A10
WEDNESDAY
March 14, 2018
SPORTS PREVIEW
Softball squad has seven returning seniors
Gassett
replaces last
year’s head
coach, Plew
is happy with what he sees.
“I’m happy with the
infield we’ve got and happy
with our two returning catch-
ers, Josie Scott and Jessie
Teaney,” he said. He noted
that the outfield is not yet set
although Rachel Frolander
from last year’s squad is sure
to wander the meadows.
A new presence is assis-
tant coach, Becca Bateman,
a superior player from last
year’s squad.
“It’s nice to have a female
present on the staff,” Gassett
said.
Two freshmen, Claire
Farwell and Grace Collins
both offer hope for the future.
“I’m pretty impressed
with Claire, and she’ll make
an important contribution
to the team’s success,” Gas-
sett said. “Grace is great, too,
and they’ll both spend a lot of
time on the field this season.”
He also named sopho-
mores Beth and Ella Ander-
son as future hot shots.
“They’ll be really good
new players, although they
haven’t played high school
ball yet.”
Because the team is com-
bined, it competes at the 3A
school level in Special Dis-
trict 2. The Cubs placed third
in the league and made it to
the state playoffs.
“It’s a tough league,”
Gassett said. “Heppner/Ione
is going to be really tough
to beat, along with several
others.”
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Although the weather of
late hasn’t necessarily war-
bled of the glories of spring,
it hasn’t stopped the Wal-
lowa Valley Cubs combined
softball team from celebrat-
ing their rites of the coming
season.
At
Enterprise
High
School’s Quinn Court, the
gloves are popping and the
bats are swinging, telling
their tales of the victories to
come.
The team is starting with
a new head coach Gary Gas-
sett. He replaces last year’s
head coach, Andy Plew, who
will remain as an assistant
coach. This year’s team fields
14 players, with 13 from EHS
and one from Wallowa High
School.
Nine are returning players,
which includes seven seniors.
The pitching staff includes
all-league pitcher Madison
Plew and Lexie Gassett, who
earned honorable mention on
last year’s squad.
Although practice had
been in session for barely a
week, Gassett already had the
team partially put together and
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Wallowa Valley Cubs coach
Gary Gassett had his sta-
tus elevated from assistant
coach to head coach after
the former head coach, Andy
Plew, resigned the position.
Plew will remain as an assis-
tant coach for the team.
Despite the team’s smaller
numbers and many younger
players, Gassett is optimistic
about the team’s chances this
year.
“I’m just really happy
with their attitudes,” he said.
“Some of our girls played
basketball, and I told them
they could have a week off,
but they were here from
day one. These attitudes are
the best I’ve ever seen, and
they’re willing to do what-
ever it takes. They’ll win
some ball games.”
The Cubs’ first games are
at Heppner/Ione for a double-
header on March 16, starting
at 1 p.m. The following day,
the ladies play another twin-
bill at Weston/Athena starting
at noon.
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Wallowa Valley Cubs softball player, Ella Anderson, waits on the pitch during an indoor
practice at Enterprise High School’s Quinn Court at one of the team’s first practices.
Character matters to Old Oregon League ‘Coach of the Year’
Fulfer leads
Joseph Eagles
to state playoffs
All my returning kids know is that
togetherness and being part of the
team family is the biggest key to
success. If you treat your teammates
with respect, you’re always going to
be competitive.”
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
After a successful basket-
ball season that saw the Eagle
boys going to state for the first
time since 2005, the team has
added another feather to its cap.
Coach Olan Fulfer received the
Old Oregon League’s “Coach
of the Year” award.
Fulfer led the team to a
third-place finish in the league
and into the quarterfinals of
the state playoff tournament.
The Eagles had a 17-10 record
overall.
Fulfer went to high school
in Imbler where he played bas-
ketball, and earned his teach-
ing degree from Eastern Ore-
gon University. He is in his
fifth year of coaching at the
school,
All the more amazing about
the squad is that it lost four
seniors, including three start-
ers, two of whom started as
freshmen.
“It was a big loss we were
replacing,” Fulfer said.
The coach didn’t try to
pigeonhole the team into a pre-
conceived notion of where he
thought it should place.
“I tried not to have any
expectations because it was
a completely new team,” he
said. “I knew they would work
really hard and have great atti-
tudes, but there was just no
experience with any of the kids
— Eagle boys Coach Olan Fulfer
Old Oregon League’s “Coach of the Year”
Coach Olan Fulfer
running the team.”
Fulfer thought the team
would make some noise in the
league, but kept that opinion to
himself at first.
