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SATURDAY EDITION | MAY 29, 2021 | $1.00
THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM
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.
Transfer Portals
Sports Calendar
June 1
• MHS boys BB
vs McKenzie 5:30 pm
• MHS girls BB
vs McKenzie 7 pm
• SHS boys BB
vs Marshfield
5:45 pm
• SHS girls BB
vs Marshfield
7:15 pm
June 3
• MHS boys BB
vs Alsea 5:30 pm
• MHS girls BB
vs Alsea 7 pm
• SHS boys BB
at C. Grove 5:45 pm
• SHS girls BB
at C. Grove 7:15 pm
June 5
• MHS boys BB
vs Siletz 5:30 pm
• MHS girls BB
vs Siletz 7 pm
• SHS boys BB
vs Marist 1:30 pm
• SHS girls BB
vs Marist 3 pm
Tide Tables
Entrance Siuslaw River
High Tide
Low Tide
May 29
2:09am / 8.3
4:03pm / 6.3
9:19am / -2.0
9:17pm / 2.9
May 30
3:01pm / 7.7
5:00pm / 6.1
10:11am / -1.5
10:19pm / 3.0
PHOTOS BY ZEAHNA YOUNG/SIUSLAW NEWS
Siuslaw’s Liam McClellan pushes the ball downcourt looking for an open passing lane.
Viks swept by Spartans on the road
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
Siuslaw’s basketball teams
traveled to Eugene on Tuesday
(May 25) to take on Marist
Catholic. The boys’ team took to
the court first, and after a hard-
fought game, succumbed to the
Spartans 48-79.
According to Coach Dylan
Perry, “It was the game that I
expected as far as Marist show-
ing the intensity and discipline
of a championship team. They
were bigger and stronger than
us at every position.”
The Spartans started the
game on an 8-point run, with
Siuslaw’s Liam McClellan going
to the line with just over 5 min-
utes left in the first quarter to
score the Vikings’ first 3 points
after being fouled at the 3-point
line.
About a minute later, Avery
Hart scored 2 more points for
the Viks after picking up a
rebound and brought the score
Brea Blankenship (right) brings the ball up the court for
Siuslaw with pressure from a Marist defender.
to 5-10 in favor of Marist. The
Spartans pushed the lead to 10
points, but with just under 3
minutes left, Braydon Thornton
picked up a 3-pointer to bring
Siuslaw back within 7 points.
Thornton picked up 4 more
points for the Viks in the first
quarter, two at the foul line and
two on a fadeaway jumper. By
the quarter’s end, Siuslaw was
down 12-21.
In the second quarter, Marist
was able to stretch out the lead
despite 9 more points from
Thornton and 3 from Brody
Terry. The half ended at 26-39
in favor of the Spartans.
See
SHS 2B
Harry Potter fans will re-
member portals as a means of
moving characters from one
spot to another place or time
by entering a mysterious por-
tal.
An NCAA portal is not
mysterious but it does trans-
fer a player from one school to
another. Hundreds of students
and athletes transfer each year
from one college to another for
a variety of reasons. In the last
few years the media has head-
lined some highly visible ath-
letes using a transfer portal to
complete their sport eligibility
at another school.
Few underclass players
transferred from one NCAA
Division 1 school to another
Division 1 school because it
meant they would need to sit
an entire year before be-ing el-
igible to play.
When I researched for this
column, I found only the rev-
enue producing sport’s ath-
letes were required to sit, i.e.,
football, men’s and women’s
basketball, hockey (must be an
East Coast sport) and baseball.
All other athletes were free to
participate in their sport im-
mediately.
My thoughts on this may be
the time and money used in
the recruiting, the name rec-
ognition of star athletes, the
programs and jerseys printed
and a commitment necessary
for a team’s success all played
in the importance of keeping
the revenue sharing teams
competitive.
See
LITTLE 3B
Siuslaw grapplers pin down several more dual meet wins
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
“We’ve had a rugged schedule.
