The INDEPENDENT, January 4, 2007
What happened in Banks in 2006?
Vernonia Sports Report
From page 10
should it be taken this way. His
goal is to make Vernonia into a
respected name again in bas-
ketball, and it takes more than
smiles to do this. Change
takes hard work, passion, and
a drive to succeed, all things
that Coach Aubin has. Over
the past few years the program
has lost this drive, not by the
fault of any coach or player,
but the mindset is there in a lot
of players. A team needs to
buy into what a coach is teach-
ing them, and they need to buy
into the team aspect and put
the team ahead of themselves.
A coach can only do so much,
and then it’s on the players.
Once the Loggers realize what
it takes to be successful, the
sky’s the limit. Until then, medi-
ocrity awaits. And that’s defi-
nitely something Coach Aubin
doesn’t want.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
On the girls’ side of the
court, a new face is on the
bench. Head Coach Dan Utter
has taken over for former
coach Doran Lower. With Ut-
ter, the girls are also seeing a
youth movement, with fresh-
men and sophomores seeing
action. Sophomore Trisha Lev-
enseller has even cracked the
starting lineup, and brings hard
work and hustle to the team.
Senior Joreigh Landers is still
up to her scoring ways averag-
ing 17.6 points a game, and
seniors Brittney Lindauer and
Nandi Vanmeter have asserted
themselves as scoring threats.
Performing very solidly at run-
ning the point, senior Christina
Sohler provides reassurance
late in the games when
turnovers can be costly. Ju-
niors Jennifer Castro and
Shandee Cota, first time varsi-
ty players, also see minutes.
Their non-league schedule
started early, on November 28,
with a match up versus the
Amity Warriors. A close fought
game, the end result was in fa-
vor of the Warriors, 38-35.
Four days later, the girls
opened the Catlin Gabel Tour-
nament with a loss to the Day-
ton Pirates, 32-28. The next
day in the third place game,
the Loggers rebounded with a
52-45 win over the Delphian
Dragons. Following the win,
Vernonia played Gaston at
home on December 6, beating
them easily, 49-28. But any
Page 11
thoughts of a winning streak
were soon dashed after a
heart breaking 39-37 loss at
home to the Faith Bible Ea-
gles. This loss started a six
game skid that took the girls
through the end of December.
They saw losses to Rainier by
42, Portland Adventist Acade-
my by 25 and a four-point loss
to the OES Aardvarks, putting
them 0-3 in league.
After Christmas came the
Cougar Classic hosted by Ger-
vais High School, December
28-29. In the first game, the
Loggers played the Gervais
Cougars but, after spotting the
Cougars an early lead, they
couldn’t quite pull it out, loos-
ing by nine. Their opponent the
next day would be new league
opponent Catlin Gabel, who
lost to Clatskanie. The game
proved to be very exciting, and
the girls played some of their
best basketball of the season
in the first 26 minutes. The
problem was that games are
32 minutes long. Up at halftime
by five, the girls came out the
second half and pushed their
lead to as much as 12. They
started the fourth quarter up 10
points, but the Eagles made a
run and cut that lead to two
points. The rest of the quarter
was spent trading buckets,
with the lead margin for the
Loggers going between two to
tied. Then, with under a minute
left and up two, Vernonia made
a costly turnover that ended in
a foul and put Catlin Gabel at
the line, where they hit both
shots to tie the game. On the
next possession, the Loggers
saw a poor pass get stolen and
the Eagles take it all the way
back for a lay-up. Catlin Gabel
would add another point on a
free throw. Christina Sohler hit
two free throws, but Joreigh
Landers’ half court shot at the
buzzer fell short and Catlin
Gabel pulled out the 41-40
win.
The new month and New
Year brings hopes of a new
start in league play. The team
is 2-8 (0-3), and the Lady Log-
gers look to turn around their
losing streak in the newly es-
tablished Lewis & Clark
League. This will be tough for
a team that depends heavily
on Landers for scoring, so they
must develop new, consistent
scoring options to help with the
offense. And just like on the
boy’s team, being smart with
the ball and not making costly
turnovers will keep the girls in
games more often than not.
Coach Utter is optimistic
though, “We are improving all
the time, hopefully that im-
provement will show up soon
in the form of wins. The girls
are working hard and are
learning how to show the con-
sistent effort needed to win.”
January 28 - International Soup Festival
February 4 - Banks Boy Scouts hold pinewood
derby.
March 14 - City Council votes to hire a City
Manager.
April 27 - Public meeting held on Apple Valley
Airport expansion plans.
August 1 - City increases garbage rate.
August 18-20 - Banks Bar-B-Q, Truck & Trac-
tor Pull.
October 14 - All You Can Eat Crab Feed.
December 2 - Banks Union Point Cemetery
annual dinner.
Three panels interview five candidates for
city manager position.
December 12 - Council hears panel recom-
mendation to offer city manager job to
Don Whitman, the candidate from Kan-
sas.
December 14 -
Windstorm
(see picture at
left)
December 16 -
Free Holiday
Concert for the
community.
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