Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Page A-3
IVHS sports teams kick off fall season
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
As of last week, Illinois Valley High
School’s (IVHS) fall sports season officially
started with its first series of games. IVHS’s
soccer and volleyball teams competed on Aug.
25 and Aug. 24 respectively while the football
team is scheduled to have their first game on
Sept. 1. In addition to soccer, volleyball and
football, the season will also feature the girls’
cross country team. Unfortunately, it appears
that there will be no boys’ team due to lack of
interest. Bruce Reese, IVHS’s athletic director,
will be the head coach of the football team for
his third consecutive year.
Although there is no shortage of coaches
willing to help hone the students’ skills, there
has been a lower than desired turnout as far as
athletes are concerned. A shortage of players
has admittedly become a pattern over the
last couple years. “We’ve been beating the
bushes and trying to find out where the rest
of them are,” Reese said, summarizing their
predicament. Efforts to expand the player base
have primarily revolved around persuading
students who’ve played sports at IVHS in the
past to join up.
Another potential source of athletes lay
in a small handful of students that want to play
but are ineligible, primarily because they are
behind on credits. Reportedly, these students
are doing their best to make them up so that
they can get back in the game.
The football team, along with the girls’
soccer team, are the least healthy when it
comes to player count this year. For example,
the football team only has 22 players in total
when over 30 would be ideal. Because of the
low turnout, football players who would have
otherwise been on the JV team have been
forced into varsity. “They feel like they’re
going to get thrown into the fire when they
shouldn’t be, which is true, and we don’t
want that to happen.” Reese is hoping to find
another 10 players and split the team so as
to be more accommodating of the students’
variety of skill levels but success remains to be
seen.
Despite the season’s turnout being
lower than average, Reese reported that the
boys’ soccer team is of optimum size and
optimistically added that once he gets the
football team organized, even with a host of
what should have been JV players, it should be
a relatively solid team.
Another unfortunate turn of events for
the fall sports season was that Dick Matti,
the well-loved eight year veteran head coach
of the girls’ soccer team, had to temporarily
come out of his recent retirement because his
replacement decided, at the last minute, to
take a job in Illinois. Since there was no other
coach immediately ready to fill the position,
he has agreed to continue his duties until a
suitable replacement can be found. Reese said
that he’s extremely grateful that Matti was
willing to step up to the plate.
(Photo by Dan Mancuso, Illinois Valley News)
IVHS soccer teams prepare for the season by scrimmaging Wednesday, Aug. 2.
Grant awarded to IVHS to give students job experience
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
In an exciting development
for the Illinois Valley High School
(IVHS), Gene Merrill, the college
and career councilor, recently
acquired a $134,000 grant to fund an
intern program which aims to give
students a chance to gain some real
world job experience.
The grant is through the
Ford Family Foundation, the same
organization that’s responsible
for the creation of the Illinois
Valley Community Development
Organization, and will last for two
years. It’s called the Illinois Valley
High School College and Career
Center Internship Program and has
the potential to be renewed when
expired, depending on results. “It’s
kind of a huge name but we had to
get the whole thing in there to make
sure that it was differentiated from
funding that would be used for other
career centers,” Merrill said.
Merrill is hopeful to get a
very wide range of local businesses
and organizations to sign up so
kids will have a good selection of
internships that might interest them.
So far, as far as science careers are
concerned, the Illinois Valley Soil
and Water Conservation District
and the Watershed Council is on
board. They will be able to intern
kids on environmental sciences
and resource management. Mayor
Daniel Dalegowski and the city
council also gave him permission
to let kids intern with some of the
city’s workers in things like waste
water treatment, city planning and
maintenance.
Students will apply to the
internships just like they were a real
world job so they get experience
submitting resumes and acquire
interview skills.
The reason why the IVHS
needed a grant to fund this program
is primarily because some families
are very low income and therefore
don’t have the resources to travel
about easily or afford proper gear.
Not only will this grant give Merrill
funding for transportation to get
the kids to their internships but also
will allow them to buy them work
clothes, shoes and safety ware.
It will also allow them to buy
specialized equipment, workman’s
compensation and training so that
businesses won’t be burdened with
additional costs. Lastly, it will fund
dinner nights where parents and kids
can come and see what the program
is all about.
“I think it’s a really exciting
thing for the kids out here,” Merrill
said, “It’s going to be something
new, definitely groundbreaking,
even on the state level.” Further
elaborating, Merrill said that he
hasn’t heard of any other program in
the state that’s as comprehensive as
the IVHS’s.