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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2016)
B S PORTS Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Boys' soccer gears up for new season with new coach Vern Stewart will look for players to plug into his formations as the girls' Coach of the Year leads a new team BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel Under its new leadership of Vern Stewart, the boys’ soccer team is set to dive into the fall season. The team doesn’t usu- ally meet during the summer, however Stewart said they have done a little bit of practice and are about to begin regularly scheduled practices this week. Stewart is focused on bring- ing the same game plan to the boys team as he had with the girls. The plan is to run a fast- paced game and use short and quick passes to move the ball effi ciently. “I don’t want to play this ‘long ball’ slow style of play,” Stew- art said. The plan worked well with the girls’ team last year as the Stewart’s team won the Sky- Em and he received coach of the year. But with a new group of kids that are relatively new to him, Stewart will have to get to know his players and how they play in order to sort out a proper formation. The head coach plans to im- plement a 4-2-3-1 formation, which is commonly used in prominent European leagues. The formation utilizes four de- fenders with two defensive mid- fi elders and then one forward with three attacking midfi eld- ers. The formation can cover a lot of ground defensively and also gives the team the ability to “spring” back after absorb- ing pressure. Stewart will have to understand which players will fi t best in each position in order for the formation to be ef- fective. The team lost a total of nine seniors and now only totals four. But there is talent to be found among this younger team. Stewart speaks highly of Kyle Browning, who will be en- tering his junior year alongside Kyle Conley, who showed great speed and aggressive tendencies when attacking the goal. Zach Stewart, the coach’s grandson, will also be returning this year, and if there’s anything to be said about the Stewarts, it’s that they are a soccer family. Last year, the Lions fi nished third in the Sky-Em League after going 5-5 in league play. Overall, the team fi nished 10- 7 with 43 goals on the season and allowing 23. With the new coach behind the wheel, perhaps the Lions will have a chance at challenging Sisters, the reigning Sky-Em champs who went 16- 0-1 last season. Photo by Sam Wright Lucas Ward and Kaiden Ramsey are two star players that Stewart will need to fi nd replacements for. Like father, like daughter Athletes of the Week: Brad's Big Time wins SVA's SCORES league Samantha Shine, daughter of Vern Stewart, to coach girls' soccer BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel Photo courtesy of Jim Settelmeyer Last Wednesday, the championship game took place for South Valley Athletic's SCORES league. Brad's Big Time team took down the Dragons 1-0. The players on the team are: Craig Degarlais, McKenzie Stepper, Eva Murtaugh, Tim Cook, Daniel Fergason, Teagan Settelmeyer, Jereme DeGarlais, Miakah Nix, Sam Settelmeyer, Cheryl Frieze, Elizabeth Nordella, Colton Groat and Christopher Stober. The coaches are: Hannah Chappell and Brad Mabie. Miller, Winebarger, Luckman, Braaten and Corley achieve CGS Historical Night wins Class of 2016 Hall of Fame also inducted BY BEN DEATHERAGE For the Sentinel Cottage Grove Speedway hosted the 2016 edition of His- torical Night presented by Curt and Denny Deatherage. In ad- dition to putting on a massive display of racing memorabilia, the class of 2016 was offi cially inducted into the Wall of Fame. Classes in action were the 360 Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, Late Models, IMCA Sport Mods and the Quality RV Repair Hornets. Kyle Miller set the pace early in the 360 Sprint main event. But on the second lap, Miller, living in Eugene, got sideways in turns three and four, nearly getting upside down trying to correct his course. He would keep going without bringing out a yellow but at the expense of losing the lead. The driver to pick up the top spot and run away with it was Garen Linder. The Central Point driver set a rapid pace and started to pull away from the rest of the fi eld. However, a late race caution managed to bunch the fi eld all up. On the ensuing restart, Kyle Miller was able to recapture the lead out of the sec- ond turn. Early on in the summer, Cottage Grove High School’s athletics made a change in the soccer program. With the departure of boys’ head coach Brian Fish, Vern Stewart made the transition to the boys’ team and Dylan Ferguson was to take over the girls. Athletic direc- tor Gary Roberts and Stewart were both confi dent in Ferguson’s abilities, as he is a well-liked fi gure among the players and helped with workouts over the summer. However, Ferguson recently ran into some unexpected health is- sues and was unable to continue as the head coach for the girls’ program. That’s when Samantha Shine stepped in and applied to fi ll the position. Shine is the daughter of Stewart, who recently moved from Woodstock, Ga., just outside of Atlanta. With her husband cur- rently busy in the Marine Corps, Shine came to visit her family in Cottage Grove to discover that a coaching position was available. A 2003 Cottage Grove alumnus, Shine is familiar with the soc- cer program and community surrounding CGHS. She was also one of Stewart’s fi rst recruits when he coached at Northwest Christian University in Eugene. The head coach has had experience volunteering as a coach for various clubs around Georgia and also volunteered as a coach for South Valley Athletics during her time in Cottage Grove. But this is her fi rst time as a hired-on coach. “After an interview with Gary Roberts, I was informed I got the position, and I’m just really glad for the opportunity,” she said. However, this is not a permanent change in the soccer program. “I’ll be done at the end of this season to go back to Georgia,” Shine stated. She has not moved from Georgia and is only staying in Cottage Grove temporarily to visit her family. Although the town and school are familiar, the players on the team may not be. Much like for her father this year, Shine needs a few practices to get to know the players so she knows where to put them. But she says that she approaches the game similarly to her father. “There will be a lot of similarities, especially in terms of how we both see the game, but there will be some differences too as we’re two different people,” she said. Shine will have an opportunity to put her own twist on the team, but fans should expect to see a simi- lar approach. With all the success the team had last year, it wouldn’t hurt the team to keep things relatively similar. The Lions lost a handful of talented seniors including Melissa Thielman, Delia Nichols-Fergu- son, Melissa McCasline, Jasmin Lopez and Josie Mootz. However, Stewart left his daughter in good hands with returning seniors such as Kiana Hemenway, who was the Sky-Em Player of the Year and was the Lions’ leading scorer last year. Hemenway will also receive help from outstanding athletes Hudson Weybright and Hannah Al- brecht. Like her father, Shine will begin to get an idea of her game plan with a few practices happening this week. Meet the Lions night this Friday Courtesy photo Josh Corley poses with his friends, family and trophy after earning his victory. As Miller started to approach some lapped traffi c, a fi nal yel- low fl ag came out on lap 25. When the fi eld got back to rac- ing, Miller maintained the lead and secured the victory. It was his second 360 Sprint win of the season. Albany’s Bricen James (driv- ing for Tim Galloway) fi nished in second, while Garen Linder ended the night in third. An- derson, California’s Chelsea Blevins fi nished in fourth, fol- lowed by Jake Helsel of Mon- roe, Washington. This Friday, the fall sports teams will gather at Cottage Grove High School for the annual “Meet the Lions” night. The evening will see all sports be introduced, followed by a light scrimmage of the varsity and junior varsity squads. There have been some major changes in the athletics department for this fall. Aside from the coaching changes in the soccer program mentioned above, the football team welcomes the father-son duo of Jordan and Marty Johnson to the coaching staff under head coach Gary Roberts. Tyson Pilling remains as the head coach for both boys’ and girls’ water polo, and Jason Corwin will return for a second year as the head volleyball coach. With the recent changes, Cottage Grove athletics could see an- other fall season of upward mobility. Though many seniors have departed, there is plenty of young talent to replace those that left. Please see SPEEDWAY, Page 2B No races this weekend. See you next weekend enjoy the fair!
