Oregon Daily Emerald
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
“It’s not like we’re going to
have a sit-down. ”
Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling stating his teammates’
reaction to Theo Epstein’s resigning as Red Sox general manager.
■ In my opinion
LUKE ANDREWS
EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION
Athletic
association
comes to its
senses at last
Following the Oregon School Activities Associ
ation’s decision to redesign its classification sys
tem last week, all I could say was: It’s about time.
The previous classification model (only four di
visions) was the worst imbalance of power I had
seen since the 1994 San Francisco 49ers’ Super
Bowl champion team smoked the rest of the NFL
with Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Ricky Watters and
“Neon” Deion Sanders.
OK, I might be just holding on to the quickly
fading glory days of a has-been dynasty, but
that’s a different column for a different day.
My real focus here is to applaud the OSAA’s de
cision to change to six classifications structured
around enrollment figures for Oregon’s high
school athletics and activities.
Coming from semi-rural Silverton High School,
enrollment 1,091, we competed in the 4A divi
sion, making us one of the smallest schools in
terms of population in that division.
Silverton’s former conference (the Pac-9) con
sisted of six teams with enrollments of more than
1,500. There’s a reason that Silverton’s confer
ence titles were few and far between.
I’m not implying that small schools don’t have
talent. They do. There is just much more of it
at larger schools. Does it make sense to have a
school with an enrollment of slightly more
than 1,000 compete with schools that draw
considerably more?
I liken this example to a non-league game earli
er this season between the Ducks and Montana
Grizzlies, a game Oregon won handily, 47-14.
There’s good reason why Montana, a Division
I-AA team, does not routinely play Oregon.
The number of Montana’s athletes and schol
arships simply is not equal to the numbers al
lowed to college football’s major conferences like
the Pacific-10.
While high schools can’t give scholarships
(Jesuit might argue this) enrollment numbers
undeniably translate directly to on-field success.
Larger schools have a luxury that smaller
schools don’t — the benefit of more athletes who,
because of numbers, can focus on offense or de
fense instead of being forced to play both sides of
the ball. This is why the reclassification decision
was such a necessary one.
The one major gripe about the OSAA’s verdict
may be the travel forced upon certain teams,
namely the Salem-area schools, that now must
travel to Redmond and vice versa, crossing the
Cascade Mountains in the process — a discon
certing task, especially during the winter sports
season. A few Eugene-area schools, Roseburg,
South and North Medford and Grants Pass, are
others that will incur more undesired time on the
bus, but I guess this is another example that you
can’t please everyone all the time.
While I can’t speak for the majority of the cur
rent high school athletes, I know I’d rather en
dure a few additional miles and be competitive
than play in my back yard and get thumped.
It’s about time the OSAA woke up and realized
this as well.
landrews@dailyemerald. com
■ Women's basketball
Nicole Barker | Senior photographer
Cicely Oaks reaches for a loose ball between two University of British Columbia
players. Oregon used a 16-2 second-half run to break the game open.
Oregon women
open exhibition
season with win
Gabrielle Richards leads all scorers with 17 points
to go along with her game-high 10 rebounds
BY SCOTT J. ADAMS
SPORTS REPORTER
Oregon head coach Bev Smith
saw promising but inconsistent
play out of her squad in Mon
day’s preseason opener against
the University of British Colum
bia, prompting the fifth-year head
coach to make it clear that Ore
gon has its work cut out for itself
heading into the regular season.
“Offensively, we were pleased
with some of the things we did,”
Smith said after Oregon’s 78-59
win over the Thunderbirds. “De
fensively, we still have a lot of
work to do right now in terms of
keeping people in front of us and
making sure we don’t allow the
ball to get by us and not allow
easy shots. ”
Smith saw weaknesses and ar
eas in need of improvement. She
also saw a great deal of potential
in her players but feels they are
still in need of game experience.
“There was a little bit of nerv
ousness and anxiety if anything
because they were not only (play
ing) with each other against an
opponent, but they were also do
ing this in front of a crowd,”
Smith said.
