Page 2B
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 28, 2016
ATHENA
HERMISTON
TigerScots sign the dotted line
Kopacz chooses Hawks
Lambert, Coffman
sign to play
college softball
Bulldogs
shortstop signs
with Columbia
Basin College
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
After long recruiting
processes,
Weston-
McEwen softball players
Jessica
Lambert
and
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pen to paper on Wednesday
to continue their athletic
careers collegiately.
The pair held a small
ceremony at Weston-
McEwen high school
on Wednesday night,
as Lambert signed with
Wenatchee Valley College
in Wenatchee, Washington
and Coffman signed with
Mt. Hood Community
College in Gresham.
“It’s super exciting, but
a little nervous because
you’re committing your-
self and I’m still a little
nervous about going to
college and I haven’t even
graduated high school yet,”
said Coffman.
Lambert said that she
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end to the process, which
has consumed the past
two-plus years for her.
“It was a pretty long
process,” said Lambert, “I
started really my sopho-
more year so the last few
years have been pretty
long. I went and met a lot
of teams and (Wenatchee
Valley) just seemed like the
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Eric Singer
Weston-McEwen seniors Jessica Lambert, left, and
Megan Coffman sign letters of intent to compete in
softball at Wenatchee Valley College and Mt. Hood
Community College, respectively, at a signing event
held Wednesday night at Weston-McEwen High
School in Athena.
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Coffman’s
recruiting
trail features more fresh
pavement than Lambert, as
she did not really decide on
playing collegiate softball
until this past summer.
“I told my summer
league coach Rob Hill-
mick that I was thinking
of playing college ball
and right away we started
emailing coaches,” she
said. “In the end, it was
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and other general things
like the campus.”
The pair were key cogs
to
Weston-McEwen’s
successful 2015 season.
Lambert, a pitcher, and
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helped the TigerScots
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2A/1A Special District 6
with a 23-7, 8-4 record, but
had a great run through the
postseason ending with a
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to Pilot Rock.
Both have been involved
with softball for as long as
they can remember, which
made it a no-brainer to
continue playing at the
collegiate level.
“Softball’s always been
in my life,” Lambert said.
“I’ve put a lot of work in
and had some success and
given the opportunity to
continue on I took it.”
———
Contact Eric Singer at
esinger@eastoregonian.
com, (541) 966-0839 or
follow on Twitter @ByEr-
icSinger.
Spieth takes early share of lead at Singapore
Associated Press
SINGAPORE — Jordan
Spieth showed no signs of
fatigue on the latest leg of
his globe-trotting tour, taking
a share of the lead at the
Singapore Open on Thursday
despite having his agent
caddie for him.
The world’s top-ranked
player began with a birdie
at Sentosa Golf Club and
birdied three of his last 10
holes to complete a bogey-
free round of 4-under 67.
That was enough for a share
of the clubhouse lead with An
Byeong-hun of South Korea,
the next highest-ranked player
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Spieth, who has played
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forced to turn to his manager
Jay Danzi to carry his bag
after his long-time regular
caddie Michael Greller
injured an ankle in Abu Dhabi
last week and skipped the trip
to Southeast Asia.
By his own dizzy stan-
dards, Spieth was not at his
best during his opening round,
driving well but misjudging
most of his approach shots
to the green, although there
were some mitigating circum-
stances for the 22-year-old.
He avoided the worst of
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when he teed off in front of a
big gallery just after sunrise
and made a perfect start when
he drained a 20-foot birdie
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of the day.
The Texan made par at
his next eight holes as he
struggled to get his yardage
right on the unfamiliar course
before picking up another
shot on the par-5 18th to reach
the turn at two-under.
FREEMAN: Induction ceremony on April 30
Continued from 1B
When he left the Air
Force a few years later,
Freeman moved to Eugene
where he enrolled at Lane
Community College and
began to assist with the
wrestling program there.
After just one season, he
became a full-time assistant
at Lane before moving
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his Bachelor’s degree at
Eastern Oregon University.
A few years after
graduating and starting his
teaching career at Enter-
prise, Freeman moved to
Pendleton to take over as the
junior high wrestling coach
— something he envisioned
as a short stopover before
cracking into the club ranks
in Portland.
“At the time there were
two clubs (in Portland) that
were the two top club teams
in the United States,” he
said. “I wanted to get in that
area, so I was going to be a
junior high coach and work
my way up.”
But once Freeman settled
into Pendleton, he knew that
plan would quickly change.
He loved the community
atmosphere and loved the
way the community rallied
around everything.
“We had spent one year
here and one day I told my
wife ‘We’ll never leave,” he
said. “That was in 1984 and
we’re still here.”
Biding his time as the
junior high coach for three
years, Freeman applied for
and got the head job in 1987
and held that position for
13 years. In that time, he
coached 33 Inter Mountain
Conference
champions,
four state champions, 18
state placers, and were the
Tri-State champs in 1992.
But after the 2000
season, Freeman decided
that enough was enough
and stepped down as Pend-
leton’s wrestling coach.
