SPORTS
8A — THE OBSERVER
LOCAL SCHEDULE
Saturday
PREP GIRLS
BASKETBALL
Union, Powder Valley,
Cove, Elgin at Union
Christmas Classic, 9 a.m.
Wallowa at Ione/
Arlington, noon
Joseph at South Wasco
County, noon
La Grande vs. TBD,
Today’s Dentistry Elite
Eight, Nampa, Idaho,
TBD
PREP BOYS
BASKETBALL
La Grande vs. TBD,
Today’s Dentistry Elite
Eight, Nampa, Idaho,
TBD
Union, Powder Valley,
Cove, Elgin at Union
Christmas Classic,
10:30 a.m.
Joseph at Sherman,
3:30 p.m.
Wallowa at Ione/
Arlington, 1:30 p.m.
Imbler at Four Rivers,
10 a.m.
PREP WRESTLING
La Grande at Tri-State
Meet, Coeur d’Alene,
Idaho, 10 a.m.
Elgin, Enterprise, Imbler,
Union/Cove, Joseph/
Wallowa at John Rysdam
Memorial Invite, Elgin,
9 a.m.
Enterprise at Mac-Hi
Christmas Tournament,
all day
PREP SWIMMING
La Grande at LHS
December home meet,
noon
WOMEN’S COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at
Oregon Tech, Klamath
Falls, 5:30 p.m.
MEN’S COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at
Oregon Tech, Klamath
Falls, 7:30 p.m.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE
WRESTLING
Eastern Oregon at
Olympic Qualifi er, Fort
Wayne, Texas, all day
— Subject to change
ROUNDUP
Continued from Page 7A
fourth quarter to fend off the
Lumberjacks.
Powder Valley (4-3 overall)
faces Crane Friday in the
tournament semifi nals.
BOBCATS EASE PAST
TIGERS
The Union Bobcats an
easy win over the hapless
Dayville/Monument Tigers
Thursday, 46-5.
Callie Glenn led the
way with 16 points for the
Bobcats, who jumped out to
a 20-1 fi rst-quarter lead, led
33-3 at halftime and coasted
from there.
Audrey Wells added seven
points for Union (5-1 overall),
which faces Jordan Valley
Friday in the tournament
semifi nals.
CRANE RUNS PAST COVE
The Crane Mustangs built
an early double-digit lead
and never let up Thursday
on the way to a 60-27 win
over the Cove Leopards.
Kelsie Siegner had 18
points for Crane, which was
up 15 after one quarter and
27 at halftime, 39-12.
Austin Kendall and
Maggie Frisch scored seven
points apiece for Cove (3-2
overall) which faced Council
Friday in the consolation
semifi nals.
HUSKIES FALL TO JORDAN
VALLEY
The Elgin Huskies dropped
their second game in a row
Thursday, losing to the Jor-
dan Valley Mustangs, 48-34.
Tymra Anderson and
Jayden Palmer led the
Huskies’ offense. Anderson
had 15 points and Palmer
followed with 11.
Elgin (4-2 overall) faced
Dayville/Monument Friday
in the consolation semifi nals.
LHS boys fall in Nampa
The Skyview Hawks built
a double-digit lead during a
big second quarter Thursday
on their way to a 73-53 win
over the La Grande Tigers at
the Today’s Dentistry Elite
Eight in Nampa, Idaho.
Kaleb Myer led all scorers
with 21 points and Cristian
Mendoza added 13 for the
MADRAS
Continued from Page 7A
distance of nearly 300 miles, is a good example.
“A lot of people don’t understand how far
300 miles is,” Brown said.
A conference call with the GOL ADs
spawned the hybrid idea, and Brown pre-
sented it in conjunction with his talk about
Madras’ mileage concern.
“It seemed like a natural idea,” Brown said
of the thought to put the east-side schools
together.
He said Gonzales submitted a letter of
support signed by the athletic directors of the
GOL and EOL.
Brown said he had several conversations
with Gonzales following the conference call,
and said Gonzales reached out to the EOL
schools — Burns, Nyssa and Vale — that
would be a part of the proposal.
TIGERS
Continued from Page 7A
teammates pushing me ev-
ery day to be the best player
I could be.”
Blaine Shaw rounded out
the players who received
multiple nods as a fi rst-team
selection at wide receiver
and defensive back.
Robinson was named the
fi rst-team quarterback, and
gave the Tigers half of the
fi eld of the four player of the
year fi nalists.
“I’m very grateful and
pleased to be up for player
of the year, and I think it
is awesome that Nathan is
also a fi nalist,” he said. “It’s
amazing to have a teammate
like him.”
