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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2016)
B S PORTS Wednesday, July 6, 2016 Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Remembering the Cottage Grove BMX track BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel The tearing down of the BMX track has brought about a lot of nostalgia for many who grew up there. For a while, the track was not only home for enthusiastic kids, but for serious athletes who aspired to take their BMX career to a professional level. To many people in the area, the Todd Kephart Memorial BMX Track was more than just a play- ground. Bruce DeLong and his family were the founders and designers of the track, which opened in July of 1984. “My family started working on getting a track in Cottage Grove in 1983 as a memorial park for a friend of mine who raced BMX and died in a car accident,” DeLong said. That friend was Todd Kephart. Upon its completion, the track was a huge hit and served a variety of skill levels. “At the time it was the most aggressive track in the area,” DeLong said, “I designed it truly to get people ready for na- tional competition.” At the time, DeLong was well on his way to launching his own professional BMX career, which happened about six months after the track opened. “We didn’t have a local pro class so, I had to do a lot of trav- eling to be able to compete,” he said. But the architect still managed to use the track over Sentinel fi le photo In the 1985 Governor's Cup, nearly 250 riders entered to compete in races. the course of several years for ming in the 90s. Wentland’s fi rst His fi rst race was in 1998, training. experience at the Cottage Grove where he solely focused on DeLong says that the track BMX track was in May of 1995. the Cottage Grove and Eugene produced a lot of skilled riders He noted that his babysitter’s tracks. But by the time 2000 and berthed “some very serious kids were into it. rolled around, Wentland was careers.” “They gave me the bug,” he traveling all across the state and One of those careers was that said. “Once I went there for the Northwest to compete. That of Ryan Wentland, who moved myself, I was hooked.” And off then turned into more national to Cottage Grove from Wyo- went Wentland’s career. competition, and Wentland has been as far as Florida to com- pete. Wentland also served on the board for several years, as the track was very close to his heart. The recent demolition of the track has brought about a lot of nostalgia from the BMX family in Cottage Grove. Golf tournaments happening this summer BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel A host of tournaments are set for the sum- mer at Middlefi eld Golf Course, and all of them are hosted by local organizations for fundraisers and charities. Three tourna- ments (two in July and one in August) high- light the series of competitions that will be featured on the green. July 9: Lions' Football Tournament First, there is the Cottage Grove Lions Football tournament, held on July 9 at 8 a.m. The tournament is held to help raise money for the football program, which rais- es money every year for supplies. “Usually this type of thing is for fi ll- ing holes in the team’s fundraising,” Head Coach and Athletic Director Gary Roberts said. The football team hosts a variety of fundraisers throughout the year, and this tournament helps relieve pressure off of the team. The tournament raises anywhere be- tween $3,800 to $5,000 each year. “We kind of go into it saying ‘we have to get at least $3,500,’” Roberts said. The tour- nament has never raised less than the $3,500 goal. Seventy-fi ve people have already reg- istered, some of which are already in a team of four, and all others will be put into a team on the day of the tournament. July 16: Couch Potato Triathlon The week after the Lion’s tournament is the Junior Stars Couch Potato Triathlon by the Cottage Bowl. This tournament spans out of the golf course and back into the bowling alley. The tournament is a fundrais- er for the Junior Stars bowling program to help subsidize costs. Manager and owner of the Cottage Bowl Natalie Clark says that it is the seventh annual tournament; however, it is only the second year that the Cottage Bowl has taken over to host the event. The tournament consists of a nine-hole game of golf, followed by two games of bowling and a cricket-style game of darts. “A lot of adults want to help the kids’ bowling program,” Clark said. This year, 10 teams of four adults have registered to play. August 6: Charlie Stovall Tournament The last big tournament at Middlefi eld is on Aug. 6. The Charlie Stovall tournament that commemorates Stovall, a business edu- cator in the South Lane School District for over 30 years, as well as raises money for scholarships. The tournament is hosted by the Kiwanis Club and spearheaded by Kurt Walker. This year marks the 22nd annual tour- nament, and Walker says around 30 to 34 teams have registered. Each year, the tour- nament averages about $5,000 to $6,000 in scholarship money. Although the schol- arships strictly go to kids from CGHS and Kennedy, people from all over Lane County and North Douglas come to participate in the tournament. “I think even if they’re not from Cottage Grove, people still believe it’s a good cause and enjoy helping out,” Walker said. The scholarships