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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2015)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, July 1, 2015 Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Desbiens scores in Northwest Wingless Tour Dragon Ocean pulls away from the Blind Squirrels BY BEN DEATHERAGE T he Northwest Wingless Tour made its way back to Cottage Grove Speedway on Saturday, June 27. It was the second visit of the 2015 campaign for the Wing- less Warriors, and 13 drivers were on hand representing the states of Oregon and Washington. Sutherlin’s Cooper Desbiens set a rapid pace in the early goings of the main event, but he was slowed down by two cautions around lap eight. However, Desbiens kept his cool and moved his way through as he cruised to his fi rst career Sprint Car victory in just his second attempt. Tim Alberding of Salem reeled in Desbiens several times but could not quite pass him, so his night ended in second and Jonathan Jorgenson, all the way from Au- burn, Wash., was third. The rest of the top fi ve Rally stays atop league standings BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel T Please see COTTAGE GROVE SPEEDWAY, Page 2B photo by Dirt Monkey Productions Evan Britton won a tightly-contested Street Stock main event Saturday at CGS. Please see PICKLEBALL, Page 3B he second week of the South Valley Athletics (SVA) Summer Coed Outdoor Recreational Soccer League (SCORES) fea- tured just one matchup of teams with a win- ning record, and Dragon Ocean defeated the Blind Squirrels 6-1 to remain undefeated. Ten minutes into the 50-minute contest last Wednesday, Erik Bridgeford struck fi rst for Dragon Ocean with a high-arching shot from the left wing. But Marianne Browning equal- ized for the Squirrels with a header in the 20th minute. What appeared early on as a balanced match- up was broken wide open by Dragon Ocean’s Toby Rosenthal, who scored two goals less than a minute apart to give his team a 3-1 lead heading into halftime. Rosenthal’s fi rst goal came on a kick from midfi eld in the 20th min- ute. He said it was 50-50, luck and skill. “I saw that their goalie was crowding the near post, so I aimed for the wide-open space on the other side,” he said. There was certainly more skill than luck in- volved with Rosenthal’s second goal. He and a teammate executed a series of quick passes to take advantage of a defense that was on its heels, and Rosenthal was able to get a clean look from in front of the goal. “It’s always best when you can score early,” said Rosenthal, a 2011 graduate of Cottage Grove High School. “You get tired as these games go along, so you’re much better off if you can concentrate on defense in the second half.” Please see SCORES, Page 2B photo by Matt Hollander Ken Welker and partner Deanna Gillett prepare to return a serve from the team of Gene Gillett and Melba Kokko. The City recently purchased a set of pickleball equipment and taped off a pickleball court at the Coiner Park tennis courts. Athlete of the Week Toby Rosenthal Pickleball wave hits Cottage Grove Clinic to be held Thursday at 5 p.m. at Coiner Park courts BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel P ickleball, the fastest growing sport in Amer- ica according to various sources, has offi - cially arrived in Cottage Grove. At the urging of local enthusiast Ken Welker, the City purchased one set of pickleball equip- ment and taped off a pickleball court at the east end of the Coiner Park tennis courts. “Pickleball is a very quick sport to play, and it’s growing exponentially around the world,” said Welker, who fi rst started playing a year-and-a-half ago. Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Wash. Three dads — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, whose kids were bored with their usual summertime ac- tivities — are credited for creating the game. Pickleball, which is played with a paddle and plastic ball, combines elements of tennis, badmin- ton and pingpong. It is played both indoors and outdoors, and as singles or doubles, on a badmin- ton-sized court with a slightly modifi ed tennis net. According to the USA Pickleball Association, there are over 400,000 active players in the coun- try. The sport has become especially popular among seniors. The smaller area and slower pace are much easier on the joints and lungs than tennis. It’s also an easy sport to pick up for novices, and fun enough that kids and their grandparents can play on the same court. “Pickleball has a lot of attractive characteristics, and it very much ties in with the population and demographics of our community,” said City Please see PICKLEBALL, Page 3B Stuck in the very best rut CGHS mountain biking club takes on Whistler — again BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel M embers of the Cottage Grove High School mountain biking club recently returned home from a fi ve- day trip to Whistler Mountain Bike Park (Whistler, B.C.) — their third trip in as many years. But it’s not that they’re unoriginal. It’s just hard to pass up the crème de la crème. “We would like to branch out,” said club advisor Rex Basting. “There are other parks in Canada and California that would be nice to visit, but at the same time people come from all over the world to ride at Whistler, and here we are just a day’s drive away.” Whistler is widely considered the best park in the world for down hill moun- tain biking. It’s fully lift-assisted, spe- cifi cally designed for full-suspension mountain bikes and contains nearly 50 miles of trails. This year’ group included CGHS se- niors Austin Campbell and Nick Russo, and junior Kayla Goodman; CGHS class of 2011 alumni and original club mem- bers Josh Allen and Jeremy Williams; Basting and two other adult chaperones. The group arrived in Whistler on June 17 to light showers, but according to Basting, the rains helped settle some of the trail dust. For the next three days, they rode at least six hours on some of the best trails in the world, including the roller-coaster esque A-Line, and the high speed Dirt Merchant. “It was a very positive experience,” Basting said. “The kids had a lot of quality time together. It’s a long drive to and from Whistler, but even that was Please see WHISTLER, Page 3B Courtesy photo From left: Members of the Cottage Grove High School Mountain Biking Club Austin Campbell, advi- sor Rex Basting, Nick Russo, Jeremy Williams and Josh Allen recently returned from a fi ve-day trip to Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Join Us July 3rd for SPRINT SERIES 360 Sprints: Western Sprint Tour, IMCA Modiϐieds, Vintage July 4th for SPRINT SERIES (PLUS DEMO DERBY AND FIREWORKS) 360 Sprints: Western Sprint Tour, IMCA SportMods, Vintage
