Sports
8A
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Th e Observer
Frontier Conference modifi es spring schedule
Return to play plan
prohibits fans from
attending events
By PHIL WRIGHT
The Observer
WHITEFISH, Mont. —
The Frontier Conference,
which includes Eastern
Oregon University for foot-
ball, is revamping its 2021
spring football schedule
— again.
Montana Tech and Mon-
tana Western recently
announced they would opt
out of the conference spring
football season.
“As the pandemic has
progressed, the health and
safety of our student-ath-
letes has always been our
No. 1 priority,” Montana
Western Director of Ath-
letics Bill Wilson said in
a press release. “As each
week has passed, it became
increasingly clear to us
that moving forward with
the conference football
schedule was going to be
very diffi cult at best. With
scheduled games taking
place as early as March, we
had to make this very diffi -
cult decision.”
Tech and Western join
The Observer, File
Eastern Oregon University and Carroll College face off in November 2017 in La Grande.
The Frontier Conference, which includes EOU for football, starts its 2021 season with a
bye week and will not step on the gridiron until March 20, when it will host Carroll College
at Community Stadium in La Grande.
Southern Oregon Univer-
sity in opting out of the
modifi ed spring schedule.
Five Frontier Conference
schools — EOU, College
of Idaho, Carroll College,
MSU-Northern and Rocky
Mountain College — have
committed to play a spring
schedule.
“We certainly know
that these tough deci-
sions by the three member
institutions have been
EOU pair qualify for nationals
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Eastern Oregon University
will have a pair of represen-
tatives when the Mountain-
eers compete at the 2021
Indoor National Champion-
ship for the heptathlon.
The National Associa-
tion of Intercollegiate Ath-
letics released its list of 16
qualifi ers for the multi-
event Monday, Feb. 22,
including EOU’s Tyler
Davis and Sam Roddewig.
Davis and Roddewig
fi nd themselves on the fi nal
qualifi ers list after put-
ting together
solid compe-
titions early
this season at
the College of
Idaho. EOU
Davis
reported Rod-
dewig, a senior
from Helena,
Montana, was
the heptathlon
winner back
Roddewig on Feb. 6 at
the C of I Ice-
breaker. He was fi fth after
day one but mounted a
comeback to win the event
with a total of 4,647 points.
Davis, a junior from
Sandpoint, Idaho, quali-
fi ed after winning the hep-
tathlon this past weekend
at the C of I Polar Vortex
Classic. He led the entire
way from beginning to end,
winning four of the seven
events.
Roddewig’s point total
ranks sixth most in EOU
history, while Davis’ total is
seventh.
The 2021 NAIA Track
& Field Indoor National
Championships will
take place March 3-6 in
Yankton, South Dakota.
Golfer lucky to be alive after crash
Tiger Woods faces
difficult recovery
Meanwhile, the Cas-
cade Collegiate Confer-
ence, which covers other
EOU athletics, announced
on Tuesday, Feb. 23, the
Oregon Health Authority
approved the league’s com-
prehensive return to play
plan for high contact sports.
CCC Commissioner Robert
Cashell explained the plan
covers basketball and wres-
tling at EOU.
Early this month, Oregon
Gov. Kate Browns’ offi ce
reported it would accept
return to play plans for col-
lege sports as well as high
school activities, which the
state prohibited during the
pandemic.
The CCC in an online
press release reported its
revised plan includes strict
daily wellness screening,
twice per week testing for
men’s and women’s basket-
ball and stringent proce-
dures for mitigating against
the introduction and spread
of COVID-19. The confer-
ence will use a combination
of PCR/Antigen testing to
comply with the approved
plan.
The conference and the
Council of Athletic Direc-
tors have been working on
options for a fi nal schedule.
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Trisha Hafer, Berenice Chavez, Jack Wright
BRANCH STAFF
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — In a
career fi lled with remark-
able comebacks, Tiger
Woods faces perhaps his
toughest recovery of all.
Woods was driving
alone through a sweeping,
downhill stretch of road
through coastal suburbs of
Los Angeles when his SUV
struck a sign, crossed over
a raised median and two
oncoming lanes then fl ipped
several times before coming
to rest on its side. Its air-
bags deployed.
A sheriff’s deputy poked
his head through a hole
in the windshield to see
Woods, still wearing his
seatbelt, sitting in the driv-
er’s seat.
The crash caused “sig-
nifi cant” injuries to his
right leg and he underwent
what was described as a
“long surgical procedure”
at Harbor-UCLA Medical
Center.
Anish Mahajan, the chief
medical offi cer, said Woods
shattered tibia and fi bula
bones in multiple locations.
He suffered “open frac-
tures,” meaning the skin
was broken.
The bones were stabi-
lized by a rod in the tibia.
He said a combination of
screws and pins were used
for injuries in the ankle and
foot.
A statement on his
Twitter account said he
was awake, responsive and
recovering.
“I will say that it’s very
fortunate that Mr. Woods
was able to come out of this
well thought out,” Fron-
tier Conference Commis-
sioner Kent Paulson told
MontanaSports.com. “The
league is most appreciative
that this decision has been
made now so that the rest
of the Frontier Conference
member teams will be able
to know what the modifi ed
schedule looks like. Teams
can adjust travel plans, and
coaches and student-ath-
letes will have a defi ni-
tive direction as we move
forward in preparation for
the upcoming conference
season.”
The new schedule has
the season starting March
13 and will go fi ve weeks.
Each team will get a bye
week and will play a pair
of home and away games,
respectively. Eastern
Oregon starts the season
with a bye week and will
not step on the gridiron
until March 20, when it
will host Carroll College at
Community Stadium in La
Grande.
The following week,
EOU hits the road to face
Rocky Mountain College on
March 27. The second home
game for the Mounties will
be on April 3 when they
host longtime rival Col-
lege of Idaho for Senior
Day. The fi nal game of the
regular season has EOU
playing at MSU-Northern
on April 10.
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
local time for all games.
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Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo
A crane lifts a vehicle following a crash involving golfer
Tiger Woods, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in a suburb of Los
Angeles. Woods suffered leg injuries in the one-car crash.
alive,” said Carlos Gon-
zalez, the deputy from the
Los Angeles County Sher-
iff’s Department who was
the fi rst on the scene after a
neighbor called 911.
No charges were fi led,
and police said there was no
evidence he was impaired.
The golf world was
stunned by the news.
“As if his body hasn’t
endured enough,” Jon
Rahm, the No. 2 player in
the world, said from the
Workday Championship in
Florida. “I just hope he can
get out of the hospital after
recovery and he can still
play with his kids and have
a normal life.”
Dr. Joseph Patterson, an
orthopedic trauma surgeon
at Keck Medicine of USC
in Los Angeles, said inju-
ries like those sustained by
Woods are among the most
common seen in hospital
emergency rooms.
Patterson didn’t treat
Woods and wouldn’t com-
ment specifi cally about
the golfer’s injuries but
said the risk of infection is
extremely high for patients
with open fractures.
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