The Observer., November 22, 2019, WEEKEND EDITION, Page 7, Image 7

7A
Friday, November 22, 2019
The Observer
Tigers ready for rematch
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
Ronald Bond/The Observer
La Grande’s Braden Carson makes a one-handed catch dur-
ing practice Wednesday night. Carson and the Tigers meet The
Dalles Saturday in the 4A state semifi nals.
LA GRANDE — The La Grande
Tigers are gearing up for the big-
gest game the football program
has played in 43 years, but also are
treating it like any other contest.
“Just another game,” senior wide
receiver Blaine Shaw said. “We gotta
prepare for it like any other game.”
The Tigers, who are in the semifi -
nals for the fi rst time since 1976, face
The Dalles Riverhawks on Saturday
in Hermiston with a berth in next
weekend’s OSAA Class 4A state
championship game on the line.
“I’m excited. The kids are excited.
They’re working really hard this
week,” head coach Rich McIlmoil
said. “The last few weeks have been
the best practices we’ve had all year.
Some teams get to this point and
start to peter out. We’ve been on our
game a lot lately.”
La Grande’s last semifi nal appear-
ance ended in a 23-12 loss to Forest
Grove in the AAA semifi nals. That,
however, is the program’s only semi-
fi nal loss. All time, La Grande is 3-1
in the semifi nals, including a 13-6
win over Benson in 1974 on the way
to its lone OSAA state crown.
The buzz among the players at the
chance to get back to the title game
is palpable.
“It’s been amazing,” senior defen-
sive back Zach Wiggins said. “All our
coaches have been feeding us with
(how) no one’s been here in years.
We win this game, we’ll be in the
championship.”
The Tigers have ridden their ground
game — led by Nathan Reed — and
their defense during the first two play-
off contests. The Tigers are averaging
323.5 yards per game in the postsea-
son, with 249 of those coming on the
ground. That includes last week’s
14-0 win over Gladstone that saw the
Tigers rush for 282 yards, with 188 of
See Tigers / Page 8A
Two standouts overcome injury to sign D-I
Ronald Bond/Observer fi le photo
La Grande’s Logan Paustian is shown during the Tigers’ 2018 state championship
game against Gladstone. Paustian, one of the nation’s top-rated catchers, has signed
his letter of intent to play baseball with Arizona State University.
■ Change in schools, shoulder injury don’t deter catcher
Logan Paustian, who signs with Arizona State University
Ronald Bond/Observer fi le photo
La Grande’s Riana Scott is shown competing during the 2017 state championship
meet in Gresham. Scott has signed her letter of intent with Nebraska Omaha.
■ Swimmer Riana Scott bounces back from torn ACL that
costs entire junior season to sign with Nebraska Omaha
By Ronald Bond
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
The Observer
LA GRANDE — An
injury that cost him most
of his junior year on the
baseball fi eld and seeing
the head coach leave the
school where he had already
committed — Nebraska —
caused Logan Paustian to
take a step back.
Once he fi nished reha-
bilitation and reentered
the recruiting process, the
La Grande senior found
a school he said “suits my
personality.”
Last week, Paustian signed
his letter of intent to play at
Arizona State University.
“It was kind of a freak
out moment there,” he said
of the fallout from a torn
labrum in his right shoul-
der and the departure of
then-Nebraska coach Darin
Erstad. “But I was able to
get my composure, do my
rehab, and get back in the
recruiting process. Luckily
I still had contact with a
lot of the coaches that had
recruited me before. I went
through schools. I went to
Oregon State, went to Or-
egon, looked at my options,
and Arizona State was the
best fi t for me.”
Paustian has long been
one of the top-rated high
school catchers in the na-
tion. ASU’s Twitter feed, in
announcing his signing, said
he’s the fi fth-ranked player
in the state of Oregon, and
the 33rd ranked catcher
in the country. He ranks
anywhere from the 71st per-
centile to the 93rd in various
metrics on perfectgame.
com, which rates high school
baseball players.
