Polk County
Sports
SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4
Wrestling: Central at 4-
way league duals (at Wood-
burn), 4 p.m. Dallas at 4-
Way league duals (at
Lebanon), 4 p.m.
THURSDAY, JAN. 5
Boys basketball:
Lebanon at Dallas, 7 p.m.
Livingstone Adventist at
Falls City, 7 p.m. Perrydale
at Jewell, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball: Living
Stone Adventist at Falls City,
5:30 p.m. Perrydale at Jew-
ell, 5:30 p.m.
Men’s basketball: West-
ern Oregon at Seattle Pacif-
ic, 7:30 p.m.
Swimming: Central at
Crescent Valley, 4 p.m.
Women’s basketball:
Alaska Anchorage at West-
ern Oregon, 7 p.m.
PREP BASKETBALL
Falls City putting pieces together
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — For Falls
City’s girls basketball team,
the true benefits of the this
season may not be seen
until future seasons.
With seven freshmen and
three sophomores on the
roster, the Mountaineers
have spent much of the
team’s first eight games get-
TUESDAY, JAN. 10
Boys basketball: Falls
City at Willamette Valley
Christian, 7:30 p.m. Perry-
dale at Livingstone Adven-
tist, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball: Central
at South Albany, 7 p.m.
Crescent Valley at Dallas, 7
p.m. Falls City at Willamette
Valley Christian (at
Blanchet), 6 p.m. Perrydale
at Livingstone Adventist,
5:30 p.m.
Swimming: Central at
Lebanon, 4 p.m. Dallas at
Corvallis, 4 p.m.
Women’s basketball:
Western Oregon at Concor-
dia, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11
Boys basketball: South
Albany at Central, 7 p.m.
Dallas at Crescent Valley, 7
p.m.
Wrestling: Corvallis at
Central, 6 p.m. South Al-
bany at Dallas, 6 p.m.
—
Houghtaling
ting players
acclimated
to offensive
and defen-
sive sys-
tems and
laying the
ground-
work for
future suc-
cess.
“We knew once (last
year’s) seniors left, it would
be a learning and growing
year,” sophomore Amara
Houghtaling said. “It has
taken some patience, but we
knew it would be like this.
This is a learning and grow-
ing year.”
The process has been
slow but steady, teaching
players the right spots dur-
ing offensive and defensive
sets.
See FALLS CITY, Page 11A
Basketball
• Falls City’s girls basketball team went 3-0 at the Valley 10
Tournament last week.
• The Mountaineers defeated St. Stevens Academy 48-36,
Camas Valley 35-26 and Portland Waldorf 29-23.
• Amara Houghtaling scored 23 points against St. Stevens,
and Sarah Mack and Gracie Tadlock each scored seven points.
• Against Portland Waldorf, Sairah Ziola hit two free throws
with less than a minute left in the game to help preserve the vic-
tory. Falls City outscored Portland Waldorf 10-0 to take the lead
for good.
CENTRAL BOYS BASKETBALL
Never back down
FRIDAY, JAN. 6
Boys basketball: Central
at Silverton, 7 p.m. Dallas at
Hermiston, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball: Silver-
ton at Central, 7 p.m. Dallas
at Lebanon. 7 p.m.
SATURDAY, JAN. 7
Boys basketball: Falls
City at Jewell, 4 p.m. Perry-
dale at Damascus Christian,
5:30 p.m.
Girls basketball: Falls
City at Jewell, 2:30 p.m. Per-
rydale at Damascus Chris-
tian, 4 p.m.
Men’s basketball: West-
ern Oregon at Saint Mar-
tin’s, 7:30 p.m.
Swimming: Central at
Clemens Invitational (Philo-
math), 10:30 a.m.
Women’s basketball:
Alaska Fairbanks at Western
Oregon, 2 p.m.
Wrestling: Dallas at
Brunner Invite, 9 a.m. Cen-
tral at Bob Bishop Invita-
tional, 10 a.m.
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • January 4, 2017 10A
Cable brothers make their presence felt
By Lukas Eggen
Central
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — At 6-foot-1,
Central boys basketball player Will
Cable is rarely the tallest player on
the court, nor the biggest.
But the senior post stands tall for
the Panthers in the paint.
“You have to have an attitude,”
Cable said. “You have to work hard.
I’m not the biggest guy out there, by
far. You have to be stronger than
them.”
That attitude has helped him be-
come a cornerstone for Central on
both offense and defense.
“He brings energy and is a
strong foundation down low,”
coach Tim Kreta said. “He’s not one
of our scorers, but is one of those
guys that helps balance out our ro-
tations offensively and is at the
core of what we are doing defen-
sively as well.”
By holding his own down low,
Cable allows the Panthers’ guards to
play defense more aggressively.
“These last two games, he and
Andrew (Barry) have helped create
an environment where the guards
can do their job and not worry if
they get beat, because they will be
there in the paint,” Kreta said.
He may not light up the score-
board as much as his teammates,
but Cable’s role is one that he relish-
es.
“I don’t focus on myself too
much,” Cable said. “I see myself as a
defense guy and a rebounder. Being
smaller is one of the things that fuels
me the most. You have to body up
(in the paint) and work for every-
• Central’s boys basketball team
went 2-1 at the Century/Hillsboro
Tournament, finishing in fourth.
• The Panthers lost to Tigard 48-
34 on Dec. 28 before beating Mil-
waukie 62-46 on Thursday and
Mountain View 51-46 on Friday.
• Alec Barba scored 13 points to
lead Central against Mountain View.
Peter Mendazona added 12 points.
