Polk County Sports
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 1, 2017 15A
Goals: Wolves show progress on the court
NEIL GRAVATT/ for the Itemizer-Observer
Forward Ali Nelke hopes to play a bigger role on offense.
Continued from Page 13A
“Evolving from last year, I
need to step into a role as an
offensive threat on the
team,” Nelke said. “This is
one of the big reasons I write
M.T.D. is to remind myself
that my team needs me to
score and force the defend-
ers to guard me in order to
open up other teammates.”
High school was also the
f i r s t t i m e Ne l k e t r u l y
thought about playing bas-
ketball in college.
Her freshman year at West
Albany, her coach handed
her a registration packet to
play for Oregon Elite, a club
team based in Lake Oswego.
“I was inspired by the fact
that my high school coach
believed in freshman me and
truly thought I could play at
the college level,” Nelke said.
“I learned just how many op-
portunities there are to play
in college and committed my
summers to this goal and
Women’s basketball
• Western Oregon women’s basketball team lost to Western
Washington 65-45 on Thursday and to Simon Fraser 60-49 on
Saturday.
• Shelby Snook scored a game-high 19 points against West-
ern Washington. Savannah Heugly had nine points and six re-
bounds.
• Ali Nelke had a team-high 10 points against Simon Fraser.
She also had four rebounds and one block. Sydney Azorr also
scored 10 points.
• Western Oregon entered the week with a 7-12 record overall
and a 3-9 mark in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.
Oregon Elite.”
Once WOU entered the
picture, there was little
doubt where she would be
playing her college ball.
“WOU was the right fit for
me from the minute I was
being recruited,” Nelke said.
“WOU had the business
major I was interested in, a
comfortable closeness to
home and coach (Holli)
Howard-Carpenter put a pri-
ority on defense, which I
value.”
She arrived as a freshman
at Western Oregon ready for
the 2015-16 season and
started 21 games.
But the Wolves went 4-24
overall.
“Last season, I learned
that I can never be content
with the level of my game,”
she said. “I can always im-
prove, especially when it
comes to guard skills. I also
learned the incredible value
of communication on of-
fense and defense amongst
a team. Which means, I also
experienced the great strug-
gle when we are not com-
municating and working as
one unit.”
Western Oregon, and
Nelke, remain a work in
progress this season. The
Wolves have won seven
games and Nelke is averag-
ing 5.1 points per game —
up from 4.0 points per game
a season ago, including a 10-
point performance against
Simon Fraser on Saturday.
While progress has been
slow, it has been steady. And
Nelke hopes the team, like
herself, continues to step
forward.
“One of our team goals
was to win 12 games this
year,” Nelke said. “That
would be one of the best sea-
sons WOU has had in a long
time. It will take a lot of hard
work, but the season would
definitely be a success if we
can hit that marker.”
Refs: Average age of referee is 47 years old
Continued from Page 13A
It’s becoming more common in
some parts of the state for a referee
crew to work a freshman or JV
game and a varsity game.
That can cause burnout among
refs.
“The average age of a ref is 47
years old,” Folliard said. “That’s
creeping up, too, and can be hard
for the crews, especially if you have
a sport like football or basketball
where there’s quite a bit of running
involved.”
Some ref crews have to travel
long distances to help cover
games outside of their normal
areas, and refs are asked to cover
more and more games through-
out the week.
Steve Bulen, director of the
Salem Basketball Officials Associa-
tion, saw an increase of 10 refs this
year to 158 — the first time he’s
seen any increase in refs in three
years.
Even still, the association is in a
precarious spot.
“The biggest challenge is finding
officials to work afternoon games,”
Bulen said. “On very busy days, I
have had to tell schools I don’t
have enough officials to service
their games. Not often, but if I
don’t get the numbers up, it will be
more frequent.”
Ken Woods, commissioner of
the Salem Football Officials Asso-
ciation, had 120 football officials
five years ago. Last season, that
number had dwindled to 87.
The SFOA serves 35 high
schools, 36 middle schools and a
number of youth football pro-
grams, including Central, Dallas
and Perrydale.
Without a fix in sight, the situa-
tion for high school football could
become dire in the near future.
“I expect in 2017-18 you will see
some varsity and some sub-varsity
football games either get cancelled
or moved to Saturdays due to the
shortage of football officials,”
Woods said. “It almost happened
last year, and I expect the shortage
to continue before it turns
around.”
The question facing the OAOA is
how to attract new refs.
“It is a tough job and people
don’t like being yelled at,” Bulen
said.
Folliard said they recruit heavily
among college students looking to
earn a little extra money and have
asked athletic directors to ask re-
cently graduated students, espe-
cially athletes, about becoming
refs.
“We need both men and women
who have a knowledge of the
game,” Bulen said. “The trend can
be reversed, but it will take a com-
bined effort between the (referee)
associations and the schools as
well as OSAA.”
Woods believes all the recruiting
in the world will do little good if
there aren’t a few fundamental
changes.
