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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1999)
Notable: In the most-recent edition of Sports Illus trated, “This Week’s Sign That the Apoca lypse Is Upon Us” reads: “Dodge will pay $1.4 million over the next four years to be the official sponsor of the sports rivalry be tween Oregon and Oregon State.” ^ My parents are really proud ... And this is [my ' brothers’ and my] dream, to hopefully make it to the bigs. ” Kevin Bass Ems left fielder Left fielder Kevin Bass, Northwest player of the week for the week ending July 4, hopes that both he and his team heat up again soon. Catharine KendalVEmerald Baseball in the Blood Eugene left fielder Kevin Bass is the middle of three brothers with major-league aspirations By Mirjam Swanson Oregon Daily Emerald For Emeralds’ left fielder Kevin Bass, baseball is a fami ly affair. His older brother, Jayson, is a sixth-year pro currently playing outfield for the Rich mond Braves, Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate. Meanwhile Kevin, who is a 4 switch-hitter and the middle Bass child, is in Eugene striv ing to improve his game with the Emeralds. As the Cubs’ third-round pick out of Fayette County (Ala.) High School in 1998, Kevin joined Eugene this season after play ing for the organization’s rookie club in Mesa last sum mer. And Kevin’s little brother, Bryan — still in high school in Alabama — is also ex pected to play professional ly If he does, then all three Bass brothers will be scat tered throughout baseball’s pro ranks, chasing their big league dreams and having a nice time doing it. “It’ll be neat,” Kevin Bass _ said. “My parents are real proud. But really, they’re hap py that we’re happy. And this is our dream, to hopefully make it to the bigs.” So far, pro ball is every thing that Bass expected it to be, although he said he’d like to help improve the Ems’ 10 14 record and last-place standing. “I’m en joying it,” Bass said. “You just wish you could do good every night, so that you can please yourself and also the fans that come out to watch.” As the Emeralds starting left fielder, Bass has played brilliantly for days at a time. He’s had spells where he produced one timely hit af ter another while looking completely comfortable in a position that he only began playing after arriving in the pros. For that period of produc tion, he was awarded the Northwest League player of the week award for the week Turn to BASS, Page 10 Duck coaches, athletes share their winning ways Soccer, tennis, volleyball and track and field camps put on by Oregon programs run this week By Mirjam Swanson Oregon Daily Emerald In addition to the 400 IntroDUCKtion stu dents learning their way around campus this week, up-and-coming athletes are also on hand, getting schooled by Oregon coach es and players in volleyball, track and field, soccer and tennis. While most of the youths participating in this week’s camps aren’t prodigies, they’re all taking advantage of a week of experi enced mentoring to improve their skills and, most importantly, to have a good time. “It’s a learning camp,” women’s track and field head coach Tom Heinonen said. “But we want them to have fun. We want them to learn about track and field and go away from here with a greater appreciation of it and a respect for what it takes to be really good at track and field — for them to get re ally excited about track and field.” Oregon runs 15 different athletic camps during the summer, four of which are in ef fect this week. The Nike Oregon volleyball camp, focus ing on general skills and setters play, is the first of three camps that Oregon head coach Cathy Nelson and staff provide. It runs through Thursday. “It’s something we do every summer,” Nelson said. “Four days and a lot of volley ball., it’s a well-rounded camp. We do a good job with our camp, so people like to come back.” The next general skills camp begins Sat urday, and a “high-potential” camp aimed at incoming college players starts July 22. Oregon’s head tennis coaches, Chris Rus sell and Jack Griffin, are also in charge of separate camps. This week they’re co-directors of the Nike Oregon tennis camp, scheduled to run until Friday. Next week they’ll conduct another Sunday-through-Friday camp for kids rang ing in age from 8 to 17. “They’re cute” former Duck and current camp counselor Jaime Martin said. “And they were good [Sunday] night. They went to bed on time with no problems.” As is the case up the street at McArthur Court, where the volleyball players are gath ered, more players are enrolled in the tennis camp this year than in years past. Forty-nine kids are taking part this week. It’s a noticeable increase, according to one second-year camper. “There’s a lot more kids this year,” 16 year-old Kari White said. “It’s a lot bigger. It’s nice.” Turn to CAMPS, Page 8 Catharine Kendall/Emerald Camper Anne Neumann stretches to hit a groundstroke during a tennis exercise Monday afternoon. The tennis camp is headed by Duck coaches Chris Russell and Jack Griffin.
