Cottage Grove Sentinel
Sports & Leisure
B1
THURSDAY | JULY 1, 2021
A Season to Remember: Girls’ hoops undefeated
By Jerry Thompson/for The Sentinel
A
fter running the table in Sky-Em
league play with a 11-0-1 record,
the Lady Lions’ season came to
a screeching halt last Tuesday with a 51-42
loss to Valley Catholic.
The game was a see-saw battle until the
end. The CG girls trailed 22-25 at the half,
but the game was tied at 33-32 at the end of
the third quarter.
With 3:48 to play, the game was tied at 40-
40, but then everything went the Valiants’
way. Josie Napoli canned a three from the
top of the key, but the Lions were still in it
until Valley Catholic corralled two key of-
fensive rebounds on two missed one and
ones.
Cameron Wilder then hit a three from
the right corner to put the Valiants ahead
46-40 with under three minutes to play.
The Lions had numerous opportunities
to close the gap, but a couple of misses on
the front end of a one and ones, plus an
unforced turnover were too much to over-
come.
Senior Matty Ladd led the CG girls with
21 points, but the next top scorer was Gra-
cie Arnold with just six points.
The Lions shot a very poor 4-for-15 from
the free throw line. That missed opportuni-
ty was compounded by the fact that steady
senior point guard Mikaela Blomquist suf-
fered a thigh contusion early in the game.
She tried to play through with the injury,
but was obviously not able to play up to her
potential.
“They’re a high-scoring team and they
usually get 10-15 points in transition. They
didn’t get much in transition,” Lions head
coach Erin Royse. “I am proud of how our
players were getting back. We missed some
shots and missed free throws. Those two
can cost you a game.”
One circumstance that seemed to favor
Valley Catholic’s was the fact that the previ-
ous week the Lions had played five games in
six days, with the ability to rest and prepare
on just Sunday and Monday.
The Sky-Em league was the only con-
ference of the six Oregon 4A leagues that
played a Friday and Saturday tourney before
the playoffs.
On the other hand, Valley Catholic had
six days between their league-ending play
and Oregon’s 4A Showcase Final 8 playoff
game against Cottage Grove.
Despite the playoff loss, the Lady Lions
can hold their heads high with the 11 wins
over their conference rivals.
“It was a lot of fun to be on this ride, kind
of a roller coaster we were on with ups and
downs, just like every other team that has
being going through this winter basketball
season in the spring,” said Royse. “I think
we all dealt with adversity, and I’m really
proud of the way our players came through
with just sticking together, being a team and
powering through all the challenges that we
had.”
The Lions are losing seniors Matty Ladd,
Mikaela Blomquist, Alexia Riggs and Kourt-
ney Owens. Ladd led the CG girls with 16
points per game, nearly 10 rebounds per
game and close to 3 blocked shots per game.
Although no all-league selections had
been made at press time, there is little doubt
that Ladd, who played on the varsity all four
of her high school years, should be named
the Sky-Em’s most valuable player.
PHOTO BY JERRY THOMPSON/CG SENTINEL
see GIRLS on B2
Senior Mikaela Blomquist put the Lions ahead 33-32 with this shot against the
Valiants.
Wings, wheels and 100 years of aviation
By Sophia Edelblute
sedelblute@cgsentinel.com
A
s Oregon celebrates 100
years of aviation, the Or-
egon Aviation Historical Soci-
ety and Museum celebrated the
comeback of Wings and Wheels
after a year of absence, marking
the seventh annual event on Sat-
urday, June 26.
“It is [Oregon aviation’s] cen-
tennial and we wanted to do
something significant in terms
of that because 100-year anni-
versaries don’t happen very of-
ten,” said Tim Talen, board vice
president.
Antique cars, planes, motor-
cycles and some rather unique
creations — like John Barrong’s
homemade motored tricycle,
looking like something similar
to a penny-farthing bicycle —
are on display. Not only are peo-
ple’s own vehicles present, but a
display of historical planes and
plaques depicting Oregon’s avia-
tion history are sat in the middle
of the blacktop.
In 1921 “the state decided
that aviation actually could be
something that could be of val-
ue ... so they said ‘okay, let’s have
a department of aviation,’” said
Talen.
Back before the 1920s basical-
ly anyone who could fly a plane
was considered a pilot, according
to Talen. So Oregon started reg-
istering and licensing pilots and
aircraft. The first license plate
for planes was about the size of a
motorcycle plate, Talen said, but
they got bigger as time went on.
