10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Athletes of the Week
(FOR THE WEEK OF FEB. 20-25)
JASON
MILLER
Knappa
SYDNEY
VILLEGAS
Seaside
“Unsung Hero” award of the season for Seaside girls basketball goes to
T The he Sydney
Villegas.
senior wing is almost always the second-leading scorer behind team-
nappa’s “Unsung Hero” doesn’t always score a lot of points, but the senior
K
guard was always among the team leaders in rebounds, assists and
steals.
mate Maddi Utti, as she was last week in a 57-33 win over Junction City in a 4A
Regional Play-in game.
Seaside’s victory clinched a spot in the Sweet 16 for the Gulls, for the fourth
year in a row.
Villegas scored 17 points, including the fi rst two points that started a 32-0 run
for the Gulls.
She was recently named fi rst-team Cowapa All-League.
Miller pulled down 10 rebounds and also had two free throws in the closing
seconds in Knappa’s 46-44 league playoff win over Life Christian.
In a must-win regular season game against Nestucca, he had fi ve assists, six
points and seven rebounds.
Miller capped his senior season by being selected honorable mention on the
Northwest All-League team.
Four
Loggers
on NWL
all-league
team
Spaghetti feed
for Seaside
baseball on tap
The Daily Astorian
The Seaside High Baseball Spa-
ghetti Feed is 6 to 8 p.m. Monday
at the Seaside American Legion.
Tickets are being sold in
advance for the fundraiser for the
Seaside baseball.
Prices are $10 for adults, $5 for
children, or $20 per family.
For more information, contact
Seaside coach Joel Dierickx at
jwdierickx@seaside.k12.or.us.
The Daily Astorian
No team in the Northwest
League will have more return-
ing all-league players next season
than the Knappa Loggers, who
will be set to challenge at the 2A
level in 2017-18.
The Knappa boys had four
players selected to the all-league
squad, announced at the recent
league tournament. Three of the
four will return next season.
League champion Columbia
Christian had just three players on
the all-league squad, all seniors.
Life Christian senior Zeke Quin-
lan was selected as the league’s
Player of the Year; and Vernonia
had four players named all-league
(three seniors, one junior).
Knappa junior Dale Takalo
was named fi rst team all-league;
Logger junior Colton Weirup
was selected to the second team;
and senior Jason Miller and soph-
omore Timber Engblom were
named honorable mention.
Coach of the Year honors went
to Vernonia’s David Weller.
Meanwhile, the Knappa
girls had two players earn all-
league honors — seniors Kaitlyn
Landwehr and Devin Vandergriff,
the Loggers’ top two scorers this
season.
Faith Bible junior Sarah Fajer
was named NWL Player of the
Year, and City Christian’s Nicole
Damazio earned Coach of the
Year honors.
Falcons coach
fi nds some good
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Washington’s Kelsey Plum reacts after scoring against Utah in the second half of an NCAA college basket-
ball game in Seattle in February. Plum became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer on the final weekend of
the regular season, leaving the quality and depth of the Pac-12 to be the showcase when the conference
tournament kicks off today.
With records out of the way,
focus on NCAAs for Pac-12
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Kelsey Plum’s chase
of the NCAA scoring record was sup-
posed to put an added spotlight on the
Pac-12 women’s tournament.
Washington’s senior star had other
plans and became the NCAA’s all-
time leading scorer on the fi nal week-
end of the regular season, leaving the
quality and depth of the Pac-12 to be
the showcase when the conference
tournament begins today.
“It’s a war every night and it
always has been. I think the depth is
amazing,” Oregon State coach Scott
Rueck said. “I think everybody who
makes (a) postseason tournament,
no matter what it is, is going to be
well-prepared.”
The conference tournament gets
underway with four opening-round
games: California vs. USC; Arizona
State vs. Utah; Washington State vs.
Colorado; and Oregon vs. Arizona.
No. 6 Oregon State, No. 10 Stan-
ford, No. 11 Washington and No.
15 UCLA received byes to Friday’s
quarterfi nals.
The depth of the conference is
such that California fi nished eighth
in the regular season and is still under
consideration for an NCAA at-large
bid. Utah ended up with the No. 12
seed in the conference tournament but
threatened Washington on the fi nal
weekend of the regular season after
winning at Washington State. There
is a clear delineation between the top
four, which are among the national
elite, and the rest of the conference.
But the conference as a whole is col-
lectively better.
“I think the bottom is up a little bit.
