I said in a recent post this is our voting season for various stories of the year: national, state, local. My votes are in for the Oregon awards, which is organized by the Portland Tribune. The winners will be announced Feb. 8 at the Tiger Woods Center on the Nike campus.
There were 28 nominees for top amateur male athlete, among them former South Medford basketball players Kyle Singler and Ryan Fiegi. We voted on 10, and I had both Singler, for his star freshman season at Duke, and Fiegi, NAIA player of the year at Oregon Tech, on my ballot. However, my top three were Oregon runner Galen Rupp, Oregon State running back Jacquizz Rodgers and UCLA post Kevin Love.
For female amateur, there were 26 options, none with local ties. My top vote went to two-time Olympic fencing gold medalist Mariel Zagunis of Beaverton. Oregon State NCAA champion swimmer Saori Haracuchi, an Olympian for Japan, was No. 2, and another Olympic fencing medalist, Rebecca Ward, was third.
Brandon Roy of the Blazers got my top vote for male pro athlete. For women, it was Olympic distance runner Kara Goucher.
I made Mike Riley my sports person of the year, followed by Celtics GM Danny Ainge and OIT men’s basketball coach Danny Miles, a Medford guy.
On the prep side, area boys on the 52-person ballot were South Medford’s Michael Harthun and E.J. Singler; North Medford’s Matt Maurer; runners Drew Jordan of North Medford, Josh Elliott of Crater and Elliott Jantzer of Phoenix. Singler and Jantzer were in my top 10, but the No. 1 vote went to Barlow weight thrower Ryan Crouser, who won two 6A state titles as a freshman, then won three Junior Olympic national crowns.
There were 38 girls nominated, including Ashland’s Allison Gida and Brenna Heater, Crater’s Emily Morrill and North Medford’s Erica Schultz. I had Gida on my ballot, but Roseburg swimmer Kaylin Bing, who set state records in two events and qualified for the Olympic trials got the top vote.
You will see some of the same names when we run our local stories-of-the-year package on Sunday. As always, there’s been a diverse reaction among our staff as we’ve gone through back issues to determine nominees, then voted on them. Pick up a Sunday paper and let us know what you think.
