KHS PREVIEWS
12A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2016
Knappa looks to recapture
the Northwest League
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
The prospects for the 2015
season looked promising for the
Knappa Loggers.
They were coming off a 4-0
league season in 2014, in which
they made the Class 2A semii-
nals and outscored the rest of the
Northwest League, 197-6. And
the Loggers had the league’s
best offensive line, with two of
the top skill-position athletes in
Class 2A.
No one could have predicted
that those two players would
miss most of the 2015 season
with injuries, which derailed the
Logger Express before it even
left the station.
Knappa inished 1-2 in
league play, and missed the state
playoffs for the irst time since
2006.
The 2016 Knappa Log-
gers are healthy, loaded with
skill-position players, and now
they’re looking to take back
their league.
“I’m excited to see these kids
perform,” Knappa coach Aaron
Barendse said of his team. “We
took a lot of lumps last year.
We’ve been real fortunate with
skipping the injury bug, but last
year was brutal.
“As long as we stay healthy,
we’ll be fun to watch,” he said.
“We have a ton of speed and a
lot of athletes.”
The NWL
Last year, Northwest League
football fans saw just how much
one or two players on one team
can make a difference.
Vernonia added a couple
transfers, scored over 56 points
in six of its nine regular sea-
son games, and won the league
title (then promptly gave up 56
points in a irst round loss in the
state playoffs).
Meanwhile, injuries to a few
players at Neah-Kah-Nie forced
the Pirates to completely cancel
their 2015 season, as they for-
feited their last four games.
Knappa was also affected,
when starting quarterback Dale
Takalo was not cleared to play
because of a concussion, and
running back Reuben Cruz
missed all but the last game.
Unfortunately, neither will
be a part of the 2016 Loggers
(Cruz had a recent surgery and
is out for the season), but that
doesn’t mean the Loggers won’t
compete. Knappa is actually in
pretty good shape, compared to
the rest of the NWL.
Vernonia is “Wared” out, as
they lost senior co-Defensive
Player of the Year Blade Ware
to graduation, and his brother,
Offensive Player of the Year
Steele Ware, transferred to Rain-
ier, where coach Thor Ware has
also returned, to help coach the
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
From left to right, Kourtney Tischer, Alisha Murphy and
Jaden Miethe serve up some action for the Knappa vol-
leyball team during a recent practice.
Loggers hope
to ‘AcuSpike’
the competition
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Freshman Kanai Phillip could be a factor for the Loggers in his first season.
Knappa’s
Kaleb
Mill-
er makes a throw as the
Knappa High School foot-
ball team practices.
Knappa football head coach Aaron Barendse talks to his
team as the Knappa High School Loggers practice earlier
this month. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Columbians.
In all, Vernonia lost seven
all-league players.
Neah-Kah-Nie, Nestucca
and Vernonia all have new
coaches as well. Which leaves a
lot of question marks around the
league.
“I’m curious to see what
offenses and defenses they will
run,” Barendse said. “Gaston
has a lot of big boys back, so
they’ll be physical. But there’s
a lot of question marks going
into the season, as far as who
we’re playing and what the heck
they’re running.”
Nestucca lost a boatload of
all-league seniors, including
second-team quarterback Brett
Elder; and it’s been over 12
years since Neah-Kah-Nie has
been able to win more than one
league game in a season.
Which leaves …
The Loggers
Knappa comes back strong
with a tough, experienced line,
and all kinds of talent at the skill
positions.
“We have a lot of wide
receivers and running backs,”
Barendse said. “We’re not as
deep on the line, but the kids we
have are working hard, and I’m
proud of ’em. I think we’ll sur-
prise some people.”
Among others, Knappa has
all-leaguers Jacob Ford and
Reece Hunt up front, along
with David Patterson and Cody
Stuhr. All four are juniors.
Running behind the Fear-
some Foursome will be one of
the best running backs at the 2A
level, senior Andrew Goozee.
“Goozee will be a handful
for teams,” Barendse said. “He’s
an all-league running back, all-
state linebacker. I think he will
be one of the best running backs
in the state.”
