B
S PORTS
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Wednesday, Aug . 19, 2015
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Haze disrupts football camp, youth league expands
Smoke from southern
fi res causes football
camps to move
practice inside on
Thursday morning
and cancel practice
that evening
Youth
volleyball
sees slight
drop in
turnout,
rise in skill
level
photo by Sam Wright
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Monday kicked off the youth
and high school football camps
this week as young football play-
ers geared up in preparation for
another football season. While
the fi rst three days seemed to go
smoothly, the fourth and fi nal
day would be faced with envi-
ronmental disruptions.
By the early afternoon on
Monday Aug. 10, the sunny
skies over Cottage Grove were
dimmed by thick smoke. How-
ever, there were no reports of
Coach Bill Thompson (right) had to run drills inside the high school gym due to the concerning haze.
fi res near the area, and KVAL’s
meteorologist suggested that the
smoke came from the Stouts fi re
east of Canyonville, the Collier
Butte fi re west of Grants Pass,
or even fi res as far south as Cali-
fornia.
The football camps took
place too early on Monday to
be affected by the haze, and on
Tuesday and Wednesday slower
winds may have reduced the lev-
els of smoke in the area. How-
ever, Thursday’s practice had to
be adjusted as health concerns
for young athletes had arisen.
The younger sixth through
eighth graders moved their
practice to the basketball gym,
while the high school camp
spent the majority of their time
in the weight room. While
Thursday’s haze didn’t initially
appear as harsh as on Monday,
it could defi nitely be felt on the
fi eld. In fact, high school head
coach Gary Roberts decided to
cancel the evening practice on
Thursday.
“I spoke with our pediatri-
cian, who recommended that we
don’t have our evening camp, so
we may have to cancel,” Rob-
erts said. By the end of Thurs-
day’s morning practice, it was
confi rmed that the evening ses-
sion was indeed canceled. Bill
Thompson, who coaches for
middle school students, agreed
with the decision.
“We don’t want to put any of
the kids at risk,” Thompson said,
“the heat can get bad enough.”
Thompson is one of the
coaches for the youth league,
and encourages those already
signed up to invite friends to
join. This is because it is the fi rst
year where all three grades of
sixth, seventh and eighth grade
will be playing full contact, 11
player football.
“This is the fi rst time we’ve
ever done all three grades, and
we’ve even decreased the price
to $50, that’s about a $75 de-
crease,” he said.
The middle-school football
games will start weekly on Sept.
eighth, and the fi rst high school
game is Sept. fourth against
Marshfi eld.
Beer, bark, banter at WOE's Lumberjack Show
Axes fl y, chainsaws
growl, cold-start
competitors struggle
at WOE's annual
Lumberjack Show
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he Western Oregon Ex-
position fair saw lots of
excitement over the weekend,
and nothing drew a bigger
crowd than the annual lumber-
jack show. This year’s events
took place Friday evening and
Saturday afternoon with the big
log stock saw, hot saw, women’s
stock saw, modifi ed power saw,
youth axe throw and open axe
throw on Friday. Saturday’s
events were men’s double buck,
women’s stock saw, hot saw, axe
throw, modifi ed chain saw, fi ve-
cube saw, six cube saw, three-cut
hot saw and several kids events
in the early afternoon.
More often than not, contes-
tants dealt with equipment is-
sues during the saw events that
required a cold start. Starting
up the chainsaws took multiple
attempts by the majority of the
contestants, increasing their
times and hindering their effi -
ciency.
The axe throw saw a lot of
spilled beer, as a can was placed
Lower numbers
aren't necessarily
seen as a negative
BY SAM WRIGHT
The cottage grove sentinel
The South Valley Athletics
youth volleyball camp began
this week, and the gym at Lin-
coln seemed a little emptier than
usual.
The camp saw a slight de-
crease in attendance this year;
however coach Jennifer Rad-
cliffe says that the skill level is
inversely correlated to the atten-
dance trend.
“Attendance is lower than
previous years, but we’re seeing
a big increase in skill for the age
group,” Radcliffe, who’s on her
third year of coaching the SVA
camp, said.
Lower attendance with a
higher skill level could indicate
the sport's growing popularity
among youth in the area. While
not as many people are attend-
ing, those who do are taking the
sport more seriously and truly
engaging in the learning pro-
cess.
