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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2015)
MARCH 6, 2015, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11 COACH, continued from Page A10 Courtesy of J&H Photo McNary’s Brayden Ebbs celebrates after a win in the state tournament held February 28 and 29 in Portland. where we left off.” Sperle went directly to varsity action skip- ping a tenure under Auvinen, but sophomore Kolby Barker was part of Auvinen’s team as a freshman. “We actually didn’t have that great of a sea- son, but we’ve got the right guys in the right places to be successful under Coach Auvinen. I’m excited, it’s going to be good,” Barker said. Auvinen laid out the plan for the immedi- ate future while greeting the troops for the fi rst time as head coach. “The goals we have are to develop excellent community members, develop our football IQ and become as much of a family atmosphere as we can. We’ll do the last part by having fun,” Auvinen said. In football, Auvinen has served as varsity de- fensive coordinator, defensive back coach, head junior varsity coach, junior varsity offensive co- ordinator, freshman offensive coordinator and freshman head coach. He also led the Lady Celt softball program as head coach for six years and assistant coached the junior varsity basketball team for four years. He said he’ll be looking for leadership in the Ebbs sixth in state BOYS, McNary High School’s other wrestlers in the state tournament were led by fresh- man Brayden Ebbs. Ebbs took sixth in state at 120 pounds after coming in second at the district tourna- ment and ousted the No. 1 seed in the tournament along the way. Junior Joey Kibbey knocked out the No. 1 seed in the state at 106 pounds. He nearly toppled the fi rst-ranked wrestler at the tournament in a close 9-8 loss. Sophomore Wyatt Kessler kept improving in the waning weeks of the season, but only managed one win at the tour- nament. Kessler is bouncing back this season after being sidelined in 2014. Jon Phelps was one of the Celts’ biggest prospects head- ed into the state tournament, but ended up benched with a concussion in the fi rst day. Mike Phelps, despite nag- ging knee injuries, made it all the way to the quarterfi nals. Taran Purkey had one of the tougher routes to making the podium and lost to Bar- low High School’s Zephrain Childs. Purkey was winning the match when Childs got him in a head-and-arm pin- ning him. While a state title wasn’t in the cards this season, Head Coach Jason Ebbs said the team will return a powerful line-up next winter. “Thanks to the develop- ment of many guys in the off season, we were able to exceed our projections considerably by the growth our team was able to accomplish. Our line- up at districts had only four returning district placers from last year and no returning state placers. We ended up placing 13 kids at districts and qualify- ing seven for the state tourna- ment,” Ebbs said. GIRLS: ‘They’re not looking to run for four quarters’ (Continued from Page A10) they’ve been successful this year. The thing we have is some pretty good size and good post defenders,” said Derick Hand- ley, McNary head coach. “Their posts are their center points and everything works off that, very similar to West Salem.” Handley’s plan going into the game was to double-up on the posts each time they got the ball forcing shots and attempting to keep everything running at a high tempo. “Their posts are tall, but they’re not looking to run for four quarters. If we make them run the whole game, we hope they won’t be much of a fac- tor,” he said. After starting the season with four consecutive losses, McNary’s road to this point hasn’t been a cakewalk. But the team has only lost three games since the beginning of January. That was no small feat, said Er- nest. “This year began with the third new head coach since I started as a freshman,” Er- nest said. “Restarting again with a whole new program has been great and getting to this point in the fi rst year with new coaches is something I’m proud of.” Several of the Lady Celts were all-league selections this past week in addition to top- ping 6A teams in average GPA. Hingston was named to the fi rst team all-league. Kae- lie Flores and Sydney Hunter was placed on the second team all-league. Ernest and Lauren Hudgins were both honorable mentions. The team’s average GPA is 3.85. ranks immediately, which will mean everything from marching in the Keizer Iris Festival Parade to mentoring youth football players on the fi eld. “We want people like you guys helping them get a good start. Some of them need a good male role model in their life,” he told players. After the meeting, Auvinen said he put con- siderable thought into taking on a “dream job.” “I have thought about this job for 20 years or so, and have had some nice talks with my family about the biggest obstacle - time. We decided that we can make this entire endeavor a family affair and it really has turned into a dream job,” he said. He said he’ll put an emphasis on getting stronger and quicker, but mostly developing players’ confi dence in their own abilities. “There are two big challenges for next year and they are mental and physical preparation,” Auvinen said. As far as a game plan, Auvinen said there will