“People don’t realize the count-
less hours that officials spend at-
tending conferences, clinics and
classroom training each year,”
Woods said. “We need to increase
pay at all levels to entice people to
want to officiate and the specta-
tors, fans, parents, coaches and
players need to treat officials with
respect.”
For now, attempts to draw in
new refs haven’t been successful,
and for athletes on the sub-varsity
levels, the continued decrease in
refs could have major conse-
quences.
“We’re at the edge where some-
times the individuals responsible
for assigning refs will get a sched-
ule from a school for, say, a fresh-
man team, and say I can’t service a
game on that date, you have to
change it,” Folliard said. “If this
trend continues, games will be
FALLS CITY BASKETBALL
Mountaineers learn tough lessons
Itemizer-Observer staff report
FALLS CITY — Falls City’s
girls basketball team lost
three games, but the lessons
players learned could prove
invaluable over the long
term.
The Mountaineers fell to
Jewell 39-38 in overtime on
Jan. 25 before losing to Per-
rydale twice, 38-28 on Friday
and 50-19 on Monday.
“Last Wednesday was a
tough loss,” sophomore
Amara Houghtaling said.
“We worked our tails off,
forced overtime and got up
38-37 before we let them
down the court.”
On Friday, Falls City exe-
cuted well until Perrydale’s
press caused issues.
“We had everything set up
for us,” Houghtaling said.
“Our defense was great. We
were doing great and then
they pressed and it sped us
up. We got control of our
composure and lost by 10.”
On Monday, Houghtaling
got into early foul trouble
and the Pirates pulled away.
The Mountaineers (7-9
overall, 2-6 Casco League),
which played Oregon School
for the Deaf Tuesday after
press time, weren’t discour-
aged by the losses.
“The growth is there,”
PERRYDALE BASKETBALL
Pirates to play four
games in six days
Itemizer-Observer staff report
PERRYDALE — The say-
ing goes that there ain’t no
rest for the weary.
Perrydale’s boys and girls
basketball teams are experi-
encing that during the final
regular season push.
The Pirates’ girls basket-
ball team fell to Crosshill
Christian 37-19 on Jan. 25,
defeated Falls City 38-28 on
Friday, lost to St. Paul 42-25
on Saturday and beat the
Mountaineers 50-19 on
Monday.
“Everything we’ve talked
about during the season,
they’re understanding bet-
ter and coming around,”
girls coach Terry Newton
said. “We were within five
points for almost the
whole game against St.
Paul, and they’re a top
eight team in 2A. (On Mon-
day), we came out with our
hair on fire. The girls shot
the ball really well and
blocked out better and ran
our traps better. I’m ex-
tremely pleased.”
The boys went 4-0 during
the same stretch, earning a
50-38 win over Crosshill
Christian on Jan. 25, a 64-39
victory over Falls City on
Friday, a 77-57 win over St.
Paul on Saturday and a 67-
34 victory over Falls City on
Monday. The Pirates, who
have won seven in a row,
improved to 16-3 overall
and 11-1 in Casco League
play, good for first place.
Both the boys and girls
teams have little time to
rest.
The Pirates host Toledo
on Wednesday (girls at 5:30
p.m.; boys at 7) and Jewell
on Thursday (girls: 5:30
p.m.; boys: 7) before playing
at Mapleton on Saturday.
The Pirates return home to
host Damascus Christian
on Tuesday (5:30 and 7
p.m.).
“It will be another busy
week,” Newton said. “We
have four games in six days,
but I’m excited. We’re
rounding out the right way.”
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Falls City’s Jeremy Labrado (5) and Perrydale’s Daniel Domes fight for a loose ball.
Houghtaling said. “... We
need to work on our de-
fense. That’s what wins
games. We have the basic
things down, but we have to
move our feet better and not
let them get easy baskets.”
Falls City plays at Living-
stone Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
before hosting Willamette
Valley Christian Tuesday at
5:30 p.m.
With the regular season
approaching its conclusion
and the league tournament
looming, Falls City is ready
to bring its best foot for-
ward.
“We’re going to enter the
league tournament and
bring our game,” Houghtal-
ing said. “It will be a good
fight.”
B OYS B A S K E T B A L L D E -
FEATS JEWELL: Falls City’s
boys basketball team defeated
Jewell 45-30 on Jan. 25 before
falling to Perrydale 64-39 on
Friday and 67-34 on Monday.
The Mountaineers (8-9 over-
all, 3-6 Casco League) played
Oregon School for the Deaf
Tuesday after press time. Falls
City travels to play Livingstone
Adventist Thursday at 7 p.m.
before hosting Willamette Val-
ley Christian Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Falls City entered Tuesday’s
game against OSD in fourth
place in the league standings.
Lapping the field
LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer
Dallas senior swimmer Jolie-Rae Ford competes in the girls 100-yard butterfly on
Jan. 24. Ford won the race with a time of 1 minute, 6.5 seconds.
Solution on Page 10A