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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
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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
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