(Athletic Director) Tim Roth and I had a meeting with the girls the other day (March 9) and told them we were looking at dropping the program because of the lack of interest/participation,” said Smith. “One of the girls suggested another meeting. I was very skeptical, because I did not see us picking up any more players as I was getting reports from our juniors and seniors that they were striking out on their end recruiting.” The second meeting was held March 10, and Outlaw softball has a steady heartbeat. girls. We will have a team of 13, which is a very comfort- able number.” The Outlaws were sched- uled to open the season on March 15 hosting Crook County’s varsity, but with the late addition of the new players, the Outlaws played CCHS’s junior varsity. The Outlaws will open the varsity season at home on April 1, hosting Madras, and at La Pine on April 2. Sky-Em League play is slated to begin April 4 at Cottage Grove. Due to the low turnout, the Outlaws also dropped out of the multi-team Bend Tournament, an event they have played in for the last five seasons. “We knew numbers might be an issue after the last few seasons without a junior var- sity team,” said Smith. “With the late additions, we didn’t feel we had enough time to prepare for the (Bend) tour- nament (scheduled for March 21-22).” Smith replaced Cierra Jones, who guided the Outlaws to a two-year record of 7-36 in 2014 (2-20) and Thatchers and Aerators NEED IT, RENT IT! Frontiers In Science Antarctica: Living and working on the Ice Plan Ahead! Make Your Reservations Soon For... has lost students each year following. Roth said the lack of softball prospects has to do “with decline in enrollment and limited youth feeder programs.” He noted that track was down last year, but was up “significantly” this year. Despite steady declining enrollment dating back 10 years (according to OSAA reports), SHS continues to offer a full slate of spring sports – baseball, boys golf, girls golf, girls track, boys track, girls tennis, boys ten- nis, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse. Smith added how thankful he was to Roth’s supports and efforts to keep the program alive. “He (Roth) has been a driving force and has had positive attitude in getting this sport off the ground and filling the numbers,” said Smith. “He has been support- ive from day one since I have come on board.” MONTHLY SYMPOSIUM IN SISTERS See GraNT on page 14 SPRING IS COMING! Ferrell. Haley Maglecic is the lone sophomore on the squad. The freshmen include Sofia Affatati, Beth Ann Yount, Sara Hartford, Grace Maiden, Nancy Montecinos, Kennedy Smith and Marie Coffey. “All the returning girls are taking a leadership role in helping each other out,” said Smith, a former travel ball coach. “My goal as a coach is to build confidence in these young women and to see them excel in both athletics and in the classroom. I want them to have a positive expe- rience with the game.” Smith is looking forward to more complete practices, noting that workouts since practices officially began two weeks ago featured as few as five players. “We will be going back to the basics and fundamentals of catching, throwing, hitting, base running and fielding,” said Smith. “I will be in need of some pitchers to relieve Amanda Smith, and we have Citizens4Community is teaming with Speak Your Peace and valued local partners to encourage respectful communication and build trust by using 9 simple tools of civility. 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Pine St. Visit Citizens4Community.com to learn about the Civility Project and how to get your free, informative “Tool Card” (shown above) . 541-549-9631 *this ad is proudly sponsored by Sales • Service Rentals • Accessories HOWELLS REALTY GROUP www.sistersrental.com 541-595-3838 The Ranch • 541-549-5555 Sisters Presented by Sisters residents Barb Schulz, who spent several seasons working in the dry valleys of the Antarctic mountains; and Dusty Miller, who spent a year at the South Geographic Pole studying cosmic rays. The pouth Pole is one of the coldest, driest places on Earth. A day consists of 6 months of light and 6 months of dark. The altitude is over 10,000 feet, and it’s inaccessible for 9 months of the year. Dusty will speak about living and working in this challenging but beautiful place, where his primary job was measuring variations in cosmic rays - high-energy particles coming from outside the solar system. Barb will share research experiences from 4 fi eld seasons camp- ing on the ice in the Taylor Valley in the Antarctic mountains work- ing with watershed studies in the Long Term Environmental Re- search (LTER) program for the National pcience Foundation. This valley is one small, ice-free place with a series of small perennially ice-covered lakes surrounded by slow-moving glaciers. Tuesday, March 22 At The Belfry, 302 E. Main Ave., Sisters One-hour Lecture begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. for food and beverage. Admission: $5; Science Club Donors, Teachers and Students - FREE sring your curiosity and an appetite for food, drink & knowledge!