E AST O REGONIAN
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
WNBA ALL-STAR
delle donne
and Wilson
choose their
WnBa all-
star teams
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A8
Pendleton 12U All-Stars take two in West Regional tournament
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
san BeRnaRdInO, Calif.
— northern California’s streak
came to an end at the hands of
Pendleton’s 12u all-stars softball
team on sunday.
The Pendleton little league
team took down its California
opponents 4-1 in round one of
the West Regional Tournament. It
marked the first loss for the Cali-
fornia program, who went unde-
feated until it met Pendleton.
“I think northern California
could have won the Oregon state
title, had we not been there,” Pend-
leton head coach scott Wilson
said. “They’re that good. They’re
probably going to come all the
way up through the losers bracket.
We might see them in the (West
Regional) championships.”
The all-stars would go on to
take down arizona on Tuesday in
a 11-4 second-round contest.
Pendleton held the lead from
the second inning onward of game
one. Josie Jenness’ sacrifice fly
to center field drove in Madaline
schumacher to put the all-stars on
the board, and Melanie Boatman’s
ground ball drove in another RBI
in the following inning for a 2-0
advantage.
“The girls came out and really
hit the ball well,” Wilson said.
“Our defense was spot-on, too.”
The all-stars knocked down a
triple play in the bottom of the third
to keep northern California score-
less. Avery Krigbaum snagged a
fly ball at center field, then threw
it in to Nessa Neveau at third base,
who threw it to second to complete
the play.
“That really took the wind out
of (northern California’s) sails,”
Wilson said. “They didn’t have any
retaliation after that.”
Boatman scored on schumach-
er’s single in the top of the fifth,
and with the bases loaded, lilli
See Softball Page A9
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
neW yORK — all-star cap-
tains elena delle donne and a’ja
Wilson had fun drafting their
teams.
Both made sure they had
their WnBa teammates on their
squads and even pulled off the
first two trades in All-Star Game
history.
The two captains of the WnBa
all-star Game selected their
teams Tuesday night on television
— the first time the league has
done that. They will square off
saturday in las Vegas in the all-
star Game.
Delle Donne had first pick of
the starters and chose Phoenix’s
Brittney Griner saying she would
let Wilson have her Las Vegas
aces teammates liz Cambage and
Kayla McBride. Wilson waited on
choosing McBride and Cambage
to the second and third rounds
picking los angeles point guard
Chelsea Gray first.
delle donne of Washington
rounded out her starters with seat-
tle’s Jewell loyd, Connecticut’s
Jonquel Jones and new york’s
Kia nurse. Wilson added natasha
Howard as her other starter. The
league will announce who will
take Wilson’s spot in the starting
lineup at a later date. Wilson is out
with an injured left ankle.
delle donne, who was a cap-
tain last year and lost the all-star
Game had a simple plan for her
draft.
“Who’s not going to party the
hardest is who’s going to win this
game,” she said. “If you have part-
iers on your side, you’re done.”
While delle donne had the
first pick of the starters, Wilson
had the top pick of the reserves
and chose Minnesota’s Sylvia
Fowles first. She later added Chi-
cago teammates diamond desh-
ields and allie Quigley, Indiana
teammates erica Wheeler and
Candice dupree.
Wilson also got Minnesota’s
Odyssey Sims with the final pick.
The two captains made a trade
after the draft was done, send-
ing Minnesota’s Napheesa Col-
lier, who replaced Wilson on the
all-star roster, to team Wilson for
new york’s Tina Charles.
Delle Donne’s reserves include
her Washington teammate Kristi
Toliver, Phoenix’s DeWanna
Bonner, los angeles’ nneka
Ogwumike, Chicago’s Courtney
Vandersloot and Connecticut’s
alyssa Thomas.
The two captains also made a
trade of coaches, putting the aces’
Bill laimbeer with Wilson and her
las Vegas teammates. delle don-
ne’s group will now be coached by
Mystics coach Mike Thibault.
The WNBA added festiv-
ities for the night before the
all-star Game with a 3-point
shootout, skills competition and
beach party.
MAC-HI FOOTBALL
BREAKS FROM THE LEAGUE
Staff photo by Kathy Aney, File
In this Sept. 25, 2015, file photo, Mac-Hi’s Cole Skramstad (67) and Sam Carlson (42) rush to stop Weston-McEwen’s offense in a nonleague
game in Athena. The Pioneers will leave the Greater Oregon League to play football independently this season.