“I think a lot of
people have a hard time
Contributed photo courtesy of Dale Freeman
In this 2011 photo, Dale Freeman, center, accepts a
plaque commemorating his selection as Oficial of
the Year at the OSAA state championships.
understanding how much
energy goes into coaching
anymore,” he said. “It’s
not like it used to be where
it was a few months of the
year and then everybody
went to another sport, it
became a year-round thing.
“I spent summers away
from my family a lot and
that got really hard. Also
with coaching in the IMC,
all the long trips tended to
wear on me a bit and I just
thought it was time for a
younger person to step in.”
Freeman took the entire
next year off and away from
the sport, enjoying the time
with his family that he had
lost as a coach. But after a
while, his passion for the
sport began burn inside him
again. He decided to get
back in the sport, but this
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“I got back involved and
take a lot of pride in what
I do,” he said. “I’m almost
64 years old and I still get
excited about going out and
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says he was always known
as a stickler for rules and
regulations as a coach, and
he uses that same mentality
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because he says they owe it
to the kids.
“In every sport there’s
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don’t take it serious enough,
they’re mediocre and they’re
hurting the kids,” he said.
“The kids put all of the time
and effort and heart and soul
into what they’re doing and if
you’re not on your ‘A’ game
you’re cheating those kids.”
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ating, he has been involved
with the state tournament
for numerous years and
was voted by coaches from
all ranks as the OSAA’s
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)UHHPDQZLOOEHRI¿FLDOO\
inducted into the Hall of
Fame on Saturday, April 30
during the Oregon Chapter’s
22nd annual celebration at
the Embassy Suites Hotel in
Tigard. Freeman will receive
a replica plaque of the one
that will be hung in Still-
water a place that Freeman
now hopes to visit soon.
“I grew up in Wichita,
Kansas and my dad grew
up in Oklahoma, I spent
every summer there so I’ve
always wanted to go back
and see the Hall of Fame,”
he said. “Now it’ll be a little
more special.”
———
Contact Eric Singer at
esinger@eastoregonian.
com, (541) 966-0839.
After much deliberation,
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Mikayla Kopacz decided
playing time trumped a large-
school experience and signed
a national letter of intent with
Columbia Basin College
softball on Tuesday.
Kopacz, who intends to
study nursing or business,
spurned interest from two
NCAA Division I schools to
stay local and attend the Pasco,
Washington, junior college.
“I think last year it hit me
(softball) was gonna be the
sport I would go far in,” she
said.
After starting her search
for a college team a little
later than most, Kopacz was
still able to catch the eye of
Bradley University (Illinois)
and Campbell University
(North Carolina), but chose
CBC and the Hawks for three
main reasons — cost, the
chance to start right away, and
head coach Adrian Ochoa.
Ochoa recruited Kopacz
after coaching her on the
Staff photo by Kathy Aney/ile
In this May 6, 2015 ile photo, Hermiston shortstop
Mikayla Kopacz scoops up a throw from behind the
plate as Pendleton’s Lauren Richards steals second in
a game played in Pendleton.
travel team Washington
Angels this past summer.
“He actually saw what I
had and what I was bringing
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“He helped me tremendously
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gave me an offer I couldn’t
really pass up.”
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fourth in the NWAC East last
season going 28-23 overall
and 14-14 in league play and
are entering the eighth season
of Ochoa’s tenure.
Kopacz said Ochoa has
offered her the starting spot
at shortstop and the assurance
that he’ll do everything he
can to get her a scholarship at
a four-year school.
“My coach (Ochoa) really
assured me that he’s going to
push me somewhere else,”
she said. “He gave me a lot of
scenarios. The school I was
looking at in North Carolina,
if their shortstop blew out a
knee or something, the coach
there could call (Ochoa) and
ship me right out. He’s going
to get me somewhere else.”
Kopacz was a third-team
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iston as a junior and made
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River Conference while
batting for a .408 average.
T-WOLVES: Collins nets team-high 17
Continued from 1B
And that’s exactly what
happened.
Each team went on runs
without the lead changing
hands, but after Heugly
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still left before intermission,
WWCC mounted a 9-1 run
that reset the score headed
into the locker rooms.
Left alone in the right
corner,
Walla
Walla’s
Marquel Greene released her
shot over a closing BMCC
defender and found nothing
but net to knot the score at
32-all with 4.8 seconds left in
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tie of the game and BMCC
would never lead again.
“It probably was (a
momentum changer), and
that was another one of those
rotation deals where they wait
to see where the ball lands
before they go out there,”
Driver said. “They just need
to sprint on the pass instead of
waiting until it gets caught.”
Walla Walla opened the
third quarter on a 12-2 run
and never let The T-Wolves
any closer than eight points
the rest of the way.
“We just have too many
defensive lapses where we
don’t talk, we lose sight of
who we’re guarding and
then just are slow on some
rotations,” Driver said. “It
only takes three or four of
those and then you go from
tied to down by eight or 12.
It’s frustrating.”
