Polk County Sports
12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 3, 2016
Nichols begins waiting game for a chance at pros
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
FONTANA, Calif. — Julian Nichols closed
the door on his Monmouth apartment for
the last time on Friday.
After two years, 54 wins and a trip to the
NCAA Division II Final Four with Western
Oregon’s men’s basketball team, Nichols re-
turned home to California.
There, he’ll face the most difficult part of
chasing his professional basketball career —
the wait.
—
Since the end of June, Nichols has taken
part in multiple showcases, including one in
Las Vegas featuring 60 to 70 players.
“My mindset was just to play hard and let
the fluidity of the game come to me,” he
said. “Don’t force anything.”
He received feedback from scouts and
agents in attendance, but no formal offers
were made.
“I’m at the point where it’s a waiting
game,” Nichols said. “I don’t stress out at all
about this part of the process. I can only
control what I can control. Everything else
really isn’t up to me. It’s just a matter of
someone taking a chance on me now.”
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer file
Julian Nichols returned to California while he waits for a chance to play pro basketball.
While he waits, he’s returning to his
hometown of Fontana, Calif. Don’t let that
fool you into thinking it’s a sign of resigna-
tion.
The move back to California officially
closes a chapter of his life — saying good bye
to Western Oregon.
“The people around Monmouth, when
you go to Subway or Yang’s or Koyotes and
people come up to you, and you see the
coaches everywhere, I miss that segment of
it,” he said. “The community came together
and it was bigger than basketball at that
point. I’ll never forget about Monmouth.”
After plans to take Sunday through
Tuesday to settle back in and Nichols
will be back in the gym Wednesday
(today) after a brief break from his 14-
hour drive south.
“I’ll be ready to go whenever I get called,”
he said. “I’ll continue to climb. I don’t see
myself losing at the next level. I do see suc-
cess.”
Nichols believes there are some real pos-
sibilities of several different professional
leagues — though he’s not quite ready to
share the details with the world just yet. But
he is hopeful he’ll get a call soon.
“People can see what I did at Western and
what I’ve been able to do at these showcas-
es,” Nichols said. “I want to play at the high-
est level possible, and they’ll see I give my
best every time out.”
For now, professional basketball remains
just out of reach. Nichols isn’t frustrated,
though. He’s just waiting for his chance —
and like when he arrived at Western, he’s
ready to make the most of it whenever it
comes.
“I want people to know that wherever
I’m at, I’m not going to lose sight of the
bigger goal, and that’s getting to the
NBA,” he said. “To go 23-7 at Western my
first year and then 31-4, at the end of the
day, they know Julian wants to win, and
Julian wants to play at the highest level,
and that’s that.”
Track: Condition up Dirtbags: Rally falls
for debate in district short at tournament
Continued from Page 11A
“Several schools have got-
ten more life,” Montague
said. “Gresham, I know, got
14 years out of theirs. Cor-
vallis is on year 12. It’s not a
hard and fast marker.”
Masei said if the district
believes the track is still in
good condition, he and his
staff will make it work.
“Ultimately we’ll try and
keep the kids off of it as
much as possible and milk
the facility for everything
its got,” Masei said.
Despite differing opin-
ions on the track’s condi-
tion, it has affected other
s c h o o l s’ d e c i s i o n s o n
whether to come to Dallas
or not.
“Through no fault of
their own, we probably
wouldn’t go there for an in-
vitational or anything like
that,” Lebanon track and
field coach Josh Dykes said.
“Their shot ring goes 50
feet. Well we had a kid who
threw 65 feet this year. We’d
have to have discussions
with some of our athletes
about whether they should
compete in certain events
if the meet is in Dallas. It’s
not really conducive for the
top tier kids.”
The track itself also pres-
ents problems.
“The other thing is you
don’t take 100- or 200-
meter times at Dallas be-
cause it’s so sloped you
can’t take a time recorded
there seriously. The sur-
f a c e re a l l y d o e s n e e d
resurfacing, but it’s tough I
know. We went through it,”
Dykes said.
Montague maintains it
has several years of life left.
In the meantime, he hopes
the district can start setting
aside money each year to
prepare for the eventual mo-
ment when a resurfacing is
needed.
The track is also one of
several projects the district
is trying to balance, not just
for athletics, but school
buildings as well, Mon-
tague said. It’s a struggle,
but one that he hopes leads
to better results.
“We’ve made a lot of
changes to look at long-term
planning instead of reac-
tionary planning,” Mon-
tague said. “We have $45
million of work to do. The
track is part of that, but we
have a lot of maintenance
district-wide.”
Continued from Page 11A
“We had a pretty solid
run,” Dallas High gradu-
ate Tucker Weaver said.
“It’s not exactly the end
you’re hoping for, but only
one team gets to win it. It
was tough because we
have that uncertain feel-
ing of never knowing if we
could have come out the
next day and won the
title.”
The loss meant for the
second year in a row, the
Dirtbags’ season ended as
one of the final four teams
left in the state tourna-
ment.
“It was kind of a downer
for us,” Central’s Peter
Mendazona said. “Espe-
cially knowing the two
teams ahead of us lost to
us earlier in the summer,
but of course life doesn’t
always go the way you
want it. Making it to the
final four still isn’t too
shabby.”
The Dirtbags’ up-and-
d ow n r u n p ro d u c t i o n
throughout the tourna-
ment meant players were
alternating between easy
going and more tense
than usual depending on
the situation.
“Striking first was the
biggest thing for us,”
Weaver said. “It gets you
feeling really good about
everything and carries
throughout the game. You
don’t feel as much pres-
sure with every pitch,
every play and every at-
bat.”
For players like Weaver,
who graduated from Dal-
las in 2016, the end of the
American Legion season
marked the true end of
high school baseball and
the beginning of a new
chapter.
While the sting of losing
hurts, the thrill of experi-
encing one last run with
fellow high school stu-
dents was well worth it.
“I learned a lot about
my mentality,” Weaver
said. “The coaches really
helped me shake things
off and remember to for-
get everything that hap-
pens in the past. It was a
lot of fun and was ab-
solutely ecstatic to play a
high level of baseball with
a bunch of new guys.”