By James Day
A new era unfolded Aug. 9 at McGinnis Field on the old Silverton High School campus on Schlador Street.
The Foxes football team practiced for the first time on its new artificial turf. The squad was scheduled to open its conditioning work on the new surface Aug. 8, but last-minute tweaks kept the players on grass for one more day.
“We’re very excited for it,” senior linebacker David Espe said. “It’s a very nice field. It feels great. Everything is new.”
Senior-fullback Darren Buckley noted the extensive citywide effort that the project required.
“I think it’s awesome that our school and community put this together,” said Buckley, who added that the Foxes’ soccer squads also will benefit from the new facility. “We just had amazing volunteer work.”
“We’re very grateful for all of those people who made it happen,” Coach John Mannion said. “It’s a beautiful field and a real benefit to our program. We’ve got a lot of new stuff. There is a new team room for the kids.
“It adds a new level of excitement. The kids had a great offseason, but this project gives us a huge shot in the arm.”
Mannion added one of the major pluses of the field is that it makes practicing much easier, particularly late in the season when the weather gets foul and the practice field grass is mainly dirt. During the Foxes’ run to the OSAA Class 5A championship game in 2014 the squad had to get on buses and practice on turf at Canby High.
The Foxes start working out in pads Aug. 15, scrimmage Aug. 26 at West Albany and open the season Sept. 2 at Sandy. Redmond comes to town for the home opener on the new field Sept. 9.
Homer’s runs: The Homer’s Classic 8-kilometer and 2-mile runs were held Aug. 7 under partly cloudy skies with a bit of a breeze. The races started and ended at the Pine Street campus because of the turf project at McGinnis Field.
A pair of former Foxes teammates, Hosea Catterall and Wolf Seifer finished 1-2 in the 8-kilometer. Catterall ran 29:20.3, with Seifer clocking 29:47.1.
Deanna O’Neill of Canby finished fifth overall in 31:39.3 to take the medal for top woman. O’Neill finished more than six minutes ahead of runner-up Karisa Thede of Salem, who ran 37:59.6.
More Seifers hauled in hardware in the 2-mile event. Konrad Seifer, 14, won the race in 14:49, seven seconds ahead of Alex Seifer, 19. Candis Scott, 70, of Scotts Mills, was the top woman finisher in 18:13.8. Cecelia Petrik, 11, was second among females at 19:00.4.
Changes in athletic office: Silverton High is recruiting for a new assistant principal/athletic director because Greg Kaatz has moved on to become the principal at Mark Twain. Silver Falls Superintendent Andy Bellando told Our Town that Kaatz will help out during the transition. It was not clear at presstime how soon a replacement might be hired.
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