Polk County
Sports
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 24, 2016 10A
CENTRAL BASEBALL
SCHEDULE
THURSDAY, AUG. 25
Boys Soccer: Dallas at
Century Jamboree, 10:30
a.m.
Girls Soccer: Dallas at
Century Jamboree, 3:30
p.m.
Volleyball: Dallas at
Lebanon Jamboree, 1 p.m.
FRIDAY, AUG. 26
Football: Dallas at Cas-
cade Jamboree, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY, AUG. 27
Boys Soccer: Central vs.
South Albany, at Sweet
Home Jamboree, noon.
Central at Sweet Home,
1:15 p.m.
Girls Soccer: Central at
South Albany Jamboree,
noon. Dallas at Redmond,
noon.
Vo l l ey b a l l : N o r t h
Clackamas Christian at Per-
rydale, noon. Triangle Lake
at Perrydale, 3:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, AUG. 30
Boys Soccer: Thurston
at Central, 6 p.m.
Girls Soccer: Central at
Parkrose, 4:30 p.m.
Volleyball: Falls City at
Portland Waldorf, 5:30 p.m.
Perrydale vs. East Linn
Christian, at Delphian, 4:30
p.m. Perrydale at Delphian,
7 p.m.
Miller steps down as head coach
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE —
Zach Miller announced last
week he is stepping down
as Central’s head baseball
coach.
Miller coached the Pan-
thers for the previous six
seasons and will move to
Washington.
“The decision (to leave)
was merely
based on
advancing
forward
for my
wife’s (and
mine) career
goals,” Miller said. “I am
fortunate to have been
given the great opportunity
to get my start here in a
great community with par-
ents and players who are
second to none. I earned
two degrees from Western
Oregon, met my wife and
gained valuable experience
coaching while being a part
of some special sports
teams and made great
memories each year.”
Under Miller’s guidance,
Central’s baseball squad fin-
ished 12-14 overall and 10-
11 in Mid-Willamette Con-
ference play in 2016, placing
fourth in the league stand-
ings. The Panthers advanced
to the state play-in round
before falling to Eagle Point.
Miller’s impact on the
baseball team, and the ath-
letics program in general,
extended far beyond wins
and losses, Central athletics
director Shane Hedrick said.
“It was a real disappoint-
ment for me (to learn he is
leaving),” Hedrick said.
“(Zach) did a real nice job
with the kids. He was very
committed to the program
and the school. He volun-
teered for a position with
no pay, and in the fall, he
helped supervise events. As
a landscaper, he did all the
groundwork at the baseball
field that often required late
hours after practice or on
the weekends.”
See MILLER, Page 11A
GOAL!!!
Independence Sports Park set for
opening celebration on Saturday
QUICK HITS
Western Oregon
tickets available
MONMOUTH — Season
ticket packages and single-
game tickets for Western
Oregon’s fall sports teams
are now available for pur-
chase.
Tickets for football, vol-
leyball and soccer are avail-
able
online
at
w w w.wouwolves.com/-
sports/2013/11/1/GEN_11
01135352.aspx.
Season tickets cost $60
for volleyball, $55 for soc-
cer and $50 for reserved or
$40 for general seating for
football. Single-game tick-
ets cost $7 for volleyball
and soccer and $12 for
general seating for foot-
ball.
WOU volleyball
picked eighth
MONMOUTH — The
Western Oregon volleyball
team was picked to finish
eighth out of 11 teams in
the Great Northwest Ath-
letic Conference coaches
poll on Thursday.
The Wolves finished in a
tie for eighth place in the
GNAC in 2015 with a 5-15
mark in conference play.
Western Washington,
the defending West Region
champions, was picked to
finish first followed by Alas-
ka Anchorage and North-
west Nazarene.
WOU opens the 2016
season at the Concordia
Labor Day Tournament
Sept. 1-3 in Portland.
Cross Creek
men’s club results
DALLAS — Cross
Creek’s men’s club results
for Aug. 17:
Low gross/low net
Gross: 1 Paul Disney, 39;
2 (tie), Rocky Kygar, Joe
Johnson, Lee Gamaney,
Kevon O’Brien and Kevin
Moen, 40.
Net: 1 (tie), Pat Flana-
gan and Dennis Bergman;
3, Darrel Smedstad, 32; 4,
Brian Halin, 33; 5 (tie),
Donald Sprague and John
Hopkins, 34.
Tuipulotu named
preseason All-
American
INDEPENDENCE — Cen-
tral senior Marlon Tuipulo-
tu has been named to the
All American Family Insur-
ance All-USA Preseason
Football Team.
Tuipulotu, a 6-foot-2,
295-pound defensive line-
man, had 78 tackles and
13 sacks in 2015.
He was named the
OSAA Class 5A defensive
player of the year and
also the Itemizer-Observer
All-Region Player of the
Year.
www.polkio.com
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
The city of Independence will celebrate the opening of Independence Sports Park, which features three soccer fields, on Saturday morning.
