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| Celebrating success in winter athletics |
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| Crook County should be proud of the accomplishments of its athletes and their actions on and off the court this winter |
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By Lon Austin
As the winter sports season is winding down and spring sports are already beginning, it's time for some reflections on the state of Crook County athletics.
For the first time in school history, both the girls and boys basketball programs have made the playoffs in the same year. Both teams finished in third place in the Intermountain Conference and both teams have been entertaining to watch throughout the season.
The girls team lost on Tuesday to a larger, more experienced team from Sherwood, but it was fun to watch the effort that the girls made, and to see the large crowd that went over the mountains to watch them play. Up to five minutes before tip-off there were more Cowgirl than home fans in the stands, and the local fans did themselves proud. They cheered loud and hard, and were polite and supportive throughout the game.
The girls basketball program has a rich history of playoff success, but it has been year's since they have even made the playoffs, and now the team seems to be poised for years of future success.
Crook County returns 11 lettermen from this years team that went 18-9 and their freshman team finished the year 21-1, so it looks like there will be strong teams into the future. The team plays hard every night, and both the coaches and players conduct themselves well.
It is often difficult for schools to have both a successful wrestling and boys basketball program, but Crook County seems to be able to accomplish that. For the second season in a row the wrestling team has earned a trophy at the state tournament, and the boys basketball team is back in the playoffs for the third year in a row.
The wrestling team and coaches conducted themselves with class at both the district and state wrestling tournaments, and people noticed. Head Coach Mike Shinkle was named both district and state coach of the year by a vote of the other coaches at the tournament, and at least part of the reason was the sportsmanship and class showed by the team and coaches. The community can be proud of how they conducted themselves.
The boys basketball team has battled adversity all season and last night was no exception. Playing shorthanded, the Cowboys battled a much larger Mountain View team down to the wire. Players who had not seen a single varsity minute up to last night stepped on the floor and played hard. It's a shame that seniors John Mountz and David Reeher were injured on the same play a week ago. Both have contributed a lot to Crook County basketball and we wish them both a speedy and complete recovery.
Crook County will be playing either Crescent Valley or Silverton in a first-round playoff game next Tuesday, and it would be nice to see a packed house again like last night. The gym was rockin'.
Finally congratulations to Melanie Ceciliani, Michelly Foley and David Reeher on their accomplishments this season. Ceciliani was named 5A volleyball player of the year, and has signed a letter of intent to play at Eastern Oregon State University. Reeher has been nominated as a McDonalds All-American and has signed to play basketball at Northwest Nazarene University, and Foley won the state cross country title, signed a letter of intent yesterday to run at Washington State University. All three athletes have worked hard and deserve the recognition and success that they are seeing. Congratulations. |
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