Cottage Grove sentinel., March 07, 2018, Image 13

B
S PORTS
Section B
Portland's
fi nal push
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove champion keeps going
By Zach Silva
As high school basketball
season draws to a close and
the local teams have bowed
out, and as the NCAA bas-
ketball season has a stag-
gering amount of FBI in-
volvement, it’s time to check
in with the team up north:
those Portland Trail Blaz-
ers. Whether you are an avid
Pat Connaughton fan or just
someone who vaguely pays
attention to what’s going on
in Rip City, now is the time
to lock-in on the NBA.
Having worked in Cot-
tage Grove for the last nine
months, I’m still unsure as
to what the NBA following
is like here. At high school
games and basketball camps,
it is clear is there is certainly
at least some level of inter-
est. It is hard to be in those
settings and not see at least
one person repping the War-
riors or Celtics at all times.
There is at least some love
of the NBA. But regardless
of how you feel, there is no
better time to be a fan then in
this present moment.
With just over a month to
play in the regular season,
the Western Conference is
in an outright frenzy. To re-
cap: as of this writing just
2.5 games separate the three
seed and the ninth seed. The
margin for error over the fi -
nal month is razor-thin.
Amidst the chaos across
the standings, it has been the
Blazers momentarily mak-
ing a charge as they climb
to the top of the second-tier
teams. Sitting in third place
in the standings, the Blazers
are playing like a legitimate
team that can win a fi rst-
round series and then lose
in six games to the Rockets
or Warriors in the second
round. While from an outside
perspective that seem like a
sad best-case scenario for a
franchise, it seems important
to note that the Blazers were
swept by the Warriors last
season in the fi rst round and
lost to them in fi ve games
two seasons ago. A six-game
series would be a momentary
milestone.
Winners of eight of their
last nine (which could eas-
ily become 10 of their last
11 if Portland can get past
the Lakers and Knicks on
Monday and Tuesday night)
Portland has picked a good
time to be playing their best
basketball. As always, lead-
ing the way has been the
immaculate Damian Lillard.
Averaging 31.4 points and
6.7 assists in February, Lil-
lard has risen to new levels
of dominance.
While it all starts with
Dame, it has been a team ef-
fort as the Blazers have cre-
ated depth extending beyond
their backcourt. Of course
there is Dame and CJ but
now there is Moe Harkless
who has worked back as a
contributing member of the
rotation. Most promising of
all, there is the seven-foot 20-
year old Zach Collins who
played 28 minutes against
the Thunder last week and
fi nished with 12 points and
fi ve rebounds.
While the view through
these
rose-city
colored
glasses looks good now, the
road to the end of the sea-
son does not get easier. With
two games against Houston,
a game against Boston and
four of their last fi ve games
on the road, there are many
ways for this season to fi nish
and most of them do not in-
clude fi nishing third.
But that is not what is im-
portant now. Now it is time
to enjoy this lovably-imper-
fect team in the last month of
the season.
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Cottage Grove's Andrea Macauley leads a step class last week.
Weight lifter and instructor Andrea
Macauley refuses to be slowed down
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
When Andrea Macauley isn’t winning world champi-
onships, you will most likely fi nd her teaching workout
classes in Cottage Grove. And the 54-year-old fi ve-time
world association of benchers and deadlifters (WAB-
DL) champion has no intention of stopping anytime
soon.
“My goal is to try and encourage and inspire all that
comes across my way. And that I come across theirs.
Whether it’s sitting in the doctor’s offi ce or pushing my
cart at Safeway,” said Macauley fresh off of teaching a
step class last Wednesday night.
For over 32 years, Macauley has been leading classes
across Lane County. While the people and places she
taught and classes she’s led have changed, what has re-
mained is the excitement to be there.
“We can come in really dog tired, had an emotional
day, everything go wrong and you come here and you
do your workout and you leave tired but feel good,”
she said.
As the sounds of the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack
welcomes a full class of people with varying levels of
fi tness, it’s easy to see that people are excited to be here.
