Cottage Grove sentinel., April 13, 2016, Image 13

B
S PORTS
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Ninth annual Hall of Fame Induction
Ceremony bridges the past and present
Current students were honored along with the class of 2016 inductees
In 2008, Bill Thompson and
the late Michele Portmann
started the idea to begin a Hall
of Fame for Cottage Grove Ath-
letics. This year’s ninth class
included a total of seven par-
ties: Jerry Braunberger, Curtis
French, Shauna Pupke, Lynn
Wiltse, David Dawson and Ja-
son Saunders. The seventh party
was the entire 1979 football
team.
The evening started off with
a social hour outside of the caf-
eteria. Thompson and Athletic
Director Gary Roberts showed
people to the current Hall of
Fame, where guests saw the
achievements of well-known
athletes and community contrib-
utors such as the locally famed
Bud Taylor. After the mingling,
a dinner was hosted by school
staff and student volunteers be-
fore the ceremony began.
The fi rst inductee of the night
was Jerry Braunberger. Braun-
berger was the athletic trainer of
Cottage Grove High School for
10 years, the athletic director for
13 years and also served as the
South Lane Recreation Coordi-
nator for 15 years. Braunberger
was a contributor to the devel-
opment of the Bohemia fi elds
and acquiring the property that
the current high school sits on.
“This event validates that
somebody noticed the work you
put in,” Braunberger said. He
also noted that he was especially
honored to be inducted into the
Hall of Fame with several past
athletes that he coached, two of
which being Shauna Pupke and
Jason Saunders. While Braun-
berger was the athletic director
in the early 70s, Cottage Grove
was the smallest school in the
5A District One, constantly
competing against schools with
at least 2,000 students or more.
The second inductee was
unfortunately unable to be rep-
resented by any relatives. Cur-
tis French coached the Lions
from the 30s to the 40s where
his nine-year career at Cottage
Grove saw a record of 36 wins,
17 losses and six ties. From 1936
to 1945, French’s football team
won fi ve league titles. In his last
season, French took his team to
a perfect record of 7-0. Gary
Roberts accepted the award on
behalf of French.
“I think something that was
lost in there was how diffi cult
of a job it would have been to
coach and teach kids with a war
on the horizon. He coached before
and during World War II, and many
of his players most likely went to
fi ght overseas, and that must have
been extremely diffi cult.”
Please see Hall of Fame, Page 2B
Boys place third, girls sixth at
Springfi eld Invitational
Photo by Sam Wright
From left to right: Jason Saunders, Jerry Braunberger, Shauna Pupke, Lynn Wiltse
and David Dawson pose with their personal Hall of Fame awards.
Tharpe breaks personal record on high hurdles
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Still being faced with the
depth of competition against 5A
and 6A schools, Cottage Grove
track and fi eld is showing signs
of signifi cant improvement. The
Springfi eld Rotary Invitational
hosted one 3A school (La Pine),
two 4A schools (Cottage Grove
and Crook County), three 5A
Schools (South Albany, North
Eugene, Springfi eld) and one
6A school (West Albany).
Surprisingly enough, it was
the Crook County boys that won
the meet, while South Albany
took the girls’ competition. Cot-
tage Grove fi nished third and
sixth in those respective cat-
egories, and it was an especially
great day for the boys’ squad.
For starters, the boys’ 4x100
relay team took home a gold
medal. The addition of Connor
Howard helped the Lions shave
nearly 1.5 seconds off of their
time from last week’s Marist
Classic. Michael Tharpe, Jacob
Woods and Brynden Howell
made up the rest of the relay
team, fi nishing in a time of 44.1
seconds. With Tharpe starting
the race and Howell as the an-
chor, Cottage Grove seems to
have found the answers with
Howard and Woods in between
Cottage Grove Speedway
opens up 60th anniversary with
massive car count
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
For the Sentinel
Cottage Grove, Oregon- Sat-
urday, April 9 would be the fi rst
race of the 2016 race season at
Cottage Grove Speedway. It
also opened up the 60th An-
niversary of racing at the his-
torical quarter-mile clay oval.
Not only would the pit area
swell with a huge car count, it
would be complimented with
jam-packed grandstands full of
fans anticipating the fi rst race of
the year in the state of Oregon.
Classes in action included 360
Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, Late
Models, Street Stocks, and the
Quality RV Repair Hornets.
The 360 main would see
Quilcene, Washington driver J.J.
Hickle take the lead in the open-
ing lap. Hickle would remain
in front for quite some time de-
spite an occasional challenge.
