A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022
SPORTS
9-man football appears off the table
State committee
heeds call from
Class 1A schools
to keep 8-man
team format
BY RONALD BOND AND
DAVIS CARBAUGH
EO Media Group
SALEM — Nine-man foot-
ball appears to be off the table.
The Oregon School Activi-
ties Association’s Football Ad
Hoc Committee dropped sup-
port of a considered move that
would have drastically altered
the 2A and 1A game and di-
vided the schools into a large
and small school division of
9-man football.
Instead, 2A schools will con-
tinue to play 11-man football,
while larger 1A schools will re-
main at the 8-man level.
Backing 9-man football was
shelved after the vast majority
of 8-man schools — about 95%
— said they favored 8-man
over 9, according to an Orego-
nian report last week.
Powder Valley High School
was adamant against the pro-
posed 9-man football, with
head coach Josh Cobb speak-
ing out after the initial 9-man
proposals on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
Superintendent Lance Dixon
and Athletic Director Brad
Dunten both spoke at the most
recent OSAA meeting on Jan.
5, with Dunten presenting a
survey he conducted among
1A representatives.
Dunten noted that the ma-
jority of the survey took in re-
sults from athletic directors
and school officials at the 1A
Alex Wittwer/The (La Grande) Observer, File
Powder Valley quarterback Reece Dixon breaks loose for a run during
the OSAA Class 1A state championship game on Saturday, Nov. 27,
2021, at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.
level, with a small number
of principals and coaches re-
sponding. The survey showed
that 80 responses from 95 1A
schools and one 2A school
favored 8-man football over
9-man. Just over 86% of
the survey were against the
6-man/9-man/11-man model,
while 79.5% voted that 2A
through 6A classifications
should not have a say on the fu-
ture of 8-man football.
Dixon noted that the pro-
posed doing away of 8-man
football united 1A schools and
representatives, which is not
always a common trend. He
also stated that switching to
9-man football could have a
negative impact on schools on
the east side of the state, who
would be unable to play non-
league games against Wash-
ington and Idaho schools who
play strictly 8-man and 11-
man football. Dixon empha-
sized his concern over impacts
on the school’s budget if travel
plans are affected by potential
new football alignment.
Dixon further noted that
getting rid of 8-man football
would force schools with lim-
ited rosters to have to play
down or put unprepared fresh-
man on the field in order to
meet the standards of 6-man or
9-man football. He stated that
roughly a third of Powder Val-
ley’s 90 students are listed on
the football team’s roster, which
would eliminate any need for
the school to play 6-man foot-
ball. The original proposal
from Dec. 20 slated the Bad-
gers to be moved down from
8-man to 6-man competition.
“I would hate to think that
a school with 90 students in
their student body and 25
players on their roster would
be forced to play some of
these schools that have 25 or
30 kids in the high school and
12 kids on the roster that still
want to play 8-man football,”
Dixon said at the meeting.
Officials from Adrian High
School, which beat Powder
Valley in the Class 1A state
championship game in No-
vember, also voiced displeasure
over doing away with 8-man
football at the meeting.
“Eight-man is the greatest
form of football in my opin-
ion, and it is one of the fast-
est growing forms of foot-
ball,” Adrian head coach Billy
Wortman said at the meeting.
According to the update
from the OSAA, schools will
have an option to play 9-man
“when necessary and appro-
priate.”
Six-man football will con-
tinue to be offered by the
OSAA for smaller 1A schools,
and the OSAA is considering
sanctioning the sport, meaning
schools at that level would have
the ability to play for an official
state championship. Six-man
has been a pilot program the
last four years, and the teams
had played for a de-facto title.
The three smaller high schools
in Baker County — Pine Eagle,
Huntington and Burnt River —
play 6-man football.
The current proposal would
align Union County 1A schools
in a similar 8-man district to
the existing leagues. Powder
Valley, Cove, Elgin, Imbler and
Union would compete in the
1A Special District 3, alongside
Adrian, Crane and Wallowa.
Enterprise, under the cur-
rent proposal, is currently
listed as part of the 2A ranks,
and would be one of six
teams in Special District 5,
alongside Grant Union, Hep-
pner, Irrigon, Stanfield and
Weston-McEwen. The Out-
laws had played down to
8-man the previous four years.
The OSAA plans to keep
play-down options in place for
schools that have struggled at
their slotted classifications, but is
considering adding criteria that
schools that play down would
be ineligible for the postseason.
Joseph would remain at the
6-man ranks as part of Special
District 1. The rest of the dis-
trict includes Dayville/Mon-
ument, Echo, Huntington,
Wheeler County, Pine Eagle,
Prairie City/Burnt River, and
South Wasco County.
On Dec. 20, the ad hoc com-
mittee made a recommenda-
tion of a new 2A and 1A hybrid
classification, combining Or-
egon’s 2A and 1A schools into
three groups: a 9-man football
Division 1 classification mostly
made of 2A teams, a 9-man
football Division 2 classifica-
tion made of smaller 2A teams
and bigger 1A teams, and a
6-man football classification
for the smaller 1A programs.
During that meeting,
Nestucca head coach Jeff
Schiewe said that 2A programs
would prefer to play 9-man
football over 8-man, which is
currently only played at the 1A
level. However, during a Jan.
5 meeting of the ad hoc com-
mittee, representatives from
1A’s Adrian and Powder Valley
schools voiced their concerns
over a potential change to nine-
man football.
The next meeting of the
football ad hoc committee will
be on Jan. 19.
— Oregonian reporter Nik
Streng contributed to this report.
Baker-La Grande
hoops games
postponed
Baker’s girls and boys
basketball teams were
scheduled to open their
Greater Oregon League
season on Tuesday, Jan. 11,
by playing host to rival La
Grande in the Baker gym.
