Sports
ON THE SLATE
A8
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
PREP NEWS & NOTES
Tuesday, Feb. 15
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Pine Eagle at Wallowa, 5 p.m.
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Cove at Joseph, 6 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 17
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Cove, Imbler, Joseph, Powder
Valley, Wallowa at Old Oregon
League Tournament, Baker High
School, TBA
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
La Grande vs. McLoughlin/
Ontario, TBA
Cove, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Powder Valley, Wallowa at Old
Oregon League Tournament,
Baker High School, TBA
Friday, Feb. 18
COLLEGE MEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at Multnomah,
7:30 p.m.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at Multnomah,
5:30 p.m.
COLLEGE MEN’S
WRESTLING
Eastern Oregon at Cascade
Collegiate Conference
Championships, Havre, Montana,
TBA
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Union vs. Stanfield, Pendleton
Convention Center, 1 p.m.
Cove, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Powder Valley, Wallowa at Old
Oregon League Tournament,
Baker High School, TBA
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Enterprise vs. Stanfield, Pendleton
Convention Center, 2:45 p.m.
Cove, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Powder Valley, Wallowa at Old
Oregon League Tournament,
Baker High School, TBA
Saturday, Feb. 19
COLLEGE MEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at Warner Pacific,
5 p.m
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at Warner Pacific,
3 p.m.
COLLEGE MEN’S
WRESTLING
Eastern Oregon at Cascade
Collegiate Conference
Championships, Havre, Montana,
TBA
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Eastern Oregon at Western
Oregon, noon
Eastern Oregon at Western
Oregon, 3 p.m.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
LACROSSE
Willamette at Eastern Oregon,
1 p.m.
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Cove, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Powder Valley, Wallowa at Old
Oregon League Tournament,
Baker High School, TBA
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Union vs. Stanfield/Enterprise,
Pendleton Convention Center,
7:45 p.m.
Cove, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Powder Valley, Wallowa at Old
Oregon League Tournament,
Baker High School, TBA
PREP WRESTLING
Union, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Wallowa, Enterprise at OSAA
1A/2A Special District 4, Adrian
High School, TBA
PREP SWIMMING
La Grande, Cove at 1A/2A/3A/4A
State Championships, Tualatin,
High School, 4:30 p.m.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
North Powder’s Reese Dixon (13) goes in for a shot against Cove at Powder Valley High School on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. The Badgers beat Cove 76-50 to conclude the
regular Old Oregon League season as the top team.
Badgers red hot
heading into postseason
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
N
ORTH POWDER — Just
one game away from per-
fection, the Powder Valley
boys basketball team wrapped up
its regular season as one of the
strongest teams the program has
seen. Heading into postseason
play, the Badgers are hoping that
a 12-game winning streak will
spur the team toward playoff suc-
cess. Powder Valley wrapped up
its regular season 20-1 overall
and 9-0 in league play.
“They’re fast and they like
to run. It’s one of the top teams
I’ve had for a long time,” Powder
Valley head coach Kyle Dixon
said.
Powder Valley’s strength has
been its versatility, with a slew of
upperclassmen capable of leading
the team in production on any
given night.
At the core of its success is the
inside-out duo of Reece Dixon
and Kaden Krieger. Cole Martin,
Kaiden Dalke, Case Olson and
Clay Martin have rounded out a
deep group for the Badgers.
In a win over Old Oregon
League No. 2 seed Nixyaawii on
Saturday, Jan. 29, Krieger took
advantage of a mismatch in the
paint and went off for 24 points —
the center has often found success
against opposing teams’ interior
defenders this year. In the team’s
finale against Cove, Clay Martin
stepped up for 20 points while
Reece Dixon totaled 15. Going
up against efficient center Pat-
rick Frisch, the Badgers managed
to shift its offensive production
through other means — Powder
Valley has been far from one-di-
mensional this season.
“I’ve told them all year that
if you have a bad game, we have
guys that can step in and fill
spots,” the coach said. “It’s nice
to have six or seven guys that can
have a good game.”
Powder Valley has cruised past
many opponents, but also faced
close finishes. Kyle Dixon credits
a 69-68 victory on the road over
4A opponent Baker on Feb. 5 as a
big momentum boost this season
— Reece Dixon hit a game-win-
ning three-pointer as the clock
wound down.
The Badgers are ranked No. 2
in the OSAA 1A state rankings,
just one spot behind undefeated
Crane.
Powder Valley is set to enter
the district tournament as the No.
1 seed. The Badges will await the
winners of the opening rounds
before knowing who their oppo-
nent will be.
“We just need to stay focused
and practice hard,” Kyle Dixon
said. “You never know what’s
going to happen at districts. You
just have to be ready to play.”
Union seniors lead the way
UNION — The Union girls
basketball has been on a hot
streak to close out the season,
leaning on its core of seniors. Not
only has Union won eight straight
to finish the regular season, but
the Bobcats picked up crucial
wins against league opponents
Stanfield and Enterprise to clinch
the No. 1 seed in the Blue Moun-
tain Conference. Union finished
the regular season 20-3 overall
and 11-1 in league play.
