A16
Sports
wallowa.com
August 29, 2018
Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise football moves to 8-man
5 seniors will be
team leaders for
Eschler’s squad
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise High School
football is entering another
dimension: The eight-man
football program. The school
transitioned from the standard
11-man squad mainly because
of declining interest in the
program.
Second-year Coach Rusty
Eschler said he has 15 players
SPORTS PREVIEW
on the squad so far this year
despite an appearance at the
state playoffs last year.
“We’ll possibly get more
when school starts, but we
have what we need for eight-
man,” he said. “The difference
between eight and 11-man
football offense is two line-
man and a skill position player
while on defense. Two defen-
sive backs and a defensive
lineman are missing.
“I like eight-man football,”
Eschler said. “I coached eight-
man at Joseph, and with our
numbers, it was something we
had to do.”
He said his players had
no problems adjusting to the
game.
“Last year, our preseason
was eight-man and nine-man
football games,” he said.
The Outlaws only played
four 11-man games last year.
The squad lost four seniors,
but has five seniors this year
and one junior. Only two
freshmen joined the squad this
year. Eschler said that some of
the lack of interest is probably
due to fear of injury, particu-
larly concussion.
“There’s a faction out there
concerned about head trauma,
and there’s nothing we can we
can do about it,” Eschler said.
“All we can do is make it as
safe as we can. We’re part of
the Heads Up Football pro-
gram, and we teach techniques
to take the head out of the
game.”
Eschler said that team
strengths include his five
seniors, four who have played
together multiple years.
“Their leadership is our
strength,” he said. “Our kids
are hard-working and good
kids, but we’re not very deep,
so our weakness is going to
Outlaw volleyball standout injured
in first outing of the season Aug. 25
Niezen has a
hurting knee
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Outlaw volleyball
team traveled to John Day
for its Aug. 25 season opener
at the Grant Union Tourna-
ment. The ladies lost all eight
sets they played, but their per-
formance was not without its
bright spots.
The tournament was “pool”
played, which means the ladies
only played two matches with
a 25-point cap against each of
its opponents.
The first losses were
against Heppner by scores of
18-25, 18-25.
The Outlaws lost starter
Gracie Niezen to a knee injury
in the first five points of the
first set on Saturday, which put
the team into a bit of a tailspin.
She was unable to play for the
rest of the day and is a ques-
tion for this week’s play.
Enterprise followed with
losses to Burns 9-25 and 13-25
and Jordan Valley, 12-25 and
24-25. In best of three bracket
play, the Outlaws lost to
Weston McEwen by scores of
12-25 and 15-25.
Despite the losses, coach
Lisa Farwell noted some fine
performances from her ath-
letes. She said that senior
Shelby Moncrief had 26
digs and passed well all day
while sophomore Claire Far-
well served 94 percent, going
15 for 16 at the serving line.
Carsyn Miller had 16 assists as
a setter, and Ashlyn Gray had
10 kills.
Coach Farwell noted the
loss of Niezen and the chal-
lenges that faced the Outlaws
afterward.
“We spent the rest of the
day adjusting our lineup,
which mostly involved two
freshmen playing in her spot,
Jada Gray and Rilyn Kirk-
land,” she said. “They both
stepped up tremendously and
did a great job for us. They
played with a lot of poise and
heart.”
Farwell said that the lineup
change left Outlaws with more
than the usual first game jitters.
“As difficult as it is to lose
eight sets on your first day of
SPORTS PREVIEW
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The 2018 cross-country
season is here and coach Dan
Moody is ready for it. Last
year’s girls squad, made up all
of students from all the coun-
ty’s schools, took the state
championship.
Moody is coaching both
the junior high and high school
boys and girls teams. He has
more than 40 volunteers for
this season with about 30 high
school participants.
The team started practice
Aug. 13. Moody said he has a
good crop of freshmen and a
solid returning squad.
“We don’t have a senior
boy on the squad,” Moody
said. “That’s a plus for us.
The team only lost one girl
from last year’s championship
let them work into it.”
Moody doesn’t let the
upcoming defense of the
state title dictate the way
he coaches now. He said he
works his athletes a little
harder because sometimes
the athletes want to back off
because they think it’s “going
to be easy.”
Nonetheless, the coach
likes the overall attitude of his
team. He’s already told them
that cross-country isn’t like
other sports. Each week is
tougher than the week before
and it never lets up until the
week before the last meet.
For that reason, he expects
his numbers to stay steady as
some kids quit because they
didn’t realize the amount of
effort involved and others
join as the school year starts.
The coach hopes to see the
boys squad come into their
own this season. No one from
the boys squad made state last
year.
Golfing days roll to an end
Rochelle Danielson
Summer’s slowly slipping away.
Suddenly, it is “sweater time” as brisk
morning air moves in, but surely warm
“short sleeve” weather will continue in
afternoons.
September’s Labor Day holiday
reminds us it’s back to school for the
youngsters, back to work for parents and
for Alpine Meadows golfers, six more
weeks of golf.
