THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2017
SPORTS PREVIEWS
11A
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Jewell still LOGGERS LOOK TO
young, still DEFEND LEAGUE TITLE
improving
KNAPPA FOOTBALL
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
The 3-1 finish was a lot better than the
0-8 start last year for the Jewell volleyball
program.
The young Lady Blue
Jays got off to a rough start,
but by season’s end they
had turned a corner.
They hope to keep the
momentum flowing as they
enter the 2017 campaign,
with more experience and more players on
the roster.
Head coach Jessica Miller had Jewell
on the verge of the state playoffs in 2016, as the
Jays finished fourth in the 1A Casco League
standings, two games behind Perrydale.
The Casco
Crosshill Christian ran away with the
Casco League title a year ago, sweeping its
way to a 10-0 league record and a fifth-place
finish at state.
Willamette Valley Christian and
Perrydale were the other state playoff qual-
ifiers, with the Pirates clinching their spot
to state with a league playoff victory over
Jewell.
The Lady Jays
Jewell is still on the young side, with just
two seniors on the preseason roster.
Niqui Blodgett — part-time softball
pitcher at Warrenton — will be serving up
serves instead of softballs as she enters her
senior year at Jewell, along with Emma
Guillen.
The junior class also has returning var-
sity experience, with Joe Armstrong and Lily
Kaczenski, with first-year player Cheyenne
Stapleton.
The remaining half of the roster includes
sophomore Haley Norman and freshmen
Ashlee Fraser, Aliyah Hart, Lillie Meier and
McKenna Miller.
JEWELL VOLLEYBALL
Coach: Jessica Miller
2016: 5-12 (4-6 Casco)
Playoffs: Lost league playoff to Perrydale
Seniors lost: Alyscia Littlepage
Seniors returning: Niqui Blodgett, Emma
Guillen
Coach: Aaron Barendse, 6th year
2016: 5-5 (4-0 NWL)
Playoffs: Lost first-round state playoff to St. Paul.
All-League losses: Andrew Goozee (Offensive and
Defensive Player of the Year); Timber Engblom, WR;
Mitch Geisler, RB/LB; Ethan Rubus, WR/LB.
All-League returners: Jacob Ford, Sr., OL/DL; Jax-
son Goodman, So., OL/DL; Mason Hoover, Sr., WR/
DB; Reece Hunt, Sr., OL/DL; Kaleb Miller, Sr., QB/
DB; David Patterson, Sr., OL; Cody Stuhr, Sr., OL.
After a brief detour (the 2015 season), the
Knappa Loggers reverted last year to their
familiar routine of blowout wins and a perfect
league season, before falling in a first-round
state playoff against St. Paul.
Outcomes of the league games were pretty
much expected. The Loggers would like to
change their luck against nonleague competition.
Knappa dominated the Northwest League
(averaging 54 points per game in going 4-0), but
the Loggers were just 1-5 against teams from
outside the league.
Part of that was a tough nonleague schedule,
and part of it was a weak league. In recent years,
the NWL just hasn’t been that good.
Other than Knappa, the last NWL team to
advance past the first round of the state playoffs
was Portland Christian in 2013, and the Royals
are no longer in the league.
Since the 2006 OSAA reclassification, Gas-
ton, Neah-Kah-Nie and Vernonia have not won
a state playoff game.
In addition, none of the five teams in the
Northwest League had a winning record last
year, and the only other state qualifier was Gas-
ton, which lost in the first round to Kennedy,
61-14.
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
The league
“The league last year wasn’t as good as we
hoped it would be,” said Knappa coach Aaron
Barendse. This year, “Neah-Kah-Nie will prob-
ably be a handful — they’ve got a sophomore
group with a lot of size, (junior Tristan) Ben-
nett is a beast, and they have a couple other kids
returning.”
Then again, the Pirates only had 20 players
on their roster last season.
With 10 all-league starters on offense (and
most of them returning) and a perfect league
record last year, the Loggers will once again be
the prime targets in the NWL.
Knappa will look to advance to the quarterfi-
nals for the first time since 2014, after suffering
a first round loss to St. Paul last season.
“The playoff didn’t go as planned,” Bar-
endse said. “We thought we could pull it off, but
losing Kaleb (Miller) on that final drive hurt. We
were just young varsity experience-wise. I still
think we could have been the better team.”
The Loggers
Knappa lost Andrew Goozee to graduation,
the Northwest League’s Offensive and Defen-
Senior Kaleb Miller returns as the top quar-
terback in the Northwest League, along
with a roster full of all-league players.
sive Player of the Year.
Still, “We’ll be all right,” Barendse said.
“We’ve got a bunch of kids who are happy to
be here, and we’re way ahead of where we were
last year at this point.”
Besides, the Loggers have never been short
on league MVP candidates.
“When we had Kyle Kelly (league MVP),
we were wondering the same thing — who was
going to step up,” Barendse said. “Then we had
Justin Dragoo (league MVP, followed by Goo-
zee, league MVP). We’ve always had that big
power guy for the last six, eight years. We don’t
have that one dependent guy this year, but we
have a very, very versatile team, probably one of
the most versatile teams we’ve had in a while.”
