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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 2015)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 25, 2015 O LD M ILL F ARM S TORE We are now taking orders for Spring Chicks & Ducks Lions turn their attention to the postseason Back-to-back wins give Cottage Grove the No. 2 seed BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel We’ve got all the equipment you need to succeed! W ith wins over Sweet Home and Elmira in the fi nal week of the reg- ular season, the Cottage Grove girls' basket- ball team locked up the Sky-Em League’s No. 2 seed. The Lions will host a play-in game Saturday evening, however their op- ponent is still to be determined. The play-in round matchups will be fi nalized after the OSAA rankings freeze at 10 p.m. on Tues- day. Cottage Grove (15-10, 7-3 Sky-Em) de- feated the Huskies 64-27 on Tuesday and the Falcons 54-45 on Friday. And while the Lions knew they were facing inferior oppo- nents, coach Kerry Clawson said the team wasn’t focused on the scoreboard. “The win is one measure; it’s not the only measure,” she said. “We keep looking to the 3TOP BY 7ELL #HAT #HICKEN "LACK /IL 3UN &LOWER #(3 7ILD "IRD 3CRATCH AND 0ECK #HICKEN &EEDS .O '-/ /2'!.)# 541-942-3042 3 2IVER 2D s #OTTAGE 'ROVE 3B future and we try not to think about progress in terms of wins and losses, but if we are performing the things we’ve practiced.” Tuesday’s game was also Senior Night for Conner Borigo, Jenna Borrelli, Sara Gardner, Ashlee Neely, Taylor Sayles and Amanda Anderson. Clawson said that Bori- go will go down as an all-time great and that the group as a whole was a constant re- minder of why she got into coaching in the fi rst place. “We haven’t had a lot of drama with these kids. They just come here to play basketball and they’re friends with each other. We’ve had a girl on our team who can score 30 points, but the others don’t resent that,” she said. After beating Sweet Home (1-19, 0-10 Sky-Em), the Lions — who are currently ranked 13th — could have lost to Elmira (6-16, 3-7 Sky-Em) and still claimed sec- ond place in the league. However, a strong fi nish in the rankings would help them avoid Cascade, Henley and Sutherlin in the fi rst round. Those top-three ranked teams have a combined record of 67-1. “Our season is coming to a close, and we owe ourselves the respect of a hard-fought game, no matter who our opponent is,” Clawson said. As far as keys to success in the postsea- son, Clawson said that they are no different from what they’ve learned through the regu- lar season: be patient, work to distribute the ball and limit turnovers. Tuesday, Feb. 17 Cottage Grove 64, Sweet Home 27 Sweet Home Cottage Grove 2 17 8 16 6 16 11 — 27 15 — 64 Sweet Home: Miller 10, Stockman 6, Porter 5, Tow 4, Brownell 2 Cottage Grove: Borigo 20, Thielman 11, Neely 9, Mootz 8, Nichols-Ferguson 7, Sayles 4, Albrecht 3, Arnold 2 K ENNEDY Continued from 1B Jared Davis, D.C. Chiropractic Physician 541.767.3788 1240 E. Main St. in Cottage Grove 1995. When he fi rst took the job, Cottage Grove had lost 36 games in a row. They would run that fi gure up to a state re- cord 59 games before the Lions broke through. It was a different era for Cot- tage Grove basketball, but per- haps more signifi cantly, a differ- ent era of high school athletics in Oregon. At that time, Cottage Grove competed in the Mid- western League. As one of the smallest schools in the state's highest classifi cation, Cottage Grove struggled mightily to compete against schools like Marshfi eld and Sheldon. But when its population fl uc- tuated in the early 1990s, Cot- tage Grove dropped down a class to compete in the 3A Sky-Em League and was immediately more competitive. The 1992-93 team placed seventh at the state tournament and fi nished 21-6 overall. The next year, Cottage Grove was back at the 4A level. And though the 1994-95 team was ranked among the top 20 and missed the playoffs by one game, it was bittersweet success for Kennedy, who thought he had developed a team capable of winning the 3A championship. When Kennedy resigned after that season, he left with a clear idea of how schools should pri- oritize athletics. “It’s my feeling that if you can’t fund middle-school sports, you should cut all sports,” he told the Register Guard