Union’s offense flows through
senior guard Callie Glenn, who
has regularly scored 20 or more
points per night.
While Glenn is the key offen-
sive piece for Union, the Bobcats
remain multidimensional at the
guard position. Senior Audrey
Wells has helped create a one-two
punch in the backcourt.
The senior, who is also a cross-
country standout, adds speed
and ball handling to the team’s
offense. Wells scored 15 points to
help the team take down Weston-
McEwen on Feb. 8 and hit a cru-
cial game-winning layup to defeat
Stanfield 32-31 on Feb. 4.
Wells and Glenn are joined
by seniors Kaylin Nowak and
Audrey Hill who add solid com-
plementary scoring.
Union is set to play the winner
of Stanfield and Enterprise at
7:45 p.m. at the Pendleton Con-
vention Center on Feb. 19. The
Bobcats are 2-0 against Stanfield
and 1-1 against Enterprise.
Frisch anchoring late run
for young Cove team
COVE — When the Cove
boys basketball team started
the season 1-4, things may have
looked bleak. However, a young
Cove roster has kicked up the
pace late in the season behind the
stellar play of junior center Patrick
Frisch.
The center has commanded
the paint for the Leopards and
helped the team turn the season
around. Cove flipped the switch
after going 2-5 in non-league
play — the Leopards rattled off a
8-4 record in Old Oregon League
play and finished the season as
the No. 4 seed heading into the
district tournament.
“The kids have bought
into what we’re doing and it’s
showed,” Cove head coach Doug
Wiggins said. “We saw a lot
of growth, especially from our
young kids.”
According to Wiggins, late
December was a turning point in
the season for the Leopards, who
started to kick things into gear.
Cove’s roster is composed of three
juniors and seven underclassmen.
A large point of emphasis for
Cove’s coaching staff was get-
ting younger players involved ear-
lier in the year, in order to pre-
pare them for league play. Since
that point, Frisch has emerged as
the team’s go-to scoring option,
while sophomore Wyatt Bur-
gess and junior Terrell Davis
have been consistent contributors
at the guard position. Frisch has
scored 20 or more points in most
of Cove’s league games this year,
including a 20-point performance
in a tough loss to top-seeded
Powder Valley on Feb. 11 to close
out the season. The Leopards won
four out of their last five games of
the regular season.
“For us, in non-league play we
were playing a lot of our bench
and trying to get them time and
minutes so that when it came to
league play we were ready to go,”
Wiggins said.
Cove is set to play the winner
of Pine Eagle and Wallowa on
Feb. 17 at Baker High School.
“I feel we’re trending up and
that we can play against the top-
tier teams,” Wiggins said. “I think
we can play with the big teams if
we play all four quarters.”
SPORTS SHORT
Oregon 2A football programs will start playing 9-man football
6-man football gets
official OSAA
championship
By NIK STRENG
The Oregonian
PORTLAND — Soon
there will be a fourth
type of football played
among Oregon high
schools, as the Oregon
School Activities Asso-
ciation has officially
adopted nine-man foot-
ball in Class 2A.
The change to
nine-man football for 2A
schools brings an end
to the months-long dis-
cussion of the OSAA’s
Football Ad Hoc Com-
mittee as it looked over
football programs at the
state’s smallest schools.
The OSAA Executive
Board met on Monday,
Feb. 7, and voted to adopt
the recommendations
put forward by the ad
hoc committee, which
keeps 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A
playing 11-man football,
while 2A will move to
the nine-man game and
1A remains at eight-man.
There remains the
six-man option for the
smaller 1A schools. The
OSAA Executive Board
also voted to adopt the
recommendation from
the State Championship
Committee, which will
give six-man football
an official state cham-
pionship. Since its start,
six-man schools have had
an unofficial bowl-style
championship game with
the top team in each of
the two leagues playing
for the title.
Originally, the pro-
posal from the foot-
ball ad hoc committee
included a complete
revamp of 2A and 1A
football, moving both
2A and 1A into a hybrid
classification playing
nine-man football with
two divisions (one for
the bigger schools and
one for the smaller
schools) and the six-man
league for the smaller 1A
schools. This would have
eliminated eight-man
football from Oregon and
was met with backlash
from 1A coaches and
administrators.
All changes will
go into effect begin-
ning with the 2022-2023
school year. The football
ad hoc committee meets
again on Feb. 16, and
the next meeting of the
OSAA Executive Board
is on May 2.
The Observer, File
The Union High School football team competes on a dreary day in
this undated photo. The OSAA Executive Board on Monday, Feb. 7,
voted to adopt the recommendations put forward by the ad hoc
committee to keep 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A schools playing 11-man foot-
ball, while 2A will move to the nine-man game and 1A remains at
eight-man.