Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Ladd, Farrell,
Wickman
play in All-
Star game
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Coming soon: football season
Local football stars
participate in annual
charity game
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove’s Cooper
Ladd and Nate Farrell and
Yoncalla’s Ted Wickman went
on the road last week to be a
part of the 66th Annual East
West Shrine All-Star football
game.
The game, that features top
players from the 1A through
4A classifications, helps raise
money for the Shriners Hos-
pitals for Children around
the country, including one in
Portland that the players vis-
ited.
“We’re doing something for
these children and we knew
that we’re making a difference
and also getting to enjoy the
game of football while we’re
at it. It’s an environment that
you can’t really replicate,” said
Ladd.
Ladd, who was first team
offense and defense in 4A this
past fall, and Farrell, first team
offense, were staples of the
Cottage Grove championship
winning team this past year
and were members of the East
team. Wickman, who was
named an alternate for the
game, was on the West team.
In the week leading up to the
game, the teams gathered in
La Grande where they pre-
pared for Saturday.
“It was hot and we prac-
ticed two times a day but it
was so fun to be there with all
these great athletes. And you’d
look around and everybody
was the best on their team
so there were no weak spots,”
said Ladd. “And I’m not say-
ing [Cottage Grove] had any
weak spots, clearly we were
the champions, but it was just
kind of cool to be in that at-
mosphere.”
While Ladd and Farrell
were 4A champions, it was a
different experience for Wick-
man coming from 1A.
“Never played in front of
that many fans for a football
game so that was pretty spe-
cial. Just wanted to do my own
thing and wanted to represent
Douglas County and Yoncalla
and the community that sup-
ported me,” he said.
On the day of the game, the
players were part of a parade
and a barbeque that featured
family, friends and past par-
ticipants. But then it was game
time.
“Guys definitely were get-
ting prepared pregame. It’s
nice because a lot of those
guys are going to play college
football and that was a differ-
ent experience for a lot of peo-
ple. And it takes a lot of hard
work and you can’t just like
mess around and get there,”
said Wickman. “Watching
them prepare for a football
game was something that I
honestly take some tips away
from. There wasn’t a lot of
conversation, the guys are just
focused and getting ready, it’s
a battle.”
Wickman, who was at wide
receiver instead of his usual
spot at quarterback, and the
West team were up 8-6 before
the East team was able to turn
it on late and run away with a
20-8 victory.
“I was at inside linebacker
Nate was playing tackle… and
oh my goodness was it fun.
They had me blitzing all over
and I was filling holes and it
was so great to be back in the
pads and making hits,” said
Ladd.
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
A group of linemen are taken through drills by assistant coach, and high school principal, Mike Ingman on Monday as part of Cottage Grove High School’s football
camp. Students ranging from sixth grade to senior year attended camp this week in the morning while grades kindergarten through fifth met in the evenings. Fall
sports teams at the high school level have their first practices of the season next Monday. For more pictures, see B12.
40th annual Stearman fly-in draws a crowd
Over 25 planes and 200
spectators made their
way to Cottage Grove
on Saturday
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
PHOTO C/0 CASSANDRA BARRONG
A pair of onlookers get a closer look at one of the planes on
display at the Oregon Aviation Historical Society on Saturday.
Forler walks away
victorious at Cottage
Grove Speedway
By Ben Deatherage
CG Speedway
Cottage Grove Speedway hosted the second night of
the Summer Thunder Tour’s only trip to the state of Or-
egon on Saturday, August 4th. Twenty-three Sprint Car
teams inhabited the pit area representing the states of
Oregon, Washington and Idaho as well as the Canadian
provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. It marked
the thirteenth race of 2018 for the series and the final
360 race of the entire season at CGS.
In the main event Eric Fisher, of Burlington, Wash-
Athlete of
the Week
After a choppy flight, Keith
Kossuth was happy to have
landed his biplane in Hood Riv-
er, Oregon. Having recently just
wrapped up the North America
Barnstorming Tour that saw five
states in as many days, Kossuth
had his eyes set for heading back
home to Chino, California. But
his trip took a detour that in-
stead brought him to Cottage
Grove for Oregon Aviation His-
torical Society’s (OAHS) 40th
Annual Jim Wright Memorial
Stearman Fly-In.
