Sports
B1
Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
PHOTOS BY ANNA REED / STATESMAN JOURNAL
Silverton’s Paige Alexander walks to accept her award for female soccer player of the year.
THE BEST OF THE BEST
High school athletes honored at Statesman Journal awards
Kennedy’s Bishop Mitchell walks to the stage
to accept his award for Boys Track and Field
Athlete of the Year during the Statesman
Journal Sports Awards.
PETE MARTINI
STATESMAN JOURNAL
West Salem High School was the big
winner June 6, capturing 10 awards at
the Statesman Journal Sports Awards,
including the Capitol Cup for the second
year in a row.
The top high school athletes in the Sa-
lem area gathered at the Salem Conven-
tion Center to celebrate all of the sacri-
fice, hard work and accomplishments
during the 2016-17 school year, with soc-
cer legend Mia Hamm sharing stories
about her career and offering inspira-
tion as the guest speaker.
One of Hamm’s messages to the atten-
tive audience was about the opportuni-
ties that female athletes have today,
compared to the past.
“A number of young girls are getting
the opportunity to play,” Hamm told the
crowd. “And the other thing I see is a tre-
mendous amount of camaraderie and
kinship with their male counterpart ath-
letes, and I think that’s an important
part.”
Many of the athletes in the audience
are either currently going through the
college recruiting process, or just com-
pleted the process.
“It seems like it’s much more intense
now than when I was going through the
process, and it seems like it’s getting
younger and younger,” Hamm said. “For
me, one of the criteria in terms of where
I wanted to go to school is that I really
had to love it without soccer. Does it fit
your needs academically? And hopefully
they have a good sounding board that
they can bounce things off — whether it’s
a school counselor, a parent, a coach, a
Silverton’s Maggie Buckholz takes the stage to accept her award for Softball Player of the Year during the Statesman Journal Sports Awards with
soccer star Mia Hamm at the Salem Convention Center on June 6.
club coach — that can really help them
navigate these waters.”
Awards were given to the top athlete
in each of the 19 OSAA sports, as well as
five community awards and five overall
awards.
The Titans took home nine of the 19
awards for specific sports, as well as the
Capitol Cup, which was awarded to the
best sports school for the 2016-17 year.
Four of West Salem’s athletes were re-
peat winners — Ahmed Muhumed (boys
cross country), Paige Whipple (volley-
ball), Micah Masei (boys swimming) and
Andrew Eyre (boys golf).
“Today actually was my last day of
high school and there were two different
feelings,” said Muhumed, a senior who
will compete at Boise State at the college
level. “The first is, ‘I am done.’ And the
second was, ‘wow, I am done.’ Looking
ahead, I’m just going to work hard and
get better. I’m just really blessed to be
part of a team and a program that has ac-
tually helped me a lot in my daily life and
athletic life.”
Other repeat winners included
Sprague’s Logan Blair, who this year
shared the boys tennis award with his
younger brother and doubles team part-
ner, Judd, as well as Silverton softball
player Maggie Buckholz, South Salem
girls golfer Ellie Slama and South Salem
girls basketball player Evina Westbrook.
Westbrook, who is going to play col-
lege basketball at Tennessee, also re-
peated as overall female athlete of the
year. After winning state championships
as a sophomore and junior, Westbrook
helped the Saxons place third this year at
the OSAA Class 6A girls basketball tour-
nament.
Dallas athlete Tanner Earhart, who
won the football player of the year
award, also was honored as the top over-
all male athlete of the year. Earhart, who
will play college football and baseball at
Linfield, was the Class 5A state offensive
player of the year in football, a wrestling
state champion at 160 pounds, and helped
the Dragons reach the state quarterfi-
nals in baseball.
Ron Hittner, who guided the Blanchet
girls basketball team to the OSAA Class
3A state championship, won the coach of
the year award.
South Salem’s Kaitlyn Paluska was
awarded as the Scholar Athlete, which
comes with a $5,000 scholarship.
The five community awards were
won by South Salem’s Tyler Coates
(Comeback Award), Sprague’s Caleb El-
liott (Heart and Desire Award), McKay’s
Noah Tavera (Courage Award), Regis
(Cheer Squad) and Sprague (Dance and
Drill Team).
2017 STATESMAN JOURNAL SPORTS AWARD WINNERS
FALL SEASON
Girls cross country
Salem
Wrestling
Football
Ginger Murnieks,
Sprague
Tanner Earhart, Dallas
Boys cross country
Volleyball
Ahmed Muhumed, West
Salem
Paige Whipple, West
Salem
Girls soccer
WINTER SEASON
Paige Alexander,
Silverton
Girls basketball
Boys soccer
Evina Westbrook, South
Salem
Stuart Aeschliman, West
Salem
Boys basketbal l
Kyle Greeley, West
Ian Carlos, North Salem
Girls swimming
Hannah Bodkin, West
Salem
Boys swimming
Micah Masei, West
Salem
SPRING SEASON
Maggie Buckholz,
Silverton
Andrew Eyre, West
Salem
Boys athlete of the
year
Baseball
Girls tennis
Tanner Earhart, Dallas
JaVon Logan, Regis
Anya Gerasimova, West
Salem
Coach of the year
Girls track and field
Keira McCarrell, West
Salem
Boys track and field
Bishop Mitchell,
Kennedy
Girls golf
Ellie Slama, South Salem
Softball
Boys golf
Boys tennis
Logan Blair/Judd Blair,
Sprague
OVERALL AWARDS
Girls athlete of year
Evina Westbrook, South
Salem
Ron Hittner, Blanchet
girls basketball
Comeback Award
Tyler Coates, South
Salem
Heart and Desire
Award
Caleb Elliott, Sprague
Scholar Athlete
Courage Award
Kaitlyn Paluska, South
Salem
Noah Tavera, McKay
Capitol Cup Award
West Salem
COMMUNITY
AWARDS
Cheer Squad
Regis
Dance and Drill Team
Sprague