Rounding out the fi rst-
team nods were two of the
linemen who helped pave
the way for La Grande’s
rushing attack — Spencer
Gerst and Eli Leavitt.
“I was super excited to
see Eli on that list. He was
super excited,” McIlmoil
said. “Same with Spencer. I
knew it was going to be tight
Tigers.
Skyview outscored La
Grande 24-12 in the second
quarter to take a 35-18 lead
at the half, and built as much
as a 50-23 lead.
The Tigers (1-4 overall)
face Fruitland Friday in the
tournament.
LHS girls drop second
game
The La Grande Tigers
saw a halftime lead slip
away Thursday as they fell
in their fi rst game at the
Today’s Dentistry Elite Eight
in Nampa, Idaho to the Sky-
view Hawks, 47-41.
The Tigers were up 24-22
at the half. Skyview inched
ahead 34-33 after three
quarters, then held on the
fourth. Skyview did most of
its damage in the fi nal period
at the free-throw line, going
9-for-13.
Camryn Collman scored 14
points and Ella Dunlap had
11 for La Grande (2-2 overall),
which faces Fruitland Friday
in the tournament.
Enterprise girls rout
Imbler
The Enterprise Outlaws
ran over the Imbler Panthers
Thursday on the road, 63-16.
Zari Bathke and Asiya
Salim scored 11 points apiece
for the Outlaws, who had 12
players score. Claire Farwell
added nine points.
Kenna Whitmore scored 10
points to lead the Panthers.
Enterprise (6-1 overall)
is off until Dec. 27 when it
visits Nixyaawii, while Im-
bler (0-7) visits Notus, Idaho,
Friday.
Wednesday
COUGAR BOYS TOP LHS JV
Tristin Bales continued
his high-scoring effort of late
with 31 more points Wednes-
day as the Wallowa Cougars
built a big early lead on their
way to a 60-36 home win
over the La Grande junior
varsity.
Quinten Tillery added 13
points for the Cougars, who
outscored the Tigers by 15
points in the fi rst quarter
and stretched the lead to 37-
17 at the half.
Wallowa (3-3 overall) visits
Condon/Wheeler Friday.
HYBRID
Continued from Page 7A
that would have included
La Grande, Baker, Ontario,
Madras and Crook County.
“Madras-Ontario would
be a pretty big hike,” Good-
man said.
Jason Ramos, who
recently fi nished his fi rst
year as head football coach
at Baker, said he would
welcome a change.
“We’ve got to have some-
thing other than a three-
team league,” Ramos said.
Because of their location
relative to other 4A schools,
the GOL teams have strug-
gled to schedule games with
schools of similar size. The
four current GOL schools
are among only nine schools
in 4A east of the Cascades.
“The teams from the
other side of the state don’t
want to drive this way,”
Goodman said.
The other fi ve Class 4A
schools east of the Cascades
are several hours from the
GOL schools — Sisters and
Madras, both near Bend,
and Mazama, Henley and
Klamath Union, which
are all in Klamath Falls.
Madras played down to 3A
for football the past two
seasons, though it will move
back to 4A in 2020. The
Dalles and Crook County,
both 5A schools, also played
down in football. The Dalles
will be bumping back up to
5A next season, but Sisters
will slip to 3A.
It has been a struggle in
recent years for GOL teams
to fi nd fi ve or six games to
fi ll a complete schedule for
football.
To remedy that, GOL
rivals Ontario, La Grande
and Baker in 2016 elected
to play each other twice. As
a result, the schools had to
fi nd just three out-of-league
opponents, but with Mac-
Hi’s decision this season
to play an independent
schedule, the teams had
to scramble to add more
contests.
Shukle, Shaw and Reed
doubled up as fi rst-team
players on the defensive side
— Shukle on the defensive
line, Shaw at defensive back
and Reed at linebacker. They
were joined on the fi rst-team
defense by defensive line-
man Woodworth, linebacker
Wiggins and defensive back
Gaertner.
Several of the fi rst-team
athletes also garnered
second-team nods on the op-
posite side of the ball. Wood-
worth was a second-team
offensive lineman and kicker,
Gerst and Leavitt were
both second-team defensive
linemen and Robinson was a
second-team linebacker. Also
on the second team were
center Joel Rogers, offensive
lineman Keith Oswald, run-
ning back Payton Cooper,
wide receiver Justin Fred-
erick, defensive back Josh
Zollman, and linebacker and
punter Casey Cornford.
Earning honorable men-
tion were Oswald on the
defensive line, Justin Jenner
at defensive back, and Brody
MacMillan at linebacker.
OSAA executive director
Brad Garrett said a discus-
sion with Gary Robertson,
Mac-Hi’s AD, after the
proposal was announced
gave him the impression
the Pioneers could defect
and play an independent
schedule again.
