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E AST O REGONIAN THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS | FACEBOOK.COM/EOSPORTS A8 EOU volleyball sets high expectations By RONALD BOND La Grande Observer AP Photo/Eugene Tanner, File In this Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, fi le photo, Utah State quarterback Jordan Love rolls out looking for an open receiver in the fi rst half of an NCAA college football game against Hawaii in Honolulu. Love, who posted big numbers a season ago, is now being hyped for the Heisman Trophy. Boise State, Fresno State top MW teams By PAT GRAHAM Associated Press DENVER — Now this was a sweet idea: Candy hearts with Jordan Love’s name and number stamped on them to hype the Heisman Tro- phy campaign of the Utah State quarterback. After posting big numbers a sea- son ago, Love was voted the Moun- tain West’s top offensive player in a preseason poll. There’s no sugar-coating the league favorites in Boise State and Fresno State. It’s no surprise given the two played in the title game a season ago and in three of the con- ference’s six championship contests. The 21st edition of the league has a deep-rooted feeling of familiar- ity. Of course, there’s the stalwart: San Diego State coach Rocky Long, who’s been around for every Moun- tain West season (19 as a coach of New Mexico/SDSU, one as a coordi- nator at SDSU). Even a new face has a familiar look: Aggies coach Gary Andersen. Although, the last time Andersen roamed the sidelines for Utah State (2009-12), the Aggies resided in the Western Athletic Conference. He’s taking over for Matt Wells, who went to Texas Tech after leading Utah State to double-digit wins. Asked if there were any differences between training camp now with Utah State compared to back then, Andersen cracked: “That was a lot of rodeos ago.” This version of the league might be a little more wide open. Boise State doesn’t have reli- able quarterback Brett Rypien under center anymore. He’s now with the NFL Broncos after signing as an undrafted free agent with Denver. Coach Bryan Harsin will break in a new QB. “Every year we go back to square one,” Harsin said. “If we can fi nd a way in 2019 to put ourselves in posi- tion to win every single game we play or put ourselves in a position to play in a championship game, that’s the goal every year.” Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford has built the Bulldogs into a pow- erful program, going from a 10-win team his fi rst season in 2017 to 12 See Football, Page A9 LA GRANDE — A year ago, the Eastern Oregon University vol- leyball team entered the season under a cloud of uncertainty, with nine newcomers and having gradu- ated several seniors who were part of some of the program’s best post- season runs. This year, the script is entirely different. EOU had a better-than-ev- erybody-expected season that saw it go 25-9, share the Cascade Colle- giate Conference title and reach the round of 16 at nationals. And with the bulk of the ros- ter returning for 2019 — includ- ing the top four attackers, top set- ter and four of the top fi ve players in digs and blocks — expectations are among the highest the program has ever had. “I’m excited to see what they can do, and they’re already pushing the envelope as far as how fast we’re (learning) stuff,” said head coach Kaki McLean-Morehead, who enters her 13th season at the helm. McLean-Morehead called it “night and day” where this team is La Grande Observer Photo/Ronald Bond Aspen Christiansen, center, is shown during a practice on Saturday at Quinn Coliseum. at compared to a year ago, when the Mountaineers were basically start- ing at square one with the plethora of new players and really working on fundamentals. With a lot of those pieces now in place, junior libero Kiley McMurt- rey — who returned for another year despite graduating two years early — said the focus has changed. “I feel like this year, it’s a focus on a lot of the little things — eye work on blocking and on defense, the little things you have to do in order to be successful and ensure you can win those long rallies,” she said. There’s a lot of fi ne-tuning on offense as well, with McLean-More- head saying the team is at a spot where learning to make small adjustments — getting, as she put it, “trickier” — will be important. “At that elite level at the national tournament, everyone can hit a hole in the block. Our defenders have got to a point where they are now sitting in that hole, so we have to somehow work (on offense), on manipulat- ing that hand a little bit so it doesn’t go straight in the hole, it goes to the left,” she said, giving an example of what the main attackers need to do. The strength of the team a year ago — its fl oor defense — is already increasing, she added. “Our fl oor defense has only got- ten better since last year, which is huge because it was already good last year,” she said. Reaching the level the team believes it can be at — competing for a national championship — will require digging deep, having what several players called a “fi fth-set mentality” and “drawing the line.” “That’s where your heart and grit come in and you say, ‘We gotta get it done,’” McMurtrey, who led EOU with 554 digs last fall, said. “Every- See Volleyball, Page A9 Ione, Arlington join forces for fall and winter sports The football team will play at