SPORTS
6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2021
BAKER’S JAKE WRIGHT SIGNS LETTER OF INTENT TO PLAY FOOTBALL AT OREGON STATE
OREGON MEN’S BASKETBALL
Ducks nip Buffs
Buell Gonzales Jr./Contributed Photo
Baker High School senior Jake Wright, center, on Feb. 4 signed a letter of intent to play football at Oregon State
University, the alma mater of his parents, Dennis and Kelli.
Bulldog will be a Beaver
■ Jake Wright will follow in his parents’ footsteps by attending Oregon State
By Corey Kirk
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
Clad in black and orange
and with a pen in his right
hand, Jake Wright signed the
most important signature of
his life so far.
On Feb. 4 at Baker High
School, Wright, fl anked by
his parents, Kelli and Dennis,
signed a letter of intent to
play football at Oregon State
University.
By becoming a Beaver,
Jake, who’s a senior, not only
will fulfi ll an athletic dream,
but he’ll follow in his parents’
academic footsteps by study-
ing at their alma mater in
Corvallis.
“It’s something that not
everybody gets to experience,
it kind of starts to sink in
that you are actually going to
play at the next level,” Jake
Wright said.
Wright has been a three-
sport athlete at BHS, moving
from the football fi eld to the
basketball court and then to
the baseball diamond.
But football, where Wright
anchored the offensive and
defensive lines, is his passion,
and the sport he hoped to con-
tinue playing in college.
Jason Ramos, Baker’s var-
sity head coach, has watched
Wright progress with pride.
“He came into the program
as having a lot of potential,
he’s a big kid and is pretty
athletic,” Ramos said, “He had
the idea he was going to turn
into a special football player.”
After his junior season
in 2019, when the Bulldogs
advanced to the Class 4A
quarterfi nals, Wright hit the
ground running with recruit-
ing.
For an athlete in a relative-
ly small school such as Baker,
that can be challenging, said
Buell Gonzales Jr., the Baker
School District’s athletic
director. Some athletes use
websites such as Next College
Student Athlete to pique the
interest of college coaches.
“It’s something that
not everybody gets to
experience, it kind of
starts to sink in that you
are actually going to play
at the next level.”
— Jake Wright
“In a smaller school like
Baker, you have to be your
own advocate, you have to be
willing to go out, you got to
listen and you got to be lucky,”
Gonzales said.
Wright quickly drew inter-
est, including offers from
Western Oregon University
and Southern Oregon Uni-
versity.
Figuring it would be a long-
shot, Wright reached out to
Oregon State, a Pac-12 school,
via email to express interest
in playing for the Beavers.
His lineman coach, Rick
Ritter, even had conversa-
tions with Beavers recruiters.
The interest was mutual.
OSU offered Wright a
chance, but in a different
capacity than the two smaller
schools.
But as a lifelong Beavers
fan, Wright said he didn’t
want to miss the chance to
play at the Division I level.
“Southern and Western
offered me scholarships, and
then Oregon State reached
out and offered me a pre-
ferred walk-on spot, and I
couldn’t pass it up,” Wright
said.
Although Western and
Southern offered Wright a
defi nite spot on their roster,
OSU didn’t have an available
scholarship.
But even though Wright
will have to earn his way onto
the Beavers roster, with the
possibility of later receiving
a scholarship, he’s ready to
work hard to achieve that
goal.
“I’m super excited to get
in there at the end of June, I
think my sophomore year I
could start maybe seeing the
fi eld a little bit,” Wright said.
Although Wright hasn’t
played in an offi cial football
game since November 2019
— the COVID-19 pandemic
canceled the fall 2020 season
— he said he’s added 35
pounds to his 6-foot-5 frame
since he sent a recruitment
fi lm to OSU.
He’s excited to have a
chance to play again this
spring, even though his fi nal
high school season will be
shorter than usual.
“The fi lm they looked at last
year I was 205 pounds, and I
am 240 pounds now,” Wright
said. “It’s in my genes to gain
weight, both of my brothers
put on 20 pounds their senior
summer.”
Ramos is confi dent that
Wright will thrive as a pre-
ferred walk-on at OSU, being
willing to play either offense or
defense.
“Jake made that decision, he
had a chance to go somewhere
else, but he’s got another
picture in mind, ‘I’m willing to
work, I’m willing to put in the
time,’ ” Ramos said. “ ‘It’s not
going to happen right away,
that’s the reality, but I’m will-
ing to do whatever to have that
opportunity’ — that’s his kind
of his mindset, and I think he’s
going to have a great chance.”
Ramos said he’s proud of
Wright, and believes he can
inspire the players who follow
him at BHS.