I think the top is good. I think the top
has been good,” Rueck said. “I mean,
I remember a year ago, we didn’t
feel like our conference was bad. . I
thought last year was ridiculous, too.”
Oregon
State,
Washington,
Stanford and UCLA are locks for
the NCAAs and three of the four
could end up hosting fi rst- and sec-
ond-round games. Stanford can’t do
so this season because of a confl ict at
Maples Pavilion.
Arizona State and Oregon seem
likely to be in the NCAA fi eld, leav-
ing only a couple of possibilities for
teams to play their way into the tour-
nament with a strong showing in
Seattle.
MLS celebrates 22 teams in 22 years this season
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
Krissy Barendse-Goodman/
For the Daily Astorian
Knappa junior Dale Takalo was
one of four Loggers selected
to the 2016-17 Northwest All-
League team.
The theme for Major League Soc-
cer this season is 22 in 22, as the league
embarks on its 22nd year with 22 teams
— including two new teams in the
Atlanta United and Minnesota United.
The theme could just as easily be
expansion, expansion, expansion.
Launched with 10 teams in 1996,
MLS has plans to expand to 28 teams
in the coming years. The replacement
for the defunct Chivas USA, Los Ange-
les FC, joins the league next season. It is
hoped that a long-anticipated Miami fran-
chise, an effort led by David Beckham,
will materialize as the league’s 24th team.
There were 12 bids submitted ear-
lier this year for the fi nal four teams.
In a preseason interview with The
Associated Press, Commissioner Don
Garber said a decision about two of
the teams could come by the end of
this year and they could begin play
in 2020, while the fi nal two will be
announced sometime thereafter.
“I think it’s fair to say that this year
and the last number of years we’ve
been very focused on strategically
growing the league and celebrating
new markets coming in and building
a fan base, helping to create this soc-
cer nation that we’ve been so focused
on,” Garber said. “And this year is
probably no different. We’ve got a
team coming in that is setting records
for attendance in Atlanta, and a team
in Minnesota that’s similar to Port-
land in that it is coming into Major
League Soccer after many decades of
support for the professional game.
“I think you’ll continue to see more
and more stories coming out of our
league that are about growth, but I try to
focus as much on celebrating all the great
things that have gone on in so many mar-
kets for the last number of years.”
INDIANAPOLIS — Fal-
cons coach Dan Quinn has sifted
through the wreckage of his
team’s Super Bowl collapse, and
found some good in it.
He thinks the monumental loss
to New England, in which Atlanta
blew a 25-point lead, can serve as an
inspiration for the Falcons to come
back even stronger next season.
SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
TODAY
Girls Basketball — Washington 2B
State Tournament: TBA vs. Ilwaco (at
Spokane), 3:45 p.m.
FRIDAY
Boys Basketball — 4A State Playoff:
Cascade at Seaside, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
Girls Basketball — 4A State Playoff:
Seaside at Molalla, 7 p.m.
BASKETBALL
Northwest All-League
Girls
Player of the Year: Sarah Fajer, Faith Bible
Coach of the Year: Nicole Damazio,
City Christian
First Team
Sarah Fajer, Jr., Faith Bible
Vivianna Bustamante, Sr., Vernonia
Kristina Dickinson, Sr., City C.
Megan Ely, Sr., Vernonia
Katie Fajer, Jr., Faith Bible
Charity Hall, Jr., Gaston
Second Team
Samantha Howard, Sr., Columbia
Jessica Irving, Sr., Faith Bible
Jakayla Jackson, Jr., Nestucca
Maddie Lambert, Jr., NKN
Kaitlyn Landwehr, Sr., Knappa
Devin Vandergriff, Sr., Knappa
Boys
Player of the Year: Zeke Quinlan, Life
Christian
Coach of the Year: David Weller, Vernonia
First Team
Zeke Quinlan, Sr., Life Christian
Levi Dalzell, Sr., Columbia C.
Bo Quinlan, Jr., Life Christian
Clay Sullivan, Jr., Vernonia
Dale Takalo, Jr., Knappa
Robert Wagner, Sr., Columbia C.
Second Team
Tristan Adams, Sr., Vernonia
Brett Elliott, Sr., Vernonia
Hunter Endresen, Sr., Columbia C.
Max Halverson, Sr., NKN
Cole Strober, Jr., Nestucca
Colton Weirup, Jr., Knappa
Honorable Mention (Knappa)
Timber Engblom, So.
Jason Miller, Sr.