As the team won more
games, he shared the idea of
going to state. A tough over-
time win against Arlington
started to grow team expecta-
tions, but a devastating loss to
Jordan Valley in the following
week deflated them somewhat.
League competition was tough
because of the presence of both
Powder Valley and Nixyaawii,
top-10 ranked teams. The team
struggled at times, but kept
growing –– and not just on the
court.
“Before the season, what
we coaches stressed to boys
wasn’t wins and losses,
because that’s where sports
goes wrong,” Fulfer said. “We
decided to focus our entire sea-
son on the players being pos-
itive with each other and the
coaches being positive with
the players. We didn’t focus on
wins and losses, we focused on
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being better people, and that’s
where I’m most impressed
with our kids. I think when you
do that, the wins will come.”
Fulfer said that striving for
that ideal brought the players
closer together as a team. They
started liking and trusting each
other more and stopped focus-
ing on negatives.
Not that there wasn’t the
occasional miscue. Play-
ers who whined about turn-
overs, bickered or dissed team-
mates soon found the whole
team would bear the weight of
punishment.
“That helped us grow a lot,”
Fulfer said.
Another character-builder
Fulfer used to bond his team
was community service.
“We spent a lot of time help-
ing out the community and try-
ing to be good people of strong
character,” Fulfer said. “In that
way, we were a massive suc-
cess because I think those kids
have just grown greatly as
people.”
Those activities included
shoveling snow and even some
work for the city of Joseph.
Another example included
a player struggling with a
family issue. The team came
together and took money from
their own pockets and gave a
gift certificate to the struggling
family.
“I’m really proud of them,
they’re selfless,” Fulfer said.
Fulfer points to that type of
selflessness as the difference
between this year’s team and
last year’s squad, which had
more raw talent, but didn’t win
as many games.
“I would say the differ-
ence is that they came together
a lot more as a team,” he said.
“It has a lot more positiv-
ity and they’re more selfless.”
He noted that some players
even volunteered to come off
the floor either because they
felt they were struggling or so
other players could spend time
on the court. He specifically
mentioned Tyler Homan, Cae-
van Murray and T.J. Grote in
that regard.
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“The players couldn’t care
less about their own stats,”
Fulfer said. “They’re always
worried about the team. Some-
times it’s tough for people to
see, but they’re the kind of
players we have this year.”
The team had its struggles
early on, but Fulfer knew the
team turned a corner for the
better after a tough but close
away loss to league leader
Nixyaawii. Rather than sulk or
blame each other, the Eagles
rallied together in the locker
room, talking about ways they
could win the game and taking
to heart all the positives in their
play.
“That’s when I realized
we were going to make some
noise,” Fulfer said.
One of the most gratify-
ing things Fulfer saw over the
course of the season was two
of his players who made tre-
mendous strides, freshman
Mason Ferre and junior Trey
Wandschneider. Ferre started
the first two games, lost his
position and then got the occa-
sional start. With his point total
zero or two points per game,
Ferre started to build confi-
dence, eventually winning
back his starting position.
“By the end of the season,
he was a monster, scoring eight
to 10 points a game and play-
ing great defense.” Fulfer said.
Wandschneider, although
tall and athletic, also had a
confidence problem. Although
he was generally strong on
the boards, he wouldn’t shoot,
often choosing to pass the ball
to a teammate. As he built con-
fidence and learned not to let
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audience comments bother
him, he blossomed into a good,
all-around player.
“He had his ups and downs,
but he played like a monster
for us the last five games,” the
coach said.
Confidence was the biggest
hurdle that the team cleared
over the season, Fulfer said.
He added that none of the cur-
rent crop of players started full-
time last year and many lacked
significant court time.
“All those kids had to work
through that and see that they
had to start scoring more,” he
said. “Also, as far as hurdles,
for them to know that they
could be a great team and get
as far in state as we did.”
He added that players
became so selfless that he had
to beg them to stay at playoffs
to learn whether or not they
had won league or state honors
for individual play.
Perhaps
characteristi-
cally, Fulfer was surprised to
win “Coach of the Year” hon-
ors. He instead mentioned sev-
eral other league coaches that
he thought deserving of the
award.
He did, however, say this
year was special.
“This was my favorite
year,” he said. “I feel it was
the most positive about what
we achieved and how the kids
turned out this season. All my
returning kids know is that
togetherness and being part
of the team family is the big-
gest key to success. If you treat
your teammates with respect,
you’re always going to be
competitive.”
541-432-2271
101 S Main Street, Joseph
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