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