Barendse has a couple
options at quarterback, with
juniors Mason Hoover and
Kaleb Miller, a former Pleasant
Hill Billie.
Miller has moved with his
family to Knappa, where his
dad, Kirk Miller, has joined Bar-
endse’s coaching staff after pre-
vious coaching stops in Harris-
burg, Regis and Pleasant Hill.
“Mason Hoover is doing a
heck of a job,” Barendse said.
“He bailed us out last year, and
has a great attitude and work
ethic. Kaleb is also a talented
quarterback.”
On the receiving end of
their passes will be seniors
LOGGER
FOOTBALL
Coach: Aaron Barendse,
5th year
2015: 3-5 (1-2 NWL)
All-League Losses:
Michal Goodman, Jared
Parks
All-League Returners:
Jacob Ford, Jr. (DL), An-
drew Goozee, Sr. (RB/LB),
Reece Hunt, Jr. (OL/DL)
Mitch Geisler and Ethan Rubus
(missed most of last year with
a knee injury), and sophomore
Tyler Green.
Adding talent on both
sides of the ball will be senior
Andrew Alder, junior Braedon
Eltagonde, sophomores Timber
Engblom and Luke Goozee, and
freshman Kanai Phillip.
Cruz will have to wait until
his senior year to play football.
“I feel horrible for (Cruz),
after missing last year except for
the inal game,” Barendse said.
“He had a great camp at West-
ern Oregon, and he’s probably
the best all-around athlete in our
league. A phenomenal talent. I
hope he has a healthy recovery
so he can play the other sports
he loves.”
Also on the coaching staff
are John Benthin, Chris Geisler
and Chad Harrington.
The ‘Elite Eight’ hit the course for Knappa XC
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
Eight runners, including six
seniors.
That’s the make-up of this
year’s Knappa cross country
program, as the Loggers head
into a cloudy future.
“Not sure what the future
holds,” said Knappa coach Stan
Sporseen, when referring to
Logger cross country. “Three
younger runners decided not
to turn out for various reasons.
But we are focusing on this
group.”
And this year’s crop of run-
ners are a “great bunch of kids
with outstanding attitudes,” he
said. “They’re great students to
boot. As always, our goals will
be to improve as the season
goes on and set many personal
records along the way.”
Despite competing in a very
tough district for cross country,
“I would think the boys could be
a mid-team inisher at district,”
Sporseen said.
The Knappa boys in-
ished 10th out of 10 teams in
last year’s district meet, while
the Lady Loggers did not have
enough runners to ield a com-
plete team.
In 2015, Sporseen said, “the
top 15 boys ran under 18 (min-
utes) at district (four runners
were from Catlin Gabel) and
Good
Luck
Loggers
the top 42 ran under 20. On the
girls’ side 16 of the top 20 inish-
ers at district return.”
For the Knappa boys, senior
Cody Hobbs is a four-year run-
ner who ran a sub-20-minute in
his last race (“Would like to see
him break 19 at some point,”
Sporseen said).
Senior Noah Bagnall is a
three-year runner who has the
potential to run under 19 min-
utes, and is looking for an upper
half inish in the district inals,
after placing 50th out of 83 run-
ners last year.
Senior Noah Gothro is in his
fourth year, and “very capable of
running in the low 20s,” Spors-
een said. “Great attitude. Would
consider him one of our leaders.”
Junior Spencer Fulton is in
his third year of running, but is
currently battling a knee injury.
He could be a factor by season’s
end.
Junior Keenan Gebhart is in
his second year with the team,
and is “Our most improved run-
ner by a long shot last year,” said
the coach.
The Knappa girls have three
runners, led by senior Devin
Vandergriff, a three-sport athlete
who excels as a sprinter in track.
She placed 38th in last year’s
district meet.
Seniors Hailey Murray and
Chelsea Sapp round out the list
for the Lady Loggers.
Go Loggers!
We Deliver!
3693 LIEF
ERIKSON DR.
