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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (June 12, 2019)
Cottage Grove Sentinel Sports & Recreation SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION • WEDNESDAY | JUNE 12, 2019 • B1 CONTACT SPORTS EDITOR ZACH SILVA AT 942-3325 OR ZSILVA@CGSENTINEL.COM Cottage Grove seniors take next step Samantha May will be attending North- west Christian University. Cassidy Herbert will be attending Lane Community College. Lauren Witty will be attending Linn Benton Community College. Wyatt Sayles will be attending Cheme- keta Community College. Konrad Raum will be attending Umpqua Community College. Paesen Timm will be attending Umpqua Community College. Dylan Graves will be attending Shasta College. Erick Giff en will be attending Shasta College. Eight CGHS seniors will be playing sports at the next level By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com While many athletic careers come to an offi cial end on grad- uation day, for eight Cottage Grove seniors, Saturday’s grad- uation was just the next step in the process to becoming college athletes. Taking their talents to a uni- versity, community colleges or junior colleges, Cottage Grove’s Samantha May, Cassidy Herbert, Lauren Witty, Wyatt Sayles, Kon- rad Raum, Paesen Timm, Erick Giff en and Dylan Graves will be playing sports at the next level. “In middle school, when we were coming up to high school, everybody talked about us. ‘Th ey’re a super athletic class, this is going to be awesome,’” re- members May. “It’s been really fun having a bunch of us playing sports all throughout high school and now we’re all going on and doing our own things all over the West Coast.” May, who will be attending Northwest Christian University in the fall, is one of three players from last year’s second place vol- leyball team who will be playing in college. Teammate Herbert will be at Lane Community Col- lege while Witty is going to Linn Benton Community College. “All of us had always dreamed of this day and being able to play at the next level. We never knew if it was really going to be a pos- sibility but having such a success- ful season it opened some doors for us and now we get to go play,” said May, the CGHS class of 2019 salutatorian. While the volleyball team has found success on the fl oor unlike any CGHS team before them, for Witty, she saw that it all started with the team’s academics. “Th e coaches that have built this program have realized that school does come fi rst. So, be- cause obviously you can’t go anywhere just being athletic, you need to have the grades to get somewhere as well,” she said. “So by putting school fi rst you create students and then you build on top of that with having athletes do sports and athletics and you push them to be better than they think they could be and that’s what’s happened over the many years that I’ve been part of the program.” Another team that found great success over the past four years was the Cottage Grove football team. Th e 2017 state champi- ons, were aided by the talents of quarterback Graves and wide receiver/defensive back/kicker/ punter/kick-returner Giff en. Th is dynamic duo is heading south to play football at Shasta College. Graves reached out to the Shasta College coaching staff , they were quickly impressed with his resume and wanted him to join the team. He then told them about Giff en who they also liked and now the pair that has caused problems for teams across the Sky-Em league and state are to- gether again. “I’m going to be moving about four hours and 30 minutes away and it’s nice having my best friend go with me,” said Graves. “It just makes me more comfort- able and will be a fun experience once I’m down there.” Another duo that is staying together is Raum and Timm who will be attending Umpqua Community College to run cross country and track. Similar to the recruiting pro- cess for Graves and Giff en, the UCC coach reached out to Timm and Timm told him to also take a look at Raum. “It makes it a little more com- fortable going into the fi rst day of training knowing that I already know somebody,” said Timm. Th e pair of runners are look- ing forward to continuing to run together but more than anything they are excited about the farther distances that they will get to race. “I’m really looking forward to cross country because now it’s an 8K instead of a 5K so that’s go- ing to be cool. I think I’m better at longer distances so I’m ready to see what I can do there,” said Raum. “I think it’s going to be way cooler than anything I’ve ever done before.” Th e fi nal CGHS athlete play- ing in college is the pitcher Sayles who will be joining the Cheme- keta Community College base- ball team. CGHS baseball coach Geiszler headed to Texas Aft er 15 seasons leading the baseball program, Dan Geiszler is departing CGHS By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com When Dan Geiszler came to coach the Cottage Grove baseball team in 2004, he was unsure how long he would be in that role. “Th at was exactly my thinking, I’m here for now and we’ll see what happens,” said Geiszler refl ecting on his time in Cottage Grove. Since then, 15 years have hap- pened. Th e Lions have had wins, they’ve had losses and now Geiszler is on to the next chapter of his life and he will be mov- ing from Cottage Grove to Texas with his Dan Geiszler (left) talks to Gavin Sowa during a game earlier this year. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/ family. CG SENTINEL “Kind of been working on it for a cou- tage Grove and is located about 30 miles “When you look back you think of ple years or talking about it at least. And north of Houston. Geiszler has aspirations highs and lows and wins and losses. Look- my wife and I, we kind of gave ourselves to be coaching baseball at the high school ing back you think of all the kids I got two years to make it happen and we both level in the future but is taking a break for to coach. All the boys I got to coach and got jobs down there and just decided, why now as his focus turns to coach his kids. think of them then and I could see some not, to be honest with you,” said Geiszler. While head coach at Cottage Grove, now. And just that whole progression and “So we’re heading down there a little bit Geiszler led the team to the playoff s on evolution of them growing up and becom- blind. We’ve been down there once.” fi ve occasions but that is not what he will ing men and having families and getting Th e Geiszlers are moving to Tomball, most remember about his time with the jobs and all of that,” said Geiszler. Texas which – at just under a population Lions. “I think that, to me, is what I will re- of 11,000 people – is about the size of Cot- Athletes of the Week Th is week’s athletes of the week are the local teams that were named to the academic all-state list. To read about all the teams that had fi nished with grade point averages above 3.0, turn to B3. member the most. More than the on-fi eld stuff is all the off -fi eld stuff and what they became aft erwards and their accomplish- ments. Th at’s kind of what I see when I look back at it.” Across both the league and state, Geisz- ler was lauded by other coaches for what he could do with his teams. “Th ey’ve got the best coach in the league and he’s been that way for years,” said Junction City head coach Tony Stavros, unprompted, about Geiszler during the season. “For what he does with what he’s had the last couple years is, I mean, I don’t know if people realize that. His kids play hard and they always do the right thing.” While Geiszler is leaving, he noted that the assistant coaches Jared Hutchins, Rod Gardner and James Berry are going to stay involved in the program. But now they will be waiting for a head coach. “Th e coaching staff is going to look similar, it is just getting someone in here who, hopefully can do a better job, to be honest,” said Geiszler. “I mean, that’s the goal. By all means, I would love somebody to come in here and be better than I was.” Geiszler will coach the summer baseball season that ends in June before leaving for Texas. With a grade point average of 3.73 Cot- tage Grove’s girls golf team fi nished with the best GPA of all the area teams. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/ CG SENTINEL