Hermiston and Eastern Oregon University By ANNIE FOWLER East Oregonian IONE — Small schools have been joining forces for years to make sure their athletes have an opportunity to play. Two years ago, Ione co-opted with Riverside for football, and last year the Cardinals were able to fi eld a team of their own at the 1A 8-man level. This year, Arlington needed a partner, and found a home with Ione for football, volleyball and boys and girls basketball. “It was really important for us to have somewhere for our student athletes to play,” Arlington foot- ball coach Ben Tucker said. “We are thankful the school administra- tions were able to work it out. They had a plan in place before the end of school last year. They worked it out pretty quickly.” Ione athletic director Ryan Rudolf said Arlington came to them during basketball season last year to propose co-opting for fall and winter sports. “We co-opted with them in the early 2000s,” Rudolf said. “It kind of worked out quickly. We wanted to make sure we weren’t going to have to bump up to 2A. That was important to both of us.” When teams co-opt, one school absorbs the student body enrollment of the other. The cutoff for 1A schools is 89 stu- dents. Ione has about 60 stu- dents, and with the addition of Arlington, it still was able to stay under that number. Staff photo by Kathy Aney, File Donald McElligott (10), of Ione, goes up for a jumper against Nixyaawii on Dec. 27, 2016, in Mission. Basketball is one of the three sports that Arlington will be joining the Cardinals for this year. In addition to enrollment num- bers, the OSAA also factors in free and reduced lunches. With 60 per- cent of Arlington’s 41 high school students receiving free or reduced lunches, the OSAA subtracts a per- centage of that number, leaving Arlington at 35. Ione’s adjustment leaves it with 53, keeping the schools within the desired 1A level. Arlington combined with Con- don for football in the past, but the Blue Devils were short on players this year, and the few players they do have are playing with Sherman at the 6-man level. The Honkers will have about seven players join the Ione squad this year, bringing the team count to around 25. “They are bringing us some good talent,” Ione coach JJ Rosen- berg said. “We have about 18 kids and a pretty good quarterback. They are sending us some really good athletes who are willing to play just about anywhere.” Tucker, who grew up playing football in Alabama, said his play- ers have taken well to the merger. “These kids come from small farming communities and they know each other,” he said. “Social media keeps them connected. So far, they have been willing to travel (to Ione), but we haven’t started school yet. There may be chal- lenges along the way, but we will work through them.” Rosenberg said they hope to ease the travel pains once the sea- son begins. “Since they are co-opting with us, they have been coming here,” said Rosenberg, who noted the dis- tance between schools is about 40 miles. “Once school starts, we are going to try and make an effort to go there once a week.” The teams went to football camp together at Eastern Oregon University, and have been working out together over the summer. Offi - cial practice begins Monday. The team will open the season on Sept. 6, playing Powder Valley in a nonleague game at 4 p.m. at Hermiston High School. On Sept. 28, the Cardinals will play Cam- bridge, Idaho, in a nonleague game at 4 p.m. at Eastern Oregon Univer- sity in La Grande. Both fi elds have artifi cial turf, which is not common at the 1A level. “We are really excited about both of those games,” Rosenberg said. “They have never played on turf before.” “That is a treat for the guys,” Tucker added. “The big stadiums and playing on turf is a different feeling and a different atmosphere. They are pretty excited to play at Hermiston and Eastern.” The Cardinals will begin Spe- cial District 3-West play on Sept. 20 at Pilot Rock/Nixyaawii. The Ione/Arlington volleyball team will open its season Aug. 30 at the Dufur Classic. Big Sky League play begins Sept. 10 at Mitchell/Spray. SPORTS SHORTS Trail Blazers unveil new court celebrating 50th anniversary season By CASEY HOLDAHL NBA.com PORTLAND — On Monday, the NBA released the regular season schedules for all 30 teams, so we now know the 41 dates in which the Port- land Trail Blazers will host opponents at the Moda Center during the course of their 2019-20 campaign. We also now know what the court on which those 41 games will be played will look like. As a part of the team’s celebration of their 50th anniversary, the Trail Blazers unveiled their new court for the 2019-20 season Monday night during the Trail Blazers X MARTK’D sneaker design competition at Veter- an’s Memorial Coliseum. While the court features a retro look in reference to the team’s fi rst season back in 1970, the court includes small design elements that celebrate all fi ve decades of the team’s existence. The font on the baseline “Portland” and “Trail Blazers” logos, which pre- viously featured the standard word- mark, has been “updated” with a low- ercase throwback font. “Established 1970” has been added to the “Rip City, Oregon” wordmark on the sideline opposite the bench. Photo courtesy of NBA.com The Portland Trail Blazers unveiled their new home court in cele- bration of their 50th anniversary season on Monday.