Unfortunately, he would surren-
der the lead shortly after a lap
twelve restart to Roger Crockett
of Medford.
Crockett, piloting his #11
KPC, pulled away. But as the
race would continue to remain
under green fl ag conditions,
lapped traffi c started to come in
the picture. With around fi ve to
go, Roger was able to maneuver
around the tail end of the lead
lap fi eld effi ciently, as Garen
Linde off Central Point started
to put a bit of pressure on him.
Roger Crockett would hold on
to the lead to score his fi rst vic-
tory of 2016 after starting sev-
enth in the feature.
The #22 KPC of Garen Linder,
was a respectable second fol-
lowed by Penngrove. California
teenager Michael Kofoid was
third. Completing the top fi ve
would be J.J. Hickle crossing
the line in fourth and Eugene’s
Kyle Miller in fi fth.
Picking up quick time was
Henry Van Dam of Enumclaw,
Washington, Mill Creek, Wash-
ington’s Cam Smith and Albany
teenager Bricen James. An im-
pressive 23 cars from Oregon,
California, Washington, Idaho
and the Canadian province of
British Columbia would be in
attendance.
The IMCA Modifi eds would
attract 24 teams for the fi rst race
of the campaign. Corbett’s Col-
len Winebarger would get out to
the front on the initial start. The
main event would be plagued
with several cautions, seven in
total, so restarts were key. The
#S Victory Circle of Winebarger
would get the job done and lead
every lap despite being chal-
lenged just a handful of times
late in the race.
Cottage Grove native Kinzer
Cox would fi nish second, fol-
lowed by third place Craig Han-
son of Albany. The rest of the
top fi ve would consist of B.J.
Wild of Redmond and Keizer’s
John Campos.
Heat race winners included
Springfi eld’s Jake Mayden,
Lebanon native Kyle Yeack, and
them.
Howard continued to succeed
by placing fi rst in the 200-meter
dash with a time of 22.70 sec-
onds. Chris Clure, who fi nished
15th at Willamette High School,
fi nished in fi fth place and took
1.1 seconds off of his time by
running the race in 23.50 sec-
onds.
The most notable fi nish came
from Tharpe in the 110-meter
high hurdles. Last week, Tharpe
fi nished in second place with a
time of 15.36 seconds, just out-
side his personal best of 15.22.
Please see Track and Field, Page 3B
Photo by Sam Wright
Michael Tharpe hands the baton off to Connor Howard in the 4x100 relay where the
Lions took gold.
Parent places on All-
State roster, Sentman
honorable mention
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
The Lions’ basketball team
fi nished its 2014-2015 season
at 5-19, and this past season
has been a huge change. The
Lions went 20-8 and made it to
the state tournament after out-
standing fi nishes in unbeliev-
able challenges. Cottage Grove
fi nished sixth in the tournament,
but the accolades still keep
coming in. After various players
making the All-League rosters
for the Sky-Em League, Kory
Parent and Blake Sentman have
found themselves on yet another
all-star roster.
Sentman, a junior, received an
honorable mention for the All-
State roster in the 4A class (one
of nine players in the state to
receive an honorable mention).
Kory Parent fi nished by plac-
ing in the fi rst-team All-State
roster. Only one of fi ve players
received this honor.
“I’m very humbled and hon-
ored and it’s going to push me
to work even harder,” the junior
said. “I’m very thankful for my
teammates and my coaches who
help me improve every day.” Par-
ent was the Lions' leading scorer
on the season, with Sentman as
Athlete of the Week
a close second. The Lion starter
gave his team miracle wins time
after time during this season, in-
cluding a buzzer-beating layup
against Baker in the fi rst round
of the playoffs to send his team
to the state tournament (and his
teammate Sentman kept the Li-
ons in the game with a season-
high of 29 points).
One of Parent’s main inspi-
rations growing up was Kobe
Bryant, an all-star himself at the
professional level.
“I’ve always admired his work
ethic,” Parent said of Bryant.
Ironically, Bryant will be ending
his long and successful career
a week from today against the
Utah Jazz. But as a junior, Par-
ent isn’t going anywhere. The
Lions team will have a lot of
returning starters, although they
will be missing senior Chance
Hopkins, whose size was a big
help for the Lions.
“We’re always looking to im-
prove, and we’ll defi nitely be
chasing that blue trophy next
year,” Parent said. He also noted
that the team has plenty of play-
ers that are willing to put in the
work. Perhaps next year the Li-
ons could occupy 40 percent of
that fi rst-team All-State roster.
Please see Speedway, Page 3B
Join us April 16th
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