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
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