B
S PORTS
Section B
Wednesday, November 18 , 2015
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
CGHS Awards Night sends off fall sports athletes with style
Teams and families gather to celebrate the successful fall season of 2015
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Cottage
Grove High School hosted its
Fall Sports Awards night with
students, faculty, family and
friends gathered in the cafeteria.
Athletes from soccer, football,
cross-country, water polo and
volleyball attended to receive
their varsity letters and were
recognized for their achieve-
ments during their 2015 season.
Athletic Director David Presley
introduced coaches, who in turn
introduced their players before
dispersing into separate rooms
for individual sports.
Boys’ soccer was introduced
by Head Coach Brian Fish and
noted the players who made
the all-league team, which in-
cluded Kyle Browning and
Austin Shipley. Although only
two players made the fi rst team,
the Lions had two more on the
second team and fi ve other
honorable mentions. The boys’
soccer team will see the ab-
sence of Richie Villalobos, Alex
Hernandez, Kaiden Ramsey,
Austin Shipley, Chris Clure,
Lucas Ward, Bryce Allen, Scott
Anderson, Jadon Snauer, and
Zachary Snauer as they fi nish
their senior year.
“I’m proud of our guys; we
had a great season and overall
I think we played pretty well,”
Fish said. “It was unfortunate
we got beat in the playoffs, but
it was against a pretty good
team.”
Head Coach of cross-country
Jim Settelmeyer introduced his
runners proudly. The highlight
of the speech being Settelmey-
er’s attention to freshman run-
ner Konrad Raum. Raum was
the only Lion runner to make it
to the State Finals at Lane Com-
munity College and placed 47th
out of the 111 runners compet-
ing. The corss country team will
lose a total of nine seniors this
year. The seniors include: Tess-
lyn Foster-Gordon, Ka’lea Gal-
breath, Arianah Hanke, Ryan
Barge, Alexander Clifton, Con-
nor Howard, Anthony Trujillo
and Jayden Tucker.
Presley introduced fi rst-year
Head Coach Jason Corwin of
the volleyball team and praised
his commitment to Cottage
Grove High School.
“It really means a lot when
you can get someone from the
collegiate level to teach our
kids,” Presley said. Corwin ac-
knowledged the efforts of his
entire squad and specifi cally
mentioned Allyssa Ganchegui
for making the fi rst team all-
league squad. “We saw tons of
improvement throughout the
season, especially for this be-
ing my fi rst year,” Corwin said.
The Lions will say goodbye to
a total of six seniors this year:
Ganchegui, Jaylene Forrester,
Abigail Ladd, Kassidy Whisler,
Haley Simonsen, and Alexis
Gaethle.
Girls’ Soccer Head Coach
Vern Stewart was introduced
with applause for making coach
of the year for the Sky-Em
League. The team itself won
the Sky Em league for the fi rst
time in school history. The Li-
ons had to share the crown with
Sisters, but after an easy 3-0 win
over Sisters during their play-in
match, the Lions seemed to be
a clear winner. The girls were
ranked No. 8 as they entered
the playoffs, but their season
abruptly ended after a 2-0 defeat
against No. 9 ranked Gladstone.
The team also fi lled fi ve out of
the 11 spots on the Sky-Em All-
League roster.
“We had a fantastic season,”
Stewart said. “I’m so proud of
our girls; I’m grateful to have
been able to watch these seniors
grow all four years since I’ve
been here.” The soccer team
will lose nine players to gradu-
ation this year. Delia Nichols-
Ferguson, Melissa Thielman,
Chelsey Bottorff, Melissa Mc-
Casline, Brooke Fisher, Jasmin
Lopez, Emma Browning, Josie
Mootz and Emma Simons will
all be fi nishing high school in
the spring.
For water polo, Head Coach
Tyson Coleman gave a brief
speech about the effort of both
the boys and girls teams. The
girls had a wildly different sea-
son than the boys, but the young
players encourage the future
of Cottage Grove’s water polo
teams. The girls’ team will only
see the departure of one player,
senior Amelia Phillips, while
the boys’ team had no seniors
this year.
Football Head Coach Gary
Roberts also got the opportunity
to refl ect on his team and their
2015 season.
Please see AWARDS, Page 3B
Equestrian signs letter
of intent to TCU
Josie Mootz will continue her horseback
riding career in Texas
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Photo by Sam Wright
Mootz eagerly signs her letter of intent as her parents proudly watch on.
Cottage Grove High School
experienced a special moment
on Monday, Nov. 16, when se-
nior Josie Mootz signed her lit-
ter of intent to enroll at Texas
Christian University to be a part
of the equestrian team. Mootz,
who is extremely notable for her
skills on the soccer fi eld, plans
on studying kinesiology in col-
lege while she competes on the
school’s equestrian squad.
“I’m really excited; it was re-
ally cool to get an offer from a
school like this,” Mootz said.
Mootz said she has been
riding horses all her life. Her
mother described her starting
out as a “champion stick-horse
rider in our living room.” At the
age of eight, she won the title
of regional walk trot champion
in Nampa, Idaho on her quar-
ter horse named Amber. Mootz
eventually ended her quarter
horse career with “numerous
buckles, all around awards, and
two saddles.”
After quarter horses, Mootz
began showing paint horses, for
which she also has received nu-
merous accolades with.
Since winning the walk trot
regional in Idaho, Mootz was
taken under the wing of Tammy
Mills, an equestrian trainer who,
along with her husband Rob
Mills, was considered like “sec-
ond family” to Mootz.
“They have spent long hours
together on the road, waiting
for classes to start when its
freezing out, and even getting
up before light to feed and get
horses ready,” Mootz’s mother
explained in a speech.
Please see MOOTZ, Page 3B
Athletes of the Week
Brad's Chevy and GMC bowling team take fi rst
place in round one of Cottage Mixers league
Lion basketball players run drills in the main gym at
CGHS on Monday.
Winter sports kick
off with try outs
Monday marked the beginning of Cottage Grove High School's
winter sports seasons. This means basketball (girls and boys), swim-
ming and wrestling have come to accompany the colder weather.
Although no offi cial contests start until December, student-athletes
have begun to attend try outs as teams begin to take form.
Stanton Newlan, Merv Kwandt, Errol Miller, Ann Steeprow and Alli Miller of Brad's Chevy
and GMC bowling team secured fi rst place on Wednesday, Nov. 11. The team racked up a to-
tal of 50 wins against 20 losses. They beat every opponent by at least 12 pins. Second place
was taken by Forklift Services of Org with 38 wins and 32 losses, followed by Swearengin
Designs (37-33).
Cottage Grove
Sentinel