Writing the Pine: Ashland Sports Blog

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Former Ashland High volleyball star Taylor Hartrick, who graduated from AHS in 2009 and attended the University of Hawaii-Hilo on a volleyball scholarship, is back in Ashland and considering joining the Southern Oregon University volleyball team.

Hartrick was a ferocious middle blocker for the Grizzlies, earning the Southern Sky Conference player of the year award in 2008. Her fantastic senior season helped her land a roster spot at Hawaii-Hilo, an NCAA Division II program, but it turned out to be an uncomfortable fit.

“I don’t want to put bad words on anyone, but I was not really a fan of the team there,” Hartrick said. “It was really the chemistry that wasn’t working for me there.”

Hartrick added that she wasn’t interested in any of the majors that Hawaii-Hilo offered. That, she said, was the main reason she decided to leave early.

Hartrick’s former coach at Ashland, Josh Rohlfing, is the head coach at Southern Oregon, which is coming off one of the best seasons in program history. The Raiders won the Cascade Conference tournament championship and advanced to the NAIA national championships final site.

Rohlfing’s teams typically develop fantastic chemistry, both on the court and off – something Hartrick has come to appreciate even more than before.

“I was planning on just letting volleyball go, playing recreationally after (leaving UW-H),” she said, “but then I thought about how Josh was coaching at SOU. … I’m still deciding if I want to.

“The only reason I even considered playing again is because I know he’s the coach here. He would only pick girls with the right kind of attitude. I know that it would require a lot of commitment. And all around, it would force me to get more organized with school, too, but it would also feed a fire that I know whenever I get on a volleyball court I have inside me. And (Rohlfing) has been able to feed that the best.”

Rohlfing said he’ll have to evaluate Hartrick during spring workouts to see if it’s a good fit.

“I think she has the potential to play here,” he said. “Right now, I haven’t seen her in over a year, so it’s difficult. The thing that she has that she was adept at was her blocking. Great timing, and she’s a leader and just a really good kid. All of those assets any team would want.”

• Rolling Stone: Best Raider ever? Lindsey Stone makes her case, picking up her third Cascade Conference player of the year award and leading the SOU women’s volleyball team back to the NAIA National Championships final site. More remarkable, Stone’s fantastic senior season came after a year-long hiatus from volleyball.
• Every second counts: The Ashland High boys soccer team is about to pack its bags for a quarterfinal date with Crescent Valley when disaster strikes. Then strikes again. Mountain View scores the equalizer with 14 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, then scores the tie-breaker with 20 seconds left in overtime to ruin Ashland’s championship hopes and prove once and for all that sometimes, life just ain’t fair.
• Going pro: Days after wrapping up a stellar four-year run at Ashland High with a vintage performance in the state championship game – yes, he was tagged with the loss, but still . . . – Ashland High pitcher Ian Kendall is selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the fifth round of the MLB first-year player draft. Kendall eventually decided to turn down Oregon State’s scholarship offer to sign with the Rays, who have a pretty good record when it comes to developing pitchers.

So many moments, I needed to divide it into parts:

• Kickin’ it: Months before “The (x-country) Decision” Sam Jackson uses a spectacular 100-meter sprint at the end of the 5A 400-meter state championship race to grab the gold. His move buries four rivals and gives Jackson an epic victory at Hayward Field. Jackson’s time of 1:57.16 goes down as the ninth-fastest in Ashland High history. 
• A day at the beach: Ashland resident Jenn Shelton, sporting a bikini, wins the 34th annual Pear Blossom Run, improving her personal-best 10-mile time by three minutes.
• Still head of the class: Reclassification shakes up Oregon prep sports again, especially at Ashland High, where the Grizzlies are thrown into a league-less void that will last at least four years. So far, the switch has had mixed results – the Ashland boys soccer team received a tough draw in the 5A state playoffs and was booted in the second round, while the Ashland boys cross country team missed out on the state meet.

Well, more stuff happened, so … check back for Part III.

No, the Tidings will not dedicate a sports section this week to “the best Ashland sports stories of 2010,” but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a list in my head.

Wait a minute … this is a blog. Almost anything can go here. So, here’s my list, in no particular order.

• So close, yet: The Ashland High baseball team advances to the Class 5A state championship game for the second time in three years, but fails to close the deal against a North Eugene team that entered the game having suffered two consecutive season-ending defeats at the hands of Ashland. Ian Kendall pitched like a fifth-round draft pick through 5 1/3 innings, but Andrew Moore one-upped him with a three-hit, complete-game shutout.
• Nice guys finish third: The Ashland High boys cross country team edges Mountain View for second place at districts thanks to a disqualification at the tape, then decides to let the Cougars take Ashland’s place at the state meet. It was the right thing to do, they explained later, since Mountain View would have beat Ashland had the disqualified runner – a very thankful, and relieved, Chris McBride – been given credit for finishing right behind Sam Jackson (which McBride did).
• Running away with it: The Southern Oregon cross country team caps a brilliant season and a remarkable ascension under third-year head coach Brent Ericksen by claiming the school’s first men’s NAIA National Championship. The Raiders also claimed the combined team title. When Ericksen arrived in Ashland three years ago, the SOU men were unranked and represented hardly a blip on the NAIA radar.
• Cleared for take-off: Already established as Oregon’s premier program over the last four years, the Ashland Pilots bulldoze every opponent in their pathen route to the program’s first-ever American Legion A regional championship. Billy Hansen, Brent Hegdahl, Ethan Schlecht and Brady Thomas lead the way, as Ashland averages 12.4 runs in five games to leave Bozeman, Mont., with the trophy they came for.
• Helminiak era ends: Another frustrating season in the books, SOU decides to part ways with head football coach Steve Helminiak. Hardly a shocker considering that his five-year tenure included just 15 wins, but really, how many coaches could succeed given some of those brutal schedules?

