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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2015)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Wednesday, July 8, 2015 Civic's Lessons Successful summer part of Lions' big picture Old baseball stadium burns in the memory for Sentinel editor Cottage Grove drops fi nale to Junction City, 5-1 BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel A nd to think I never took one picture. Back in the beautiful bustling summer of 2008, a volunteer gig covering the Eugene Em- eralds for madfriars.com, the website of the San Diego Padres’ farm system, found me joyfully ensconced in his- toric Civic Stadium for countless innings of baseball the way it ought to be played — the way it ought to be lived. For three months, it was my (second) job to let Padres fans know what was coming down the pike, how the club’s new draftees were adjusting to what for some of them may have been their fi rst summer job — a roster spot on San Diego’s short-season A-ball team and a genuine shot at many young men’s version of the American dream. There would be many memorable conversations that summer. Manager Greg Riddoch proved an insightful, witty and steady voice of wisdom in his third stint with the Emeralds. Please see Civic's, Page 2B T he Cottage Grove D1 (varsity) baseball team wrapped up its sum- mer season with a 5-1 loss to Junction City at Kelly Field on Tuesday, June 30. Wyatt Sayles went 2-for-3 and scored the Lions’ only run, and Bryce Allen also had two hits. The Tigers, who used 14 batters over the course of the game, managed just three hits off of Brett Ollivant, who struck out four and walked four in a complete game on the mound. “It’s hard in the summer because you’re always missing guys,” said Cottage Grove coach Dan Greiszler. “You don’t always get a true sense of who’s the better team, but our kids understand there is a bigger picture.” Geiszler himself was unable to attend Please see Baseball, Page 4B photo by Matt Hollander Junior Brett Ollivant had an outstanding summer season on the mound for the Lions. Coach Dan Geiszler said he could be their number-one pitcher next spring. Chief of the Runway Cottage Grove Police Chief Mike Grover fi nishes his 25th year as a horizontal jumps offi cial at Hayward Field BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel O ver the past 25 years, Cottage Grove Po- lice Chief Mike Grover has spent many a spring and early summer weekend at Hayward Field offi ciating the horizontal jumps. From his seat on the runway, Grover has had an excellent vantage point for the sport's greatest stars, the evolution of Track Town, USA, and some of the best competitions in the world, including the USA senior and junior championships held last month in Eugene. Although Grover competed in the high jump and pole vault at Cottage Grove High School in the 1960s, he had no idea whatsoever about the rules when a friend fi rst asked him to help offi ciate the horizontal jumps at a University of Oregon track meet 25 years ago. “I thought, 'sure, I’ve always liked track,’ so I up and went, and the rest was history,” he said. Grover began his offi ciating career by rak- ing the pits, but fi ve years in he became certi- fi ed through the sport’s national governing body, USATF. One of the biggest factors in his deci- sion to continue was the impact of watching Ser- gey Bubka, the world record holder in the pole vault from the Soviet Union. “He was such a tremendous athlete,” Grover said of Bubka. “And seeing how friendly he photo by Matt Hollander Please see Grover, Page 2B Cottage Grove Police Chief Mike Grover has been a horizontal jumps offi cial at Hayward Field for 25 years. Equestrain team fi nally rides at state Cox wins caution-free Speedweek Northwest race by a nose Goertzen and Schueller are state champs in birangle BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel BY BEN DEATHERAGE The Cottage Grove High School equestrian team fi nally got its chance to compete at the OHSET (Oregon High School Equestrian Teams) state meet, held June 23-28 at the De- schutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond. Offi cials initially cancelled the meet due to an outbreak of the equine herpes virus (EHV-1), but it was even- tually rescheduled for six weeks later. “It was super challenging because we’re usually done by mid-May,” said team advisor Shannon Simons. “Families have vacations planned for this time of year; we had to cancel and rebook hotel rooms, and our horses aren’t used to the 102-de- gree dry heat we went into.” Cottage Grove Speedway hosted the Western Sprint Tour sanctioned Speed- week Northwest on Friday, July 3. It would be the fi fth race of the Speed- week and the fi rst of two nights at the historical 1/4-mile clay oval. A total of 25 cars showed up in the pit area rep- resenting Oregon, Washington, Cali- fornia, Idaho and Montana, as well as the countries of Australia and New Zealand. The feature went non-stop without any cautions Trey Starks appeared to be shot out of a cannon as he grabbed the initial race lead. The Puyallup, Wash. teen- ager spent the majority of the time on the bottom of the race track and had no issues with lapped traffi c. But toward the end of the race, he was forced to abandon the low line in order to clear some of the slower traffi c. This opened a perfect opportunity for Clarksburg, California’s Justyn Cox. He continued to roll on the bot- Please see Equestrian Team, Page 4B courtesy photo The Cottage Grove birangle team of Ashley Goertzen (pictured) and Shania Schueller took fi rst place at the OHSET State Meet, held June 23-28 in Redmond. The state meet was delayed by six weeks due to an outbreak of EHV-1. Athletes of the Week tom and caught Starks on lap 26. Cox attempted to create some distance, but Starks stayed right on his trail. Headed into the fi nal turns, Cox continued to stay low but was slowed down briefl y by a lapped car. Starks tossed the dice one last time and made a bonsai run on the top, and the two of them came to the stripe neck-and- neck. At the end Cox beat Starks out by a mere 0.005 seconds. It marked the fi rst time that Cox has ever won during Speedweek Northwest. Starks was second followed by Chi- co’s Kyle Hirst in third. The balance of the top fi ve consisted of Colby Co- peland from Roseville, Calif. in fourth, while behind him in fi fth was Central Point’s Garen Linder. Starks was fast time of the night and also won the trophy dash to earn the pole starting position in the feature. Heat races were won by Copeland, Hirst and Phil Dietz of Billings, Mont. Please see Speedway, Page 3B Join us July 10th MARK HOWARD MEMORIAL MODIFIED NATIONALS Late Models, IMCA Modiϐieds, NW Extreme Late Models July 11th MARK HOWARD MEMORIAL MODIFIED NATIONALS- $2600.00 TO WIN Late Models, Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modiϐieds, NW Extreme Late Models
