By James Day
August is here, the fall high school teams have begun their conditioning work, and it’s time to look at what is new on the high school scene this school year.
Silverton High welcomes a new teacher and baseball coach James Rise, who spent the past four years as the head coach at Austin College, a Division III school in Sherman, Texas. Rise will be the Physical Education/Health chair and also serve as the strength and conditioning coach.
“We are excited to welcome Coach Rise and his family to Silverton High School,” Foxes Athletic Director Greg Kaatz told Our Town. “He brings a wealth of knowledge in baseball as a coach as well as to our school as a teacher.”
Rise has Oregon ties, receiving his undergraduate degree at Western Oregon University and starting his coaching career at Springfield High.
“We feel the baseball program is in a position to really take some big steps,” Kaatz said. He teamed with football coach John Mannion last season to run the program on an interim basis. “Twenty-four baseball players participated this past summer in weightlifting sessions, practices and games. These young men have really put themselves in a position to improve the quality of Silverton baseball come spring time.”
Kaatz also has a basketball staff to complete because veteran coach Darren Shryock left to become the athletic director at Stayton High.
Meanwhile, at Kennedy, the football program is experiencing fall without Randy Traeger as part of the Trojans. Traeger, who was an assistant coach from 1979-2000 and the head coach the past eight years, took a job with Willamette University, his alma mater. Assistant coach Joe Panuke has replaced him.
The Kennedy track and football programs will be welcoming facilities upgrades for the 2014-15 school year. Veteran track and field coach Steve Ritchie told Our Town the concrete has been laid for the new jump and vault runways and that the polyurethane track surface will be installed in late August or early September.
The football field will be recrowned and resodded, a new drainage system will be installed and a new scoreboard and pressbox will be added, all in time for the football opener Sept. 12 against Gervais.
The track and field improvements will allow Kennedy to host the Tri-River Conference district meet in May for the first time in Ritchie’s tenure.
Kennedy and Silverton also will compete under new conference alignments, approved as part of the normal four-year cycle by the Oregon Schools Activities Association. The Foxes will continue to play in the Class 5A Mid-Willamette Conference, but the league loses West Albany to Class 6A and adds Central from Class 4A.
Kennedy remains in the Class 2A Tri-River Conference but loses Toledo, Waldport and Culver while adding Perrydale and St. Paul.
Homer’s Classic: Asher Catterall of Silverton ran away with the 8-kilometer Homer’s Classic race Aug. 3. Catterall, 18, ran 26:53.7, nearly three minutes ahead of runner-up Michael Traeger of Silverton, who ran 29:42.0. Kennedy High sophomore Noe Jines was third in 30:05.6.
Stephanie Ficek, 45, of Salem finished eighth overall in 31:27.0 and was the first female finisher. Anna Dunn, 29, of Salem was second among women with a 31:59.0.
Haile Stutzman, 14, of Silverton, won the 2-mile in 12:19.3, with Brent Lang, 18, of Mount Angel, second in 13:16.6. Olivia Meyer, 14, was the first female finisher in 19:40.
Marathon: Silverton High graduate Rudy Gilman took third in the July 27 Eugene Marathon in 2:25.22. The run came just 23 days after Gilman won a marathon July 4 at Sauvie Island north of Portland.
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