likely be more of a mix of passing and running the ball, a slight change in direction from Park- er’s vision for a run-fi rst offense. “We want to keep them guessing and cause paralysis by analysis. We want them confused as to what we’ll be doing,” Auvinen said. “Most importantly, we have to play as a team. We need 11 people doing their job. If we’ve only got nine, we don’t have a play.” continued from Page A10 the refs called a foul before it left his hands and the points, which would have made the score 46-44, came off the board. Peterson put in McNary’s last two points from the foul line. Despite the long road trip to North Medford, players and coaches were less con- cerned with the travel time than the team itself. The Celts have only lost one game this season on the road. “We’ve got a height ad- vantage (over North Med- ford), but they’ll get out and run with quick, good guards,” said Cavell. “The environments don’t matter so much as the style of play. They’ll be more like a South Salem and we split the games with them this sea- son,” Kirch added. “We need to control the tempo and protect the ball while getting points on both sides of the press.” In other, less traumatiz- ing news for the Celts. Mc- Nary’s entire starting line-up received all-league honors. Peterson and Cavell were both named to the fi rst team all-league with Peterson be- ing named Player of the Year. Dunagan was named second team all-league. VanCleave was given third team honors. Mathew Ismay was an honor- able mention, but also named KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Drew McHugh makes a charge to the hoop in the Celts’ game with McKay High School Tuesday, Feb. 24. Defensive Player of the Year. The boys also topped the state in average GPA for 6A teams. Collectively, they aver- aged a 3.65. It is the second consecutive year that the boys claimed the state title for classroom efforts. bowling scores Mixed Nuts Men’s high games: Bob Dunn, 223. Men’s high series: Bob Dunn, 640. Women’s high game: Cheryl Wenger, 222. Women’s high series: Krystal Hall, 602. Ladies’ Doubles Women’s high game: Nancy Sharp, 168. Women’s high series: Nancy Sharp, 468. Monday Nite Trio Men’s high game: Brian Kaplan, 268. Men’s high series: Zak Lindgren, 736. Women’s high game: Jocee Freeman, 252. Women’s high series: Margaret Burden, 638. Queen Pins Women’s high game: Karen Putnam, 211. Wom- en’s high series: Karen Putnam, 521. Tuesday Seniors Men’s high game: Blair Grames, 218. Men’s high series: Floyd Riley, 548. Women’s high game: Ruth Tisler, 176. Women’s high series: Ruth Tisler, 455. Men’s Continental Men’s high game: Louis McNutt, 288. Men’s high series: Louis McNutt, 718. Twilighters Men’s high game: Rich Ramsey, 263. Men’s high series: Mac Wright, 706. Women’s high game: Liz LaMar, 198. Women’s high series: Stacey Thrasher, 542. Statehouse Men’s high game: Tom Hammerschmith, 260. Men’s high series: Tom Hammerschmith, 703. Women’s high game: Nancy Sharp, 223. Women’s high series: Nancy Sharp, 560. Bowl Crazy Men’s high game: Brandon Coffey, 255. Men’s high series: Brandon Coffey, 652. Women’s high game: Bonnie Cox, 233. Women’s high series: Bonnie Cox, 655. Seniors in Action Men’s high game: Jim Wenger, 267. Men’s high series: Jim McCurdy, 699. Women’s high game: Jill Poole, 219. Women’s high series: Dee Dee Shirley, 585. Thursday Seniors Men’s high game: Charlie Golden, 218. Men’s high series: Tim Holman, 600. Women’s high game: Ce- ceilia Formiller, 193. Women’s high series: Pat Shirley, 505. Sportsbar Challenge Men’s high game: Jonathan Curiel, 278. Men’s high series: Kent Miller, 683. Women’s high game: Sally Cushman, 184. Women’s high series: Marguerite LeWright, 458. Jr. Majors Boy’s high game: Nick Blythe, 270. Boy’s high series: Nick Blythe, 659. Girl’s high game: Cassidy Steckmann, 83. Girl’s high series: Cassidy Steckmann, 199. Bantam Preps Boy’s high game: Auron Davidson, 122. Boy’s high series: Auron Davidson, 329. Girl’s high game: Rinoa Da- vidson, 130. Girl’s high series: Rinoa Davidson, 299. Try out for Monarchs The Mid-Valley Monarchs basketball program will once again be holding try-outs/ sign-ups for spring and summer teams. The program is designed to help players who wish to pur- sue more advanced basketball during their off season. It does not confl ict with school pro- grams and is intended to sup- port their school teams. The program will set up as many teams as the numbers of players and qualifi ed available coaches provides. Try-outs/Sign-ups are: High School Girls (currently in grades 8 - 11) Sunday, March 15: 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 17: 7 to 9 p.m. Middle School Girls (cur- rently in grades 6 - 7) Sunday, March 15: 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 17: 5:30 to 7 p.m. The tryouts on March 15 will be held at West Salem High School. The location for March 17 is TBD and will be noted on the website www.midvalley- monarchs.com There will be a $25 try-out fee. Each of the teams will have a fee to participate that will be based on the number of tour- naments in which they enter. For more information, visit www.midvalleymonarchs.com or contact Ron Hittner, (503) 580-5722, ronhittner@hotmail. com or Terry Williams, (503) 871-6551, twilliams@corban. edu if you have questions.