School News
A monthly newsletter covering area schools
March 28, 2018
HARRISON PROGRESS CONTINUES
The walls at the new Harrison Elementary School have been up for weeks but progress on the interior of the building continues with windows being placed and electricity
set to power the school. During the February school board meeting, project manager Matt Allen told the board that construction was about a week behind but that "A week
behind is a good place to be." For more on Harrison and the crews' ties to the community, turn to page C3.
Wet weather puts a damper on
spring sports schedule
•INSIDE•
Superintendent search schedule
Harrison construction is a community effort
Kennedy Community Night
The rainy spring weather has sports teams practicing indoors and canceling games.
BY ZACH SILVA
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
No matter the classifi cation or the sport being
played, the spring sports teams across Oregon are
brought together by a single common thread: the
(often rainy) weather.
“You’re watching weather reports constantly,”
said Cottage Grove boys golf coach Kent Russo.
“I probably check the weather 10 times a day at
a minimum. You get to know where it’s coming
from, what it looks like, how long you have,” said
Cottage Grove baseball coach Dan Geiszler.
Living in an environment where the weather
can fl ip from 71 and sunny to 48 and rainy in a
day (see: earlier this week), coaches who are de-
pendent on dry conditions have become amateur
meteorologists as they fi nd out when they can
practice. Last season’s constant rain still looms in
the coach’s minds as they prepare for the upcom-
ing season.
“It was a huge issue; it was the big issue. It was
by far the worst spring that I’ve been a part of;
it was awful. It really has changed how I am go-
ing to go about things practice-wise because we
were on the fi eld fi ve times through April,” said
Geiszler. “That’s two months we were on the fi eld
fi ve times. That’s not including games.” Geiszler
was not the only one who remembers the rain that
came in last season.
“Last year may be the worst weather we’ve had
in a baseball season in my time. In 30 years or
omething. We were swamped all year. We ended
up games backed up,” said Elkton baseball coach
Bill Shaw.
“But if you’re going to play baseball in Oregon,
you’re going to have to get used to getting wet.
That’s just how it goes.”
For the baseball teams, not getting fi eld time
paired with the new OSAA implementation of
strict pitch counts and concurrent rest days put
greater pressure on pitchers with less experience.
“Generally, we come in the spring and we say
all of you are pitchers. You know, because it’s
likely if the weather, like last year we had to play
fi ve games in three days,” said North Douglas
baseball coach Jeff Davis. “You’re going to have
to run somebody out there, particularly with the
pitch count rule.”
Having never experienced an Oregon spring,
fi rst-year Cottage Grove golf coach Jennifer Husk
is coming in with a sunny attitude.
“The rain takes awhile to get used to I think, but
it’s just rain,” she said.
“Defi nitely need some waterproof shoes.”
A wet opening week to the spring sports season
saw cancelled baseball and softball games across
the region.
The Cottage Grove baseball team was able to
get in their opening game on Tuesday but saw
their home opener last Thursday cancelled and re-
scheduled for this Thursday.. The Cottage Grove
softball team was in a similar boat as their sched-
uled home opener on Tuesday was cancelled be-
fore they were able to play their fi rst game last
Friday at Douglas.
The Elkton/Yoncalla teams both saw one game
cancelled in the week and the other was playable.
For the Warriors of North Douglas, they did not
have as good of luck with the weather as both
baseball and softball had all three of their sched-
uled games cancelled last week.
With the forecast calling for 100 percent chance
of precipitation today, and a 90 percent chance on
both Thursday and Friday, the upcoming week
does not look promising for the games that are
to come.
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