“I think based on a pre-
liminary conversation with
Mac-Hi they are considering
it,” Garrett said.
Even if that happened, La
Grande and Baker would
still have fi ve league games,
and would likely avoid the
lengthy trips to fi ll the holes
created by Mac-Hi’s drop in
the fall.
“That was a bad situation.
They dropped off way too
late,” Goodman said.
Baker, for instance,
played football games this
fall in Bend, 250 miles
away, and at Willapa Valley,
Washington, a one-way trip
of more than 400 miles. La
Grande’s longest trips were
388 miles to Cottage Grove
and 315 miles to Clatskanie.
In the proposed hybrid
special district, by contrast,
the longest trip would be
about 225 miles (Burns to
Mac-Hi). A handful of other
trips — Vale to Mac-Hi,
Burns to Mac-Hi, Ontario to
Mac-Hi and La Grande to
Burns — would be around
200 miles. Every other trip
would be around or less
than 150.
“This proposal would cer-
tainly help with the travel
issues,” Ramos said. “It’ll be
interesting to see if all par-
ties are on board.”
The likelihood of having
holes in the schedule would
be greatly reduced, if not
eliminated entirely, if the
GOL/EOL hybrid goes into
effect. Each team, if Mac-Hi
does stay, would have six
league games and would
need to lock down just two
or three more nonleague
contests. La Grande has had
Pendleton scheduled each
of the past six years, and
The Dalles on its nonleague
slate the past fi ve.
The hybrid also would
bring back together several
GOL rivals from 2000-03.
La Grande joined what
was then a 3A league in
2000, and each team in
the proposed hybrid with
the exception of Nyssa was
in the GOL during that
four-year block. At the time,
the eight-team league also
featured Grant Union and
Riverside. Grant Union
dropped to 2A in 2002, and
Vale followed in 2004.
“I think it’s good for
us,” McIlmoil said of the
hybrid, adding that Vale,
Nyssa and Burns are “three
solid teams. They’re like us.
They’re small towns. They
got solid tradition.”
The move also will help
the EOL schools as they, like
the GOL, have had several
instances in recent years
where they’ve been stuck
with just four teams in the
league, and they were in a
three-team league in 2014
like the GOL this year. The
EOL would have been look-
ing at a four-team setup next
fall.
The top two teams 4A
teams and 3A teams in the
district would qualify for the
playoffs for their respective
classifi cations.
“How they decide those
teams is up to the league,”
Garrett said.
Garrett added that un-
less there is a groundswell
of opposition against the
proposal between now and
the fi nal January meeting,
he not only sees it being the
fi nal one presented to the
OSAA, but added, “I see the
board adopting this.”
Also in the latest update,
the committee said its
preference on a proposed
idea for 9-man football at
the 2A level is to wait and
reconsider it for the 2022-26
block. The 6-man pilot also
will continue for two more
years.
Baker City Herald editor
Jayson Jacoby contributed to
this report.
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“We know and understand that a three
team-league is not viable. As a state and a 4A
class we needed to think a little outside the
box for a possible solution,” he said.
OSAA executive director Brad Garrett
said OSAA has played with the idea of
hybrid leagues in the past, but because the
Colley rating system — one of the items
used by OSAA in its rankings — previously
rated only in-classifi cation games, it wasn’t a
popular idea.
A change two years ago allowed the Colley
system to include games against teams either
a class above or below. For example, rather
than a 4A school getting credit only for play-
ing another 4A in the Colley system, it can
now get credit for playing a 3A, 4A or 5A.
Because of that change, a hybrid league is
now “more feasible,” Garrett said, adding, “It
makes sense to me that that probably solved
some of the RPI concerns they had.”
for linemen. It’s so hard to
judge them. Not that I was
surprised, but I was hoping.”
The second-team all-state
winners included Chris
Woodworth on the defensive
line, Zach Wiggins at line-
backer, and Dawson Gaert-
ner at defensive back.
LHS not only dominated
the all-state awards — ear-
lier in the season the Tigers
were all over the all-Greater
Oregon League awards.
Nine members of the team
earned a combined 12 fi rst-
team all-GOL bids, led by a
sweep of the league player of
the year honors as Reed was
named the offensive player
of the year and Shukle was
tapped as defensive player of
the year.
In all, the Tigers, who
twice defeated both GOL
rivals Ontario and Baker as
part of their perfect season,
had six fi rst-team offense
selections: Reed at running
back, Robinson at quarter-
back, Gerst and Leavitt as
offensive linemen, Shaw as a
wide receiver and Shukle at
tight end.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2019
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