on Mar. 2, 1995. “If you don’t give kids the chance to excel, what are you doing? Let’s decide what we can be good at and do it." After a brief stint as an as- sistant with Lane Community College, Kennedy took on the Lincoln program, where he has been, more or less, ever since. “I still liked coaching so I went down to the middle school to try to make sure kids had enough preparation to not get slaughtered,” he said. "It be- Veteran / Film Maker / Composer Heraej=bbkn`]^haHqtqnu Our beautiful community is designed for those who need assistance or have memory impairments. You can be assured that you or your loved one will receive the best in care along with compassionate personal attention from our well trained staff. Assisted Living and Memory Care Apartments Call or stop by for more information and a personal tour! seeks country lodging. $200 Finder’s Fee. Marc needs access to bathroom and kitchen or, beƩ er yet, small coƩ age and spot to park his motor home. Can pay up to $500 with fi rst, last and deposit. Wonderful service dog. Contact LeaJones99@gmail.com (see www.vietnaminnerview.com). We are available 7 days a week! 1500 Village Dr., Cottage Grove, OR 97424 T 541-767-0080 s www.MiddlefieldOaks.com comes abusive when you put kids in a losing situation." Though the competitive bal- ance of high school athletics was still out of his control, Kennedy has made good on his promise. He has held 7 a.m. open gyms every morning at the middle school for decades; arranged for his teams to play extra games before and/or after the regular season; and even scheduled the Chinese national team for an ex- hibition game one year. “I have two things I try do: one, teach them to pursue ex- cellence; and two, risk failure in public. To step onto a court in front of a crowd is a type of courage that normal people don’t have to exhibit,” Kennedy said. Shepherd was a neighbor of Kennedy’s when he was in mid- dle school, and Kennedy would take him to those early morning shoot-arounds. “It’s a pretty enormous com- mitment that he’s maintained for a lot of years. I can say with- out a doubt that his efforts have had an impact on varsity play- ers,” he said. Kennedy was a big supporter of the OSAA's reorganization in 2006, which moved Cottage Grove into the fourth highest of six classifi cations. To him it made sense for the Lions to play similarly rural schools, and it also reduced the number of teams in each league, making it easier for teams to schedule winnable games if needed. However, after watching the boys’ team struggle to win their fi rst league game of the season, he pointed out just how impor- tant it is to have a strong pro- gram at every level. “It’s getting more competitive all the time, and you need to start kids in competitive programs at a younger age,” he said. “Lin- coln plays a 10-game schedule, but its not enough to stay com- petitive. The good teams are playing a harder schedule.” While his career has now spanned across six decades, Kennedy was never tempted to return to varsity coaching. “I had this rule: when you’re getting old you want to keep the blessings and shed the burdens. Coaching at that level has a lot of burdens,” he said. One aspect that he took the greatest issue with was playing time. However, at the middle school level he can guarantee that each player gets into every game, and he receives no argu- ment from parents. Kennedy said he is still open to coaching off-season leagues or on a short-term basis, but he is “done shouldering the burden of building the program.” That begs the question, who will pick up the torch? “It will be diffi cult,” Shepherd answered. “Cottage Grove as a community needs to recognize that as things change, if we want to continue to offer kids the op- portunities to improve — over and above a season — it takes kids being in the gym and play- ing as much as they would like to. Of course, it still needs to be fun, and Al brought that com- ponent. Particularly in the later years, he kept kids playing who otherwise may have become frustrated and left. I would love and wish for three or four Als to come along and take over dif- ferent aspects of Cottage Grove basketball.” Health Services Directory Counseling & Mental Health South Lane Mental Health Douglas G. 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