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