Homebuilding airplanes was
also a huge thing in Oregon
when the department of aviation
first started. Homebuilding is,
CG boys
hoops:
reasons for
optimism
By Jerry Thompson
for The Sentinel
SOPHIA EDELBLUTE/CG SENTINEL
John Barrong brought in his Adams Arrow plane and motorized tricycle for display.
as Talen describes it, building a
plane rather than buying one al-
ready built. They are considered
experimental aircraft and Ore-
gon encouraged their creation.
Unfortunately, in 1941, Talen
says, the federal government
cracked down on homebuilds
and made it illegal to build your
own plane. But then, after WWII,
in 1951, aviation got a boost and,
after some petitioning, home-
builds were legal again.
A lot of the airplanes in the
historical display are home-
builds, including a plane named
Wimpy. According to its plaque,
it was built in 1935, is an ul-
tra-light plane and boats the
first successful low wing design
of its time. It was a frequent fli-
Athlete of
the Week
er at Beaverton’s Bernard Field,
“where it gained its comic name
‘Wimpy’” It is now considered an
Oregon Heritage Homebuilt by
the museum.
Other vehicles on display have
nothing to do with aviation. For
example, Barrong’s penny-far-
thing motored tricycle.
“When I was a kid,” Barrong,
one of the museum’s board mem-
bers, says, “Ruth Blackburn lived
here in town and her husband
built her [a tricycle] that was
even taller, an even taller wheel,
and she used to ride it in the Bo-
hemia Days parade and so when
I was a little kid I thought, ‘wow
that’s so damn cool.’ The tricycle
is so damn cool. I’m gonna build
one some day,” said Barrong. He
This week’s athlete of
the week is Matty Ladd.
In her last game in four
years as a Lion, senior
Matty Ladd scored 21
points in the Lions’ loss
to Valley Catholic. For
the season, Ladd led
Cottage Grove with
192 points and 118
rebounds.
did eventually build it, of course,
for his wife’s birthday, using a
spare Maytag engine she hap-
pened to have in her possession.
“You get an idea in your head,
you come up with these ideas
of what you want it to look like
and you just have to make it hap-
pen. So that’s kind of what I do,”
Barong said. “I’ll collect bits and
pieces until I have everything I
need to do it and then just one
day I’ll do it.”
He started welding as a kid
when bolting together his go-
carts wouldn’t work anymore.
“You’d be screaming around the
field, something would come
unbolted and you would crash
see WINGS on B3
Matty Ladd
scores a
two-pointer
in the fourth
quarter to
reduce the
Valley Cath-
olic lead to
two points.
PHOTO BY JERRY
THOMPSON/CG
SENTINEL
Normally a team that finishes 3-9
(3-7 in league play), may not be that
thrilled about the upcoming season,
but in talking with Cottage Grove
Lions head coach Seth Hutchison,
he can hardly contain his enthusi-
asm for the future.
Some of it is based on the fact
that the Lions won two out of their
last three games. And in the lost to
Marist, the Lions improved from a
36-point loss in their first meeting,
to a six-point defeat in the second
contest.
“The effort has always been
there,” said Hutchison. “I think they
understood they can compete with
anyone in our league. A lot of our
team didn’t have a ton of varsity
experience. From one’s junior to se-
nior year we should be improved.”
The Lions are slated to return
four starters: junior-to-be Brennen
Murphy and next season’s seniors,
Jayden Cameron, Carter Bascue
and Ty Kishen.
“It started off a little bumpy,” said
Kishen about the Lions’ spring sea-
son. “It’s not how I wanted it to go in
the beginning, but definitely in the
last few games we found ourselves.
I think if we can carry that into
next season we’ll be super success-
ful. The highlight is how we ended
with a win at Siuslaw on their senior
night.”
In that game the CG boys scored
29 points in the first quarter and
utilized their base 1-3-1 defense to
almost shutout the Vikings.
“Putting players in right spots on
defense has made a difference,” said
Hutchison. “It’s going to be dan-
gerous for the other teams with the
length that we have. With Murphy
at top and Bascue and Kishen on
the wings… those are some long
arms to get through.”
The offense displayed what it is
capable of producing as Brennen
Murphy led the way with 26 points
and Jayden Cameron added 21 in
see BOYS on B3