Parker McKinley, La
Grande’s head baseball
LA GRANDE — La
Grande senior Riana Scott
put in a lot of hard work —
and, at one point, too much
work — in her effort to reha-
bilitate a torn right ACL.
It’s paid off, though. Scott,
one of the staples of the LHS
swim team during her prep
career, last week signed her
letter of intent to compete
with Division I University of
Nebraska Omaha.
“I didn’t want to go to
a power fi ve conference
because some of the coaches
wouldn’t let me pick the ma-
jor I wanted to do. But I still
wanted to swim Division
I,” Scott said, noting there
aren’t any D-I programs
in the state of Oregon.
“Nebraska Omaha is not a
power fi ve conference, but
they are Division I, right
below power fi ve.
“The coaches, I just loved
them, it felt like home. It
was one of those things
where I just felt like I was
here with no mountains. It
felt right.”
Scott is at the tail end of a
year-long process of recover-
ing from the ACL injury,
suffered during the 2018
volleyball season, that kept
her out of the pool for almost
the entirely of the 2018-19
swimming season.
Prior to that, she had
been a force for the La
Grande girls swim team.
She’s placed at the Class
4A/3A/2A/1A swim meet in
all eight races she’s taken
part in: individually in the
200-yard individual medley
(second in 2017, third in
2018) and the 100 back-
stroke (second, fourth), and
as a member of both the
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Logan Paustian, who had originally committed to Ne-
braska, last week signed his letter of intent with Arizona
State University.
coach, said it was apparent
from as early as 10 or 11
years old that Paustian was
a talent behind the plate.
But he didn’t taper off.
“As Logan started to get
older, 12, 13 14, he didn’t
stop progressing,” McKin-
ley said. “He got better,
smoother, faster, and started
to handle the ball in a way
that was more common for
someone that much older
than him. As a freshman he
received the ball as well as
most juniors and seniors.”
The coach said Paustian
reached where he is, though,
not just because of natural
talent.
“All this is not just
because it came easy. He
worked super hard,” McKin-
ley said. “He had all these
things I’m place. It was
natural for him, he loved it
and he really worked is rear
end off to make himself get
better and better.”
Paustian committed to
Nebraska when he was a
freshman in high school. The
injury he suffered following
his sophomore year didn’t
deter the Cornhuskers, but
Paustian decided it was
time to look elsewhere when
Erstad left.
“They upheld my scholar-
ship and said, ‘We’re going
to wait on you,’ but about a
month and a half later the
head coach decided he was
ready to be done, and he was
really the main reason I had
gone there,” Paustian said.
“I knew that was my time to
fi nd a different home. That
was tough. It’s hard to go
See Paustian / Page 8A
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Riana Scott signed her letter of intent for the University
of Nebraska Omaha during a ceremony Nov. 14.
200 medley relay (second,
fourth) and the 200 freestyle
relay (fourth both years).
Scott had total reconstruc-
tion surgery to repair the
ligament in November, then
dove right into the rehabili-
tation process.
“There was about six
months of physical therapy
twice a week, and then
after that it was swimming,
easing back into it. I didn’t
swim 100% until the end of
August,” she said.
Scott did manage to com-
pete — though only at 10% ef-
fort — in La Grande’s district
swim meet in February.
She said, though, that
she was pushing herself to
the point that she was told
to get out of the pool during
the middle of the process.
“I was so focused on get-
ting back for my team and
I didn’t think about what I
needed to do for myself. The
hardest thing is I was push-
ing way too hard,” she said.
“My physical therapist actu-
ally told me to stop. There
was a time where I was not
allowed to do anything.”
LHS head swim coach
Darren Dutto called Scott a
competitor, and agreed that
her perhaps over-exerting
herself in an effort to get
back to 100% is evidence of
that.
“She wants to compete,
she wants to race, and that
is one of her primary focus-
es,” she said. “She wants to
be in the thick of things. She
wants to be able to battle.”
Scott has since not only
been able to get back in the
See Scott / Page 8A