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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2012)
schools march27 2012 VHS Spring Sports Preview All of the Vernonia High School spring sports teams have been battling the crazy weather this year and having a tough time getting outdoors to practice. Even so, it looks to be an exciting year for Logger spring sports. Here is a look at the upcoming season for each of the VHS teams. Baseball—Head coach Aaron Miller has a deep team with a lot of varsity expe- rience. The Loggers will have a large group of seniors that have been playing together for several years, plus several talented underclassman that have al- ready performed well at the varsity level. Coach Miller will have several choices on the mound this year, although he doesn’t feel like he has one dominant pitcher. Instead he will put together a rotation by committee and lists senior Jackson Miller,junior Austin Cutright, and sophomores Tim Jennings and Bo Clark as his main pitchers. Miller also mentioned seniors Ryan Lawrence, and Joe Benes, both who are recover- ing from hand injuries and Josh Butcher, along with Junior Jake Titus and sopho- more Ronnie Maldonado as likely to see time on the mound for the Loggers this season. “We talk about this a lot—that we don’t have a dominate pitcher so we have to throw strikes, hit our spots and play solid defense,” says Miller. Defensively Miller says he is still a bit up in the air. He is trying to re- place the loss this year of last year’s team MVP and regular catcher, TJ White, and is trying to decide who will play catcher. Miller will be looking to rotate several players at several positions throughout the season, depending on who is pitch- ing. Miller says he expects Jackson Mill- er, Clark and Maldonado to see time be- hind the plate and at shortstop. Butcher and Ryan Taylor at second base, Titus at first, and Ethan Johnston at third. In the outfield Cutright, Titus, Jake Bringman, Benes, and Adonis Hopkins are all likely to see playing time. Offensively the Loggers will miss the bat of White, but will expect to get productivity from Butcher, Jackson Miller, Bo Clark, and Cutright. Last year the Loggers finished third in the 2A Northwest League and qualified for the league layoffs where they were knocked out in the first round. “ I definitely see us getting into the league playoffs again this year, and then having a good shot at making it to state,” says Miller. Miller says he expects Port- land Christian, who won the State Tour- nament last year and Knappa, along with Nestucca to be the Loggers biggest ob- stacles to going to state this year. Only two teams qualify for the State Playoffs. Softball—The Lady Loggers return with a young team, but a team that still has a lot of varsity experience. Last year the Lady Loggers finished third in the Northwest league and made the state playoffs where they were eliminated in the first round. Head coach Randy Shockey expects this year’s team to again qualify for the league playoffs and hopefully earn one of the two spots the league gets this year at State. “I expect us to be fighting for the league title this year,” says Shockey.”I think we have a shot at that, we just have to keep improving as the season goes on.” Shockey will send sophomore Stephanie Castro to the mound for the Loggers this year; after Castro, Shockey is lacking any depth at pitching. The Loggers infield looks strong this year with the return of 1 st Team All- League Natalie Wallace, a senior at shortstop, sophomores Tori Dalebroux will play second and Samantha Wallace will play first, with freshman Taylor Ti- tus starting at third. Shockey is still try- ing to figure out how to fit in new junior transfer Sarah Levie, who will probably play some at first base. In the outfield, the Lady Loggers will have seniors Kelsey Brown, Tasia Pond, junior Riplee Burch, and sopho- more Makenzie Anderson. Brooke Johnson will work behind the plate with some help from Dalebroux. Offensively Shockey says the team looks good early in the season and expects to have a strong top of the order with Natalie Wallace, Dalebroux, Sa- mantha Wallace Levie leading the way. Shockey says he expects Gaston and Knappa to be the biggest challenges 11 for the Lady Loggers in league play. Track and Field—Logger head track coach Byron Brown is very excited about the upcoming season. And with good reason. “This year’s track team is big- ger, more talented and deeper than any team since I’ve been coaching,” says Brown. “ We have the potential to be a great track team.” Brown has several returning state qualifiers from last year’s excellent team, including Jacob Stevens, Saman- tha Lindauer, Nathan Fleck, and Lane Sullivan. New comer Leah Wilson, who transferred to VHS this year from The Dalles and was 2nd in the state in the shot put last year. “Her performance would have made her state champion at our level. She will also be one of the best discus throwers in the state,” says Brown. Foreign exchange student Nico- lo Casale from Italy has state champion- ship potential in 3 events. “We have so much talent and potential on this team,” says Brown. The Loggers will be pretty deep in the sprints, middle distance and dis- tance events. “We’ll obviously be bet- ter than last year in the throwing events with Wilson here,” says Brown. “We’ve got basketball star Paul Jiranek and wrestling stars Quin Johansen and Jake Barnes, who have looked good in prac- tice and will be better as they get more continued on page 15 Firewood Fundraiser to support VHS Forestry Program $50 per pick-up load, delivered $40 pick up yourself Call VHS office 503-429-3521 or instructor Byron Brown 503-366-4322