While the class starts at 6 p.m., the space begins to fi ll
up 10 minutes before as eager participants want to claim
their “spot” and also begin to chat with those around
them. Each new face that walks through the door is met
with a warm welcome from not only Macauley but the
other people who see this as a good way to spend their
evening. While the promise of an hour-long workout
is what brought them to the gym, it is the people in the
room that keep them coming back.
“They greet each other and know each other by name
and learn each other by their name... and I want the love
to spread through the town,” said Macauley.
In the class, like many workout classes, the individ-
uals are instructed to believe in themselves and to keep
fi ghting. But these are not just empty phrases from their
instructor but rather guiding tenants of her life.
“Nothing is unattainable as far as I’m concerned. I’ve
had lots of setbacks along my way. Injuries, and physi-
cal issues and the thing is you just keep chipping away.
Even if it’s just a little bit. If you fall down, you get
back up. It’s fi ve steps back, six steps forward. That’s
what you have to do,” she said.
Lifting is a punishing sport both physically and men-
tally. From the mental side, no matter how good the lift-
er, they end their lifts after they have failed to lift the
next weight. There is no going out on a high note but
rather a constant reminder of the level that you could
not get to.
But with grit and determination, Macauley demon-
strated these skills last November on her way to a
WABDL championship in the bench press. Setting an
Oregon state record for her age group with a weight
of 187.2, she became a champion. Something that was
anything but guaranteed.
After health complications earlier in the year, Ma-
cauley was called by people from WABDL just a few
weeks before the competition asking if she was going
to compete. After being hesitant, she agreed and then
dropped 37 pound in fi ve and a half weeks to make her
weight class.
“That’s crazy and I wouldn’t tell anybody to do that.
Nobody,” she said in November. “I wouldn’t say go lose
that much weight that short. I think I was really driven
by… everybody’s support that said, ‘you can do this.’”
Just as those around her believed in her, Macauley
looks to provide that for those in her class each night. A
sense of no matter who is walking through the door, if
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
MACAULEY continued on B3
Biking group looks to make impact in community
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
While the group may not have an offi cial
name and a mission statement is still in the
works, the group that is currently known as
the Cottage Grove Bike Committee does have
a guiding principle.
“It sounds corny, but just get out there and
ride. That’s what we want,” said Justin Watt
one of the leaders of the group.
Last Thursday night the group met at the
Healing Matrix to discuss how they will move
forward as a positive force in the community.
While just a handful fi rst got together last year,
the group has begun to expand in the last two
months.
“We met early last spring and we started just
kicking the can around like who we were, our
interests and what we would want to do with a
bike committee,” said Watt. “And we tried to
do like, what everybody wanted at the same
time and I think the speed bump we were real-
ly running into was there was fi ve of us trying
to do a lot of stuff.”
With 14 members at the meeting, and some
who couldn’t make it, Watt believes that the
Athletes of the Week
This week’s athletes of the week are the South
Valley Athletics 4th/5th grade basketball
champions. On the boys side the Hoop Dreams
(pictured left) took the title while on the gide
side Lawn Clippings (right) came away as the
champions.
size of the group now allows individuals to fo-
cus on what they are most passionate about so
that they can accomplish more of their goals
as a group.
“That’s what I love about the subcommit-
tees, if people don’t want to show up to talk
about governance and mission statements,
they just want to ride bikes, I mean there is
a group for that. Any level of participation is
what we want,” said Watt.
The different subcommittees included top-
ics ranging from bike tourism to support of the
Row River Trail.
“The nice thing about the group is that it’s
a lot of people who didn’t know each other
and came together for a common interest,”
said Jim Harrison who has been working with
the group from the start. “And seemed to have
tonight identify things that people want to
work on so we left with direction and hope-
fully some quick wins. So it’s promising to get
a group that we hope will get even bigger in
participation.”
After the recent death of a 13-year-old who
was struck by a car on his bike on Hwy. 99,
there was a heightened interest in bike safety
for the group.
BIKING continued on B3
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
zsilva@cgsentinel.com