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“SHE IS OUR LEADER BECAUSE
SHE JUST TAKES CHARGE. SHE’S
NOT NECESSARILY LOUD,
BUT SHE TAKES CONTROL.
WE HAVE A LOT OF SUPPORT
BEHIND HER. HER PRESENCE
ON THE COURT WILL VERY
MUCH BE MISSED.”
— Echo volleyball coach Des Thew
B1
ON THE SLATE
Saturday, Oct. 2
College football
Eastern Oregon at Southern Oregon, 1 p.m.
College volleyball
Northwest at Eastern Oregon, 5 p.m.
Prep volleyball
Southridge at Hermiston, 1 p.m.
Pilot Rock vs. Enterprise at Grant Union, 3:30 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Grant Union, 5 p.m.
McLoughlin at Dayton-Waitsburg, 12:30 p.m.
Irrigon at Vale, 10 a.m.
Irrigon at Nyssa, 3 p.m.
Riverside at Nyssa, noon
Riverside at Vale, 2 p.m.
Umatilla at Burns, 1 p.m.
Griswold at Imbler, 10 a.m.
Prep cross-country
Hermiston at Oxford Classic in Bend, 2 p.m.
Pendleton, McLoughlin, Stanfi eld/Echo,
Weston-McEwen at Pasco Big Cross Invite, 10:30 a.m.
Prep girls soccer
Nyssa at Stanfi eld/Echo, noon
Four Rivers at Umatilla, 2 p.m.
Prep boys soccer
Four Rivers at Umatilla, noon
College men’s soccer
Blue Mountain at Wenatchee Valley, noon
College women’s soccer
Blue Mountain at Yakima Valley, noon
Sunday, Oct. 3
College men’s soccer
Eastern Oregon at College of Idaho, 3 p.m.
College women’s soccer
Eastern Oregon at College of Idaho, 5:30 p.m.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Echo High School’s Faith
McCarty prepares to serve
the ball Tuesday, Sept. 28,
2021, during a win over the
Sherman Huskies in Echo.
Monday, Oct. 4
Prep volleyball
Heppner vs. Enterprise (at Stanfi eld), 4 p.m.
Enterprise at Stanfi eld, 6 p.m.
A COMPETITIVE EDGE
Echo’s Faith McCarty
knows how to work
for what she wants
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
ECHO — The McCarty family is
competitive, whether it be board games
or basketball.
That has been very apparent at Echo
High School, where the four McCarty
sisters — Elizabeth, Hannah, Rachel and
Faith — have put their stamp on every-
thing from volleyball to basketball to soft-
ball and track.
That run is about to end as the young-
est, Faith, will graduate in the spring of
2022.
“It’s the end of an era, for sure,” Echo
volleyball coach Des Thew said. “Faith
is the fourth of the four girls, and the last
one. It has been a good run. In all my
years coaching, I’m pretty sure I have
had a McCarty the whole time. It will be
a loss, for sure, but somebody will step
up and fi ll her shoes, just like with the
others.”
While basketball is McCarty’s favorite
sport, you wouldn’t know it by the way
she controls the play on the volleyball
court.
The 5-foot-7 senior is a setter, but
when she plays the front row, she plays
outside. She will even hit middle for one
rotation.
“She not tall, but she can jump,” Thew
said. “She just knows where to put the
ball, and she reads the court really well.
She keeps them on their toes. She’ll hit
line, they will adjust, and then she will hit
cross court, or she will tip. I think if Faith
had her way, she’d stay in high school and
play forever.”
Thew, who is in her second year as
head coach of the Cougars, has been
coaching at Echo for 12 years. Her fi rst
year at the school, McCarty was in the
fi rst grade. Now she’s team captain.
“Time goes by really fast,” Thew said.
Tuesday, Oct. 5
Prep volleyball
Pendleton at La Grande, 6:30 p.m.
Hanford at Hermiston, 7 p.m.
Nixyaawii at Pilot Rock, 6 p.m.
McLoughlin at Umatilla, 5:30 p.m.
Irrigon at Riverside, 5 p.m.
Ione/Arlington at Echo, 5 p.m.
Prep girls soccer
Hermiston at Hanford, 7 p.m.
Pendleton at Hood River Valley, 4:30 p.m.
Baker at McLoughlin, 5 p.m.
Stanfi eld/Echo at Irrigon, 4 p.m.
Umatilla at Riverside, 4 p.m.
Prep boys soccer
Hood River Valley at Pendleton, 4:30 p.m.
Ukiah/Long Creek at Irrigon, 6 p.m.
Umatilla at Riverside, 6 p.m.