The lead hit its largest at
17 points when Shayna Allert
scored three of her game-high
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5 of 9 from deep range and
after it’s slow start Walla
Walla hit 10 of 31 three-
BMCC’s
Kylie
Collins
shoots
the ball
guarded
by Walla
Walla’s
Emily
Hancock
in the
Timber-
wolves’
73-60
loss to
the War-
riors on
Wednes-
day in
Pendle-
ton.
Staff photo by
E.J. Harris
pointers in the game.
“Chipping away wasn’t
going to work, especially
with the threes they were
knocking down,” Driver said.
“We couldn’t keep trading
buckets with them in the
fourth quarter and that’s what
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fourth quarter.”
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team-high 17 points for the
T-Wolves and Savannah
Heugly added a quiet double-
double with 15 points and 11
rebounds.
“Obviously we want to
get (Heugly) a little more
involved in the offense but
everybody’s game plan
against us is to slow her
down, and so whenever she
touches it she usually has at
least two, sometimes even
three defenders collapse in
on her,” Driver said. “In the
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distributing the ball and we
got some pretty easy layups
out of that. … She picked it
up there in the second half but
she also was in foul trouble so
that took away a little bit of
the aggressiveness.”
Despite losing three of
their last four games, BMCC
is still right in the thick of the
playoff hunt just two games
out with seven to play.
The T-Wolves host Trea-
sure Valley to complete the
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on Saturday at 2 p.m.
———
WWCC (15-4, 4-2) 17 15 25 16 — 73
BMCC (8-12, 2-4) 19 13 11 17 — 60
WALLA WALLA - S. Allert 18, K. Corrigan
15, K. Green 11, E. Hancock 9, T. Wellsandt
8, M. Greene 6, C. James 6, J. Jensen, K.
Twohy. (24-64)
BLUE MOUNTAIN - K. Collins 17, B.
Gregory 16, S. Heugly 15, B. Haringa 8, K.
Reyna 4, E. Ramsey, L. Cagle. (21-51)
3-pointers - WWCC 10-31, BMCC 2-9.
Free throws - WWCC 15-20, BMCC 16-23.
Fouls - WWCC 24, BMCC 18. Fouled out -
E. Hancock (WWCC), K. Collins (BMCC)
BLUE MOUNTAIN: Crockett scores 24 to lead team
Continued from 1B
Blue Mountain (9-12,
0-6 East) held the lead
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thanks to a 13-3 run that
Luke Meyers capped with
a layup to make it 37-28
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halftime, but every time
the T-Wolves looked like
they were ready to go for
the kill, Walla Walla (8-13,
2-4) would shoot its way
back into the fray.
The Warriors went 30 of
52 (57.7 percent) from the
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streaky scoring, and a 14-6
run by Walla Walla to
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BMCC’s lead to 43-42.
The Warriors kept it
going after the break and
came out of the locker room
on a 14-7 run that gave
them the lead for good.
Blue Mountain didn’t
fold up shop after falling
behind, though, and cut the
lead to a single possession
after Jared Mathews scored
down low off a pass from
Tyler Thurman that made it
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That was as close as the
T-Wolves would come.
An inside bucket from
Walla
Walla
leading
scorer Roman McNight
gave him the last of his 27
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and after missed shots
by both teams, Darrian
Caffaro-Briggs converted
a three-point play to give
his team a 72-64 lead with
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Following a Walla Walla
turnover, Thurman made
his only basket of the game
to pull the T-Wolves within
72-66, but the lead was
quickly back out to double
digits following back-to-
back three-pointers by
Caffaro-Briggs and Dalton
Thompson.
Walla Walla maintained
the lead from there, never
letting BMCC within 10.
D’Quan Crockett led
BMCC with 24 points,
but like the rest of the
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his shooting touch late in
the game. Meyers added
23 points while Mathews
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and nine rebounds. BMCC
shot 28 of 64 (43.8 percent)
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20 from three-point range,
where most of their shots
were taken late in the
second half.
The T-Wolves, which
entered league play with
the third-most wins in the
East, are running out of
chances to turn their season
around and trail fourth-
place Columbia Basin by
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on Saturday by hosting
three-win Treasure Valley
at 4 p.m.
———
WWCC (8-13, 2-4) 42 46 — 88
BMCC (9-12, 0-6) 43 32 — 75
WALLA WALLA — R. McKnight 27, D.
Caffaro-Briggs 20, D. Thompson 17, P.
Radliff 12, J. Downey 8, M. Schutt 4, M.
Mueller, B. Tilleman, D. Steele, T. Sperry, M.
Henderson. (30-52)
BLUE MOUNTAIN — D. Crockett 24, L.
Meyers 23, J. Mathews 8, J. Schultz 5, R.
Bell 4, L. Hawkins 4, Q. George 3, I. Harris
2, T. Thurman 2, G. Blankenship, A. Dean.
(28-64)
3-pointers — WWCC 11-24, BMCC 4-20.
Free throws — WWCC 17-24, BMCC 15-23.
Fouls — WWCC 21, BMCC 23. Fouled out
— R. Bell (BMCC).