But then COVID-19 in-
tervened.
Quarantines in both the
La Grande girls and boys
teams prompted the games
to be postponed, Baker
School District Athletic Di-
rector Buell Gonzales Jr. an-
nounced late on the morn-
ing of Jan. 11, about seven
hours before the girls game
was slated to tip off at 6 p.m.
The games will be re-
scheduled for Feb. 8, La
Grande Athletic Director
Darren Goodman said.
Baker now is set to start
its league schedule by trav-
eling to Milton-Freewater
on Friday, Jan. 14 to play
Mac-Hi. The girls game is
set for 6 p.m., and the boys
game at 7:30 p.m.
The Baker girls are 9-4
and ranked 9th in the Class
4A standings. Mac-Hi is 6-3.
The Pioneers have already
started their league sched-
ule, beating Ontario 51-19 on
Jan. 8. The teams have one
common opponent — Mo-
lalla. Baker beat Molalla 50-
33 on Dec. 11. Mac-Hi beat
Molalla 49-41 on Dec. 22.
The Baker boys are 9-3
and ranked 7th in the state.
Mac-Hi is 2-6, and 1-0 in
Greater Oregon League
play. The Pioneers beat On-
tario 48-39 on Jan. 8. The
teams don’t have a com-
mon opponent.
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
Simons seizing his opportunity with Lillard out
in certain areas. I know a lot
of teams are going to start
throwing me a lot of atten-
tion,” Simons said. “Just being
prepared for that and know
how to counter it. I think I’m
handling it pretty well.”
Simons is in his fourth sea-
son in the league. He was
BY ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
PORTLAND — While
Portland guard Damian Lil-
lard remains sidelined with an
abdominal injury, Anfernee
Simons is seizing the oppor-
tunity to show he has the abil-
ities to be an everyday starter
in the NBA.
Simons’ emergence has given
the Trail Blazers a spark in an
otherwise bleak season. Just 16-
24 and sitting in 10th place in
the Western Conference, Port-
land is missing both Lillard and
his backcourt partner CJ Mc-
Collum because of injuries.
“That’s my main goal really,
just to show that I can be that
guy,” Simons said. “So that’s
what I’m trying to do.”
Simons had 23 points and a
career-high 11 assists in Port-
land’s 114-108 victory Monday,
Jan. 10, over the talent-laden
Brooklyn Nets, who were miss-
ing James Harden but played
Kyrie Irving for the second
time this season.
The win capped a home-
stretch during which the Blaz-
ers went 3-2. Simons kicked
off the homestand with a ca-
reer-high 43 points in a 136-
131 victory over Atlanta on
Jan. 3.
Known by his nickname
Ant, the 22-year-old Simons
has averaged 27.8 points and
7.6 assists over those five
games, scoring 20 or more
points in four of them.
“I think he’s on his way,”
Portland first-year coach
Chauncey Billups said when
asked if Simons has proven
himself to be an NBA starter.
“This stretch here without
Dame is going to big for Ant.
I know what I feel about him,
but it’s not about me, it’s about
proving himself to everybody
else. He’s going to have to
maintain that consistency.”
He started each of those
games in the absence of Lil-
lard, who has struggled this
season with lower abdominal
tendinopathy. Lillard, a six-
time All-Star and the Blazers’
stalwart leader, has been both-
ered by the injury since the To-
kyo Olympics.
Lillard isn’t accompanying
the Blazers on their upcom-
ing six-game road trip, which
a first-round draft pick by
the Blazers in 2018 out of
the IMG Academy in Flor-
ida. When he moved into
the backup point guard role
ahead of last season, Lillard
wholeheartedly endorsed him,
saying: “I believe in Ant.”
“They just want me to play
my game. Everybody’s say-
ing shoot the ball, make plays,
and everybody’s giving me the
confidence to do that,” Simons
said. “So it makes it much eas-
ier. I’m not going into the game
worrying about the burden
that’s on my shoulder, or the
weight that’s on my shoulder.”
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons (No. 1) drives around a screen as
the Portland Trail Blazers face the Los Angeles Clippers at Moda Cen-
ter on Friday, Oct. 29, 2021.
starts Thursday night, Jan. 13,
in Denver. Instead, he’ll be
evaluated further — a troubling
sign as the Blazers seek their
ninth straight playoff berth.
McCollum has missed 15
games after suffering a col-
lapsed lung and is now await-
ing the birth of his first child.
Portland is also without fellow
starters Norman Powell be-
cause of COVID-19 protocols
and Larry Nance Jr. because of
right knee inflammation.
Simons is hardly alone
among the league’s young play-
ers who have been garnering
more minutes as coronavirus
cases spike.
Miami’s Omer Yurtseven, 23,
has had double-digit rebounds
in his last 11 games and was the
first NBA player this season to
have four consecutive games
with at least 16 rebounds,
a streak he’ll try to extend
Wednesday when the Heat visit
Atlanta. He’s been getting more
playing time while Bam Ade-
bayo and Dewayne Dedmon
are both hurt.
“I think everybody’s seeing
it this year, probably more so
than any other year ever in
the NBA, is that young guys
are getting opportunities and
they’re taking big-time advan-
tage of it,” Sacramento Kings
interim coach Alvin Gentry
said. “You look at a kid like
Simons, who everybody feels
like is a good player. As to
how good that is? Well, if you
play on a team with the two
backcourt players (the Blaz-
ers) have here, there’s just not
a whole lot of time for you to
play. So now that he’s got ex-
tended minutes, you can see
what he can do.”
One of the pitfalls of tak-
ing over the starting job, and
capably performing in it, is
that defenses are now keying
in on Simons.
“I’m learning every single
game, playing through mis-
takes, trying to be aggressive
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