Photo by Sam Wright
The axe throw even brought a lot of excitement with the occasional beer spraying out from the target.
at the bull’s eye of the target.
Drawing beer from the can was
the indicator for the six-point
reward for hitting the bull’s eye,
but it wasn’t always a guaran-
tee.
Erin Cramsey managed to
nick the can, drawing a good
amount of beer out, but the axe
stuck right to the left, awarding
Cramsey with only three points
for that throw.
The events were open to any-
one willing to sign up, but all
contestants had to bring their
own equipment. One hopeful
axe-thrower, Willie Gonia, was
met with disappointment when
he came ill-prepared.
“I’m just visiting a friend from
out of town, and I’ve always
loved watching these lumber-
jack shows on TV so I thought
I’d try it,” Gonia said “unfortu-
nately I don’t have my own axe,
so my dreams were shattered,”
he said laughing.
The competition’s results will be
released sometime next week.
Kyle Miller earns
emotional
victory at
Historical Night
Miller, Wauge, Towns, Sine, and
Maricle Historical Night Winners
Due to the WOE fair, the Speedway was dormant this
weekend, but the emotions from Aug 8's historical night still
remain a week later
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
For the Sentinel
Saturday Aug. 8 marked the
annual Historical Night at Cot-
tage Grove Speedway. Con-
gratulations go out to the 2015
Class of the CGS Hall of Fame
and also a special thanks to
Dot’s Trophy Shop for provid-
ing the plaques for the induct-
ees. Divisions that were racing
included the 360 Sprints, IMCA
Modifi eds, Late Models, Street
Stocks and Quality RV Repair
Hornets.
In the 360 Sprint feature,
Patrick Dills set the pace in
the opening laps. The Cottage
Grove native, piloting his Jacob
Daniels Attorney at Law/Or-
egon State Representative Ced-
ric Ross Hayden/M.D. Yearous
Logging #5D KPC, would
hold the coveted position un-
til lap eleven. Taking over the
lead would be the Moxie Vinyl
Graphics/Grant Springer Rac-
ing Engines #10 XXX of Kyle
Miller from Eugene.
Miller would set a rapid
pace, but once he got into some
lapped traffi c he would briefl y
be challenged by Enumclaw,
Washington’s Henry Van Dam.
Van Dam, in his Kovash Log-
ging/Johansen Excavating/Big
Al Kids & Motorsports Foun-
dation/Factory Kahne Shocks
#33V A.R.T., would unfortu-
nately pull off the track under
caution on lap 23. Miller had
the luxury of several lapped cars
in between himself and second
place. Miller would cruise the
remainder of the distance to earn
an emotional victory in honor
of his longtime motor builder
Grant Springer, who passed
away a few weeks ago.
Rob Lindsey from Sherwood
was an impressive second in his
Maxline Custom Cases/Sum-
merfi eld Golf & Country Club/
Speedmart Inc./Triple X Race
Co. #23 XXX, followed by the
Athlete of
the Week
Photo courtesy of Dirt Monkey Productions
#10 Kyle Miller cruised to victory with a commanding
lead on Historical Night.
DES Inc./LaChance Kofoid Products/Awesome Race Wear/
Enterprises/Red Line Oil/Dr. Rodgers Racing Engines #5N
Ramos Dentistry #11K Max- KPC of Seth Nunes, from Med-
im, of Penngrove, California’s ford, was fourth, followed by
Michael Kofoid, in third. The Dills in fi fth.
Napa Auto Parts/Lucas Oil
Please see SPEEDWAY Page 2B
Kyle Miller, driv-
ing his Moxie Vinyl
Graphics/Grant
Spring Racing En-
gines #10 XXX (left),
took the lead in the
11th lap of the 360
Spring feature, taking
a commanding lead.
Miller would be
challenged by Henry
Van Dam, who later
pulled off the track,
allowing Miller to
fi nish in fi rst place
with ease. His victory
was an emotional
one, as his victory
was to honor his late
motor builder Grant
Springer who recent-
ly passed away.
Join us
August 22nd
LOGGER’S CUP-
$1,500.00 TO WIN LATE MODELS
NWWT Sprints: ODSS-Oregon Double Shot Series
Late Models, IMCA SportMods, Street Stocks, USAC HPD Midgets