FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
B3
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • FrIday, aprIL 2, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
TRACK & FIELD
Hayward reopens
for Premiere meet
The new Hayward Field
will reopen to track and
field competition Friday
as the Oregon Ducks play
host for the Hayward Pre-
miere meet.
Reconstruction of the
revered venue at the Uni-
versity of Oregon began
in June 2018. Work was
completed in June 2020.
No meets have been
held at Hayward Field
for the past nine months
amid the pandemic. But
with the start of the 2021
outdoor track and field
season, Hayward’s re-
opening has arrived.
The Ducks will compete
against more than a dozen
other track and field teams
at the Hayward Premiere.
Oregon State, Portland,
Portland State and Wash-
ington State are among
the participating schools
include. The meet will be
livestreamed on runner-
space.com.
UO is currently allow-
ing only guests of players
and coaches to attend
events at Hayward Field.
The Premiere is the first
of four meets the Ducks
will host at Hayward be-
fore the NCAA champion-
ships return to the venue
from June 9-12.
The West Coast Classic
is set for April 17, followed
by the Oregon Relays on
April 23-24 and the Ore-
gon Twilight on May 7.
Hayward Field is sched-
uled to host the U.S.
Olympic trials for track
and field from June 18-27,
ahead of this summer’s
Tokyo Olympics. The 2022
World Athletics Cham-
pionships are coming to
Hayward in July 2022.
— The Oregonian
PREP GIRLS SOCCER
Bend, Summit tie in rubber match
Bears, Storm draw 2-2 in
3rd meeting of season
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
J
amie Brock does not often
get nervous coaching a
game. But late in Thursday
afternoon’s match against Bend
High, the Summit girls soccer
coach found her hand shaking as
senior Molly Beaulieu lined up
for a penalty kick.
Beaulieu’s kick found the back
of the net to even the score at
2-2, which would prove to be the
final score in the third game this
season between the Storm and
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
the Lava Bears.
Summit’s Grace Gardner (19) and Bend’s Peyton Gardner (15) fight for possession of the ball during the first half Thursday.
The three-game series between the
two rival schools ended as Thursday’s
game did — in a tie.
“It was nice to play a rival and it
means something,” Brock said. “It
doesn’t always end how you want, but
it is not what you wouldn’t want either.”
Each team entered Thursday’s
match with a single loss. Summit beat
Bend in the first match 3-0 on March
12, then the Lava Bears returned the
“It was nice to play a rival and it means something. It doesn’t always end
how you want, but it is not what you wouldn’t want either.”
— Jamie Brock, Summit girls soccer coach
favor with a 6-1 win over the Storm
five days later.
“We would have liked to get that
last one,” said Bend coach Gavin Mey-
ers. “But Summit is a good team and it
feels good to battle against them.”
Summit got on the board first when
sophomore Joe Porter found the back
of the net. But it was not long before
senior Katelyn Jolley got behind Sum-
mit’s backline to score her first goal of
the match for Bend.
“The first goal the ball got over the
defense and I was able to run up on
to it,” Jolley said. “Then I had an open
shot at the goal.
“It makes our intensity go up,” Jolley
added about how the game changed
once Bend was down a goal. “It makes
the adrenaline come, you get nervous,
but we have to make sure we stay
composed.”
See Soccer / B4
MEN’S COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
Garza, Howard
win AP awards
Luka Garza, the 6-foot-
11, 265-pound senior
center for Iowa is The As-
sociated Press men’s col-
lege basketball national
player of the year after
finishing second last sea-
son. He was the runaway
choice for the award
announced Thursday,
receiving 50 of 63 votes
from AP Top 25 voters.
Ayo Dosunmu, who
led Illinois to the Big Ten
Tournament title and a
No. 1 NCAA seed, was
second with six votes, fol-
lowed by Oklahoma State
freshman Cade Cunning-
ham with three. Gonza-
ga’s Corey Kispert and
Baylor’s Jared Butler each
earned two votes.
Garza ranked second
nationally by averaging
24.1 points with 8.7 re-
bounds. .
Garza finished as the
career scoring leader
(2,306) at Iowa, which will
retire his No. 55 jersey.
Also Thursday, Michi-
gan coach Juwan Howard
was named AP men’s col-
lege basketball coach of
the year, receiving 35 of
63 votes from a national
media panel. Gonzaga’s
Mark Few was second
with 16 votes, and Bay-
lor’s Scott Drew and Al-
abama’s Nate Oats each
received five.
The Wolverines
reached as high as No. 2
in the AP Top 25 and fin-
ished No. 4 after a 19-3
regular season.
Also Thursday, North
Carolina head coach Roy
Williams surprised many
when he announced his
retirement after 18 sea-
sons with the Tar Heels
and 33 overall as a head
coach. Williams said he
came to the decision be-
cause he no longer feels
that “he is the right man
for the job.”
