B
S PORTS
Section B
Wednesday, , August 12, 2015
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Coed soccer championship ends in close shootout
After a 2-2 tie in regulation, Dragon Ocean outscores Rally 3-2 in a shootout
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
F
ollowing a brutal 5-0 shut-
out match for third place,
the South Valley Athletics Sum-
mer Coed Outdoor Recreational
Soccer (SCORES) champion-
ship match was a much tighter
game, as Dragon Ocean kicked
off against Rally Wednesday
evening.
The sun went down and the
lights came on as Rally started
off strong with an early goal by
No. 7 Nick Markham to take a
quick lead, but Dragon Ocean
refused to roll over. Their star
forward, No. 23 Timothy Eck-
stine, tied the game up with a
beautiful strike into the top-
right corner of the goal. Ecks-
tine wasn’t fi nished, however,
as he scored one more time late
in the fi rst half to put Dragon
Ocean in the lead as the game
reached halftime.
The two teams struggled to
get close to the goal for the en-
tire second half. Several soccer
balls were thoroughly ejected
from the match via powerful
Phoo by Sam Wright
Both the Rally and Dragon Ocean teams fought to fi nd the goal in the championship game, but it would be after regulation play, during a thrilling
shootout, that Dragon Ocean would emerge victorious.
strikes unable to reach their
intended target, and it seemed
that Dragon Ocean would walk
away with the win.
But an eager Kirby Bull-
inger managed to elude Dragon
Ocean defenders and score with
less than fi ve minutes left in the
game, tying it up at 2-2. Soon
after, the referee blew the whis-
tle to end regulation, and the
game went into a shootout that
refl ected the tightness of the en-
tire match.
Trevor Smith and Kyle
Finnerty kicked it off with easy
goals for Rally and Dragon
Ocean respectively, but Rally’s
Kalli Ramsey was thwarted by
Dragon Ocean’s goalie, giving
Dragon Ocean the edge until
the same goalie missed his op-
portunity right after Ramsey. It
was not until Markham missed
his goal and Dragon Ocean’s
star of the night, Eckstine,
kicked the fi nal goal of the
shootout that earned Dragon
Ocean the victory. Both teams
graciously congratulated each
other, then eagerly went home,
as the shootout kept spectators
and participants on the fi eld past
10:30 p.m.
N ICE FORM !
Athlete of the Week
Timothy Eckstine
At the South Valley Athletics’s Summer
Coed Outdoor Soccer (SCORES) champion-
ship match, Timothy Eckstine led his team,
Dragon Ocean, to victory over their oppo-
nent, Rally, with two stunning goals in regu-
lation and the winning goal in the shootout.
A look back,
just before
moving on
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
uesday nights, when each
week’s issue is delivered
from our printing press on the
coast, are my favorite times to be
in the Sentinel offi ce. On most
of those evenings, I will hear a
steady stream of people drive up
to the curb at 116 North Sixth
Street, walk up to the vending
machine and drop in three quar-
ters to get their paper. Though I’ve been thanked many
times over the past year by people I’ve written about,
it’s the aforementioned Tuesday night ritual with read-
ers that provided some of the most meaning to my
work; it let me know that some people actually read the
news we had worked so hard over the previous week to
gather, and it’s something I will miss dearly as I move
on from the Sentinel.
This paper has been a launching pad for many tal-
ented journalists; Adam
Jude, who went on to cover sports for the Register
Guard, Oregonian and now Seattle Times, comes to
mind. I wish I could tell you all that I was moving on
to the New York Times, but I’m not. Truthfully, when I
applied for this position, I viewed it as an opportunity
to become a better writer, rather than a step toward a
life-long career in newspapers.
There have been times over the past year, however,
when I reconsidered that plan. It wasn’t long before I
realized the thrill of a byline. I also developed stronger
working relationships in a short period of time than
in any previous jobs. And the weekly production al-
lowed for some very attractive fl exibility with my
work schedule, as well as the time to digest a story and
get it right.
The pressure of Monday deadlines was everything I
hoped for but sometimes more than I bargained for. I
worked from week to week with a certain level of anxi-
ety about not having enough content to fi ll the page.
Along the way I became better at planning ahead and
using a few tricks of the trade to fi ll out a lighter week,
but it was a rare Monday when all loose ends were tied
Please see HOLLANDER , Page 2B
photo by Jon Stinnett
Tennis instructor Bob Reed awaits a volley from Halle Violette during the fi rst day of South Valley Athletics tennis camp
Monday. The fi rst-year camp drew an impressive 26 participants. Since the advent of pickleball on the Coiner Park courts,
the need to share space between tennis and pickleball players has become evident.
Common ground at Coiner Park
Pickleball and tennis players attempt to share court space
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he Cottage Grove City
Council is rarely the forum
for discussions of community
sports and recreation. However, at
the July 27 meeting, representa-
tives of the pickleball and tennis
communities asked city offi cials
to weigh in on a difference of
opinion over the Coiner Park ten-
nis courts.
Since originally installed over a
decade ago, the three public tennis
courts have been enjoyed exclu-
sively by the tennis community.
Earlier this summer, however, a
group organized by Ken Welker
sought to bring pickleball to Cot-
tage Grove. With support from
City Manager Richard Meyers,
the group purchased a community
set of pickleball equipment and
outlined two yellow pickleball
courts — one in paint and the oth-
er in tape — on the most westerly
tennis court.
Clarence Dean, who spoke on
behalf of the tennis community,
said he is not opposed to other
activities that get more use of the
Coiner Park courts, but he became
concerned when he was told that
all three courts would be adapted
for pickleball play.
“We’re hoping that the city only
marks one court for pickleball,”
he said. “From our point of view,
it’s invasive when you’re play-
ing tennis. When you’re trying to
determine if a ball is in or out, it
doesn’t matter if the lines are yel-
low or white.”
Coincidentally it seems, the
pickleball group also saw the July
27 City Council meeting as an op-
portunity to present its case.
“We see this as a collaborative
opportunity,” said Welker. “We
are not trying to convert all of the
tennis courts. We have tentatively
agreed with the city to paint one
more tennis court (for a total of
four pickleball courts) until the
need for more arises.”
As each pickleball court can
accommodate up to four players,
Please see RACQUETS , Page 2B
No races this weekend.
See you next weekend
enjoy the fair!