Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Finley Jamboree puts Lions back in action
readjusts
to Alaska
Former CGHS
basketball coach
discusses his move
North
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
What started as a fishing
trip to Alaska, turned into a
new job for former Cottage
Grove basketball coach Nick
Finley.
Finley, who coached the
Lions for one season after
coaching in Alaska, an-
nounced his resignation ear-
lier this month and citing a
return to Alaska.
While fishing, a friend
noted a fitness position that
was struggling to be filled.
Looking for a candidate with
a PE and Health degree, Fin-
ley fit the mold and agreed to
sit down for an interview.
“I thought okay, that
would be harmless. Why
not? And so I come in and
by the time I leave the inter-
view…they offered me the
position,” said Finley.
Needing time to talk with
his wife, who recently gave
birth to their third child, the
couple went over their op-
tions. While both enjoyed
living Oregon, it seemed
there was only one way they
would make the move.
“We talked about it and
she goes ‘Well, the only way
we are going to move up
here is if they pay us a cer-
tain amount of money, if you
make a certain amount of
money it is worth our while
to move up here.’ Their offer
was what we wanted,” said
Finley.
Finley was offered the po-
sition of fitness supervisor
for the Kenaitze Indian Tribe
where he receives benefits,
works four 10-hour days a
week, has time off and an in-
creased salary.
“I didn’t expect them to do
that and so all of a sudden
reality hit me and I said, ‘Oh
crap, we’re not going to be
in Cottage Grove anymore.’
We just went down there
and I felt like I built a pret-
ty good foundation with not
only the basketball team but
in the school,” said Finley. “I
established myself and my
position there at the school
as a career and college spe-
cialist and we had some re-
ally good things going. And
the impact that I had and the
impact the kids had on me
last year was just incredible.”
Finley and his family have
moved back to Nilchik, Alas-
ka where he coached Nili-
chik High School from 2011-
2017 including back-to-back
state titles at the end of the
run. With his job he will be
working in Kenai, Alaska but
has no plans of coaching in
the immediate future.
“I think I’m young enough
that I think I still have time
to make a life for my fami-
ly and then come back and
coach. I think I have a solid
resume that I can hopefully
coach again. But at this time,
I’m hanging up the whistle
and going to take some time
off. It’s going to be fun but
it’s going to be weird,” said
Finley.
Staying involved in the
community, Finley plans to
start giving basketball les-
sons and join the state bas-
ketball seeding committee.
But he also intends to enjoy
not waking up early to open
the gym, staying late for
practices and traveling on
FINLEY
see B2
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Erick Giffen races down the sideline and into the end zone against North Bend on Friday night during Cottage Grove’s jamboree. The Lions begin their season Friday
night at home against Cascade.
turners from last year’s team playing on it wasn’t completely out of the ordinary said Giffen. “I rallied the team together,
Jamboree signals start of
the field so we just kind of have that con- and it gives us room to build. We didn’t me and Dylan both, and we had some
football season for Cottage
nection,” said Graves.
look terrible by any means.”
conversations about what we need to im-
Grove
Graves was also impressed with the
Now the Lions begin to look forward prove on and how next week we just need
Cottage Grove offensive line that brings as they host Cascade on Friday night at to focus on we need to get a lot better de-
By Zach Silva
back no returning starters from last 7 p.m. in their first game of the season.
fensive wise and offensively, we have a lot
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
year’s team.
“[Tonight] was a jamboree, obvious- to do also. We just need to focus on Cas-
With new faces up and down the ros-
“In the first scrimmage against North ly, so we were just focusing on getting cade and thinking about beating them.”
ter and last year’s championship season
[Eugene] our line really started out and better we weren’t focused on winning,”
in the books, the Cottage Grove football
pushed really hard and got a great push.
team got to focus on this year’s team at
We got a lot of good runs which was real-
Friday night’s jamboree as they prepare
ly surprising to me because against our-
for the upcoming season.
selves on the scout time sometimes they
“When you have as many new bod-
have a little bit of trouble getting that
ies as we have you kind of go into not
first push but they came out fired up and
knowing… that we’re not what we were
that’s what I loved about it,” said Graves.
last year but we don’t know how far we’re
The other scoring play for the Lions
off. So it’s good to go out and play against
came from David Cox’s one-yard rushing
another team tonight and get to hit and
touchdown.
tackle and block against somebody else,”
The offense of North Eugene and
said head coach Gary Roberts.