— Associated Press
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | FINAL FOUR
MLB | OPENING DAY
Snow, stars, fans and a virus postponement
BY BEN WALKER
AP Baseball Writer
Stephen Spillman/AP file
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer speaks with guard Kiana Williams
during a game against Oklahoma State in the second round of the
women’s NCAA Tournament in San Antonio on March 23.
Stanford’s VanDerveer,
South Carolina’s Staley
prepare for rematch
BY DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
SAN ANTONIO — Dawn
Staley remembers talking
to her Olympic coach Tara
VanDerveer before she took
the job at Temple two decades
ago.
INSIDE
The long-
time Stanford
• Arizona’s
coach actually
McDonald,
UConn’s
suggested that
Bueckers
Staley not be-
lead teams
come the head
in Final Four,
coach at the
B5
Philadelphia
school because
she was still playing in the
WNBA and wouldn’t have the
time to do both well.
Twenty-one years later and
Staley admits she still has a bit
of a chip on her shoulder about
that conversation and has used
it as motivation both at Temple
and now South Carolina.
“I don’t look down on her
because she put that chip on
my shoulder,” Staley said. “I
just needed that, the past 21
years. I thank her for making
the chip a little bit bigger.”
The two friends meet Friday
night in the Final Four when
VanDerveer and Stanford take
on Staley’s Gamecocks.
VanDerveer said she has the
utmost respect for her former
Olympic point guard.
“As a player, she saw the
game so well she really has
great instincts, a great un-
derstanding of the game,”
VanDerveer said Thursday.
“She’s a great leader of her
team.”
VanDerveer knew when
she was coaching Staley in the
1996 Atlanta Games that she
would be successful in what-
ever occupation she chose.
See Final Four / B5
Miguel Cabrera took a trot,
eventually, in the snow at Co-
merica Park. Mookie Betts
started the champion Los
Angeles Dodgers with a hit at
Coors Field. And the Bleacher
Creatures did their thing at
Yankee Stadium.
All-Stars on the diamond
for opening day, fans in the
socially distanced stands ea-
ger to cheer them.
“Just having those smells
hit you, walking in and hav-
ing that experience back, it’s
invigorating,” Tonia Smith
of Sussex, Wisconsin, said
Thursday before Milwaukee
hosted Minnesota.
Along with the hits, runs
and errors, there was a stark
reminder of what baseball
went through last year.
The New York Mets’ game
in Washington — a prime
pitching matchup between Ja-
cob deGrom and Max Scher-
zer — was postponed because
of COVID-19 concerns. Na-
tionals general manager Mike
Rizzo later said three players
had tested positive for the vi-
rus and a fourth was consid-
ered a “likely positive.”
“It’s one of those things that
brings it to light that we’re
not through it yet,” Atlanta
manager Brian Snitker said.
“We’re still fighting this. We
have to tend to business and
not let up. It’s just a reminder
that this thing is still out there
and real.”
Major League Baseball had
45 games postponed because
of the coronavirus last sea-
son during the shortened,
60-game schedule, when fans
weren’t allowed. No games
were lost in spring training
this year, but that streak didn’t
last long.
At Fenway Park, the opener
Shafkat Anowar/AP
A family poses for a photo outside of Wrigley Field on opening day
ahead of a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pi-
rates on Thursday in Chicago. From New York to Seattle and every-
where in between, wat is a much different opening day in 2021. Fans
are back at the ballpark after they were shut out during the regular
season last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
between the Boston Red Sox
and Baltimore was called be-
cause rain was in the fore-
cast. They’ll start up Friday
instead.
“One day, two days, three
days — I really don’t care, to
be honest with you,” Red Sox
manager Alex Cora said. “I
know there are a lot of guys
that are excited, but I think it’s
for the best. Tomorrow will be
a better day weather-wise.”
There were flurries in Cin-
cinnati, where St. Louis new-
comer Nolan Arenado sin-
gled during a six-run burst
in the first inning during an
11-6 win. It was 36 degrees
at Wrigley Field as heralded
rookie Ke’Bryan Hayes hom-
ered to help Pittsburgh beat
the Chicago Cubs 5-3.
And the field looked bet-
ter suited for snowballs than
baseballs in Detroit where it
was 32 degrees when Cabrera
connected for his 488th ca-
reer home run. The flakes
were coming down so hard,
Cabrera couldn’t tell if the ball
left the park, and he slid into
second base, just in case.
“It was almost kind of
laughable for everybody that
we were playing baseball in an
environment like that,” new
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch
said after a 3-2 win over
Cleveland. “It would come
and go, then it got kind of
warm when the sun came out.
It’s always fun on opening day
to take those mental snap-
shots and enjoy the moment.”
A quick note for weather
watchers: Yes, MLB has tried
in the past to open the season
with all games in warmer cli-
mates and cities with domes.
Fact is, it doesn’t work out
that easily. Teams don’t always
enjoy starting out on the road.
Clayton Kershaw and the
champion Dodgers were in
Denver, where it was a pic-
ture-perfect 70 degrees.
See MLB / B4