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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2016)
B S PORTS Section B Wednesday, March 9, 2016 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Roberts to take over as CGHS Athletic Director By next school year, the Cot- tage Grove High School ath- letic community may sense a big absence. Athletic Director Dave Presley will be stepping away from Cottage Grove High School as his son will be gradu- ating and heading off to college. Presley has been the athletic director of Cottage Grove since August of 2000. He started teaching in 1986, where he lived in the small town of Ione, a town of only 250 peo- ple. Presley was the head foot- ball coach as well as the social studies teacher, teaching grades seven to 12. After six years, Pre- sley moved to John Day in 1992, where he taught and coached football for eight years at Grant Union High School until com- ing to Cottage Grove. Presley says that he isn’t so much re- tiring as much as transitioning and looking for other options of employment where he can also watch his son play baseball. “I love working with people, and I’m not ready to stop a regu- lar work routine yet,” he said. With the leave of Presley, Head Football Coach and Dean of Students Gary Roberts will be taking his place (and remain- ing the football coach). Roberts has been in Cottage Grove since 2007, where he coached football and taught social studies until 2014. He came from an eight- year coaching career at Sheldon High School in Eugene, where he coached football and wres- tling. Roberts was brought on to coach football to increase the richness of the football culture around Cottage Grove. “I went to Marshfi eld, which has a very rich athletic culture around Coos Bay,” he said. “I was hoping to bring some of that culture and enthusiasm to Cottage Grove.” And that he did. Roberts has the best winning record of any Cottage Grove football coach, sending the Lions to a state fi nal in 2013. As the new athletic director, Roberts hopes to carry over that culture of football to all the sports. He recently joined the Rotary club and plans to give speeches at the Lions club. “I also want to promote more three-sport athletes; it’s really important for the kids and the success of our programs that we don’t have kids who focus pure- ly on one sport,” he added. With Roberts behind the wheel, it will be interesting to see what adjustments and im- provements can be made to the great legacy of Cottage Grove athletics that Presley has already helped create. Buzzer-beater sends Lions to quarterfi nals Kory Parent didn't lead the team in scoring this time around, but his gameplan-defying layup gave his team the win as time expired BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel It wasn’t easy, but the boys’ basketball team fought off a relentless Baker squad, win- ning 71-69 to earn the Lions a spot in a 4A quarterfi nal match. It was junior Kory Parent who once again saved the day with a buzzer-beating layup that gave the Lions the win. It’s been the story of the sea- son: the Lions have been in at least fi ve games where they have come out with the win by only four points or less. The team has been able to survive in high-pressure situations and shine brightest when the game is on the line. “They’ve consistently been able to pull it out in the end; they never stop pushing,” Head Coach Donn Pollard said. Cottage Grove took an early and comfortable 9-0 lead in the fi rst quarter, but it didn’t last long as Baker came out hot from beyond the three-point line. The Bulldogs shot an astonishing 47 percent from the line, but even the Lions shot a solid 43 percent. These numbers that are more commonly paired with the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry rather than high school games. Baker's offense proved just as dominant as Cottage Grove's as the Lions couldn't quite pull away. Their lead never extended seven points in the second half. Cottage Grove hoped to go into the half with a 39-35 lead, but Baker’s Grant Berry pulled up from nearly halfcourt and drained a long three pointer as time expired, shrinking the Li- ons’ lead to one. The second half was no differ- ent: a constant back-and-forth battle of basket after basket, Photo by Gary Ordway After scoring the game-winning shot, Kory Parent was swarmed by his teammates and fellow students in an uproar of celebration. turnover after turnover kept the score tight. The Lions extended their lead to seven at one point, but Baker wouldn’t be held down for long. With time running out, the Bulldogs attacked the basket with leadingscorer Logan Sand and tied the game 69-69 with less than fi ve seconds left, and the visiting crowd and bench jumped into celebration assum- ing overtime was about to come next. However, what would come next shocked the Bulldogs and their fans and left a sting that would permeate the athletic community for weeks. With four seconds left, Cot- tage Grove in-bounded the ball from their opposing baseline. Blake Sentman threw a lob to Parent, who took almost exact- ly four seconds to sprint from the half-court line to the hoop and fi nished with a left-handed layup as time expired. Parent was subsequently rushed by his teammates and tackled to the fl oor in a riotous celebration. But the story of the fi nal shot of the game was more interesting than a prayer being answered. Parent actually defi ed Pollard’s play call. He was supposed to receive the in-bounded ball and immediately call a timeout so the Lions could set up a bet- ter play, but the lane was open and the result was to Pollard’s delight. In fact, Pollard said it may have been the more favor- able play. “You’re not really going to have anything,” Pollard said of the original idea of taking a timeout. Please see , PLAYOFFS Page 3B Big turnout at Cottage Grove Half Marathon Oregonians from all over the state flock to compete in Cottage Grove's longest footrace Athlete of the Week Sentman scores 28 to lead Lions to Quarterfi nals photo by Sam Wright Dino Goetz approaches the fi nish line, earning fi rst place out of 143 racers. BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel A marathon is roughly 26.2 miles (the distance from Ath- ens to the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.), and this year Cottage Grove began a tradition, initi- ating the fi rst-annual Cottage Grove Half Marathon on Sat- urday. That means rougly 143 people from all over Oregon and even one from Boise, Id, came to run 13.1 miles starting at Dorena School and ending at Trailhead Park. The event featured run- ners of all ages between 13 and 73. The youngest was Sabrina James, a 13 year old from Cot- tage Grove, and the oldest was Judy Harold, a 73 year old from Springfi eld who made some of us non-participants (especially this 22 year old sports journal- ist) feel desperately unhealthy. Out of the 143 people racing, the fastest was 28 year old Dino Goetz from Bend, who fi n- ished the race in an incredible 1:10:35.22, 12 minutes behind the world record (0:58:23). The second place fi nisher was Thomas Hesselgesser, 24, of Eugene, who fi nished with a time of 1:18:13.98 and third place went to the fi rst female fi nisher, Camelia Mayfi eld, 23, with a time of 1:20:13.62. There were a total of 23 run- ners representing the local com- munity of Cottage Grove. Of those, the top fi nishers from Cottage Grove included Miriam Udosenata (fi nishing 11th over- all) with a time of 1:30:38.21 and the Sentinel’s own Jon Stinnett (28th overall) fi nish- ing in 1:41:07.86. Ben Keppler, 36, fi nished in 1:47:01.02 as the next Cottage Grove racer and it was Glenda Koyama, 65, who brought up the rear but showed outstanding perseverance as the penultimate walker. As for the youngest and the oldest, Sabrina James (13) fi n- ished in 54th place overall in a time of 1:53:06.32 and Judy Harold (73) fi nished 90th over- all in 2:06:57.55. With 143 participants, the half marathon should be considered a success, but next year, the half marathon hopes to fi ll its 500 spots for March 11, 2017. Blake Sentman took control of his team Saturday night. While it was Kory Parent who hit the buzzer-beater to win the game, Sentman kept his team from succumbing to the Bulldogs, hitting four three-point shots.