North Bend both exposed breakdowns in
With nine new starters on offense and
the Cottage Grove defense during their
eight on defense, the Lions hosted North
matchups. The Highlanders scored three
Eugene and North Bend for 18 plays on
times while the Bulldogs found the end
each side of the ball. In the first matchup
zone twice.
against the Highlanders, it was familiar
“Kind of sloppy,” Roberts said of the
faces striking on the second play from
Lions offense and defense. “I told the kids
scrimmage as returning first team all-
at the end that if you would have looked
state quarterback Dylan Graves found
at the jamboree film of last year and said,
honorable mention all-state receiver
'Hey, you guys, this team is going to
Erick Giffen for a 34-yard touchdown.
win a state championship,' you wouldn’t
The pair connected throughout the night
have sounded very smart. Or maybe you
and Giffen also had a touchdown against
would have been really smart because I
North Bend.
would have said no way. We made a lot
“Ever since I moved here from Califor-
of mistakes last year in the jamboree. We
nia, me and Erick just clicked as soon as
did not look crisp and polished. And it’s
I got here. We’ve been best friends ever
the same tonight. We looked sloppy but Logan Nelson breaks out a run during the jamboree against North Eugene.
since and me and him are the only re-
Hutchison named CGHS basketball coach
2007 CGHS graduate
takes over varsity boys’
program
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Seth Hutchison is coming
home.
The 2007 graduate from Cot-
tage Grove High School is re-
turning to the school where he
will be the varsity boys’ basket-
ball coach.
“It’s a dream come true. It’s
pretty great to come back to
my hometown where I grew up,
went to school K-12. Played in
the program all four years. It’s a
dream come true to come back
and kind of give back to the
community that raised me and
kind of turned me into the man
I am now,” said Hutchison. “It’s
very cool and not many people
get a chance to do that. I take
great pride in this so it’s pretty
exciting.”
Hutchison, 29, was called
about the position after Nick
Finely, who coached one season
Athlete of
the Week
at CGHS, began a job in Alaska
earlier this month. Hutchison
applied for the job a season ago.
After graduating from CGHS,
Hutchison became a manager
for the Oregon State basketball
team. After graduating from
OSU, he was the head coach of
the freshman team at Marist
High School and then assist-
ed his high school head coach,
CGHS alumni Bart Pollard,
with Marist’s varsity program.
Following his time with the
Spartans, he was offered a job
as the JV coach for Pleasant Hill
This week’s athlete of the
week is Yoncalla’s Kaleigh
Soto. Last Friday, Soto
recorded 27 digs over two
games against Crow and
Elmira. For more on that
game, see B2.
and was head coach for the past
two seasons. Which now leads
Hutchison to his first time as
head coach at the varsity level.
“It’s exciting and I’m a little
bit nervous but there’s going to
be a lot of learning in this pro-
cess but I’m up for the challenge
on that. I love to learn, I love to
continue to grow professionally.
I’m very excited for this oppor-
tunity,” he said.
In addition to coaching,
Hutchison has a teaching li-
cense from OSU and will be
teaching PE at his former school
Bohemia Elementary.
With three months until
the basketball season begins,
Hutchison’s attention now turns
to his team.
“I don’t know much about
them and I view that as a good
thing. Every one of these kids
comes in with a blank slate,” he
said. “Whatever happened their
freshman or sophomore or ju-
nior year, I don’t care about that.
You’re coming in with a blank
slate.”
Soto, center,
during a
practice last
week.