Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Page A-3
Sports
LBMS track team sets record
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
The Lorna Byrne track teams had their
first competition Wednesday, April 5 and
despite being deprived of outdoor practice
because of foul weather they did admirably
well. Butte Falls, Shady Cove and New Hope
attended the event and the weather was fair.
“The whole team actually did fantastic
… They exceeded our expectations,” Bob
Clark, assistant coach, said. However, Clark is
still pushing the relay runners to practice their
handoffs because, according to him, “Winning
is done on the handoff.”
Despite Clark’s emphasis for past
and upcoming practices, the girls’ 4x100
relay team set a record at Lorna Byrne.
Unfortunately, the competition was stiff as
they still only made second place in the event.
The names of the new and celebrated record
setters are: Kiana Rodrigues, Alyvia Miller,
Lucy Mayhem and Alexis Gomez. The team
beat the school record by over two seconds.
In addition, the boys relay team also beat
the school’s record by about half a second.
The members of the team are: Tristen Konrad,
Andrew Mendoza, Skylar Larkin and Dequan
Barkon.
While a great many Lorna Bryne students
placed second and third in various events,
those who took first place are as follows:
Skylar Larkin, in the boys’ 100 meter; Celecial
Poydak, in the girls’ 200 meter; Alexsis
Gomez, in the girls’ 400 meter; and Celecial
Poydak, in the girls’ 1500 meter.
“All of the coaches are looking forward
to the rest of the season,” Clark said, amazed
at the students’ performance, “We’re very
uplifted by what we saw Wednesday and we’re
encouraged that the kids are having fun and
they’re ready to do some more.”
Lorna Byrne scores IVHS grad as track head coach
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
Savannah Baez has recently
filled the head coach position
for the girls’ track team at Lorna
Byrne Middle School (LBMS) at
the impressive age of 18. Baez
has lived her whole life in the
Illinois Valley with most of her
time having been spent living in
Cave Junction though she now
resides in Selma. She graduated
from Illinois Valley High School
(IVHS) last year and is now
enrolled full-time at Rogue
Community College (RCC).
She is working toward getting
certified as a personal trainer.
Baez’s main responsibility
as head coach is deciding what
the team will do every day as
well as organizing and running
practices. “It’s new still,” Baez
said, explaining that she’s still
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trying to figure everything that
she’s responsible for, “I’m still
learning how to do it but I’m
liking it so far. I really like
working one-on-one with people
in their events—like fixing their
form so that way they can get
better at it.”
Explaining how she got
the job, Baez said that she was
originally going to train a girl
one-on-one but when that plan
fell through the child’s mother
informed her that LBMS was
looking for a track coach. Baez
sent word to the school thinking
that she would just come and
help out a little bit. Shortly
thereafter Baez was unexpectedly
offered an interview for the
position of head coach. “I don’t
know. It was just cool how it all
worked out. I never thought that
I was ever going to be a head
coach,” Baez said modestly.
Unfortunately, Baez’s first
season as coach has gotten off
to a rocky start because of the
unusually rainy weather.“The
first couple of weeks of practice
we couldn’t go out to the track,”
Baez explained, “We were just
inside so that was really tough…”
Baez was involved with
the IVHS track team for her
sophomore, junior and senior
year. During her junior year she
made it to the state competition
and, in addition, earned a spot
in the IVHS record book with
the second highest jump in the
school’s history.
Interestingly enough,
Baez reported that she almost
dropped out of track after
sophomore year because she
was no longer interested in the
events that she had tried over
the season. However, her friends
managed to convince her to give
track another shot and shortly
thereafter she found her passion
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for the high jump event. “I loved
it,” Baez concluded, “It was a lot
of fun.”
In addition to competing at
track events, Baez also played
high school basketball for four
seasons. Her junior and senior
year was spent on the varsity
team. During her senior year the
team went undefeated in league
and went to the state competition
but, unfortunately, the team lost
their playoff game by one point
in double overtime.
“I miss competing and I
wish I still was competing,” Baez
said, explaining that RCC doesn’t
have a track team. Baez admitted
that she could go to a school
elsewhere but, at the same time,
she doesn’t want to move out of
the Valley. Perhaps in the future
she will find a way to get the best
of both worlds and rekindle her
competitive spirit.
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