Two tournaments are scheduled before
season’s end. The popular annual High
Country Rat Race tournament is on taps
this weekend with the Cats, the Rats and
the Cheese battling it out for honors, and a
“last hurrah” local Fall Scramble tourney
Sept. 15.
Before too many hurrahs, the ladies
owe an apology to Bill Beck. Somewhere
in editing last week’s Tee Time column
part of a sentence was omitted. The copy
should have read ... “Carol Marr, tourney
chairman, along with AMGC ladies give
special thanks to Gail Beck’s stepson, Bill
Beck, and also Gail’s brother, Tom Green-
awalt for their $200 cash gift to the invita-
tional in honor of Gail.”
The Tuesday Ladies appreciate the
Beck family’s thoughtfulness. Gail loved
the game of golf, and she especially cared
for Alpine Meadows Golf Course upkeep.
Now, notes of Interest:
• Please welcome the following Board
of Directors for the 2019 season: Mike
Harshfield (returning,) Brian Rahn and
Kathy Reynolds. This is a 3-year term.
• Alpine Meadows 2018 Men and
Women Club Championship is Sunday,
Sept. 16, all day starting at 9 a.m. at the
course. Any member can play. 18-Hole
Stroke Play with handicap. You must play
with another player entered in Club Cham-
pionship. Sign up at clubhouse through
Sept. 16. Cost $10 per player ... money
goes to Wallowa County golf programs.
• From the AMGC Newsletter by Judy
Ables. Don’t forget about the Golf Ball
Drop! Buy raffle chances at clubhouse to
win a club 2019 Membership, and Unlim-
ited Range Balls, if present. Drawing Sept.
15. More details later.
Skins Game Winners: Jerry Hook, 2
Gross skins/4 Net skins. Dale Johnson, 2
Gross/1 Net skin. Gary Marr, 1 Gross/1
Net skin. Terry Lamb, 1 Gross/2 Net skins.
Due to lack of participation, there will
be no more Men’s Day games this year.
Friday Scotch Ball-8/24: Terry/Cheri
Lamb, Low Gross. Bill/Judy Ables, Low
Net.
Rat Race results next week.
Rochelle Danielson writes a weekly
golf column for the Chieftain.
some much-needed size to the
squad.
Fans can expect to see the
team throw the football more
than in years past.
“Coy’s got a pretty good
arm, and the more we throw
in practice, the more we like
what we see,” Eschler said.
The team will also throw
a good amount of play-op-
tion at opponents, and team
speed should make the games
interesting.
“We coach these guys the
best we can,” Eschler said.
“We make it fun, and hope-
fully, we have some success. I
think we’ll be all right.”
HAYWARD WINS HONORS
play, I saw some great things
out of this young, relatively
inexperienced team,” she said.
“Even with Gracie out, we
were in every set.”
The coach said her girls did
a stellar job on serve receive
and played good defense and
served well.
“Our net play suffered the
most from Gracie’s absence,
but this tournament showed
me we have the hitters that
can get the job done with a bit
more experience,” she said.
The Outlaws played Helix,
Weston McEwen and Irrigon at
an Athena tournament on Tues-
day, Aug 28. The team then
travels to Wallowa on Thurs-
day, Aug 30, before traveling
to the the Prairie City Tourna-
ment on Saturday, Sept. 1.
Cross country team in the running
squad. By the end of the year
we should be running pretty
well.”
The team has six freshmen,
something Moody is happy
about. Those runners will be
among the top seven on both
high school squads. He also
has several runners who hav-
en’t previously participated in
cross-country but show talent.
“When you get six kids
out of one class, that’s really
good,” he said before adding,
“Except when you lose them,
you lose a lot, too.”
The Outlaws also have
several runners who hav-
en’t previously participated
in cross-country. He said it’s
too early in the year to make
accurate assessments about
their talent. He also said that
some of the team is also just
now showing up because of
work commitments.
“In the first two weeks, I
don’t put a lot of emphasis on
their running,” he said. “I just
be depth.”
The coach said that
he selected senior Coy
Aschenbrenner as starting
quarterback.
“He’s one of the best kids
you’ll run into,” he said about
the starter’s work ethic. “The
core group of kids we have in
the locker room are great.”
He also noted that Trace
Evans will start at running
back and freshman Gideon
Gray will see a lot of playing
time.
The Outlaws also inher-
ited a player from Astoria
named Sallas Boyer, who at
6-5 and 250 pounds will add
“I’m hoping it’s going to
be a little different this year,”
he said. “It’ll be nice to take
both teams to state.”
Several weeks back, the Chieftain ran a story about the
highly successful baseball season of last spring. In so do-
ing, the photo of Rylie Hayward was not the correct pho-
to. Rylie won the Cody Gollihue Memorial Scholarship
(Outstanding Senior), first team all league infielder, sec-
ond team all league pitcher, second team all State infield-
er, second team all State pitcher and among the top 20
best players in Oregon 3A.