The Kennedy High baseball team won its final 7 games in the 2022 season, ending up with a state Class 2A-1A title. Last year, a veteran team that started eight seniors went 31-0 and repeated as state champions.
This season a young squad with just one returning starter, Brody Kleinschmit, won its first eight games. That’s 46 in a row over three seasons.
The winning streak is the longest in Oregon history, regardless of what class. Knappa won 42 in a row twice, during the 2015-16 season and the 2017-18 seasons when the Loggers, under coach Jeff Miller, took three state titles while finishing runner-up once.
The Kennedy streak ended April 2 with an 8-2 loss at Umpqua Valley Christian of Roseburg, the same program that defeated Kennedy 10-5 in nine innings for the 2019 title, a loss Kennedy turned around by an 11-1 count in the 2022 title game.
Kevin Moffatt, 49, is in his 19th season as the baseball coach and athletic director at the Mount Angel school. He knows what sixth-graders are going to make a big splash four years from now. He knew he had a special group when the Trojans went 18-1 during an abbreviated 2021 COVID-19 season that featured sophomores Charlie Beyer, Ethan Kleinschmit, Brian Beyer, Matt Hopkins, Owen Bruner, Luke Beyer and Andrew Cuff. Those seven players all started when Kennedy downed UVC in the 2022 title game. Ditto for the 2023 title game against Blanchet Catholic.
“Those players would have won a ton of games no matter who was in the third base coaching box,” Moffatt told Our Town at the end of a recent practice. “This year we have had to coach more. Last year sometimes we were just managing egos, trying to keep everybody happy and fine-tuning things.”
Moffatt has nine sophomores and two freshmen on this year’s roster and the 9-1 record has the veteran coach “pleasantly surprised. We’ve played well. We’re not as athletic as we’ve been in the past. Our goal is to work hard, grow and whatever happens, happens.”
Kennedy opened Special District 2 play with a 14-1 win vs. Colton. Moffatt sees Blanchet as the class of the league. “They are the best team in the state and it’s not even close,” he said of the Cavaliers squad that started a sophomore-heavy lineup in last year’s title game.
Kennedy should contend for the league’s second automatic playoff spot with Country Christian. An at-large spot would be likely should the Trojans fail to make the top two.
To this untrained eye, watching a lanky group of energetic Kennedy kids practicing on a typically cool and windy day at their hilltop ballpark, you get the sense that the team is going to continually get better, that the classic Moffatt formula of pitchers throwing strikes, making plays on defense, executing offensively and running the bases well will yield positive results and that by playoff time no one will want any part of the Trojans.
Boys Volleyball: Yes, boys volleyball. The OSAA has declared the sport an “emerging” activity and Silverton head coach Benson Short, who also works on boys basketball, has approximately 20 players out for the team. Silverton boys soccer coach Marty Limbird, who played volleyball in high school in Canada and former beach volleyball participant Adam Bradford are assisting.
The Foxes play in the North Willamette Conference, and the schedule consists of 10 varsity matches and three weekend tournaments. Here is a link to the schedule page: https://www.oregonboysvball.org/page/show/8402330-silverton-high-school/.
“This is a very special season for us,” Short told Our Town. “It is the first time boys volleyball has been brought to Silverton. The athletes that we have are amazing young men with a heart and passion to learn the sport and grow together. Already there is a synergy with the athletes that we as coaches have seldom seen. We would love to invite the community to come out and attend our home games this season.”
The squad is working with equipment borrowed from Chemeketa Community College, where Limbird teaches, and Short figures it will cost $5,000 to run the full season.
Key expenses include jerseys, tournament fees, officials and janitorial service for home games. Short said that the program has raised about $3,000 and he is encouraging community members and businesses to get in touch with Bradford ([email protected] or call/text 503-999-8298) if they can assist. Looking ahead, the program also will need gear for next year as well as matching shorts for the players.
Top players on this year’s squad who have made their mark elsewhere at Silverton include Nolan Horner, Tristan Keopadapsy, Emmett Limbird, Cohen Mulick, Trevor Redman-Brown and Elisha Short.
Girls Basketball: The awards continue to flow in for Silverton’s girls basketball squad. Kyleigh Brown has been named Class 5A’s state player of the year, with Alyssa Ogle earning 5A’s top coaching honor. Ogle and the Foxes went 24-4 in 2023-24, downing Crater 61-60 in overtime to win the school’s fourth state title.
