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THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM
SATURDAY EDITION | MAY 22, 2021 | $1.00
Time
Out
By Lloyd Little
Siuslaw News
Retired teacher, coach and
game official
Community
&
Lifestyle
With more than 55 years as
an athlete, coach, parent and
spectator, Lloyd Little shares what
he's learned about sports from his
multiple points of view.
Collateral Damage
Sports Calendar
May 22
• SHS track & field
4A state meet
11 a.m.
• SHS wrestling
at Marshfield 2 pm
May 24
• MHS boys BB
at T. Lake 5:30 pm
• MHS girls BB
at T. Lake 7 pm
May 25
• SHS boys BB
at Marist 5:45 pm
• SHS girls BB
at Marist 7:15 pm
• MHS boys BB
vs Mohawk 5:30 pm
• MHS girls BB
vs Mohawk 7 pm
May 27
• MHS boys BB
at Crow 5:30 pm
• MHS girls BB
at Crow 7 pm
• SHS boys BB
vs Marshfield
5:45 pm
• SHS girls BB
vs Marshfield
7:15 pm
Tide Tables
Entrance Siuslaw River
High Tide
Low Tide
May 22
9:18pm / 5.6
9:48pm / 7.2
3:32am / 1.4
3:25pm / 0.9
May 23
10:25am 5.9
10:29pm / 7.8
4:26am / 0.4
4:15pm / 1.2
May 24
11:27am / 6.1
11:09pm / 8.3
5:16am / -0.7
5:04pm / 1.4
ZEAHNA YOUNG/SIUSLAW NEWS
Siusaw junior Izacc Mattson goes for a layup against North Bend last Wednesday night.
Viks on course for standout season
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
This week, the Vikings’ bas-
ketball team opened the season
with two big wins, the first
being a close call that led to a
well-deserved victory against
Pleasant Hill — and the second
being a handily won game
against North Bend.
Coach Dylan Perry discussed
how last year’s performance and
the pandemic have affected his
team in the preseason and the
start of this school year’s season
four.
“Last year, we improved a lot
from the year before,” said Perry.
“We made it to a playoff game,
which was a good accomplish-
ment for our young group of
kids, and we’re basically re-turn-
ing everyone off of our team
from last year, minus one or two
seniors.”
Like the girls’ basketball team
and the wrestling team, Perry
has had to deal with season
over-lap affecting his team com-
position this year.
“It’s a little weird this week
with it being our first official
week of basketball season, and
we’re missing at least half of our
kids that are still in spring
sports,” Perry explained. “So,
we’re working on fundamentals,
trying to slowly get everybody
back into basketball shape, and
See
VIKS 2B
Lady Viks bitten by visiting Bulldogs
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
The Lady Vikings’ basketball
team started their first week of
competitions this week with a
non-league home game against
North Bend on Wednesday
(May 19). Although the Bull-
dogs took the win 43-15, coach
Ashlee Cole explained that she
had expected to struggle a bit
as the team got started this
season.
“I am excited for the sea-
son,” said Cole. “I knew com-
NED HICKSON/SIUSLAW NEWS
ing into this first week of non-
league games that it was going
Sophomore Haylee Cole and freshman Iriena Khufu fight
to be tough for us because we
one of the Lady Bulldogs for a re-bound.
are missing four girls, two of
Blankenship and Freuden- nal meet coming this weekend
which are our other seniors,
Brea Blankenship and Gracie thal are still competing for Siu-
See LADY VIKS 2B
slaw’s track team, with their fi-
Freudenthal.”
The unintended consequence
of the actions taken by one party
onto another party is collateral
damage. We hear the term used
when civilians are killed during
war. Although no deaths to in-
dividuals are expected, the rul-
ing by the SCOTUS will kill the
dreams of many non-revenue
athletes in Division I athletics.
The greed of collegiate ath-
letes in the revenue sports of
football, men’s and women’s bas-
ketball, baseball and hockey will
have negative results on thou-
sands of college and high school
athletes.
