FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
Oregon Ducks men
pause activities
The No. 22 Oregon
men’s basketball team
has been put on pause
after a positive COVID-19
test within the program,
a source within the pro-
gram said on Tuesday.
The Ducks’ games at
Matthew Knight Arena
against Arizona State on
Thursday and Arizona on
Saturday have been post-
poned. Both games were
going to be televised na-
tionally on ESPN.
Stadium’s Jeff Good-
man was first to report
Oregon’s positive test.
Oregon (9-2, 4-1 Pac-
12) is tied for second
place in the conference
standings and is coming
off a win last Saturday
against Utah when it ral-
lied from a 10-point half-
time deficit to win 79-73.
The Ducks’ next game
now is scheduled for
2 p.m. Tuesday at home
against Pac-12 leader
UCLA, a game that was
supposed to be played
Dec. 23 but was post-
poned when a member of
the officiating crew tested
positive for COVID-19.
Oregon isn’t the only
program in the confer-
ence dealing with corona-
virus postponements.
The No. 10 Duck
women had Sunday’s
road game against Ari-
zona State called off due
to the Sun Devils program
going on pause. Oregon
is still scheduled to play at
No. 11 Arizona on Thurs-
day. The Oregon State
women haven’t played
since Dec. 19 as they post-
poned five straight con-
ference games due to an
outbreak on its team. The
Beavers are expected to
resume playing this week
but will miss their sixth
straight game Thursday
when they were sched-
uled to play Arizona State.
The Oregon State
men’s team went on
pause last week and
missed their road games
at Utah and Colorado.
They also had games
against USC (Dec. 20) and
Stanford (Dec. 31) post-
poned.
The Beavers are back
playing this week start-
ing with an 8 p.m. game
Thursday against Arizona
in Corvallis.
Prep Football
Season remains uncertain
Bulletin file photo
In this photo from the 2019 high school football season, Mountain View’s Keenan Harpole breaks a tackle by Summit’s Joe Cross.
Unless the OHA changes stance on football, start of the already condensed high school season could be in jeopardy
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
I
n a little more than three weeks, high
school football teams in Oregon are
scheduled to open practices to begin
officially preparing for contests the week of
March 1.
While football is scheduled to start practice be-
fore the other traditional fall sports, the issue is that
football remains a prohibited sport. So unless the
Oregon Health Authority changes its stance on foot-
ball, the start of the already condensed season could
remain in jeopardy.
Mountain View High School football coach Brian
Crum joined the Bulletin Sports Talk to discuss the
state of high school football in Oregon.
“The analogy that I use is that we have continued
to kick the can down the road of whether it is sus-
pension of a season, or moving beyond, or canceling
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
of spring sports, or condensing of seasons,” Crum
said. “As we get to January 2021, I think all thought
we would have played by now, but we haven’t.
See Uncertain / A6
The wait is almost over for
teams that missed the playoffs
NFL
Seahawks fire OC
Schottenheimer
— Associated Press
For the complete interview with Mountain View High
School football coach Brian Crum, visit bendbulletin.
com/sports.
NHL
— The Register-Guard
RENTON, Wash. — The
Seattle Seahawks fired of-
fensive coordinator Brian
Schottenheimer on Tues-
day following a season in
which the team set sev-
eral offensive records but
coach Pete Carroll had
clear issues with how the
offense operated.
Seattle announced
the move, citing “philo-
sophical differences.” The
Seahawks had the high-
est-scoring team in fran-
chise history, Russell Wil-
son threw a career-high
40 touchdowns in the
regular season, and wide
receivers DK Metcalf and
Tyler Lockett both set
club records for receiving.
Still, the Seahawks re-
gressed offensively in the
second half of the season,
and Wilson and Carroll
both made comments
following Seattle’s 30-20
playoff loss to the Los An-
geles Rams that indicated
concerns with the lack of
adjustments by the of-
fense late in the season.
Schottenheimer, 47,
completed his third sea-
son with the Seahawks
after previously serving as
the offensive coordinator
of the New York Jets and
St. Louis Rams.
