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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2020)
PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 10, 2020 • At home test drives • At home deal transaction home service pick up • At and delivery vehicles are sanitized • All before and after service STAY HOME STAY SAFE Skyline comes to you! and test drives. Shop online and click at home test drive or at home service 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463- 4853 www.skylineforddirect.com *Excludes leases. Available on select 2019/2020/2021 Ford vehicles. Excludes 2020 Super Duty, Raptor, Mustang Shelby GT 350/GT 350R/GT 500, Mustang BULLITT, Ford GT, and F-650/750. Customer can defer first payment up to 120 days. Maximum Bonus Cash amount is capped and varies by vehicle: $1500- $2250. Not all buyers will qualify for Ford Credit limited-term financing. Finance charges continue to accrue during deferral period. Payment deferrals not available in Pennsylvania, unless 0% APR. Offer to make three (3) payments is claimed as Ford Credit Bonus Cash. Customer can apply Bonus Cash to first three (3) monthly payments. Customer is responsible for all payments. Bonus Cash requires Ford Credit financing. For all offers take new retail delivery from authorized Ford dealer stock by 4/30/20. See dealer for qualifications and complete details. KEIZERTIMES.COM COVID-19 shakes up Cepeda’s softball plans BY MATT RAWLINGS for sports and activities for all Of the Keizertimes member schools until March It was a highlight year for 31 — which has since been McNary softball player Alexa moved to April 28. Cepeda in 2019. “My world just explod- In her junior season, ed. Nobody could have ever Cepeda was named fi rst- prepared for this,” Cepeda team all-state thanks to said. “I had big goals for my batting .495, with 48 runs senior year and plans of play- scored, 10 doubles and hav- ing for the Puerto Rican Ju- ing an on-base percentage of nior National Team, and they all came crashing down.” .560. Cepeda and the McNary In November, Cepeda also signed on to continue softball team came into the her softball career at Portland 2020 season with a lot to look forward State Univer- too. sity. In 2019, the But as she “ My world Celtics won was gear- just exploded. 13 of their ing up for last 15 games the 2020 Nobody could of the season season, the have prepared and won the spread of the 2019 Moun- C OV I D - 1 9 for this.” tain Valley virus turned — Alexa Cepeda, C o n f e r e n c e Cepeda’s plans McNary outfi elder title. McNary upside down. returned eight On March of the nine 12, Cepeda was traveling to Florida to starters from last year’s team, try out for the Puerto Rico as well as a slew of fresh- Junior Olympic Team, but man that would compete for when her fl ight landed, she playing time. But as it stands now, it’s was informed that the tryout had been canceled due to safe to assume that there likely won’t be a spring the coronavirus. The following day, the sports season this year. “My heart is breaking for OSAA announced that they were suspending interscho- Alexa. She is an exception- lastic practices and contests al young lady who is super File Alexa Cepeda smiles as she walks off the fi eld after McNary defeated North Medford 5-4 in the fi rst round of the 2019 OSAA Playoffs. Cepeda will be playing at Portland State in 2021, but it’s likely that she will miss her senior season due to the coronavirus. talented and smart and she sets an example for this team both on and off the fi eld,” said McNary head coach Kevin Wise. Through the hard times and uncertainty that the COVID-19 virus has brought, Cepeda appreciates that her high school coach is always there for her. “Coach Wise and his wife, Deb, have shown the biggest support for me personally, as well as the team as a whole. It’s great to be reminded that I’m not in this alone,” Cepe- da said. For the last two years, Cepeda has gotten the chance to play with Nadia Witt and Faith Danner, a pair of senior leaders for McNary that have since gone on to play college softball. While Cepeda has played with a quiet confi dence for the fi rst three years of her ca- reer, she was looking forward to being a more vocal pres- ence this year and stepping into a leadership role as the only senior on the McNary team. “I wanted to be the best leader I could be for the underclassmen. I was really looking forward to doing that and helping some of our younger girls learn,” Cepeda said. Wise added: “She has Please see CEPEDA, Page A11 Steelheaders can be dead serious by G.I. Wilson File McNary’s Dyami Rios runs the anchor leg of the boys 4X100 relay at a meet from last season. OSAA preparing for different scenarios By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes After meeting virtually on Wednesday, April 1, the exec- utive board for the OSAA de- cided to maintain the current suspension for OSAA spring sports and activities until April 28. “We’re hoping to get a little more information before we make our fi nal decision,” said OSAA Executive Director Pe- ter Weber. On March 18, instead