OK, there’s a start. You’ll have to wait until Tuesday for the rest of the list.

Western Washington junior forward Rory Blanche, who starred for the Ashland High Grizzlies as a senior in 2006-07, is blossoming into a dual-threat for the Vikings. Blanche has started all nine games and is averaging 12.7 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds. That first number could go up soon since Blanche, who owns a sweet shooting stroke, is somehow shooting just 36 percent (10-for-26) from the free throw line.

Blanche led the Grizzlies to their first league title in 19 years in ’07. He was named the Southern Sky Conference player of the year, averaging 20 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 56 percent from the field.

Follow Blanche’s exploits at Western Washington here.

Former Ashland High guard Kelsey McKinnis is turning into quite the find for the University of Puget Sound. The sophomore sharpshooter, who graduated from AHS in 2009, was averaging a team-high 16.6 points heading into Tuesday’s game at UC Santa Cruz. She didn’t hurt her average Tuesday, scoring a team-high 18 points to help the Loggers snag their ninth win in a row.

McKinnis has become a deadly shooter. She’s shooting 46 percent from 3-point range and 86 percent from the free throw line.

Follow McKinnis here.

It was just like old times at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday, where three former Ashland High Grizzlies played on the same court, though one (Allison Gida) represented Utah and played against the other two (Jamie Roupp and Josi McDermott). Gida played just four minutes against Southern Oregon, but still managed to outscore both Roupp and McDermott by hitting a 3 with eight seconds left in the game. Not that it mattered. Utah, an NCAA Division I school, won the exhibition game by 55 points, 91-36.

Roupp, a senior, and McDermott, a junior, both start for Southern Oregon. Gida, a true freshman, has played sparingly.

I do the best I can, but there never seems to be enough time and space to adequately cover Ashland sports. Especially Friday night football. Why? Not because prep football demands a little more attention than anything else I handle here at the Tidings (although it does). It’s a logistics thing, actually. Ashland football games don’t begin until 7 p.m., which means they don’t end until about 9:15 p.m. or so, which means by the time I’m done with interviews it’s 9:30 to 9:45 and, with an 11:30 p.m. deadline set for the sports section, I’m pretty much sweating silver bullets all the way back to the office.

Anyway, here’s a few notes that didn’t make it into Saturday’s story.

• The musical quarterbacks strategy that Ashland employed Friday against Churchill is not just some desperate gimmick that the Grizzlies used to catch the Lancers off guard. The truth is, Jake McCoy can pass and pass well. He may not start over Jake Scarminach this season, but McCoy proved on Friday that if it comes down to it, Ashland wouldn’t be dead in the water if Scarminach was forced to move over to running back. McCoy displayed a nice touch on a couple deep passes, and also proved that he can handle the pressure the comes with being under center.
• One unsung hero from Friday night’s game was tight end/linebacker/punter Franklin LimeMa. At 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, LimeMa certainly possesses a body frame well equipped to smash footballs into the stratosphere. That’s what he did a few times Friday, at key moments. Even his short punts were good hang-time wise, so his 37.8 average-per-punt didn’t really do justice to LimeMa’s impact.
• The turf at Walter A. Phillips Field looked as good as ever, thanks to Ashland’s new groundskeeper, Brian Cool. Cool knows his stuff. We’re going to feature him before the season’s over. It may seem like a reach to feature a groundskeeper, but how many local groundskeepers can list the NFL under the “previous employment” category on their resume?
• No, the game was not technically a league contest, but one can forgive players and coaches for referring to it as such since the teams will compete against each other when it comes to all-conference voting. In an agreement that was struck prior to the season, the 5A teams from the Southern Oregon Hybrid (Ashland and Eagle Point) and the Midwestern Hybrid (Churchill, Springfield, Marist, Marshfield, Willamette, North Eugene) will consider players from all eight schools in their all-league ballots.
• As far as all-conference awards go, Scarminach didn’t hurt his chances with Friday night’s spectacular effort. In case you didn’t notice from the box score (because I didn’t include this bit of minutia in my story), Scarminach led the Grizzlies in rushing yards, receiving yards, was second in passing yards, and on defense tallied two turnovers with a fumble recovery and the game-clinching interception. Wow.

The first official game/match/meet/whatever of the 2010-11 Ashland High school year is now in the books – Ashland’s freshman football team fell short in a comeback bid and lost its season opener to Klamath Union, 31-28, tonight at Walter A. Phillips Field. The fans had to watch from the portable bleachers near the school-side end zone since the stadium is still being repaired following the mid-summer fire. Too bad, because there was a lot to see Thursday. Ashland’s Danial White threw a touchdown pass with about a minute to go to get the Grizzlies within striking distance, but the Pelicans recovered the onside kick to put the game away.

Ashland’s volleyball and soccer teams (boys and girls) also were in action Thursday – jamboree action, that is. The first varsity event of the school year is Friday night’s prep football clash between Ashland and Klamath Union, at Klamath Falls.

I talked to Ashland coach Charlie Hall after practice Thursday and he seems pretty excited about this year’s team, especially when it comes to the speed the Grizzlies are expected to field. And if anyone can figure out how to best utilize that speed, it’s Hall.

Ashland returns a host of starters on both offense (5) and defense (9), but that still leaves plenty of first-year starters who will be asked to make major leaps in terms of production this season.

“I think we’ve got some good experience, but there’s still a lot of question marks and that’s really going to be the key thing,” Hall said. “Do those newcomers step up and fill in the gaps of the kids that left the program?”

Friday night’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Modoc Field. It will be broadcast live locally on 580-AM.