THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
New sports season begins for Baker
■ Traditional spring sports are playing, and athletic directors are working on plans for unofficial playoffs and state championships
By Corey Kirk
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
No high school sports season
can fairly be called normal
during the pandemic, but it
appears that at least some
Baker High School athletes will
have a chance to compete for
an unofficial state title in their
sports later this spring.
The Oregon School Activi-
ties Association (OSAA), which
oversees prep sports in the
state, is not sponsoring any
regular playoffs or state cham-
pionship events this spring.
Instead, athletic directors
and coaches can set up what-
ever system works depending
on the school, conference and
classification level.
Oregon has six levels, rang-
ing from the smallest schools
in Class 1A, to the largest, in
Class 6A. Baker is a member of
Class 4A.
In late March the OSAA
executive board decided to give
school officials discretion on
how to schedule the final week
of competition for the season for
traditional spring sports, which
is underway.
That final week — OSAA
calls it the “culminating week”
— for baseball, softball, tennis,
golf and track and field is May
17-22.
The situation was similar for
traditional fall sports.
Baker’s cross-country teams
competed at a state meet for
Class 4A runners on April 10 in
Eugene.
“The Board believes that
providing local discretion for
culminating week events al-
lows schools to make the best
decisions for their school and
community,” OSAA Executive
Director Peter Weber wrote in
a memo.
With pandemic conditions,
and state-imposed restrictions,
varying among counties, OSAA
officials decided that having
traditional playoffs and cham-
pionship events, which require
schools to travel across the state
in some cases, wasn’t feasible.
“OSAA-sponsored state
championship events would re-
quire travel across the state for
many schools and potentially
include overnight stays depend-
ing on the sport, thus creating
the type of largescale public
events that the OHA and gov-
ernor continue to advise against
at this time,” Weber said.
Suzy Cole, who coaches
Baker’s cross-country and track
and field teams, said she sup-
ports the OSAA’s decision.
“I have never encountered
an action they have made that
has been anything but what
they feel is 100 percent the best
interest of the athlete,” Cole
said. “They go to extremes that
they research things, they have
a pulse on the entire state and
all the schools. So when they
come out saying this is what
we think is best, I respect it 100
percent.”
With the ball in school of-
ficials’ court, Buell Gonzales Jr.,
athletic director for the Baker
School District, started laying
out a blueprint to coaches of
spring sports in a Zoom meet-
ing April 6.
“There’s just not a one-size-
fits-all, and the unique thing
about the 4A classification
is that it’s bigger but it’s not
too big and it’s not too small,”
Gonzales said. “There’s enough
in the 4A classification where
we can do a lot of this, we are
spread out, it’s the perfect size,
everything just worked out
really well.”
Enrollment in Oregon’s 34
Class 4A high schools ranges
from 355 (Elmira, near Eugene)
to 1,118 (Woodburn), according
to OSAA.
Baker is one of the smaller
Class 4A schools, with an
enrollment of about 408.
As was the case with the
Baker High School spring sports
SOFTBALL
April 17, at Ontario (2 games); April 20, vs. La Grande (2
games, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.); April 21, vs. Grant Union/Prairie
City, 4 p.m.; April 27, vs. Nyssa, 5 p.m.; May 4, vs. Ontario,
4 p.m.; May 6, at La Grande (2 games); May 13, vs.
Enterprise/Wallowa/Joseph (2 games, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.); May
15, at Nyssa (2 games)
BASEBALL
April 14, at Grant Union/Prairie City; April 16, vs. Heppner/
Ione (2 games, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.); April 17, vs. Ontario (2
games, noon, 2 p.m.); April 20, vs. La Grande (2 games,
3 p.m., 5 p.m.); April 27, vs. Nyssa (5 p.m.); May 1, vs. La
Grande (2 games, 11 a.m., 1 p.m.); May 4, at Ontario; May
8, at La Grande (2 games); May 12, vs. Joseph/Enterprise/
Wallowa/Elgin, 6 p.m.; May 15, at Nyssa (2 games)
GIRLS/BOYS TENNIS
April 16, at Ontario; April 19, vs. La Grande, 4 p.m.; April
22, at Vale; April 26, at Nyssa; April 30, at Four Rivers
(Ontario); May 3, vs. Ontario, 4 p.m.; May 7, at La Grande;
May 10, vs. Vale, 4 p.m.; May 14, vs. Nyssa, 4 p.m.
BOYS/GIRLS GOLF
April 19, Baker Invitational at Quail Ridge Golf Course;
April 26, at Burns; May 3, at Ontario; May 10, at La Grande
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald File
Baker’s Gabbie Treblecock in a 2019 tennis match.
“I have a core group of kids that haven’t stopped
training since last March, and have remained hopeful
even when it’s been very grim.”
—Suzy Cole, Baker track and fi eld coach
traditional fall sports, Baker
teams mainly will compete
against schools in Eastern
Oregon.
In the case of sports that
will have a state champion-
ship event, the offi cials from
the four schools in the Greater
Oregon League — Baker, La
Grande, Ontario and Mac-
Hi — will determine the top
two teams that would qualify,
Gonzales said.
In the case of track and fi eld,
golf and tennis, individual
performance is also important,
as the top fi ve competitors will
have a chance to qualify for
a season-ending event along
with the top two teams.
Cole said the goal for track
TRACK AND FIELD
April 15, Baker Invitational; April 22, at Nyssa; April 29, at
Burns; May 7, at La Grande; May 15, at Ontario
core group of kids that haven’t
stopped training since last
March, and have remained
hopeful even when it’s been
very grim that they would still
get a chance to compete,” Cole
said.
and fi eld is to arrange a state
championship event similar to
Team sports
the cross-country state meet.
For baseball and softball,
The track meet would take
a committee comprising
place at a Class 4A school,
coaches from each of the six
rather than the traditional
venue of Hayward Field at
the University of Oregon in
Eugene. No date or site has
been chosen.
“We are just having 4A at
the meet to limit the size of
participants and spectators,”
Cole said.
She’s excited about the pros-
pect of Baker athletes again
having the chance to compete
against their counterparts
from Class 4A schools across
the state.
“I’m super excited. I have a
Class 4A conferences will
determine the schedule for
competition between the top
two teams from each confer-
ence.
Baker baseball coach Tim
Smith will be a member of
that committee for his sport.
Complicating the situa-
tion, he said, is that for base-
ball, the Greater Oregon
League’s roster of teams is
“They’re excited and we’re
excited to coach but I
reminded them that we
have to enjoy what we are
doing, we have to work
hard, we have to take the
COVID protocols seriously
because this can be
yanked out from under us
just like it was a year ago.”
— Tim Smith, Baker High
School baseball coach
different from other sports.
“I am not sure how they
are going to work ours
because we have a hy-
brid league, our league is
Ontario, La Grande, Nyssa,
Burns and Vale,” Smith said.
“Two of those schools don’t
even have varsity teams.”
Although he’s eager to
return to the diamond for
the fi rst time in more than
a year — the 2020 season
was canceled while prac-
tices were underway but
before the Bulldogs’ fi rst
game — Smith is expecting
fewer players to turn out for
baseball than in the past.
“I know our numbers
at Baker High School for
extracurricular activities are
going to be low,” Smith said.
“We anticipate having 20 to
21 players out for baseball;
in a normal year we will
have 30 to 35.
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