=
Expand search form
James Day

New rivalry? Silverton gets set for football showdown with Wilsonville

We’re just two games into the Class 5A Special District 2 football race and it’s already a two-team race between Silverton and Wilsonville. Which is kind of what I was hoping for. When the OSAA downsized the bloated Mid-Willamette Conference from its 10 teams to six for the fall, it pushed Silverton, Central, McKay and Woodburn into a new district […]

James Day

Soccer preview – Silverton girls working under co-coaches

Don Holland and Eric Lay, two Silverton High graduates and longtime recreational and club-level coaches, have taken over as co-coaches of the Foxes girls squad. Silverton was 12-11-7 overall and 10-3-3 in the Mid-Willamette Conference under Renee Cantrell in the past two years, which included back-to-back Class 5A playoff appearances and a quarterfinal berth last fall. Holland and Lay, in […]

James Day

Football schedules – Foxes prove willingness to take on all comers

When I ran into Foxes football coach Dan Lever at the on-campus celebration for Silverton’s Class 5A girls basketball championship he told me that he was putting together “the mother of all schedules.” Well, maybe those weren’t his exact words, but the concept works. Lever and his athletic director, Andy Jones, had more wiggle room to work with this season. […]

James Day

Revered program – Moffatt proves a thinking man’s athletic director

A few years back I was at Kennedy to report on a Class 2A baseball playoff game. The Trojans won easily, and I figured it would be just a few minutes before coach Kevin Moffatt would be done talking with his team and I could interview people. I waited. And waited some more. The huddle in the outfield appeared to […]

James Day

Football changes – Foxes get new league

The Silverton High football program will be facing some new league opponents starting this fall. The Foxes will remain in Class 5A but will be moving out of the Mid-Willamette Conference and into a new league that will include four MWC teams and two from the Northwest Oregon Conference, including perennial state power Wilsonville. The new football-only league, part of […]

James Day

January madness – Foxes in thick of league hoops battles

Yes, it’s only January, but the Mid-Willamette Conference hoops season already is churning out masterpieces. Silverton took down two unbeaten teams from South Albany in a doubleheader sweep on Jan. 8, and as of presstime the Foxes were in the thick of both battles for league bragging rights. The girls are 4-0 in league and ranked No. 5. They are […]

James Day

No more 1-and-1: Oregon follows lead of national federation on foul shots

It’s a new dawn for the free throw in high school sports in Oregon. Following the lead of the National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS) the Oregon School Activities Association has instituted new rules on fouls shots for the 2023-24 season. Instead of teams moving to 1-and-1 free throws upon the seventh team foul of each half the system […]

Silverton Foxes

Foxes clinch – SHS football improves to 8-0 with big win

By James Day Silverton took down host West Albany 49-28 on Oct. 20, to move to 8-0 and clinch the Mid-Willamette Conference title. The Foxes have won or shared the past three league titles. The Foxes broke a 14-14 tie right before halftime on a 20-yard TD pass from QB Sawyer Teeney to WR Elijah Howard, who made a spectacular […]

James Day

Football powers – Silverton, Kennedy off to the races – again

We’re two-thirds of the way through the regular season as I write this and it has been a stunningly impressive one for our two local football teams, Silverton and Kennedy. The Foxes were 6-0 and ranked No. 3 in Class 5A heading into Thursday, Oct. 12’s Homecoming encounter with 5-1 McKay. The top-ranked Trojans are 5-1 and ranked No. 1 […]

State champs – Mucken wins long jump, places in 3 other events for SHS

  By James Day Silverton High’s Steeley Mucken scored in 4 events on May 26-27 to lead the Foxes to a tie for 5th in the OSAA Class 5A track and field meet at Hayward Field in Eugene. Mucken won the long jump and took 5th in the 100, and 6th in the 200 and the javelin to help Silverton […]

