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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.