Pioneers’ football
program will play
independently
starting this fall
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
M
IlTOn-FR eeWaTeR
— The Mac-Hi football
team has had enough of
league play — at least for
the time being.
This season, the Pioneers are break-
ing free of the Greater Oregon league in
favor of playing independently. They’ll
say goodbye to league standings, a shot
at the 4a state title, and their former GOl
rivals starting this fall.
It was a decision that was made after
the conclusion of their most recent sea-
son, in which they went without a win —
0-8 overall and 0-6 in the league. That
record saw them finish fourth, behind
Baker, Ontario, and the league champi-
ons in la Grande (7-3, 5-1 GOl).
“We kept going to the sidelines against
teams like Ontario, with 60 guys,”
Mac-Hi athletic director and head foot-
ball coach Gary Robertson said. “Mean-
while, we’re standing there with 20 guys.
The other teams had 20 guys that were
seniors. We put ourselves in a bad, bad
situation. at the end of the day, we were
undermanned. until we get more players,
this is how it’s going to be.”
during a February meeting, the Osaa
Executive Board gave the Pioneers the
go-ahead to leave the league and play
their season independently. Instead of fac-
ing their usual three opponents in league
play this season, they’ll face an entirely
new set of teams from across the state.
Their upcoming season, which
includes four home games and five away,
will pit the Pioneers against Madras,
Tillamook, Philomath, Stanfield, Siu-
slaw, Henley, Phoenix, north Valley, and
Washington’s Kiona-Benton.
“It was interesting,” Robertson said of
the Osaa meeting. “They (the Osaa)
were the ones that brought the idea to my
attention. I never knew it was an option.
We had several meetings about it.”
Things finally fell into place, and Mac-
Hi’s next season’s schedule has been set.
They’ll open play with a home jamboree
against Stanfield on Aug. 31, followed by
a home game against Madras on Sept. 6.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
“The Osaa stepped in to help piece
together the schedule,” Robertson said.
“We’re playing teams that we normally
never play because they’re so scattered
around the state of Oregon. I feel very
good about the teams that we’re going to
compete against.”
The Pioneers have gone without a
win since sept. 22, 2017, when they took
down Riverside/Ione 35-6 in a nonleague
game. according to Osaa records, they
have not won a GOL game since before
2013.
Robertson said his biggest concern
was keeping his team’s roster filled with
enough athletes.
“Soccer is more popular over here,”
Robertson said. “I’d love to have kids
come out in participate (in football),
but we’re not getting enough. Frankly,
between all of the boys last year, our par-
ticipation was down 20 percent. We only
had 12 guys on our wrestling team.”
Mac-Hi’s football team is the only
one in the school that will be affected by
the deal. Every other sport in the school
remains a part of the GOl.
Instead of a shot at the postseason, the
Pioneers’ football program will simply
begin preparations for the next season,
Robertson said.
“This is for our kids to have success
moving forward,” Robertson said. “Hope-
fully soon, we’ll have 30-40 kids in our
football program.”
SPORTS SHORTS
Shaun White pushes forward on Olympic skateboarding track
neW yORK (aP) — shaun
White is pressing forward with
plans to shoot for the summer
Olympics in skateboarding.
White said Tuesday on nBC’s
“Today” show that he will com-
pete at world championships in
september “and see what hap-
pens” before deciding whether
to try to earn a spot on the u.s.
team for skateboarding’s Olympic
debut next summer in Tokyo.
The three-time Olympic snow-
boarding champion has won five
of his 23 X Games medals on the
summer side in skateboarding.
But
when
snowboarding
became an Olympic sport, and
with no similar option on the sum-
mer Games side, White focused
on the Winter Games.
He announced last summer that
skateboarding was in his plans but
only competed in one contest last
year.
street and park skateboarding
are on the 2020 Olympics pro-
gram, neither of which is consid-
ered White’s specialty.
He is expected to focus on the
park version, which mixes vertical
jumps like those seen on the half-
pipe with street features like rails
and stairs.
Josh Friedberg, the CeO of
usa skateboarding, said last
month “the question we always
get is the shaun White question.”
“The answer is, if anyone can
do it, it’s shaun, but he has a long,
hard road in front of him,” Fried-
berg said.
In this Feb. 14, 2018, file
photo, gold medal win-
ner Shaun White cele-
brates after the men’s
halfpipe finals at the
2018 Winter Olympics
in Pyeongchang, South
Korea.
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File