Prep slowpitch softball
Moses Lake at Hermiston (2), 4 p.m.
Area schools
mixed on OSAA
classifi cation
proposals
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Echo High School’s Faith McCarty (13) waves to spectators during introductions be-
fore the beginning of a Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, match with the Sherman Huskies in
Echo. The Cougars went on to defeat the Huskies.
“She is our leader because she just takes
charge. She’s not necessarily loud, but she
takes control. We have a lot of support
behind her. Her presence on the court will
very much be missed.”
This season, McCarty is averaging
eight kills, six assists, 10 digs and two
aces per match. The Cougars are 4-0 in
Big Sky League play and 11-3 overall.
“She is usually our leading attacker,
and she shares the setting responsibilities
with Nevaeh (Thew),” Thew said. “We
run a 6-2, and I love that if something isn’t
going well at the net, I can switch things
up and somebody produces.”
McCarty is more about the team than
the numbers.
“I have been playing with most of
those girls since sixth grade,” McCa-
rty said of her teammates. “We all have
our own piece that we bring to the team.
We are a good team. Once we do some-
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
thing bad in a game, the coaches will
pick something out and that’s what we
work for that day.”
McCarty said she knew the Cougars
had something special when they played
North Clackamas Christian and South
Wasco County in a preseason tournament.
“We lost to North Clackamas in three,
but we kept up with them,” McCarty said.
“They are No. 1 right now. We expect a
lot from our team, knowing what we are
capable of. Our coaches really work us.
We hope to go far.”
The Cougars will get a taste of other
top teams in the state on Saturday, Oct. 2,
when they play in the Eagle Invitational at
Damascus Christian.
“We are looking forward to the Damas-
cus Christian Tournament to see what we
are made of,” McCarty said.
PENDLETON — Travel time and expense,
time lost in the classroom by student-athletes,
and league size are some of the biggest concerns
by local athletic directors when it comes to the
Oregon School Activities Association’s classi-
fi cation and districting proposals.
At present, the
Pendleton
OSAA has six clas-
sif ications, rang-
would like to
ing from 6A, which
see a change,
incorporates the larg-
est schools in the state,
whereas
to 1A, which has the
La Grande
smaller schools. The
OSAA has started
would not
using en rollment
numbers for grades 9-11, instead of 9-12.
Everyone else falls in between, and that’s
where some of the issues lie.
The six-classifi cation proposal would keep
schools from Bend and the Salem area together
in the 6A Mountain Valley Conference.
See McCarty , Page B2
See Schools, Page B2
SPORTS SHORT
Mountaineers look to bounce back against Southern Oregon
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Eastern Oregon University quarterback Kai
Quinn hands off to Jordan Eggers during a game
Sept. 25, 2021, against the College of Idaho.
The Mountaineers lost the game 24-7, dropping
the team seven spots in the NAIA Coaches’ Poll
ahead of a matchup with Southern Oregon on
Saturday, Oct. 2.
LA GRANDE — A week after suff er-
ing its fi rst loss of the season, the East-
ern Oregon University football team faces
another big test — this time, on the road.
Eastern dropped a 24-7 decision on
Sept. 25 at home against the College of
Idaho, ending an undefeated start to the
season. The loss dropped Eastern from No.
11 to No. 18 in this week’s National Associ-
ation of Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches’
Poll. Now at 3-1 on the year, the Mountain-
eers will be looking to turn things around
against the Southern Oregon Raiders.
“I think that the ability to go back out
and go to work is the answer,” head coach
Tim Camp said. “It was a tough one to
swallow, but at the same time there’s still
a lot of football to be played.”
Each team enters this week’s matchup
coming off a very diff erent outcome in
Week 4. Southern Oregon trailed Carroll
College 33-14 with just more than 11
minutes left in regulation, but scored 20
unanswered points to stun the Saints and
earn the team’s second win of the season.
The Raiders are currently just one game
behind the Mountaineers in the Frontier
Conference standings.
Against the College of Idaho, East-
ern struggled to move the ball off ensively
throughout the losing eff ort. The Moun-
taineers totaled 259 yards, compared to
419 from the Yotes, and rushed for just
70 yards as a team. The loss comes on the
heels of a narrow 10-7 victory at Carroll
College in which Eastern tallied just 179
yards of total off ense. Moving into this
week’s matchup, Camp emphasized the
importance of getting the off ense rolling.
“We have to make plays off ensively,”
he said. “They’re out there to be made
and we’re not making the ones that we’re
used to making in the past. It’s not going
to change until we change it, so that’s one
of the main focus points.”