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