ASTORIA
(JUST EAST OF SAFEWAY)
503.325.4927
HOURS: SUN-THUR 11AM-10PM;
FRI-SAT 11AM-11PM
Knappa Offi ce
(503) 458-6671
42894 Old Hwy. 30
Knappa, OR 97103
Rainier Offi ce
(503) 556-0410
29191 Dike Road
Rainier, OR 97048
www.teevinbros.com • CCB #133907
The dreaded “League
Playoffs” were not kind to
the Knappa Lady Loggers
last school year.
It all started with volley-
ball. After sweeping Gas-
ton in the regular season
match (25-19, 25-11, 25-20),
the No. 5-seed Greyhounds
scored a little revenge in the
league playoffs, defeating
No. 4-seed Knappa in four
games, ending the Lady Log-
gers’ season.
And last spring, the
Knappa softball team swept
three games from Neah-Kah-
Nie during the league season,
then lost a loser-out game
to the Pirates in the league
playoffs.
Here’s an idea for the
league: How about making
the regular season count for
something?
“My goal is to make it
state,” Knappa coach Jeff
Kaul said. “I told everyone
at the awards ceremony last
year, ‘if these girls make it to
some open gyms and work
hard in the summer,’ I would
be taking them to state this
year.
“That’s our goal, and
what happens once we get
to state, that just depends on
how hard we play.”
The NWL
The 2016 Loggers can
hopefully avoid league play-
off elimination all-together,
if they can inish irst in
league play. Not an impossi-
ble task.
Vernonia — always a
tough match for Knappa —
lost four all-league players to
graduation.
“Vernonia graduated just
about their whole team,”
Kaul said. “But they always
seem to be able to get good
players, they have good size,
and they do have some big
JV players coming up.”
League champion Faith
Bible “lost their big hitter
(Maile Kam) — I’m thank-
ful she’s out of the league,”
he said. “The team that wor-
ries me the most is Gaston.
They came alive at the end of
the season. They can hit, and
they were all sophomores.”
The Lady Loggers
If there’s one thing the
Lady Loggers don’t lack, it’s
LOGGER
VOLLEYBALL
Coach: Jeff Kaul, 7th year
2015: 6-6 Northwest
League
Playoffs: Lost league
playoff at Gaston
All-League Loss: Bailey
Corder
All-League Returner:
Kaitlyn Landwehr, Sr.
experience. Knappa had just
one senior on the roster last
year (Bailey Corder), and
the Loggers have six varsity
returners.
They’re all talented, all
experienced … and they’re
going to collect a lot of wins
over the 2016-17 school year.
We know the names:
Seniors Kaitlyn Landwehr
and Alisha Murphy; and
juniors Jaden Miethe, Mack
Strain, Kaitlyn Truax and
Paris Vanderburg.
Landwehr is the set-
ter, Miethe will be a libero,
Truax is a middle blocker/
outside hitter, and Murphy is
an all-around player.
Additions for 2016 will
be junior Emma Taggart and
sophomores Hannah Hell-
berg and Kourtney Tischer.
“Out of all the girls,”
Kaul said, “Paris Vander-
burg is the one who is going
to be our main hitter. We had
her hitting the other day at
8-foot-10 — that’s where she
is making contact with the
ball. And she’s hitting hard,
so I’m hoping she continues
that and stays healthy.”
Kaul also gave an
endorsement for the “AcuS-
pike” training machine.
“I bought a new AcuS-
pike for the team,” he said.
“It automatically loads
and sets, so they can learn
their arm swing and when
to jump. You can get a lot
of reps in, work strictly on
form and get that muscle
memory going.
“It’s already made a dra-
matic difference in the way
the girls are hitting. I’m
excited about that part of our
game. Teams know we’re a
good defensive team — we
competed with everybody
we played, even some of
the top teams. But we didn’t
have any offense. I’m hop-
ing that our offense surprises
some people.”
Assistant
coach Chris-
tina Kaul,
left, watches
the action as
Knappa play-
ers Mackenzie
Strain and Par-
is Vanderburg
(background)
practice.
GO
!
S
R
E
G
G
L O
(503) 458- 6886
42 92 9 O ld Hw y 30 • Asto ria