1F ie ra - May 30, 2012 Page 15
SPORTS
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Stockman signs to wrestle at Southern Oregon
By Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Scottie Stockman signed a
letter of intent last week to wrestle
for Southern Oregon University.
Stockman signed on the the
dotted line in a ceremony in the
Sweet Home High School Library
Tuesday, May 22, flanked by his
father. Scott Stockman Sr., SOU
coach Mike Ritchey and Sweet
Home Coach Steve Thorpe.
Stockman, a three-time state
wrestling place-winner for Sweet
Home, also has played football for
four years and has pole vaulted
the last two for the track and field
team, adding the 400 meters to
his repertoire this year. He was
a major contributor to getting the
Huskies 4x400 relay team into the
state championships this year with
his performance at the district
meet.
Stockman will join Brock
Crocker as Sweet Home alumni
who are currently wrestling for the
Raiders. and he's the fifth Husky
to sign with SOU, following An-
drew Swanson, Kyle Rose. Tomas
Rosa and Crocker.
He said that was one of the
reasons why he chose Southern
Oregon, "because it's become
a tradition for Sweet Home and
Southern Oregon to have a wres-
tler there."
Stockman said he started
thinking about wrestling at SOU
as a junior after getting some in-
terest from the Raiders coaches
through Thorpe.
"He keeps the string alive for
us," Thorpe said. "I'm very excit-
ed for Scottie. I'm excited to see
him still excited about wrestling,
enough to go on."
Ritchey said he liked the com-
mitment Stockman has shown to
the sport, competing in off-season
freestyle and Greco tournaments
and camps.
"Scottie has put in the work."
he said. "He's a great student ath-
lete. He knows what it takes to
succeed at this level."
Thorpe agreed.
"This is the payoff," he said.
"Scottie's done all the camps, all
the freestyle and Greco, all the
travel. Now he gets to compete
at the next level. There's going to
be a big difference. Every kid in
college was one of the best on the
team in high school."
Ritchey told the crowd of
Husky wrestlers, teachers and stu-
dents Tuesday that he likes to re-
cruit in Sweet Home.
"There's a great work ethic
here, a great program. Those are
the kind of guys I like to commit
to. This is a wrestling community.
Those are things that carry over
very well in our university."
Stockman said he plans to
major in English and become a
teacher.
Southern Oregon. which
Thorpe described as an "elite" pro-
gram at the NAIA level, has won
two national championships under
Ritchey, who himself was a four-
year All-American for the Raiders.
SOU finished second at the nation-
al NAIA tournament this year, its
second runner-up finish in the past
four years, with three individual
champions and six total All-Amer-
icans. Former Roseburg wrestler
Mitchell Lofstedt (125) won his
second national title, while Brock
Gutches (174, Crater) and Austin
Vanderford (184, Ninilchik, Alas-
ka) were the Raiders' other titlists.
Thorpe said he hopes the com-
munity realizes what is happening
when a local athlete moves on to
compete in college.
"This is not just a game. This
is an opportunity. The time and ef-
fort we coaches put in is not just to
get a mark in the win column.
"I've sent a lot of wrestlers to
college and they are giving back to
Huskies get taste of top
caliber in loss at N. Valley
North Valley High School of
Grants Pass dominated the Huskies
early in the first round of bracket
play in state 4A baseball playoffs,
winning 15-3.
North Valley has gone on to the
semi-finals after defeating Sisters.
North Valley was scheduled to face
Ontario on Tuesday. The winner
will face either Henley or Hidden
Valley on June 2.
North Valley lost the
championship game last year and
returned I 1 players, said Huskies
Coach Matt Matuszak. "They're
an outstanding team. They're still
alive in the playoffs for a reason."
It is the best team the Huskies
saw all year, he said. North Valley is
ranked number one in the coaches
poll. and he agrees. North Valley
has a chance to take it all.
The Huskies opened the game
with a pair of runs. North Valley
scored a run in the bottom of the
inning and then seven more in the
second. The Huskies scored again
with one run in the final inning of
the game.
"We came out firing strong on
all cylinders." Matuszak said. "We
were up two-nothing."
Hunter Bidwell and Jeremy
White opened with doubles to help
get the Huskies going, he said.
Justin Rice did an outstanding job
on the mound, throwing 73 percent
strikes during his two innings.
"North Valley is just such a
good team. they were just hitting
it." Matuszak said.
Rice started the game on the
mound, pitching two innings. He
gave up eight runs. two of them
earned, and nine hits. He struck out
two batters and walked none. Cory
Hanks pitched the next two innings,
giving up seven runs. four of them
earned, and four hits. He struck
out three and gave up five walks.
Jeremy White pitched the final two
innings, giving up-three hits and
striking out one but walking none.
The Huskies collected five
hits, one each from White,Hunter
Bidwell. Rice. Nate Melcher and
Kyle Winslow. Bidwell, Rice and
Winslow each had an RBI. White.
Brandon Gregory and Rice each
scored a run.
Even though the Huskies were
down big, the kids kept playing,
Matuszak said. They didn't get
down.
"They were first-class
individuals." he said. at a time
when it would be easy to give it
up. That's something they did all
season long, and it makes him
proud.
"I'm very proud of our kids
Matuszak said. "They just did a
great job."
The season started out rough,
and it would have been easy to give
it up then, he said, but the Huskies
kept growing and improving all
season long.
"We played our best baseball
down the stretch." Matuszak said,
and the Huskies didn't play badly
at North Valley at all at the end of
the season.
"I'm very pleased just at the
progress this team made." he said.
"I really felt like we took a step
forward as program this year."
The off-season training made a
difference for many of the players,
Rice. Cory Hanks and Drayson
Scott among many others.
The team finished second in a
tough league, he said. "I thought
our kids just did a great job battling
every day."
Matuszak wanted to thank the
public for all of its support, he said.
The team had a lot of fans go all
the way to Grants Pass for the final
game.
Sweet Home 200 000 1 - 3 5 3
North Valley 172 223 x - 15 16 2
Dam Run June 16
The fourth annual Dam Run
5K will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday,
June 16, at Foster Dam.
Organized by the Sweet Home
Youth Advisory Council, the even
includes a half-mile race across the
dam for children 12 and under and
a 2K walk.
Cost for adults is $20 with an
event T-shirt and $10 without. Cost
for kids 12 and under is $15 with
a T-shirt and $10 without. Regis-
ter by June 1 to guarantee an event
T:shirt. Pre-registration is strongly
encouraged, but registrations will
be taken until 8:30 on the morning
of the race.
All proceeds will be divided
between Sweet Home Emergency
Ministries and Friends of the Sweet
Home Library's stained glass win-
dow project.
For more information call
(541) 367-8969 or visit www.
ci.sweet-home.or.us.
, by Scott Swanson
Scottie Stockman signs a letter of intent to wrestle at Southern Oregon
University flanked by Coach Steve Thorpe, left, and his father. Scott
Stockman. right. At far left is SOU Coach Mike Ritchey.
the program. You can have a cycle opportunities for kids.
of mediocrity, but the cycle we "My work with Scottie is
have is coaches working to create done but the relationship doesn't
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