Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Walton
prepares
for track
season
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Snow slows spring sports start
A new group of track
and field coaches get
ready for upcoming
season at CGHS
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
There is a new crop of
track and field coaches at
Cottage Grove High School
this season. A season af-
ter Ricky Knutson stepped
down as head coach, it is
throws coach Gyna Walton,
who has been coaching at
the high school for the past
three seasons, filling the role
of head coach.
“Ricky Knutson was an
amazing track coach so
hopefully I can just follow
in his shoes and do the best
I can do and keep the pro-
gram going,” said Walton, a
1990 CGHS graduate. While
this is a new position for
Walton, she has been coach-
ing various teams around the
area for nearly the past two
decades. She has coached
volleyball and basketball at
the middle school level in
addition to coaching middle
school track and field.
Walton has been involved
in track since she, herself,
was in middle school at Lin-
coln, where she still holds
the record in both shot put
and discus.
“1985 and 1986. The kids
look at (those records) and
say, ‘Wow, you’re old,’” said
Walton.
After attending nationals
as an eighth grader, Wal-
ton was on varsity track all
throughout high school and
finished fifth place at state in
the discus during her senior
year. Walton competed for
a year at Lane Community
College and still competes in
the United States Track and
Field Masters Circuit where
she currently has two na-
tional titles.
For the upcoming high
school season, Walton is
looking to continue on the
recent success that the Li-
ons have had as they enter
a league that now features
successful programs in both
Marshfield and Marist. The
Marshfield girls won the
state title last year while their
boys team finished fourth.
For the Spartans, their boys
were second in 5A while the
girls finished fifth.
“We have won district
championships for the boys
the last three years and the
co-ed for the last three years,
also,” said Walton. “I guess
our goal would be to do that.
We’re going to need more
numbers, we’ve always had a
lot of numbers. But I would
say that’s probably our big-
gest goal as a team, is to try
to get those championships.”
Walton is being joined by
a host of new faces in the
track and field program.
First year coaches include
Lacey Guest, who will work
with middle distance and
distance runners and Kaelen
Byrum, a 2013 Marist grad-
uate, who will be the jumps
coach. Kallie Black, a 2008
CGHS graduate, will be a
throws coach. CGHS wres-
tling coach Christina Kent
will also be assisting the
program by leading a new
weights program.
Also joining the coaching
staff is hurdles coach Katie
Springer. Springer is a 1995
CGHS graduate who still
TRACK and FIELD see B2
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
The snow slowly but surely begins to melt at Kelly Field in Cottage Grove on Thursday afternoon.
Winter storm halts first week
of spring sports
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
While weather often plays a prominent
role during the spring sports season, it
was an especially ominous start to the
year as local teams faced the cancellation
of the first week of practice due to snow.
“For a minute there, I thought may-
be Mother Nature hated softball,” said
North Douglas head softball coach Jesse
Rice. The first official day of spring sports
for high school teams across the state was
Feb. 28 which coincided with over a foot
of snow accumulating and setting off a
week of havoc around the area. The snow
cancelled school – and practice – for the
week at Cottage Grove, North Douglas,
Yoncalla and Elkton. The first contests of
the season are on March 11.
For Rice, who was temporarily unable
to leave his house with closures along
Hwy. 38, his typical first week of practice
schedule is being altered.
“I like to start out the season working
on just the basics and the fundamentals
and kind of getting them used to what
a softball actually looks like. I’m afraid
we’re going to have to skip some of that
and try to get into a little bit more ad-
vanced areas as soon as we can,” said Rice
in a phone call last Thursday. “We’re go-
ing to have a week (of practice) and then
we’ve got a game.”
Adding, with a pause and a laugh, “Of
course, depending upon the weather,
who knows if we’ll actually have a game.”
More than the initial bout of snow
what looks to slow the Warriors, and all
area baseball and softball teams, is the
water that is being left behind on the ball
fields.
“The worst part about it is that as the
snow melts, it’s just going to saturate the
ground. There will be so much water in
the ground that it won’t run off. So it’s
definitely going to take – even when the
snow is gone – it’s going to take extra
time just to get all of that volume of water
in the ground to dissipate,” said Rice. “It’s
definitely going to hold us back.”
Teams will now do as much as they can
in various indoor facilities. For Cottage
Grove baseball coach Dan Geiszler, he
sees that his team can do nearly every-
thing they do outside inside.
“Really, offensively and pitching it
probably hurts us the most just because
we can’t go out and see any live pitching.
And pitchers can’t really throw to guys
live so that is the two it probably affects
the most,” said Geiszler. “Defensively,
we’ll be fine. The only difference is we ha-
ven’t really been on the field but we can
still do absolutely everything off the field
that we could do on.”
Geiszler, who is from Minnesota and
has first-hand experience preparing for
baseball season with limited time out-
doors, had his mind eased by the fact
that teams all over Lane County were
in a similar situation in which they, too,
could not practice.
“Not being able to do that is frustrat-
ing. But I feel fortunate that our kids have
worked pretty hard up to this point,” he
said. “We’ve had kids working since Oc-
tober, whether it is pitching or hitting or
doing infield stuff, and so I feel pretty
SPRING SPORTS see B2
The weight of the snow bends in the top of the fence at the Cottage Grove soft-
ball field last Thursday afternoon.
Golf courses, Speedway take beating from snow
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Hidden Valley owner Dan Nord’s dog, Willie, explores the dam-
age done to the golf course.
Athlete of
the Week
As was apparent to anyone
who looked outside anytime
in the last week, it was a tough
time for trees. While the snow
came down, so, too, did trees
across the city.
Falling on sidewalks, houses
and garages the trees were also
downed on golf courses and the
local race track.
“It’s a war zone, it’s horrible.
We’ve lost trees, it’s horrible.
Middlefield (Golf Course) got
some damage but we really got
hit because we have some real-
ly super old oak trees out here
and they just didn’t hold up to
the weight of that wet snow,”
said Hidden Valley Golf Course
owner Dan Nord. For the course
This week’s athlete of the
week is North Douglas
senior Abby Whipple. On
Monday, Whipple was
named player of the year for
the Skyline League. To see
all area athletes named to
all-league teams, turn to B3.
that is lined with oak and fir
trees, Nord estimates that at
least 50 percent of all fir trees on
the course were damaged by the
snow.
Nord was at the course last
Monday as the first day of snow
hit Cottage Grove bringing at
least 18 inches of snow to the
grounds.
“I come outside and it’s still
snowing like a banshee. And
you could just hear, crack, crack,
ka-boom. When this fell,” Nord
said pointing to an oak tree that
is over 150-years old, “it was just
earth-shattering. It just shook
the buildings.”
For the most part, the damage
stayed off the fairways which
will allow play to resume sooner
than later. But for each tree that
was damaged, Nord estimates a
10 to 20-yard radius around it of
fallen branches that now need to
be cleaned up. The process could
take up to a month, though, play
will be able to resume before ev-
erything is cleared.
“First thing we’ll do is concen-
trate on the areas that are in play
so we can open back up and get
business going and money flow-
ing in here to help clean this up.
So the tee boxes and the greens
have to absolutely be finished
right away. That’s the priority,”
said Nord on the order of op-
erations for the cleanup effort.
“Then we’ll start on the rough
and start working methodically
through the course that are in
play.” Additionally, Nord also
has to wait for the snow to melt
before the course is ready. While
SNOW see B2
Whipple
starts the
fast break
against Days
Creek earlier
this season.
PHOTO BY BECKY
GERRARD