B
Section B
S PORTS
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Al's World: Where everyone has a chance to pursue excellence
Kennedy has fostered Cottage Grove basketball's competitive spirit
for 50 years, and is now preparing to step away from Lincoln M.S.
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
M
embers of the Cottage
Grove basketball com-
munity can’t help but chuckle
and roll their eyes at the sugges-
tion of retirement for Al Kenne-
dy, but that is exactly what the
long-time coach intends to do
after his Lincoln Middle School
eighth graders play their fi nal
game of the season this after-
noon at Creswell.
This skepticism, however, is
not founded in Kennedy’s con-
viction so much as the under-
standing of what it has meant
for him to teach this game to
Cottage Grove’s youth over the
past 50 years.
“He’s been talking about it
for a few years, so I’ll believe it
when I see it,” said boys varsity
assistant Scott Shepherd. “Al
has done so much that I don’t
know I can do justice for what
he means to Cottage Grove
basketball, and in such a vari-
ety of capacities: his time and
coaching; fi nancially support-
ing younger teams and kids that
may not have had the opportu-
nity to play in big tournaments;
and he has had relationships
with the local coaches for so
long that everybody knows him.
I think he truly has a heart for
the kids and enjoys seeing them
be successful.”
That sentiment was ever-pres-
ent during the high school’s fi nal
home games last Tuesday, when
no fewer than 10 individuals,
spanning multiple generations,
came over to catch up with their
old coach.
It was a particularly special
evening for Kennedy, who got
to see girls that he coached as
seventh graders go out as win-
ners on Senior Night.
“I chose to coach middle
school so they could be my
heroes on nights like this,” he
said.
Kennedy was the varsity girls’
head coach from 1989 to
Please see Kennedy , Page 3 B
photo by Matt Hollander
Al Kennedy sits with members of his eighth grade Lincoln team, (from left) Konnor
Owens, Clayton Schoenleber and Allen Cohen at the varsity girls' game on Feb. 17.
Raades go
faster at
state meet
Jarett and Tori Raade rep-
resented Cottage Grove High
School at the OSAA Swim-
ming Championships, held this
past weekend at Mount Hood
Community College. Although
neither advanced to the fi nals,
both Jarett and Tori saw signifi -
cant improvements from their
performances at last year’s state
meet.
Jarett placed ninth and 12th in
the prelims of the 500 free and
200 free, respectively. His time
of 2:04.03 in the 200 was .28
faster than his qualifying time,
and his time of 5:33.75 in the
500 was nearly nine seconds
faster than what he swam in last
year’s meet.
Tori held onto her 11th place
standing from 2014, but her time
of 5:49.34 was an improvement
by almost eight seconds.
Both Raade's fi nished fourth
in their respective events at the
district meet the weekend be-
fore and had to wait to see if
they qualifi ed based on time.
"I knew from the year that our
district is very fast in the free-
style events, and that I had a
chance to get an at-large spot.
But I was still nervous and very
relieved when I found out that I
had made it," Jarett said.
Jarett, a senior, said that this
state meet had a much different
feel from last year's, when the
boys won the team champion-
ship, but it was still exciting
to be at a meet with 300-400
people.
Tori, a sophomore, qualifi ed
for her second state meet, and
she said her goal for next year is
to make the fi nals or place in the
top-three at districts.
photo by Matt Hollander
Cottage Grove's Blake Sentman drives past Sweet Home's Junter Jutte (21) and Ryan Adams(1) for a layup midway through the fourth
quarter of the Lions victory.
Winless no more!
Lions down Huskies for
fi rst league victory
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Entering the fi nal week of the sea-
son, the Lions were determined to snap
an 11-game losing streak and avoid a
shutout in the Sky-Em League. They
delivered an emphatic victory at home
against Sweet Home on Tuesday.
Four Lions scored in double fi gures
and Cottage Grove held off a late-game
surge by the Huskies to win 62-55.
“We attacked pretty well tonight,
and fi nally shot how we’re capable of
from the outside,” said Cottage Grove
coach Donn Pollard. “It was a step in
the right direction and hopefully a sign
of things to come.”
The Lions (5-18, 1-8 Sky-Em) came
out guns-a-blazing against the Hus-
kies (6-13, 2-7 Sky-Em). Blake Sent-
man jolted himself out of a midseason
slump by scoring seven fi rst-quarter
points — including a three-point play
in the opening seconds — as Cottage
Grove built a 19-12 lead.
“We were sick of losing and walking
around school hearing people say how
bad we are,” he said.
After multiple +20-point games
against nonconference opponents,
Sentman’s production trailed off in
league play. He said that over the past
few weeks he has kept his head up and
trusted that his scoring touch would
return.
“He penetrated well, was more pa-
tient with his shots and got us going
right off the bat,” Pollard said of Sent-
man, who fi nished with 18 points on
7-of-11 shooting.
Kory Parent kept the Lion offense
rolling by scoring nine straight points
to open the second quarter. However,
Sweet Home’s Ryan Adams countered
with eight straight points of his own to
pull the Huskies back within nine.
At that point, it seemed as though
Sweet Home had found an offensive
rhythm reminiscent of its previous
game against Cottage Grove
Please see Boys Basketball , Page 2 B
Hard luck hits at state
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
C
photo by Gary Ordway Sports
Action Photogrpahy
Tori Raade
ottage Grove entered this past week-
end’s state bowling tournament in
Salem hoping to come away with a pair of
trophies. But both teams encountered just
enough bad luck to keep them off of the
podium, as Bend and Roseburg won the
boys’ and girls’ state championships, re-
spectively.
The girls qualifi ed for Sunday’s fi nals in
fi rst place but were eliminated by Spring-
fi eld in the fourth round. However, Gracie
Stewart was named MVP of the tourna-
ment. The senior closed 89 percent of her
frames on Saturday, and 85 percent on Sun-
day.
“I knew I was doing good, but I didn’t
know I was bowling that good,” she said.
“I knew that if I looked at my numbers I
would psych myself out.”
Despite her outstanding start, Stewart
only stood in seventh place after day one.
She topped the fi eld with a higher-percent-
age of strikes on Sunday.
“It meant a lot to go out on top because in
the past I’ve always looked up to the MVP.
Please see Bowling, Page 2B
Athlete of
the Week:
Gracie
Stewart
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