7A
Friday, August 30, 2019
The Observer
Eastern men’s
harriers open 18th
Observer staff
The Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity men’s cross country
team was ranked 18th in
the nation in the NAIA pre-
season coaches poll, which
came out on Thursday.
The Mountaineers, who
received 260 points in the
poll, are one of four ranked
Cascade Collegiate Con-
ference teams, and one of
three in the top 20. Eastern
is joined by No. 4 Southern
Oregon, No. 6 College of
Idaho, and No. 24 Oregon
Tech in the rankings. A fi fth
CCC squad, Northwest
Christian was receiving
votes in the poll.
It’s the 20th consecu-
tive time the Mountain-
eers have appeared in the
national poll dating back
to the 2016 season, with
11 of those rankings being
inside the top 10. Eastern
has reached as high as fi fth
in the nation during the
stretch. The Mountaineers’
highest ranking in the last
20 years came in 2008,
when the team twice was
picked second.
Reigning national
See Eastern / Page 8A
PREP VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Jacob Huntsman reaches out to make a save during drills at Thursday’s practice. Huntsman will step in as the
La Grande goalkeeper for the upcoming season, which begins today.
Tigers under new leadership
Ronald Bond
The Observer
The La Grande boys soccer
team has a new head coach
for the upcoming season.
Sid Rangel, a former East-
ern Oregon player who was an
assistant coach under Wade
Wright last fall, will lead the
Tigers into the 2019 campaign
— which begins today and
Saturday with a pair of home
matches — after Wright chose
to step down following the
2018 campaign.
“Wade did an awesome job
of establishing the program
here, and I want to build off of
that,” Rangel said Thursday.
“He laid the foundation, and
my goal is to keep that and
take it a step further, building
on the culture and building
on the core values of an LHS
Tiger — making sure their
character is above all, and
that they’re a student fi rst
and an athlete second.”
Rangel played at Eastern
for three years, wrapping up
his career with the Mountain-
eers in 2017, and said he feels
“confi dent” taking the reins for
the LHS program.
“Soccer has been a huge
part of my life, and I have
been around it since I was
young,” he said. “Being around
the culture, being around the
soccer community here and as
a previous EOU men’s soccer
player here, I’ve gained a lot of
knowledge and a lot of insight
to the game. I’m ready to go
to the next level in the soccer
realm.”
He takes over a program
that went 7-4-2 overall and
reached the state playoffs for
the fi fth year in a row, where it
dropped a 2-1 match to even-
tual state runner-up North
Marion.
La Grande lost fi ve seniors
from that squad, including
leading scorer Adam Endress
(13 goals in 2018) and Greater
Oregon League player of the
year Aaron Corsini.
But among the returners
for the Tigers is the second-
leading scorer from last fall in
junior Callum Ebel, who had
11 goals and added a team-
high nine assists.
Ebel, senior Ty Rivas and
sophomore Lucas Young were
fi rst-team all-league athletes
a year ago. La Grande also
returns a second-team player
in senior James Thurman.
“I feel like we’ve come a
long way so far, especially in
the summer,” Rivas said. “We
just got a new player from
Germany (Levy Brembach), so
that’s pretty cool. He’s big, tall
and awesome. I think we can
go as far if not further than
last year, at least.”
Both Rivas and Thurman
expressed optimism about the
season as they wrapped up
the fi nal practice Thursday
before today’s opener against
Wood River, Idaho.
“We’ve been working really
hard, coaches have been push-
ing us, and I agree with Ty.
I think we can get far,” Thur-
man said. “I think tomorrow is
a start.”
Thurman said he sees an
element the team had a last
fall as one of its strengths.
“We have a lot of energy,
just like last year,” he said.
“We’re all excited, all ener-
getic. We’re ready. I’m looking
forward to it.”
Rivas looked at passing as
one of the team’s major pluses,
and noted it’s made better by
the players’ longevity together
on the pitch.
“One of our strengths is
defi nitely our small and quick
passes, our give and goes,” he
said. “Some of us have been
playing with each other for so
long that it’s natural. We do it
like it’s nothing.”
In addition to the returners,
Rangel said the team will be
getting a boost from an infu-
sion of youth.
“There’s a lot of great play-
ers coming down the pipeline.
Our goal as a program is to
build them up and to get them
to be in competition with the
varsity,” he said. “Several
young players (are) Owen
Rinker coming as a freshman
helping the defense (and)
Jarom Huntsman as a sopho-
more, helping us with speed.”
A senior, though, will step
into patrol the goal, as Jacob
Huntsman replaces graduate
Christian Waugaman.
See Tigers / Page 8A
La Grande opens
with win in Vale
Observer staff
The La Grande Tigers
shook off a rough fi rst set
to earn a season-opening
victory over Vale on the
road Thursday, 17-25, 25-23,
25-14, 26-24.
“We had a good night.
We battled through some
adversity of not performing
as well in that Game 1,”
head coach Melinda Becker-
Bisenius said.
The coach said LHS
had to make an early
adjustment on defense, and
executed the change well.
“Sometimes it’s hard
to make some game-time
changes. They were trying
to tip over our block, so we
had to make some adjust-
ments with covering the
tips,” the coach said.
Kenzie Williams had a
strong all-around match
with 15 digs and added 12
assists and four kills. Jayce
Seavert led the offense with
11 kills and pitched in with
14 digs. Jaiden Hafer added
See Roundup / Page 8A
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Photos by Ronald Bond/The Observer
Callum Ebel, above and Ty Rivas, below, are among the
fi rst-team all-Greater Oregon League players back for
La Grande, which went 7-4-2 last fall.