• Barba also scored 22 points
against Milwaukie.
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Will and Jesse Cable helped the Panthers go 2-1 last week.
thing.”
Cable has also found a new role in
teaching some of the new varsity
players the ins and outs — including
his younger brother, Jesse.
“Will will be talking to the guys
and making sure they know what
we’re doing,” Kreta said. “He’s kind
of taken the sophomore group and
is sharing what he knows. He’s taken
ownership with what he does, and
you can’t teach that. It stems from a
love of the game.”
While Will is passing along his
knowledge to less experienced play-
ers, Jesse, a sophomore guard/wing,
is showing flashes of potential.
“Jesse is a diamond in the rough,”
Kreta said. “He didn’t start off as
strong as he had hoped, but he’s re-
ally starting to become a good, foun-
dational part for us. He’s strong and
smart.”
Jesse looks to all the upperclass-
men for advice — but the chance for
the two siblings to play together
adds significance to the season.
“I love it,” Will said. “It’s a blessing,
I think. It’s awesome. I always looked
forward to my senior year, because I
knew he’d be a sophomore and was
hoping he could play varsity.”
They haven’t been disappointed
with the experience so far.
See CENTRAL, Page 11A
Schedules Subject to Change
DALLAS SWIMMING
QUICK HITS
Williams ends
with 1,059 yards
SAN DIEGO — Former
Western Oregon wide re-
ceiver Tyrell Williams caught
six passes for 70 yards for
the San Diego Chargers on
Sunday.
Williams finished the sea-
son with 69 catches for
1,059 yards and seven
touchdowns.
Williams led the Chargers
in catches and receiving
yards and was second in re-
ceiving touchdowns.
Williams caught at least
one pass in each of the
Chargers’ games, grabbing a
career-high eight against
Houston in week 12.
He had a career-high of
140 receiving yards against
Atlanta in week seven.
Williams ranked 17th in
the NFL in receiving yards
and was tied for 16th in re-
ceiving touchdowns.
San Diego finished 5-11,
placing fourth in the AFC
West.
Trio discovers thrill of the swim meet
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Sophomore
Jack Johnston and juniors
Joseph Cook and Tyler Boggs
all joined Dallas’ swim team
for the same reason — to get
into shape.
All three have found that
swimming has evolved from
something to do, to some-
thing they love.
“I’m digging this sport,”
Cook said. “This is my sport
right now.”
What draws them in is
also what keeps them moti-
vated — the challenge.
—
The trio all entered the
season with varying degrees
of swimming experience,
but all three were swimming
competitively for the first
time.
“I thought I was an all-
right swimmer before I start-
ed,” Cook said. “Then I
jumped in.”
The trio expected high
school swimming would be
difficult.
They quickly found out
they weren’t truly prepared
for what came next.
“I knew it was going to be
hard, but didn’t know it was
going to be this hard,” Boggs
said.
The workouts pushed
them to their limits.
“At the beginning, swim-
ming 200 yards was hard,”
Johnston said. “… You feel
dead afterwards. It’s a good
dead, though, and you feel
accomplished, but some-
times I can barely walk after-
wards.”
Slowly but surely, they
started to swim longer dis-
tances, and today, they can
swim more than 500 yards
with relative ease.
“I found muscles I didn’t
even know I had,” Cook said.
More importantly, they
are finding their comfort
zones in races and learning
the nuances of competitive
swimming.
“I’ve learned how to cope
Men’s basketball
splits matchups
9
www.polkio.com
As they’ve improved, the
trio has redefined goals
from just wanting to stay
in shape to excelling dur-
ing meets.
“Before it was about self-
improvement,” Cook said.
“Now I love competing. I
want to compete better and
go as far as I can.”
They didn’t know quite
what they were getting into
beforehand, but Johnston,
Cook and Boggs are glad
they gave it a go.
“It’s crazy to think that
less than two months ago,
we were dreading swimming
500 yards,” Boggs said. “Now
we do that every single day,
no sweat.”
WESTERN OREGON ROUNDUP
STAT SHEET
The number of
Western Oregon
men’s basketball
players who scored
during the Wolves’ 98-77
victory over Central Wash-
ington on Thursday. Ali
Faruq-Bey led the scoring
with a game-high 22
points.
with the feeling of needing
oxygen, but not really need-
ing oxygen,” Boggs said. “It’s
a crazy feeling. I want oxy-
gen, but I know if I don’t
(take a breath) I will swim
faster.”
The trio are still working
out a few kinks, though.
“The worst part is the
feeling of drowning,” Cook
said. “I was in a meet and I
tried to take a breath, but I
ended up sucking in water
and choked for the next
half length of the pool.”
All three competed in
freestyle events during Dal-
las’ first meet against Silver-
ton on Dec. 6. Johnston also
swam the backstroke.
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Tyler Boggs, Joseph Cook and Jack Johnston joined Dallas’ swim team for the first time.
Itemizer-Observer staff report
MONMOUTH — West-
ern Oregon’s men’s basket-
ball team defeated Central
Wa s h i n g t o n 9 8 - 7 7 o n
Thursday before falling to
Northwest Nazarene 64-59
on Saturday.
Against Central Washing-
ton, nine different Wolves
www.facebook.com/pages/Polk-County-Itemizer-Observer/205062686252209
scored. Ali Faruq-Bey led
the way with 22 points.
D e m e t r i u s Tr a m m e l l
recorded a career-high 21
points.
Tanner Omlid had 18
points, 11 rebounds, four
assists, four blocks and two
steals.
See WOU, Page 11A
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