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