By Lukas Eggen
Soccer tourney
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — The city of
Independence is ready to kick off the
celebration of three new soccer
fields.
The city will celebrate the open-
ing of Independence Sports Park, lo-
cated on Deanne Drive behind
Riverplace Apartments Saturday at
10 a.m.
There will be refreshments, prizes,
an honorary kickoff and a youth
tournament to mark the occasion.
Desires for a sports park began
nearly 20 years ago — though it took
until 2014 for the current plan to
pick up steam, Independence City
Manager David Clyne said.
“That probably goes all the way
back to 1996 when the city first iden-
tified it in the parks master plan,”
Clyne said. “It was the first idea of
having some kind of sporting com-
plex. It has changed and become
more refined over time. We really fo-
• The city of Independence will
host a youth soccer tournament Sat-
urday morning to celebrate the
opening of Independence Sports
Park.
• The tournament will begin after
the opening celebration at 10 a.m.
Teams from the Academy FC and the
YMCA will take part. The tournament
is also open to all children who want
to play.
JOE PENNA/ for the Itemizer-Observer
cused the past couple of years large-
ly in response to the parks master
plan update in 2014, I believe.”
The city conducted an online sur-
vey — which had about 500 people
respond — and reached out to peo-
ple at the Community Fiesta, the
summer music series and other
community events, and found soc-
cer fields to be the greatest desire.
“We had lots of feedback from the
community that it was a real gap we
Juan Navarro installs nets in the goals on Monday afternoon.
had in our recreation services,”
Clyne said. “We reacted to that. It’s
what the public wants and we had
the means to get that done.”
With the development of the
Riverplace Apartments, the city
worked with the owners to develop
the land, Clyne said. The Army Na-
tional Guard assisted on preparing
the land, and volunteers worked to
make final preparations for the
field’s official unveiling.
Joe Penna was one of those who
played a key role in preparing the
fields.
“I assisted the city in trying to find
a way to turn what had been agricul-
tural land into a sports complex,”
Penna said.
See SOCCER, Page 11A
DALLAS BOYS SOCCER
WESTERN OREGON VOLLEYBALL
New coach hopes to lead Jones hopes to
Wolves into contention change culture
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — Western
Oregon’s volleyball pro-
gram hopes a new coach
leads to newfound success
in 2016.
The Wolves finished 8-21
overall and
5-15 in
G r e a t
Northwest
Athletic
Conference
play —
tying for
e i g h t h
place — a
Gott
season ago.
Since then, Tommy Gott
was brought in as head
coach.
“I’ve had dreams and
goals of being a Division II
volleyball coach,” he said.
“That’s one of the big overly-
ing things. Another aspect
was I’ve coached in this re-
gion for seven years. I have
some familiarity within the
region. It’s nice to have a lit-
tle bit of comfort and some
more confidence.”
Originally, Gott saw him-
self as a high school coach,
but after playing at the col-
legiate level and becoming
an assistant, he became ad-
dicted to competing.
“The longer I stayed work-
ing and climbing through
the ranks, I appreciated and
enjoyed the competitive-
ness,” Gott said.
See WOLVES, Page 11A
WOU volleyball
Head coach: Tommy
Gott (first season).
2015 record: 8-21 over-
all; 5-15 Great Northwest
Athletic Conference.
Key returners: Alisha
Bettinson, jr.; Amanda
Short, soph.; Sydney Blank-
inship, jr.; Sheila Limas De La
Cruz, jr.; Christie Colasurdo,
sr.
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer file
Western Oregon finished tied for eighth in the Great
Northwest Athletic Conference in 2015
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Dallas boys
soccer coach John Jones
stepped into a difficult
spot last season.
He took over a program
that had failed to win a
g a m e
s i n c e
2011 and
scored
just seven
t o t a l
goals the
season
before he
arrived.
Jones
T h e
Dragons showed signs of
improvement in 2015 —
including earning a win
over Redmond.
Now, Dallas has some-
thing it hasn’t had in a
while: consistency at head
coach.
“It is so helpful to know
the players this year,”
Jones said. “To know their
attitudes and skills, it
www.facebook.com/pages/Polk-County-Itemizer-Observer/205062686252209
helps me set expectations
for the start of the sea-
son.”
Jones enters his second
year at the helm, but
brings together an inexpe-
rienced team.
The Dragons saw nine
seniors from last year’s ros-
ter graduate.
He hopes for those play-
ers who are returning that
the consistency at coach
leads to a smooth transi-
tion.
“We have a wide vari-
ety of skill levels,” Jones
said. “The work of bring-
ing a team together will
require each individual to
be willing to become bet-
ter in some way as an in-
dividual, whether that be
skills or improving atti-
tudes.”
Getting players up to
speed on the field of play is
easy compared to perhaps
the bigger challenge:
changing the team’s cul-
ture.
See JONES, Page 11A
www.twitter.com/PolkIOSports