“Someone had mentioned,
‘Oh yeah, there’s a fly-in at Cot-
tage Grove.’ I wasn’t planning
on going there, I wasn’t even
sure where it was but it just hap-
pened to be on the direct line of
the route,” said Kossuth.
“That’s how the trip usually is
when I get in that thing. You just
go and don’t really plan it. You
can loosely plan it because it’s
not going to work anyway. And
then you just end up where you
end up.”
After running into an old
friend, Kossuth made his way to
the Aviation Center where four
Stearmans were on display in
addition to over 20 additional
planes that had made the trip.
More pilots were planning on
attending but had to cancel their
flights due to area fires. Regard-
less, over 200 people came to the
event to see the planes that were
on display.
“Most of the pilots that
showed up have been coming
for over 20 years. That’s how
well-known Cottage Grove is.
And it’s not even the museum,
it’s just that our town is so wel-
coming of these World War II
biplanes, the pilots themselves,”
said OAHS executive director
Cassandra Barrong. “We’re cen-
ington, took control of the top spot early. Fisher retained
the position while operating on the bottom of the race
track for quite some time before being overtaken on lap
six. The driver to make the pass would be Boise, Idaho’s
Logan Forler.
Forler stayed up top on the racing surface and cruised
to a comfortable lead. The only thing that slowed him
down were two stoppages in which each following re-
start he reconstructed his dominant interval from the
rest of the field. Forler scored the victory, his second at
CGS and third of his career with the STSS, marking it
the first time he has won with the series in 2018 becom-
ing the eighth different winner on the current campaign.
Jason Solwold, of Burlington, Washington, was the run-
ner-up in the Mike Anderson and Monica Baca owned
entry followed by Eric Fisher, in third. Colton Heath,
from Marysville, Washington and running for owners
Kelly Welch and Alan Larson, came across the wire in
fourth over fifth finishing Cam Smith, of Mill Creek,
This week’s athlete of the
week is John Taylor of
Roseburg. Using an 8-iron,
Taylor recorded a hole-
in-one on the 14th hole at
Middlefield Golf Course on
July 31. It was his first ace in
40 years of golfing.
trally located. They can go and
get a margarita, stay at the hotel,
come for dinner, fly out the next
day. So Cottage Grove is a great
spot.”
This celebration first started
in 1978 when Jerry Marshall,
who ran the mechanic shop and
the glider operation in Cottage
Grove, brought in his friends
who had Stearman biplanes for
a barbeque. The group ran it
back the next year, and the year
after and before they knew it
had established a tradition.
“40 years later, the Stear-
man are still coming to Cottage
Grove. So the Stearman biplanes
are of course the main show but
everyone on the field, that had
time to, brought up their air-
planes, so the fleet was out. The
Great Lakes was out, the Aeron-
cas were out. So it was just this
great vintage airplane show.”
This year’s celebration also
marked the 15th anniversary
since the death of Jim Wright,
FLY-IN see B2
Washington.
Quilcene, Washington’s J.J. Hickle would set fast time
of the night for Langley, British Columbia car owners
Doug and Kathy Rutz. Collecting wins in heat race com-
petition were Salem chauffeur Kyle Miller, Seth Nunes
of Medford, and Penngrove, California teenager Mi-
chael Kofoid in the other Doug and Kathy Rutz fielded
entry.
In other news, with Saturday being the final 360
event at Cottage Grove Speedway in 2018 Jason Solwold
would win the track championship. It is the first time in
the history of CGS Sprint Car racing that a champion is
from another state.
The Summer Thunder Sprint Series will take the rest
of the month of August off before returning to compe-
tition during Labor Day Weekend. The series will visit
Grays Harbor Raceway, in Elma, Washington, on Sun-
day, September 2nd. For more information log on to
www.summerthundersprintseries.com.
A hole at
Middlefield
Golf Course.