The United States Olympic
Team may no longer dominate
if non-revenue sports are elim-
inated to help pay the athletes
demanding compensation for
them. In the 2016 Rio summer
Olympics over 100 medals were
earned by current or former
NCAA athletes.
We do not yet know how
much money will be needed to
“pay” these college athletes. We
do know their sports gener-
ate enough revenue to support
and make available multiple
non-revenue sports. Many of
these sports are included in the
Olympic Games.
NCAA athletes use scholar-
ships and competition to be-
come world class athletes who
go on to represent the United
States in the Olympic summer
and winter games. Sports such
as gymnastics, fencing, skiing,
swimming and diving, volley-
ball and many others may be cut
so we can watch another slam
dunk or a touchdown or a hock-
ey goal.
If you are in high school and
are hoping for a scholarship to
continue your education and
participation in a non-reve-
nue sport, this ruling by the
SCOTUS will impact you as
well. There may be insufficient
funds to have your sport. We
saw how quickly many univer-
sities dropped sports just last
year when COVID eliminated
the March Madness basketball
tournament and the money they
would have received — money
See
LITTLE 3B
Mapleton Sailors chart challenging course for new season
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
On Tuesday (May 18), Maple-
ton played its first boys basket-
ball game of the season away at
Siletz. The Sailors battled until
the very end, playing the final 4
minutes of the game with only
four players after getting into
foul trouble, but the Warriors
came out victorious, winning
50-32.
Said Sailor coach Eric Wolga-
mott, “It was the first game of
the year, so I didn’t really know
what to expect.” Since the Sailors
currently only have five players
ZEAHNA YOUNG/SIUSLAW NEWS
Senior JJ Neece drives to the hoop while heavily contested.
on the team, they don’t have
enough players to run a full
game-style practice.
“You have to do the best you
can with certain drills,” he said,
“but it’s not going to be the
same as in-game intensity.”
The Sailors started the game
matched up fairly even with the
Warriors.
“I felt like both teams were
kind of feeling each other out in
a sense,” said Wolgamott. “We
were able to stick with them for
most of the quarter, but they
went on a little run for the last
See
SAILORS 2B
May 25
12:25am / 6.3
11:51pm / 8.5
6:04am / -1.5
5:52pm / 1.7
May 26
1:20pm / 6.5
6:52am / -2.1
6:40pm / 2.1
May 27
12:35am / 8.7
2:14pm / 6.5
7:40am / -2.4
7:29pm / 2.4
May 28
1:21am / 8.5
3:08pm / 6.4
8:29am / -2.4
8:21pm / 2.6
Siuslaw wrestling team ready to pin return to state mats
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
“We have a very special team
this year; it is one of the finest
groups I have ever coached. Just
so focused, so attentive, a lot of
maturity on the team — and we
have some great leadership,” Siu-
slaw wrestling coach Neil Wart-
nik said of his 2021.
According to Wartnik, “We
happen to be in one of the tough-
est conferences in the state, so
that also challenges us. It’s a lot
easier to get your people to state
being in a tough confer-ence.”
Unlike other sports, with
wrestling, a school must qualify
athletes out of conference in or-
der to be able to wrestle at state
competitions.
But Wartnik explained it’s a
double-edged sword.
“On the one hand, wrestling
great people all the time makes
you better. But on the other
hand, wrestling great people,
you may not qualify for those
big tournaments at the end of
the sea-son.”
Wartnik, who has been coach-
ing at Siuslaw for over 20 years,
as well as teaching English, a col-
lege writing sequence, mytholo-
gy and a great deal more, notes
that keeping perspective of his
real goals as a Vikings educator
and mentor is a large focus.
“I just try to remember that
more important than how we
do on the scoreboard is how we
do with our kids,” he explained.
“How we do at being a team
of unity and like-mindedness
— those are always important
goals, for me and for our coach-
ing staff to keep the focus right.”
Last year, Wartnik’s team was
quite successful, with several
athletes going to state on both
the boys and girls squads.
The team won the highly com-
petitive Sutherlin tournament
and did well in many of its du-
als. According to Wartnik, he
estimates they had close to a 60
percent win-loss record in duals
See
SIUSLAW 3B