that are created out of this money tend to go to students who focus in vocational arts, Walker says. Athlete of the Week Paradee leads girls' basketball in scoring The Lions girls' basket- ball squad recently ended its summer league with a trip to Brookings Harbor, where the Lions played a total of seven games over three days. During those seven games, a newly rostered player by the name of Ma- ria Paradee led the team in scoring with 67 total points, even outscoring a seasoned Keara Murphy. “It’s massively sentimental to me. Who I am today was mold- ed around the track,” Wentland added. Much like skate parks or the beach for surfi ng, a BMX track creates a family of a vari- ety riders. DeLong had walked away from BMX in 1988 until return- ing in 2013. His fi rst race back was at the Cottage Grove track during the Governor’s Cup. De- Long has since continued his BMX career and even recently entered in a national competi- tion in Washington this past weekend. In the most recent couple of years, however, the popularity of BMX waned and use of the track diminished. With less use came less sustainability and maintenance, making the track hazardous. “I’m disappointed in the con- dition that the people let it get to, but it is what it is,” DeLong said. Currently, the City is working with the Cottage Grove High School Mountain Bike Club for a possible pump track to be constructed, because although the use of the track deteriorated, there is still a strong cycling community in Cottage Grove. For people like Wentland, the track was a second home. “Because of what started here, I have a lifetime of memories and an extended family.” Speedway sees familiar winners during July 2 races BY BEN DEATHERAGE For the Sentinel Cottage Grove Speedway was in action on Saturday, July 2 for T-Shirt Night. The track host- ed the Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, Street Stocks, and the Quality RV Repair Hornets. After a couple of incidents that prevented the fi rst lap from being complete, it was Cooper Desbiens opening up the race as the leader. The Sutherlin teen- ager retained the top spot until he was passed on lap three by Orion Redmond. Redmond, from Roseburg, blazed the trail the rest of the way despite brief- ly getting held up in traffi c on the fi nal couple of laps. It was Please see SPEEDWAY, Page 2B SVA's SCORES remains casual yet competition is still thick While South Valley Athletics stresses the friendliness in the competition, participants don't hold back, making the games exciting to play and watch BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel South Valley Athletics has recently restarted its annual SCORES adult soccer league, bringing soccer lovers back to Currin Field to compete in the recreational games held every Wednesday. This year, the league has six teams with roughly 12 to 16 people on each team, including coaches. The games are nine- on-nine on a 100-yard fi eld. Each team plays four women and four men at all times along with a goalie. While the league is purely recreational and holds a lim- ited contact rule, competition doesn’t elude the players. The fi rst week, on June 22, held a series of extremely close games. The House team defeated Rally 4-3, Dragon Force beat Brad’s Big Time 3-2 and Beercalona took down Mizfi ts 5-4. All the games were extremely close and forced strong second-half efforts. The standings for the league are based off of total points, therefore Beercalona fi nished the week ranked fi rst, followed by House and Dragon Force in the top three. Mizfi ts, Rally and Brad’s Big Time rounded up the last three in the rankings. With three close games, it is hard to determine a clear front runner out of the six teams. But if there’s anything this past week has revealed, it’s that it is inevitable that the top teams will become clear as play goes on. The games of June 29 were not nearly as close as the pre- vious week. House came out strong against the Mizfi ts, tak- ing a strong 3-0 lead by half time. In the second half, as com- petition let up, the House team still managed to score two more goals to rout the Mizfi ts in a 5-0 win. Brad’s Big Time came back after a loss with a dominant 6- 1 win over Rally, which now dropped to 0-2. The previously No. 1 ranked Beercalona team found itself in trouble against Dragon Force, which beat them in a solid 5-2 win. The scores and the ranking system have made the league interesting, in that a team like Beercalona dropped from fi rst place to fourth after Wednes- day’s games with seven total points. House leads the league with nine points (2-0), followed by Dragon Force with eight points (2-0). Brad’s Big Time also has eight points but is given third place due to its 1-1 record. Mizfi ts and Rally sit at the bot- tom of the league with four total points and 0-2 records. This week (July 6), second ranked Dragon Force will take on Rally, followed by Beercalo- na getting a chance at climbing back up the ladder against the House team, and Mizfi ts will look for their fi rst win against Brad’s Big Time. 541-942-7561 www.cottagegrovespeedway.com Photo by Sam Wright The Mizfi ts (green) struggled against the House team (red) last Wednesday. Join us July 9th for COUPLE’S NIGHT - 2 FOR 1 GENERAL ADMISSION Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modii eds, IMCA SportMods, Street Stocks, Quality RV Repair Hornets
