2B
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL June 10, 2015
T HE B USINESS
Continued from 1B
and students on this track sell
signage packages, update the
video board in the commons
and, starting this past year,
manage the athletics website,
cglions.org. The new website
has signifi cantly more function-
ality than the previous one, and
the students have spent this year
getting a hang of the basics. Flo-
rez said that going forward the
class will look to further utilize
the website’s capabilities and
thus add more value to sponsor-
ship packages.
“We already generate sig-
OF
S PORTS
nifi cant gross impressions for
our sponsors through the ads
and signs that people see when
they come to our games, tour-
naments and graduations. But
there is such a demand to have
an online presence, and we want
to give people more reasons to
visit our website,” he said.
The class is unlike any other
at Cottage Grove. It’s complete-
ly project based; students are re-
quired to interact professionally
with local business owners, and
they regularly encounter real-
world problems, such as a non-
functioning soda machine or a
misplaced sponsorship check.
“There’s never a dull moment,”
Florez said. “We’re constantly
dealing with the unexpected.
Recently a sign fell down, com-
pletely unbeknownst to us, but
when the business owner called,
we still had to massage that sit-
uation. Sometimes in business
you have to take a fall to make
people happy.”
There are quite a few obsta-
cles to maintaining a high-per-
forming class that delivers on
the promises made to sponsors.
Some students who have the
skills to contribute can’t fi nd
room in their schedules for Ad-
vanced Business Concepts, and
others may only be able to take
it for a year. With so many mov-
ing parts, things can slip through
the cracks.
“Sponsors expect results, but
we try to communicate that
this is a learning setting,” said
Florez. “Thankfully, we have a
core group of kids who have de-
veloped those problem-solving
skills, and who come back for
multiple years.”
Graduated senior Taylor Say-
les was involved with the pro-
gram since her freshman year.
She started out in computer
technology before moving into
Sports Marketing as a sopho-
more. When she fi rst took on the
new role, Sayles recalls dread-
ing making phone calls to local
business owners.
“I was really shy when I fi rst
started school, and this class
helped me become comfortable
with phone calls and face-to-
face meetings,” she said.
As a junior, Sayles moved into
a leadership role and was given
off-campus privileges. The ex-
perience taught her a lot about
how to build a network.
“You can’t run a business
from your headquarters; you
have to go out and make con-
nections. You sell more by go-
ing in and shaking people's hand
than trying to sell them over the
phone,” she said.
While Sayles has no future
plans to run a business — she
intends to study education at
Southern Oregon University
— she said that the lessons she’s
learned aren’t exclusive to the
business world.
“It’s not our goal to make
these students into business
owners,” said Florez, who once
thought he’d like to open a
sporting goods store. “It’s about
giving them an opportunity to
test their ideas and have some
experiences together.”
P RESLEY
Continued from 1B
was selected to play in the third
annual Futures Games, a show-
case event for college and profes-
sional scouts which will be held in
Keizer on July 3. Legion Baseball
is also underway, and later this
month he will try out for Base-
ball Northwest, a regional all-star
team that travels to compete at
scouted tournaments throughout
the West. All the while he’ll be
training with his teammates for
the upcoming football season.
Should he make the Baseball
Northwest team, Presley’s fall
fi gures to be even busier, as he
would need to go directly from
the Friday night lights of Herald
White Stadium to tournaments in
neighboring states. But the sac-
rifi ces could end up being well
worth it. It’s his dream to play
collegiately.
“It takes a lot mentally to shift
from throwing and fi elding a
baseball to catching a football and
being aggressive with people,” he
said. “It also makes for some long
days.”
Presley is by now accustomed to
managing the logistics and mental
gymnastics of double-duty sum-
mers, and he enters this offseason
more physically capable than ever
before. Over the winter he added
15 pounds of muscle and now
stands 5’7," 170 pounds. He said
that he’s never felt faster round-
ing the bases, and at shortstop he
regularly reaches for long plays to
his left that he never would have
tried a year ago.
But while Presley is bigger,
faster and more accomplished
than last year, he hopes to lead the
Lions back to the level of success
he experienced as a sophomore
when they played for a state title
in football and advanced to the
state playoffs in baseball.
“It showed me what it takes to
succeed and what kind of per-
son you have to be,” he said. “To
be apart of that again would be
amazing.”
photo by Gary Ordway Sports Action
Photography
Payton Presley is this year's
Cottage Grove Sentinel ath-
lete of the year. Just a junior,
Presley will be back for the
Lions football and baseball
teams in 2015-2016.
B ORIGO
Continued from 1B
played loose. I was able to
just go out and do my thing,”
she said.
For Borigo, the challenge of
selecting a school paled in com-
parison to that of her earlier de-
cision to pursue basketball over
softball.
As a nine-year-old, Borigo
joined the Northwest Bullets,
a regional all-star softball team
that played at college-scouted
tournaments throughout the
West. The day before her 10th
birthday, she hit her fi rst home
run, and soon afterward she be-
came one of the top recruits of
her class.
But while Borigo said she was
stressed by the constant atten-
tion of college coaches, she kept
playing because of the invest-
ment that her family had made
in her budding career.
As a freshman for the Lions,
Borigo batted .577 with three
home runs. But the pressure had
reached a boiling point.
“It had gotten to the point
where I didn’t want to play any-
more,” she recalled.
Following her sophomore
basketball season (she was a
starter in each of her fi rst two
seasons), Borigo told her family
and friends that she would not
be returning to softball. Their
responses were mixed.
“A lot of people were wor-
ried that I had given up on this
chance to get my school paid
for, but deep down, I knew that
I could still make that happen
through basketball,” Borigo
said.
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photo by Matt Hollander
Conner Borigo is this year's Cottage Grove female ath-
lete of the year. She will attend Northwest Christian Uni-
versity next year and play basketball for the Beacons.
After the dust settled, Borigo
went to work. She would shoot
baskets twice a day with her
mom, Angie, who played at Or-
egon State University. Borigo
also joined the Willamette Val-
ley Basketball Academy, a trav-
eling squad akin with similar
commitments as the Northwest
Bullets.
“I’m a really dedicated play-
er. If I have a goal, I’m going to
achieve it,” she said.” It was the
roughest transition of my life,
but I'm so glad that I did it.”
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