The 2,936 in attendance at
McArthur Court saw Oregon play
for the first time since its second
round exit at the hands of eventual
national champion Baylor in the
2005 NCAA Tournament. They
also saw senior forward Kedzie
Gunderson return to action after
missing all of last season with a
knee injury. The Bellevue, Wash.,
native ended the night with two
points and five rebounds in 15
minutes of play. She helped clean
up under the rim along with team
mate Gabrielle Richards, who led
the Ducks with 10 rebounds.
“Our motion offense worked
well,” Richards said. “We had our
perimeter shooters moving around
a lot and it gave us a lot of time to
make plays and put some shots up.”
Richards also went 7-14 from
the field, good enough to lead Ore
gon with 17 points to complete a
double-double.
BASKETBALL, page 7
■ Duck soccer
Ducks lose 1 -0 in overtime to Cougars
Oregon needs either a win or tie in last two games
to secure the first winning season in school history
BY SCOTTJ. ADAMS
SPORTS REPORTER
Washington State handed the
Oregon women’s soccer team
their first overtime loss of the sea
son Sunday afternoon in Pullman,
Wash. With only two games left
in the regular season, the 1-0 de
feat was the last thing the Ducks
needed in their quest to earn two
of the program’s firsts — a win
ning season and an invitation to
the NCAA Championships.
Both offenses were stymied
throughout the game, heading
into overtime scoreless, but the
Cougars needed only 1:33 into
the golden goal period before
senior forward Alix Rustrum took
a cross from teammate Shaye
Harrel behind the Oregon de
fense and buried a shot past
Duck goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield.
Two days after topping Wash
ington for the Ducks’ first confer
ence win of the season, Oregon
was riding high heading into this
game, but Rustrum’s game-win
ning goal was enough to make the
Ducks (9-7-1 overall, 1-6 confer
ence) and first-year head coach
Tara Erickson quickly forgot Fri
day’s win over the Huskies.
“The team was really disap
pointed to lose,” Erickson said.
“We were up for this one. Wash
ington State is a pretty good team,
but we found out that we were
able to play with them.”
This season Erickson’s squad
has often come close to knotting
the score with heavily favored
conference opponents. The Ducks
have been committed this year to
ridding themselves of their losing
ways seen in previous seasons,
but as Sunday’s game showed,
their inability to score goals con
sistently has hindered their cause.
Not even senior forward Nicole
Garbin could score against Wash
ington State’s defense. Garbin has
been Oregon’s most productive
player on offense in 2005 and had
a chance to put the Ducks ahead
of the Cougars in the 75th minute
with her specialty, which was a
penalty kick. This time she met
her match. Washington State’s
goalkeeper Katie Hultin got her
gloves on Garbin’s shot for a div
ing save. It was one of Hultin’s
three saves in the game and per
haps the biggest of the season for
the Cougars, who are also on the
hunt for postseason play.
“I don’t guess. I just react,”
Hultin said after the game. “I think
I had little more of an advantage
because I know Nicole (Garbin)
Kate Horton | Photographer
Senior
forward
Nicole Garbin
battles a USC
defender on
Oct. 16.
Garbin leads
the team with
10 goals,
beating the
former
school record
of nine.
and had played on a summer team
with her. That gave me a little
more adrenaline to make the save
and I just knew it had to be done.
We couldn’t go down a goal.”
Hultin’s save gave life to the
Cougars’ offense, which volleyed
a barrage of shots at Chatfield in
the waning minutes of the second
half. It was the most offensive ac
tion seen in the game, which fea
tured a 16-4 shot ratio in favor of
Washington State. Erickson felt
the score heading into overtime
was indicative of the game play.
“It was a back-and-forth bat
tle,” Erickson said. “Our defense
and Jessie (Chatfield) played awe
some, but give Washington State
credit for finding a way to win.”
Washington State head coach
Matt Potter felt the same way
about the game and welcomed
the win with open arms. It
improved Washington State to
10-7-2 overall and 3-4-1 in
conference play.
“It was a difficult game,” Potter
said. “Both teams are very even
ly matched and it could have
gone either way. We are ultimate
ly very excited to get the win.”
Oregon returns home to Pape
Field Friday night to play its first
of two weekend games to close
out the regular season. The
Ducks host No. 9 California Fri
day at 5 p.m. and Stanford at 1
p.m. on Sunday. A win or a tie
this weekend guarantees the
Ducks their first winning season
in school history.
sadams@ daily emerald, com