Included in that is more team speed. So in
addition to being the biggest team on the field in
the NWL, the Loggers are also the fastest.
All-league quarterback Kaleb Miller returns
for his senior season, after transferring from
Pleasant Hill the year before.
At running back, “we’ll have a couple kids
move around,” Barendse said. “Luke Goozee
and Braeden Eltagonde will carry the load as
far as getting the carries, and we’ll definitely be
throwing the ball around. We have a lot of good
receivers, with Kanai Phillip, Braeden, Luke
and Mason Hoover, who will get some carries
as well.”
Also returning is sophomore tight end-re-
ceiver Joe Ramvick.
Sophomore Eli Takalo will see action at
receiver, strong safety and outside linebacker, in
addition to serving as a placekicker and backup
quarterback.
“We’ve got a lot of skill kids running
around,” Barendse said. “We threw the ball a
ton last year compared to the year before, and
we’ll up that a little this year. With our line
being back, we can do a little of both.”
Every single Logger offensive lineman was
named all-league last year, but “we’ve moved
some kids around, so our line will look a little
different,” he said, after some changes on the
defensive side of the ball “to make up for the
defensive guys we lost.”
And that list includes all three linebackers
(once again, all three were all-league) Mitch
Geisler, Goozee and Ethan Rubus.
“That’s a big deal — between Rubus, Geisler
and Goozee, that was a big chunk of our tackles
from last year,” Barendse said.
The names on the offensive and defen-
sive lines include seniors Jacob Ford, Reece
Hunt, David Patterson and Cody Stuhr, as well
as sophomores Jaxson Goodman and Ryson
Patterson.
Quotable: “I’m excited for these boys to get
out there and showcase their speed and talent,”
Barendse said, “because we have some kids
who can play.”
Prediction: With the best quarterback in the
league and five returning all-league offensive
linemen … should be lots of points and another
perfect league season for the Loggers. League
champions.
Lady Loggers will chase the Greyhounds
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
Paris Vanderburg, No. 5, will block and hit
again for the Knappa volleyball team.
KNAPPA VOLLEYBALL
Coach: Jeff Kaul, 8th year
2016: 10-10 (5-6 NWL)
Playoffs: Defeated Faith Bible, lost to Gaston and
Delphian in league playoffs.
All-League losses: Kaitlyn Landwehr, Alisha
Murphy
All-League returners: Jaden Miethe, Sr.; Paris
Vanderburg, Sr.
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
plans on being a player, once again,
in Northwest League volleyball.
A turnout of 23 girls for a 2A
volleyball squad … not bad, as the
Knappa Lady Loggers and coach
Jeff Kaul prepare for the 2017
season.
One factor — the Loggers only
lost two seniors off last year’s
team, which also had strong num-
bers in the freshmen and sopho-
more classes.
Those players are a year older,
stronger and wiser, which makes
for a promising season.
“Some of the girls who didn’t
get a chance to play last year are
stepping up,” said Kaul, at the end
of the first week of practice. “And
we’ve got another good group of
freshmen.”
The cycle continues, as Knappa
Gaston ran the table and fin-
ished 12-0 in league play last year
— but the Greyhounds lost a first-
round state playoff against Central
Linn. Second-place Vernonia was
swept by Culver in the first round.
Gaston may be ready to make a
move this year, however, with the
return of league MVP Charity Hall.
“Gaston will be the dominant
team with Charity Hall,” Kaul said.
“She played all summer, and leads
that group. If somebody figures out
how to stop her, they’re beatable.
But she can hit from anywhere.”
Vernonia “lost a huge number of
seniors, but they had a pretty large
JV group, so they should still be
strong; Delphian’s always a wild
Good
Luck
Loggers!
The NWL
(JUST EAST OF SAFEWAY)
503.325.4927
Hours: Sun-Thur 11am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11am-11pm
The Lady Loggers
From two seniors last year, to
six this season.
The list is led by all-leaguers
Jaden Miethe and Paris Vander-
burg, with Ressa Inman, Mack
Strain and Kaitlyn Truax lending
experience.
“Paris was starting to come
along with her hitting towards the
end of the year,” Kaul said. “She’s
started off good already, and hope-
fully she will take some of the work
that Kaitlyn (Landwehr) was doing
in the front row.”
The Loggers are big, by North-
Go Loggers!
We Deliver!
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card; and we had some good games
with Nestucca last year, but they
lost a couple seniors.
“With our blocks and our speed
in the back row, hopefully we can
compete a little better.”
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
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west League standards, so “hope-
fully we’ll be able to do some
blocking against the stronger
teams,” the coach said.
Miethe returns as the libero,
Strain is an opposite side hitter, and
junior Kourtney Tischer has the
tough task of picking up the setter
duties left by Landwehr, as Knappa
will still run a 6-2 formation.
The varsity will also carry
senior outside hitter/blocker Emma
Taggart. The junior class has Jor-
dan Walter. Young contributors
stepping up include sophomores
Sophie Carlson and Aiko Miller,
who both saw varsity action last
season.
Kaul left two spots open on
the varsity, because “with such a
young JV group, we’ll wait and
give somebody some playing time
towards the end of the season.”
Go
!
s
r
e
g
g
Lo
(503) 458-6886
42929 Old Hwy 30 • Astoria