Illinois Valley news., March 16, 2011, Image 9

Sports
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore.
Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2011
IV athletes recognized
By Darcy Wallace
IVN Staff Writer
Illinois Valley High School winter athletes
in basketball, wrestling and cheer wrapped up
an exciting winter season during the awards
ceremony Tuesday, March 8.
The boys basketball team, more commonly
known as the Brotherhood, made State playoffs
for the first time since 2002. Four wrestlers
competed and excelled at State, three of them
earning medals. Lady Cougar basketball players
turned inexperience into confidence, improving
their record. Cheerleaders overcame obstacles
to become a major force in supporting fellow
Cougars.
Cheer coach Heather
Merrill said Christina
Ricci,
Sabrina Van Tassel
and
Brittany Mosley were
selected to cheer
at the Shriner’s
Hospital all-
star game.
“We did have some ups and downs
but I’m pleased how it turned out,”
Merrill said. “They pulled together
because there were things they wanted to
accomplish…it was about the team.”
Mosley and Van Tassel won
Most Valuable, Seth Williams
won Most Improved, and
Mosley and Tyierra
Hess brought home
Most
Inspirational
recognition.
Girls basketball
coach Loren King said
the whole team, including varsity
and junior varsity players, made
big improvements in 2011
and are looking forward to
improving on the program
for next season.
“I’m very proud of
the girls,” King said.
“The last third of the
season I think they
really started to
pull
together.
Most people don’t
get the
chance to be a part of
a
team
that is close and has common goals. I think
[Lady Cougars] got a sense of that towards
the end of the season.”
Freshman Samantha Frederick won
Most Improved, while Senior Laurissa
Tausaga and junior Kristen Vidalez won
Most Valuable Player and Most Inspirational,
respectively. JV teammates Naviya Dixon and
Marisol Sanchez won Most Valuable and Most
Improved.
Besides recognition for their athletic
contributions, IVHS students are excelling in
academics: 20 Cougars were named
Scholar athletes, maintaining a GPA of
3.5 or higher.
In wrestling, freshman T.J.
Hughey won Most Valuable
in the JV category after
competing at the
State level in his
first year
on the
Cougar
wrestling
team,
and
Julian Northrup won
a Most Inspirational for
JV wrestling.
“[Northrup]
wrestled in 215 and
189-pound [weight
classes] for us and
did really well,”
said longtime IV
wrestling coach Jay
Miller.
Senior
Zach
Anderson won Most
Improved on the
varsity team as a
returning member who
made some of his most noticeable
improvements in the last few
months of the season, Miller
said. And Gabe Miller,
a senior, won Most
Inspirational for the
varsity team.
Coach Miller
also credited
the ‘mat stat’ team of
Alex Miller,
Christina
Ricci,
Hailee Parker
and Cassie Miller for
collecting
statistics and helping out the team all
season long.
“It was a good banquet, with a lot of
thanks for people who helped make everything
possible, like the custodians, cafeteria workers,
fans and [others],” said boys basketball coach
Jeff Winters. “Everybody seemed to have a
good time.”
Several members
of the
Brotherhood took home
awards of their own.
JV basketball players
Zach Welch and Myles
Hodge won Most
Valuable
and
Most Improved,
r e s p e c t i v e l y,
for
their
contributions
to the JV
team.
and Tyler
and Josh Free
Most Improved.
O t h e r
unique to the boys team
was the “Mr. Hustle”
award going to senior
Curtis Paulson and the
“Double/Double” award
for senior Jesse Bethke.
Senior Roger
Hults was MVP
of the varsity
squad, with
Fred Hults
winning Best
Defensive
p l a y e r
Robbins
winning
categories
IV equestrian team doesn’t horse around
(Courtesy photo for Illinois Valley News)
IVHS Equestrian Mali Whicheloe displays her skills in the meet March 4th through 6th in the Jackson County Expo Center.