Track stalwarts – Kennedy takes home two district titles

  By James Day The Oregon School Activities Association moved Kennedy into an unfamiliar district for track and field this season. The Trojans wound up in Special District 1, which featured numerous teams from the northwest corner of the state, including Knappa, Vernonia, Clatskanie and Nestucca. “Our athletes made the most of it,” said veteran JFK coach Steve Ritchie after […]

Trojans resilient – Baseball squad scores huge win in wind tunnel

Baseball is played in a wide range of climates in Oregon. Hot, cold and rainy for sure. Even hail at times. But May 8 at Kennedy High in Mount Angel it was the wind that challenged the host Trojans and St. Paul as they met in a showdown series in Class 2A-1A’s Special District 2. Both teams came in undefeated, […]

State champs again: Silverton dance earns 1st, 2nd at OSAA event

The Silverton dance and drill program has once again brought home a state championship. The 2022-23 squad, coached by Alex Reese and Emily Sword, took home first place in Class 5A in jazz and second place in traditional March 17-18 at the Oregon State Fairgrounds Pavilion in Salem. The state title was the fifth in school history, following 1998, 1999, […]

In a groove – JFK hoops boasts squad of 3 sport stars

They say winning breeds more winning, and that is definitely true at Kennedy High. The Trojans captured the Class 2A-1A baseball title last spring, finished second in Class 3A football this fall and as the basketball season rounds the midway pole the JFK boys are 13-3 and ranked No. 3 in Class 2A by the OSAA. And because Kennedy emphasizes […]

A class above – Kennedy an immediate state power at 3A level

One of the challenges of this job is explaining things that are difficult to explain. But I am going to give it my best effort. What the Kennedy High football squad was able to achieve this season was just off the charts. The Trojans finished 12-1, losing only to Cascade Christian of Medford in the Nov. 26 Class 3A title […]

Big volleyball win – Foxes beat W. Albany, now No. 2 in state

The Silverton High girls volleyball squad scored one of the biggest wins in recent program history on Sept. 20, taking down defending Class 5A champion West Albany by a 3-1 score. The win by the visiting Foxes in their first year under coach Reilly Rosecrans, moved Silverton to No. 2 in the Class 5A rankings and to 5-0 in Mid-Willamette […]

New coaches: Allen, Ogle take over high-powered Foxes hoops teams

Silverton has selected replacements for its two open basketball positions, hiring Tyler Allen to coach the boys and Alyssa Ogle to lead the girls. Allen replaces Jamie McCarty, who led the Foxes to a runner-up finish in the Class 5A tournament in March. McCarty lost just one Mid-Willamette Conference game in his 5 years with the program, while taking 4th […]

No fall sports: New activities calendar starts Dec. 28

By James Day The Oregon School Activities Association has updated its plans for the 2020-21 school year. The upshot? The official calendar starts Dec. 28, with practices and features much shorter seasons. And football and other “fall” sports are moving to the spring. The decision of the OSAA’s executive board, announced Aug. 5, supersedes a previous outline, released July 22, […]

OSAA spells change: Big overhaul proposed for classification system

Most adjustments that the Oregon School Activities Association makes in its quadrennial classification and districting work tend to be minor. The body made a big leap forward for the 2006-7 school year by expanding from four classes to six. Schools had competed in a four-class system since 1974. And it’s looking like there will be a bit of an earthquake […]

State champs: Tough Fox basketball team’s title was years in the making

By James Day Three games that were won by eight points or less. A first-year head coach, albeit one with previous varsity experience. A blizzard of 3-pointers. The toughness that comes with having three football players in the starting lineup. It all added up to a memorable run for the Silverton High School boys basketball team in the Class 5A […]

Performing where it counts: Teams earn high marks

By James Day There is this familiar NCAA television ad which shows folks in judicial robes playing basketball and people in the garb of other occupations playing other sports. The message the NCAA is trying to deliver is that most people who are involved in sports wind up in careers that have nothing to do with athletics. Which is why […]

Anderson earns cross country recognition

Silverton High School sophomore Morgan Anderson took 24th place at the OSAA 5A State Cross Country Meet with a time of 20 minutes and 25 seconds, earning her an All-State Honorable Mention.