of cancelling the season due to the spread of COVID-19, the OSAA decided to suspend the season until April 28. The de- cision came a day after Gov. Kate Brown closed all state schools until April 28. Last week, the Oregon Department of Education shared that students might not be returning to class- rooms this school year due to COVID-19, and that districts will need to be preparing vir- tual learning tools for school- work outside of the classroom. If schools do indeed remain closed for the remainder of the school year, it’s more than likely that the OSAA will fol- low suit. “Right now the philoso- phy of the board is that as long as classrooms are closed, we shouldn’t be holding practices or competition,” Weber said. However, the OSAA is still preparing for a scenario where an abbreviated spring sports season would take place. Members of the OSAA staff have been working with Dr. Mick Koester, the chief medical advisor and chair of the OSAA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, to pro- mote and develop guidelines that would emphasize athlete safety if teams are able to re- convene in May. There would be an initial seven-day period with no contests, only practices, and those practices would be lim- ited to no more than three hours in length. There would also be an emphasis on late start times and weekend com- petitions to limit loss of class time. “We want to make sure that our athletes are safe if they come back. We’re not going to try and jam stuff in to make up for lost time,” Weber said. One of the points of dis- cussion was the possibility of moving spring sports and Please see OSAA, Page A10 It is a cold December day on the Nestucca River. Twenty to 25 drift fi shermen, in cold weather gear and insulated hip boots, line the gravel bar below the mouth of Three Rivers. Skilled drifters cast and retrieve with a synchronized ebb and fl ow that would make a Broadway dance choreographer glow. Cast and retrieve in unison and few tangles oc- cur. Cast out of sequence a few times and it would be a good idea to quietly slink away to a safer place to fi sh. Could be a little intim- idating hearing your ancestors described in colorful language not to be heard by women or children. Winter steelhead are returning in record numbers. This is the peak of the hatchery run. Millions of smoldts are being released yearly. The Nestucca has been the top river for steelhead production for several years in a row. State hatcheries are adequately funded and running at capacity. This is long before anti-hatchery groups began a program to convince state leaders fi sh hatcheries are far worse than coal burn- ing plants and pipelines. A river guide arrives in a wooden drift- boat after a half day fl oat. He has to come ashore on this gravel bar. He has to bring the craft in and inter- rupt the casting cycle. Two reluctant anglers grudgingly wave him in, grab the heavy boat and slide it partially onto the gravel and promptly return to casting. A passenger, feeling somewhat uncom- fortable for the interruption, smiles weakly and offers greetings. She notices a beautiful 7-8 pound steelhead on the bank. “What a beauty. Who got that one?” she gushes. “Guy landed that fi sh, dropped dead in his tracks,” a big, bearded guy mutters. “Hauled ‘em away in the ambulance.” “Who gets the fi sh?” the stunned boater asks timidly. “Guess the guy he came with,” a second angler offers, jumping into the conversation. “Tall skinny guy down there with a fur hat. He ain’t leaving till he gets his limit.” “We are dead serious about these winter steelhead,” giggles a heavy guy as he fi nished his second Blitz. “Had my limit before 8:00. Got to wait for my buddy to get his limit now.” Guide Jim Johnson has one client on an- other December trip down the Nestucca River. Today he decides to fl oat from Bridge One to Cloverdale. They fl oat past the usual crowd at Three Rivers. About a quarter mile downriver, the client suddenly has an urgent “call from Mother Nature.” Johnson rows to shore and the guy makes a dash to the bushes. He comes back to the boat, steps one foot into the boat and drops dead. Obviously, Johnson is not only badly shak- en, but has a major problem on his hands. It is over an hour fl oat to Cloverdale and a quarter-mile hike back to the Three Rivers parking lot. Since Al Gore hasn’t invented the cell phone yet, Johnson has to leave the body and make the hike, fl ag down a vehicle and drive to the nearest telephone. “My client just stepped one foot in the boat and just checked out,” a shaken Johnson blurted. “I mean, he was stone dead.” Firemen and paramedics return to carry the corpse back to the parking lot. This is the big news of the day at the local watering hole. All the locals are eager to hear the details and have some fun at Johnson’s expense. “Old boy just checked out right there in mid-step,” Johnson stammers. “Dropped stone dead.” “Was it a full day, or half day trip?” a gig- gling barmaid asks. “Had he paid you?” comes from another local, struggling not to laugh. “I can just see the headlines ‘Local Guide Deadly on Steelhead.”
