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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Brian Davies/The Register-Guard
Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu cele-
brates the first of her four 3-point-
ers against Arizona during a Jan.
12 game in Eugene.
Ionescu is
about more
than just
those triple-
doubles
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
EUGENE — The video score-
board at Matthew Knight Arena
showed short vignettes featuring
Oregon players musing about their
possible superhero names.
Sabrina Ionescu’s? “Super
Sabrina.” Afterward, she laughed
about it. “That’s what it was?” she
asked incredulously.
But to some, her career with
the Ducks thus far has indeed been
super. Ionescu holds the NCAA
record for most career triple-dou-
bles (with eight) and she’s just a
sophomore.
Humble about her record,
Ionescu insists she’s just focused
on whatever it takes to help the
Ducks.
“I just play, to be honest, I don’t
think about anything,” she said. “I
just go out there and play and do
the best that I can in order for us to
win. So if that’s rebounding, pass-
ing, scoring, whatever it is. That’s
what I focus on. Just to win.”
The Ducks are winning.
They’re 17-2 and 6-0 in the Pac-
12, the only undefeated team left in
the conference. They’ve won nine
straight and all 12 games at home.
Oregon is coming off a 74-64
victory at home Sunday over No.
18 Arizona State. On Monday, the
Ducks moved up a spot in the AP
rankings to No. 7.
Oregon made history last sea-
son, going to the Elite Eight for
the first time as the surprise of the
NCAA Tournament.
The Ducks finished the season
23-14 overall and 8-10 in the Pac-
12 to finish sixth. Then they lost
to Stanford in the Pac-12 tourna-
ment title game. But they won an
at-large spot in the tournament,
upsetting seventh-seeded Temple,
No. 2 Duke and No. 3 Maryland
before they were ousted by top-
seeded UConn.
Ionescu, who was named Pac-
12 Freshman of the Year, averaged
14.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.5
assists last season. So far this sea-
son she’s averaging 19.2 points,
7.3 rebounds and 7.2 assists.
But while all her offensive
numbers have gone up, she says
she’s been focusing on defense.
“I think everyone has to take
and extra step in that direction,
defensively. I think that’s what’s
going to separate us from being an
OK team from a great team,’ she
said.
SCOREBOARD
PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE
TODAY
Boys basketball — Valley Catholic at
Astoria, 6 p.m.; Scappoose at Seaside,
6 p.m.; Rainier at Warrenton, 6 p.m.; Life
Christian at Knappa, 7:30 p.m.; Willa-
mette Valley Christian at Jewell, 7 p.m.;
Life Christian (WA) at Ilwaco, 7 p.m.;
Three Rivers at Naselle, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball — Valley Catholic at
Astoria, 7:45 p.m.; Scappoose at Sea-
side, 7:45 p.m.; Rainier at Warrenton,
7:45 p.m.; Willamette Valley Christian
at Jewell, 5:30 p.m.; Ilwaco at Willapa
Valley, 7 p.m.; Three Rivers at Naselle,
5:30 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Wrestling — Astoria/Seaside at Scap-
poose, 5:30 p.m.
Fergus Loughran
Jerry Boisvert, center, is joined from left to right by Dan Gaffney; LCYSA President Kevin Cronin; Portland Timbers legend Mick Ho-
ban; Jimmy Conway’s wife, Noeleen; Boisvert’s wife, Dodo; OYSA board member Fergus Loughran; Tammy Loughran; and longtime
friend and coach Bill Patterson.
Boisvert receives lifetime award
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
W
hen it comes to time devoted to local
youth soccer, one name rises above all
the rest — Jerry Boisvert.
“Since the inception of LCYSA (Lower
Columbia Youth Soccer Association) in 1984,
the one constant in the program year in and
year out has been Jerry,” Past President Fer-
gus Loughran wrote in a recent letter to the
Oregon Youth Soccer Association.
That letter, in support of Boisvert, earned
the longtime coach/volunteer/referee and field
maintenance-man the prestigious OYSA Life-
time Achievement Award, which a partly sur-
prised Boisvert received Saturday in Portland.
“I knew I was getting an award — my
wife couldn’t pull me off to Portland without
knowing that,” Boisvert said. “And I knew the
OYSA was having its general meeting at the
same time, so I just put two-and-two together.
“They had a table with 10 awards, and they
went through all 10, and I thought, ‘great, they
missed me.’”
But the humble Boisvert didn’t get off that
easy.
It was then that the OYSA presented its
Lifetime Achievement Award, named after
Jimmy Conway, an original Portland Timber
and former men’s coach at Pacific University
and Oregon State.
Conway is a former Irish international
association footballer who played profession-
ally in Ireland, England and the United States.
He also contributed as a coach and teacher at
youth soccer clinics in Oregon.
“It’s about the most prestigious award you
could ever hope to get,” Boisvert said.
Loughran and the LCYSA made the push
for Boisvert to receive the award.
“He’s never taken a year off,” Loughran
said. “Soccer and our community have always
been his joy. He has been through 20 (LCYSA)
club presidents and countless coaches.”
Boisvert has coached at every level of the
LCYSA (recreation and classic), and initiated
the club’s annual summer camp, which has
run for more than 20 years. He also coached
Astoria High School varsity boys soccer for
seven years and the girls’ team for four years.