I don’t think there’s ever been
a time where we wrestled four
grueling matches in six days.
We competed Friday (May 21),
Saturday (May 22), took Sunday
off, Monday was a training day,
and then we came back and had
tournaments Tuesday (May 25)
and then yesterday (May 26),”
explained coach Neil Wartnik of
his wrestling team’s schedule this
past week.
“We’re tired,” he said. “I
pushed the team hard, and to be
really honest, I think they did a
tremendous job. In terms of the
skill level and the experience
level, it was really a great, great
stretch.”
Wartnik’s team has had major
successes at all of their meets
so far this year, and Tuesday’s
was incredible. The way the
team wrestled was just fantastic.
We had tough matches, Toledo
is a very solid team. They’re
young, but they also have some
seasoned seniors and they have
they have quality kids. Just
about every match was exciting
in the Toledo dual.”
Notable wins included Hunt-
er Petterson, who won by major
decision over Christian Rether-
ford 20-7; Elijah LaCosse, who
pinned Jacoby Simonds in 2:33;
and Ryan Jennings, who won by
decision over Ash Blomstrom
4-2.
“We ended up winning on
ZEAHNA YOUNG/SIUSLAW NEWS
the basis of numbers, strength
JC Gentry holds his opponent just before securing a win.
and team depth,” said Wartnik,
“but it was quite a matchup. We
home dual meet (May 25) was falling only to Cascade by just won that dual 31 to 24, and it
no different. The Viks won three one point.
wasn’t until the end of the dual
“Tuesday was just an awesome where we picked up forfeits that
of four duals they competed in,
defeating Toledo, Siletz Valley/ night,” said Wartnik. “If yester-
See SIUSLAW 2B
Eddyville and Waldport, and day (May 26) was good, Tuesday
May 31
3:57am / 7.0
5:58pm / 6.0
11:06am / -1.0
11:29pm / 3.0
Sailors chart a course of back-to-back wins on hardwood
June 1
5:00am / 6.2
6:55pm / 6.1
12:02am / -0.3
June 2
6:12am 5.6
7:48pm / 6.2
12:46am / 2.7
12:59pm / 0.3
June 3
7:28am / 5.2
8:35pm / 6.4
2:02am /2.3
1:55pm / 0.9
June 4
8:44am 4.9
9:17pm / 6.6
3:07am / 1.7
2:47pm / 1.3
By Zeahna Young
Siuslaw News
“I knew we could right the
ship this week; it was what
we needed after going 0-2 last
week,” Mapleton’s boys basket-
ball coach Eric Wolgamott said
of the team’s performance in
Monday’s game (May 24) at Tri-
angle Lake, where they defeated
the Lakers 53-23.
“It was a tale of two halves,”
said the coach. “The first half,
we were still trying to figure it
out. We were better, but we still
weren’t playing the best basket-
ball I know we can play.”
“Every shot Mohawk took was contested
up top, and that’s because Joe and
Jeremy did their job perfectly.”
— Sailors coach Eric Wolgamott
The Sailors were up 24-21 at
halftime, but Wolgamott knew it
wasn’t enough to rest easy at that
point.
“I challenged the team at half-
time,” he explained. “I told them,
it’s too easy on the offensive end
for the Lakers. On the offensive
side for us, we’re speeding up
when we don’t have to. If we have
the opportunity to score in tran-
sition, let’s be aggressive with it
— but if it’s not there, we’re not
going to force it.”
The team adjusted accordingly
and accepted Wolgamott’s chal-
lenge. The result? The Sailors
outscored Triangle Lake 29-2 in
the second half, with the final
score being 53-23.
JJ Neece had 21 points, two of
which included a slam dunk —
not a common occurrence at the
high school level.
“I’m challenging him to get a
dunk each game. He’s now two
behind, so he needs to get three
next game for that,” joked Wol-
gamott.
Senior AJ Moso had 16 points,
proving his utility on the court in
several areas. According to Wol-
gamott, “He really did a great job
holding it down low. He had
See
SAILORS 3B