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Salazar accepted to Barcelona Soccer Academy
File
Alex Salazar moves the ball upfi eld at McNary’s Blue Day event last year. Salazar will be leaving McNary to go the Barcelona
Soccer Academy in Arizona.
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
Coming in to the 2020-
21 school year, it appeared
that Alex Salazar would be
the main star on the McNary
boys’ soccer team.
However, Salazar was re-
cently granted an once-in-a-
lifetime opportunity that he
couldn’t pass up.
Salazar will forego his se-
nior season at McNary to
join the Barcelona Soccer
Academy for the next two
years in Casa Grande, Ari-
zona — a full-time residen-
tial academy program that is
partnered with Futbol Club
(FC) Barcelona, one of the
best professional teams in the
world.
“I am so proud of Alex. I
am really excited for him to
start this new soccer adven-
ture in his life. Also, I am ex-
cited for his mom and family
because they are Alex's in-
strumental support. Alex has
worked hard all these years in
club and high school, he de-
serves this opportunity and
hopefully some day in the
near future he can achieve
his goal to make it to the pro
level,” McNary head coach
Miguel Camarena said.
Salazar was swimming at
a lake when he got the call
from his mom about being
accepted into the academy.
He was speechless when he
found out.
For a kid that used to run
around playing soccer non-
stop with his dad at the age
of fi ve, this was a surreal mo-
ment for Salazar.
“I had no words. I couldn’t
believe it. Getting accepted is
a dream come true,” Salazar
said. “I feel like this could be
the start of something spe-
cial.”
Student-athletes at the
academy will get the op-
portunity to compete at the
highest levels within the
MLS Elite Youth Develop-
ment Platform. They will
also will reside at the Grande
Sports World campus, which
features on-site dormitories,
eight soccer fi elds, profes-
sional nutritional program-
ming and a 58,000 square
foot athletic training facili-
ty — which was named the
best training facility by USA
Soccer for three straight
years.
The facility also includes
a lounge area equipped with
TVs, gaming systems, ping-
pong, and pool tables, hot
Please see SOCCER, Page A10
OSAA puts the fall sports season on hold
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
During a “normal” year,
student-athletes across the
state would be preparing to
gear up for the fall sports sea-
son.
However, the COVID-19
pandemic forced the Oregon
School Activities Association
(OSAA) to call an audible
on how they would proceed
with athletics and activities
for the 2020-21 school year.
After announcing in July
that they would delay the
start of fall sports, the OSAA
executive board made the
decision on Wednesday, Aug.
5 to condense all sports sea-
sons and to shift the fall sea-
son into March as a part of
the new 2020-21 athletics
calendar.
Under this new regime,
the OSAA will still hold
three distinct athletic seasons.
However, there won’t be any
prep sporting events played
until January 2021.
The winter sports season
is scheduled to run from Jan.
11 to March 7, while the sea-
sonal fall sports (football, vol-
leyball, soccer, cross country)
will be played from March 15
to May 9. Spring sports will
take place from May 3 to June
27 — all sports and activities
will be predicated on guid-
ance from Oregon Health
Authority (OHA), as well as
Governor Kate Brown.
The OSAA association
year will begin on Aug. 31.
From then until Dec. 27,
the permission of sports and
activities will not be desig-
nated by the OSAA. Instead
they will be at the discretion
of local school districts, pro-
vided they are allowed by the
Governor’s Offi ce, Oregon
Department of Education
(ODE) and OHA — mean-
ing that teams could poten-
tially hold limited practices
and workouts during this
time, which is designated as
Season 1 by OSAA.
By delaying the start of the
athletics season, the OSAA is
hoping that more member
schools will have a chance to
compete.
“I applaud the effort from
the board of directors for be-
ing able to shift to this model.
The goal is to get kids par-
ticipating in extracurricular
activities and this plan gives
us the best opportunity to do
that,” said McNary athletic
director Scott Gragg.
In late-July, the OSAA was
still planning on having an
abbreviated fall sports season
(minus football). But after
Brown announced the met-
rics school districts would
have to abide by in order to
return to in-person classes,
File
Please see OSAA, Page A10
McNary’s Luke Ellis competes in a cross country race at Bush Park in a meet from last season.