Since then, it’s been primarily Boisvert
who takes care of the LCYSA fields on Ridge
Road, in addition to coaching, officiating and
helping at the summer camps.
“As a board, we have often spoke of how
invaluable Jerry’s knowledge and labor have
been to LCYSA, and I think we all wondered
what if, God forbid, something happened to
Jerry,” Loughran said.
And, unfortunately, something has.
Early in 2017, he was diagnosed with blad-
der cancer.
He had the bladder removed Oct. 8 in a sur-
gery at OHSU, and he continues to undergo
chemotherapy treatments.
“The surgery went fantastic,” Boisvert
said. “My daughter organized a nice Thanks-
giving dinner for me in Portland (complete
with 31 Boisverts attending).
“But the chemo has not been very success-
ful,” he said. “I was feeling good and getting
ready to coach the U17 boys’ team this win-
ter, but I got sick the first week of January, and
I told Walt (Postlewait, the current LCYSA
president) that I just physically couldn’t do
it.”
Boisvert will continue to make trips to
Portland to receive treatment.
“The cancer torpedoed us all,” Loughran
said. “As Jerry has undergone chemo and the
trials it inflicted on his body, we assembled a
team of volunteers to mow and maintain the
fields, line the fields, empty garbage, fertilize,
spray edge, mend nets, fix leaks — the list is
endless. It now takes six or seven of us to do
what Jerry did by himself for years.”
In his letter to the OYSA, Loughran stated,
“Lifetime achievement for youth soccer in
Oregon? He’s an amazing candidate.”
“THEY HAD A TABLE WITH 10 AWARDS, AND THEY WENT
THROUGH ALL 10, AND I THOUGHT, ‘GREAT, THEY MISSED ME.’”
Jerry Boisvert | longtime coach/volunteer/referee and field maintenance-man who was awarded OYSA Lifetime Achievement Award
Mariota to get third head coach in fourth NFL season
By TERESA M. WALKER
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Ten-
nessee Titans believe the potential
reward from quarterback Marcus
Mariota working with his third head
coach in his fourth NFL season out-
weighs the risk of change.
Or sticking with the same coach.
So now the Titans are looking for a
new coach to replace Mike Mularkey
and build off the franchise’s first play-
off win in 14 years to make them a
true NFL contender.
“There’s nothing more that I want
for our fans than to bring a champion-
ship here,” general manager Jon Rob-
inson said Monday afternoon . “I feel
like it’s my charge to put the team in
the best position to do that.”
The Titans fired Mike Mularkey
on Monday, less than 48 hours after
a 35-14 loss to New England in the
AFC divisional round. Mularkey
revived a team with the NFL’s worst
record over two seasons and led them
to their first playoff victory in 14
years only to become the first coach
let go after winning a playoff game
since San Francisco fired Steve Mari-
ucci after the 2002 season.
Titans controlling owner Amy
Adams Strunk turned to Mularkey
in November 2015 when she fired
Ken Whisenhunt after 23 games .
Mularkey went 2-7 down the stretch
as the Titans finished 3-13 to land the
No. 1 overall draft pick in 2016. That
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey looks at the scoreboard
during the first half of a Jan. 6 NFL wild-card playoff football game
against Kansas City Chiefs, in Kansas City, Mo.
capped a 5-27 record over 2014 and
2015 that was the NFL’s worst.
Mularkey led the Titans to back-
to-back 9-7 records — their first con-
secutive winning records since 2007-
08. He finished with a 21-22 record
after a season in which the Titans cost
themselves the AFC South title with
a three-game skid in December and
needed to beat the Jaguars, now in the
AFC championship game, to reach
the postseason for the first time since
2008.
His devotion to an offense he’s
known since being offensive coor-
dinator in Pittsburgh between 2001
and 2003 may have cost him. He said
Sunday he was prepared to move
“full speed” ahead after talking with
Strunk. He defended offensive coor-
dinator Terry Robiskie’s play-calling,
saying he was happy with Mariota’s
development.
Mularkey also said he didn’t
anticipate any changes on his coach-
ing staff a week after Strunk issued
a statement on his job security . But
talk of an extension since a 22-21
comeback win against Kansas City
in the wild-card round ended Monday
morning when Robinson and presi-
dent and chief executive officer Steve
Underwood told Mularkey he was
being let go.
Strunk called it “unfortunate” that
they couldn’t find common ground on
how to improve.
“I also view this as an important
moment for our football team as we
try to make that next step to sustained
success on the field,” Strunk said in a
statement.
Now Robinson will oversee his
first coaching search with the Titans
the seventh NFL team to change
coaches since the start of the sea-
son. He was hired two days before
Mularkey had the interim title
removed in January 2016.
“This boils down to doing what
we think is best for the football team
moving forward, taking the next
step,” Robinson said.
Robinson said interviews with
candidates could be held as early as
this week, though the Titans will con-
firm a candidate only after an inter-
view is completed. The general man-
ager declined to discuss Patriots
offensive coordinator Josh McDan-
iels, saying he couldn’t comment on
coaches under contract.
“This is a very attractive job for a
lot of candidates,” Robinson said. “I
look forward to working with who-
ever the next head coach is. I think
that they will see that myself and
Amy will be unified with them in our
vision for the football team.”