Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Page A-3
Sports
Boys look forward to a strong season
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
The Illinois Valley High
School boys’ baseball season
is set to have their first game
March 14 versus Gold Beach
High School and the team is, as
reported by coach Jesse Dugas,
“extremely antsy to go out
there and work at 100 percent
and live up to their potential.”
Dugas has been coaching the
boys’ baseball team for four
years and also owns a local
computer repair and website
design business. As it stands
right now there are 22 boys in
the program which is enough
to have two full teams—one
varsity and one JV.
Experience wise the
varsity team is in a great
position with four seniors, three
juniors and three sophomores.
All but one of the varsity
players are returning from the
previous season.The JV team is
comprised mostly of freshmen
for a total of nine. Speaking
about any changes to their
coaching practices it was said
by Dugas that they’ve done
their best to build the program
over the last couple of years
and that they’re continuously
evolving their methods to meet
new challenges. “We like to
play aggressively, offensively,”
Dugas said of their tactics,
“We pride ourselves on our
pitching.”
However, Dugas also
mentioned that how the
season goes is up to the boys
themselves. “They’ve been
working really hard. There’s
definitely the potential to do
some damage but our goals are
the next game,” Dugas said,
making a point to emphasize
their one-step-at-a-time
philosophy, “We’re not looking
any further than that.”
One point of interest
brought up by Dugas was that
Rock’N Soil, Rogue Truck
Body and Wheels A’ Turnin all
donated money to the program
this year. The Illinois Valley
High School league is planning
on putting the money toward
repairing the field which Dugas
said was, “very much needed,”
and that, “When it quits raining
our field will be the nicest field
that we play on this year which
is a pretty prideful thing for the
boys.” However, they will be
spending some of the money on
equipment for the JV team but,
in the words of Dugas, “for the
most part they’re geared up and
ready to go.”
Dugas said of the
opposition that St. Mary’s
is going to be their biggest
challenge of the season.
Reportedly, they made it deep
into the playoffs last year and
they returned 90 percent of
their team. However, Dugas
made a confident addition by
saying that, “I feel that we can
compete with them. I feel that
we can compete with anybody.”
In a closing remark Dugas
stated that they always pack
the bleachers and that hundreds
of people like to come out
and watch the games with this
year likely being no exception.
“Come out and watch the boys
play,” Dugas urged, “they
should do well this year.”
Ladies hit the diamond, short on bats
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
The Illinois Valley High School
Girls’ softball league is getting ready to
have their first game which is scheduled
for March 15 against Ashland High
School. Beth Boatman, a life-long
resident of the area, has been coaching
the softball team for two seasons and
before that she had been coaching the
Illinois Valley Little League for around
five years. All together, Boatman said
that there are 25 girls on the teams this
year and they are split into two teams—
JV with 13 players and varsity with 12.
“We’re super excited about it.
Having 25 girls in a program,” Boatman
said. “I.V. hasn’t had a JV program in
a handful of years.” Last year Boatman
only had 16 players because there
weren’t enough girls wanting to play
softball.
Overall, Boatman said that the
teams are quite experienced, though
young with only four seniors, three
juniors and one sophomore in the
program. However, most of the
freshmen on the team have at least two
years’ experience with some having
up to five. Also, some of the freshmen
came from the little league which made
it all the way up to the Oregon state
competition last season.
“I think we’re looking pretty good,
we’re pretty aggressive right out of
the gate,” Boatman said. Over the off-
season Boatman attended some coaching
clinics to hone her methods as a coach
so that she can give the girls the best
training and preparation possible. “It’s
looking like we’re going to compete
more than we did last year.” Boatman
said of her team’s chances, “I think we
only ended up winning three games.” So
far the Girls’ softball team has 25 games
scheduled for the season.
“Cascade was pretty hard last year
and Lakeview was too,” Boatman said
of their more noteworthy opponents, “It
would be nice to have a close game with
them and give them some competition.”
Despite these intimidating schools, the
team is eager to play and a new coach
for the JV team will be able to prove
their mettle. “We’re pretty excited
about this year,” Boatman said before
continuing, “and being able to give the
opposition a run for their money.”
However, the theft of equipment
by an inconsiderate burglar posed
somewhat of an issue for the current
season.“We’re looking to get a couple
more bats because our shed was broken
into about a month ago,” Boatman said,
“they broke our lock and took some
stuff so I’m slowly replacing that…
Luckily we just bought new catching
gear and they didn’t even touch that.
That was a plus since I literally had just
bought it the day before.” All of this
notwithstanding, Boatman said that the
girls have most of the equipment they
need to play and will be able to hone
and test their skills over the coming
months.
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