“That’s the product we like
to turn out here at Baker High
School, it’s great for these
kids to see our guys to strive
to maybe be the next Jake,”
Ramos said.
Gonzales agreed.
“If you work hard enough,
and you do the things you
are supposed to do, then that
opportunity can present itself,”
he said.
Wright isn’t the fi rst Bulldog
lineman to fi nd that opportu-
nity in Corvallis.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS
Medvedev to face Djokovic in final
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Daniil
Medvedev simply does not lose right now. Not
to Top 10 opponents. Not to anyone, really.
Certainly not to a drained Stefanos Tsitsipas
in the Australian Open semifi nals.
Now let’s see what happens against Novak
Djokovic in Rod Laver Arena.
Medvedev made it to his second Grand
Slam fi nal as he pursues his fi rst major cham-
pionship, overwhelming fi fth-seeded Tsitsipas
6-4, 6-2, 7-5 on Friday, Feb. 18, at Melbourne
Park to run his winning streak to 20 matches.
That includes a dozen victories against mem-
bers of the Top 10.
“He’s a player,” Tsitsipas said, “who has un-
locked pretty much everything in the game.”
Tsitsipas, a 22-year-old from Greece,
came out fl at, looking drained after an epic
four-hour victory over Rafael Nadal in the
quarterfi nals Wednesday, coming back from a
two-set defi cit.
Still, Medvedev was terrifi c, getting broken
just once and accruing 17 aces among his 46
winners.
In Sunday’s fi nal (12:30 a.m. PST), the
No. 4-seeded Medvedev will take on No. 1
Djokovic, who already owns eight Australian
Open titles among his 17 Grand Slam tro-
phies as he tries to gain on the men’s record of
20 shared by Nadal and Roger Federer.
Grant Johnson, a 2007 BHS
graduate, also was a walk-on
at Oregon State. Johnson
earned a scholarship and was
a starting offensive lineman
for the Beavers for three
seasons.
Johnson and Wright have
something else in common —
Johnson’s parents, Mark and
Heather, are, like Kelli and
Dennis Wright, OSU alumni.
Jake Wright plans to head
to Corvallis in June. He
intends to major in business
and hopes to start a family
business with his dad in real
estate.
EUGENE (AP) — Chris Duarte scored 18 points and
Will Richardson scored 5 of his 11 in the last 61 seconds
and Oregon defeated Colorado 60-56 on Thursday night.
In a game where neither team had a double-fi gure
lead, the Ducks took a 55-53 lead with 1:51 to play when
50% free-throw shooter Chandler Lawson made a pair
from the line.
After a Colorado miss, Oregon ran the clock down
before Richardson made a spinning fl oater in the lane
with 1:01 to go.
Another miss led to two Richardson free throws with
33 seconds to go, making it 59-53 — the Ducks’ biggest
lead — before D’Shawn Schwartz knocked down a 3
for Colorado. Richardson’s free throw at 20.8 seconds
wrapped it up.
Eugene Omoruyi added 13 points for Oregon (13-4,
8-3 Pac-12 Conference), which won its fourth straight.
Schwartz had 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead Colo-
rado (16-7, 10-6), which lost back-to-back games for the
fi rst time this season after losing to last-place California
on Saturday. The Buffaloes, who topped Oregon at home
79-72, have lost six straight at Oregon.
Colorado never trailed and had a possession with an
eight-point lead in a defensive fi rst half, using 10 points
from Schwartz to take a 30-25 lead.
Oregon shot 50% in the second half, taking its fi rst
lead with 11:44 to play on a Duarte layup that made it
44-43 in the midst of a 9-0 run.
OREGON STATE MEN’S BASKETBALL
Beavers roll Utes
CORVALLIS (AP) — Ethan Thompson had 25 points,
eight assists and fi ve rebounds and Oregon State won
its fi fth straight at home, 74-56 over Utah on Thursday
night.
Warith Alatishe added a career-high 19 points with
nine rebounds, four blocks and three steals for the Bea-
vers (11-10, 7-8 Pac-12).
Thompson scored 15 points in the second half and
capped a 23-2 run with a pair of dunks 13 seconds apart
that made it 55-39 with 7:59 left. Thompson scored nine
and Rodrigue Andela had all seven of his points during
the run.
Jarod Lucas added 10 points for Oregon State.
Timmy Allen had 24 points, nine rebounds and fi ve
assists for the Utes (9-9, 6-8). Branden Carlson added
16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the fi eld and 5-of-5
from the foul line.
Carlson scored seven straight points to cap a 10-0 run
that gave Utah a 37-32 lead with 17:14 left in the game.
The Utes missed their next eight shots and committed
six turnovers over a nearly 10-minute span while the
Beavers pulled away.
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