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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2018)
NOVEMBER 23, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE B1 $ 12,000 OFF MSRP On 2018 F150 SuperCab 4x4 XLT Active and Retired Vets Receive an additional $1,000 BONUS CASH ON F150 Keizer 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463- 4853 www.skylineforddirect.com ($500 on most other vehicles) *MSRP $44,315, Sale price $32,315 after Skyline Discount $5,250, after $3,750 Rebate, $1,500 in bonus cash, $1,500 Trade Assist. Plus license, title & documentation fee $413 and applicable taxes. Vin#96859, Stk#182676. Must trade 95 or newer. OAC. Art is for illustration only. KEIZERTIMES.COM McNary to host state champions By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Two defending state cham- pions, Roseburg in 6A and Dallas in 5A, are coming to McNary as the Celtics open wrestling season on Friday, Nov. 30 with the Jerry Lane Invitational. “They’re tough, top of the line,” McNary head coach Ja- son Ebbs said. “We like wres- tling them. We like setting the bar. We like believing that’s the level we’re going to reach and beyond.” Ebbs has been impressed with what he’s seen in the McNary wrestling room. “I’m seeing a better focus in the kids and I’m just seeing a better confi dence in them,” Ebbs said. “We’re going through drills faster. They’re catching on a little faster.” As usual, he just wishes there was more of them. “With a school of 2,000 kids, all I want is 10 percent,” said Ebbs. “If we can get 200, we’re doing our job right. We’re just trying to make wrestling accessible to every- body. We’re looking for kids to take on the challenge and to grow.” McNary had a little over 60 attend the fi rst week of prac- tice, which Ebbs called “on the good side of typical.” “We’re bringing out a nice solid young group of kids,” Ebbs said. “We’ve got a little bit bigger freshmen group. It’s the fi rst group that had a chance to wrestle three years in middle school.” The Celtics are led by se- nior Enrique Vincent, who has won back-to-back district championships and placed third in the state at 120 pounds as a sophomore and fourth at 126 as a junior. “I’m excited because it’s my last year,” said Vincent, who weighed in at 140 pounds to open the season and hopes to improve his technique and cardio. McNary junior Nicolette Parra leads a small group of girls. Parra, who has wrestled since middle school, won the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno last season and then placed fourth at the girls state tour- nament Surgery to repair a broken knuckle kept her from wres- KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley Wrestling at 106 pounds, Grady Burrows fi nished fourth in the district and competed at the state tournament as a freshman. The Celtics open the season Nov. 30 at home in the Jerry Lane Invitational. tling much in the offseason. “I was doing a lot better than I thought I would,” Parra said of the fi rst week. “I was wrestling with some people that I had a hard time with last year and it’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be.” While Parra enters her ju- nior year more confi dent, she also knows she won’t sneak up on anyone. “I know what I’m capable of now but also people know my name now,” Parra said. Please see OPEN, Page B4 Lady Celts young but experienced KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley Jordan Graneto, a McNary graduate and former assistant coach, is the head boys basketball coach at Sprague. McNary grad takes over Sprague hoops program By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Jordan Graneto was voted the Greater Valley Conference’s boys basketball assistant coach of the year after McNary won the league title last season. But it was his experience as a player, where he won two league championships with the Celtics, that attracted Graneto to coaching. He wanted to be like Jim Litchfi eld and Erik Jespersen, his varsity and JV coaches at McNary. “I was on two really good teams when I was in high school,” Graneto said. “I just grew up around those guys (Litchfi eld and Jespersen) and they were the inspiration for me wanting to become a teacher and a coach. I loved bas- ketball and those two were role models for me growing up.” After graduating from McNary in 2009, Graneto earned a scholarship to play basketball at Corban University. After two seasons, Grane- to stopped playing to become a volunteer assis- tant at Sprague. Right out of college, Graneto got his fi rst teaching job at North Salem, where he was the JV coach. At just 22-years-old, Graneto was then named the head varsity coach at North Salem. But after two years he decided to return home and accepted a teaching position at Mc- Nary, where he was also the JV coach and assis- tant varsity coach under Ryan Kirch. “It’s always different going from being in charge of an entire program to being someone’s assistant,” Graneto said. “Ryan does a really good job and he gave me a lot of responsibility that I had control over with the varsity and JV team. I learned a lot from the different ways that he runs it.” With Graneto as an assistant, the Celtics had two of their best seasons in the program’s his- tory, winning 20 games last season and 19 the year before. “The last three or four years are some of the best teams in McNary’s history,” Graneto said. Please see GRANETO, Page B4 By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes McNary’s seven sopho- mores, fi ve of which played on the varsity as freshmen, spent last season getting out the nerves. “At the beginning of last year I was terrifi ed because being a freshman and starting I didn’t want to disappoint my team,” point guard Leah Doutt said. Now, the young Lady Celts are ready to ball. “I just feel more comfort- able because this is my group now,” Doutt said. “A lot of our team is sophomores this year and we’ve been playing together for as long as I can remember. I feel like we have really good chemistry and we play well together. It should be fun.” Thanks to the varsity min- utes played last season, Mc- Nary will be young but not inexperienced. “Normally when you have seven sophomores, almost everyone is new to varsity but we’ve got three of them ((Doutt, Mackenzie Proctor and Kennedy Buss) that played quite a bit last year,” McNary head coach Elizabeth Dor- an said. “It helps a lot. When you’re dealing with young kids, the fi rst time they’re playing varsity, there are a lot of nerves and there’s no way you can resolve that other than playing more minutes and that’s good that a lot of the sophomores have quite a few minutes under their belts” Proctor gives the Lady Celts an outside shooting presence while Buss will pro- vide toughness. Rebekah Grimmer, an- other sophomore who played varsity last season, can shoot and play inside. McNary returns two se- niors in Abbie Hawley, who Please see YOUNG, Page B4 KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley ABOVE: Senior Sabella Alfaro returns for McNary this season. BELOW: Leah Doutt started at point guard as a freshman.