Full Interview
BY TOM CANAVAN
Associated Press
Leon Neuschwander/For The Oregonian/TNS
Oregon State quarterback Tristan Gebbia was one of five transfers to
start for the Beavers during the 2020 season.
Oregon State plans to use
the transfer portal as part
of a long-term strategy
BY NICK DASCHEL
The Oregonian
Is mining the NCAA trans-
fer portal for players a good
way for Oregon State to build
its football program, or does
it make sense as a long-term
strategy in combination with
high school recruiting?
It’s a complicated question
for Beavers coach Jonathan
Smith.
Only five to 10 FBS schools
consistently have success load-
ing up on four and five-star
high school recruits. Ore-
gon State is not one of those
schools, and is unlikely ever to
be among that group.
Enter the transfer portal.
In October 2018, the NCAA
made it as easy as ever for ath-
letes to transfer schools.
They simply fill out the
NCAA paperwork to enter
the portal, which allows other
schools to contact the ath-
lete regarding their interest in
transferring.
See Oregon State / A7
NEWARK, N.J. — Jack
Hughes of the New Jersey
Devils hadn’t had a layoff like
this since … ever?
The wait is almost over
for NHL teams that missed
playoffs. More than 100 NHL
players from New Jersey, Buf-
falo, Anaheim, Los Angeles,
San Jose, Ottawa, and Detroit
have not played a meaningful
hockey game since the league
paused play in early March
because of the pandemic. Ten
long months.
“I don’t think I’ve had,
I guess, 10 months of no
games my whole life,” said the
19-year-old Hughes, the No. 1
overall pick in the 2019 draft.
“So, obviously, something
new. But I mean, games are
like riding a bike, you could
say. If you’re a hockey player,
it’s something that comes nat-
urally.”
It has been an eternity
for Hughes and the rest in a
sport predicated on rhythm,
repetition and teamwork, a
boring stretch unimaginable
to athletes whose lives have
followed a schedule that has
rarely changed for years.
As kids, they played pee-
wee hockey at all hours of the
day. When the rink wasn’t
available, the pond was. The
long rides to tournaments, the
steady drumbeat of practices
and workouts. Most of all,
there were games.
The games finally return
for everyone with a com-
pressed 56-game season that
begins this week. It will be a
fresh start for the 24 teams
that made the postseason
when play resumed Aug. 11. It
will be something more than
that to the other seven whose
players had weeks on end
without hockey.
Hughes spent time in Mich-
igan to work out with his
brothers, Quinn of the Van-
couver Canucks and Luke, one
of the top prospects in juniors.
He spent five days a week in
the gym and focused on eat-
ing healthy to add 14 pounds
to his 165-pound frame.
Jack Eichel of the Sabres
spent a lot of time reflecting
on how fast his first five years
in the NHL went. Kyle Palm-
ieri of the Devils returned
to his family’s farming roots
and grew a garden (he said
the carrots needed more pa-
tience).
Other players took up hob-
bies or pumped iron, skated
when they could and simply
let their bodies heal at a lei-
surely rate. Devils center Tra-
vis Zajac, 35, said he felt great
a week into camp.
What’s uncertain is how the
teams coming back from the
hiatus will perform. Will they
be fresher? A step slow?
“I think that’s the mil-
lion-dollar question that
everybody’s searching for,”
said Sharks defenseman Erik
Karlsson, who joined the
league in 2009. “But at the
end of the day, we don’t have
much of a choice. It’s what
we’re going to have to do. I
think that we’re going to nav-
igate through it the best way
that we think we know how.”
Sabres defenseman Jake
McCabe said the last 10
months were like an extended
“Groundhog Day,” filled over
and over with uncertainty and
concerns. There were good
times, too. He and his wife,
Gaby, had a baby girl in April
so they had a chance to watch
her grow together.
“She’s already eight months
old, which reminds me just
how long we’ve been in this
pandemic,” McCabe said.
“Now she finally gets to see
what her dad does for work
so that’ll be fun to get back on
the ice. It really is crazy how
long it’s been.”
During the pause, the Kings
sent five players to Germany
and had a couple of prospects
playing in Sweden.
See NHL / A6