January

 

Record sports January 8, 1998

¥ Modoc girls win big Willows tournament

¥ Area sports schedules for week

¥ Elks sponsor annual Hoop Shot

Modoc girls win Willows tourney

Modoc's girls basketball team got off to a splendid start by winning the predominately big school Willows Invitational Tournament Dec. 29-30.

"We didn't play all that well in the championship game, but played a great fourth quarter, thanks to Leah Siegel's defense," said coach Mike Martin. "She took over the game in the fourth."

Modoc dropped Ursuline of Santa Rosa 53-42 in the championship game.

The Braves survived a slow start and 25 turnovers in the title game.

Ursuline led after the first period 17-15 and at the half 26-25. The Braves took a one point lead in the third, but Kayte Christensen picked up her fourth foul and sat out until the fourth period. By the end of the third, the game was tied at 37-37.

In the fourth, Leah Siegel turned up the tempo on the de fense and stole the ball six times, adding four assists off those steals to Jennifer Kern. The Braves ended up outscoring Ursuline 16-5 in the final period.

Kern led the Braves with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Christensen added 12 points and 11 rebounds. Andrea Knox added 13 points, Lynda Lake had six points. Wendy Stafford had six steals in the game and Lake picked off four.

In the semi-final game, the Braves whipped Willows 59-29 behind Christensen's 27-point night. Lake added eight points, Siegel had seven, and Jennifer Kern had six. Siegel had six assists and five steals.

The game was over early as the Braves took a 31-8 first period lead. Modoc scored just two in the second period and nine in the third, but pumped in 17 in the fourth. The Braves' defense held Willows to single digit scoring each quarter.

Modoc opened the tourney against Windsor and set the tone in the first, going up 28-0 and leading 28-5 when the first eight minutes ended. By half-time the Braves held a 39-17 lead and rolled to a 58-33 win.

"We played very well in that game and our press just ate them up," said Martin. "I had expected them to be tougher. But we did play well."

Christensen had 14 of her team-high 21 points in the open ing period and Andrea Knox added eight in the first pe riod. Knox finished with 12 points and Kern added nine.

"We're not clicking real well right now and we're probably a little behind where we were last year at this time," said Martin. "I'm hoping that by the Etna game (January 16), we're in better condition and are starting to jell as a team."

Modoc is still able to beat teams because of their overall talent, but Martin said they need to come together better if they're going to dominate. Coming off a Willows big school tournament win is a major plus for the season.

Christensen was named the Most Valuable Player at Willows and Kern was named to the All-tourney team.

The Braves played Burney at home last night, after press-time, to open league play

Area sports schedules

Modoc High School boys and girls opened Shasta Cascade League play against Burney last night after press time for the Record. Modoc does not have another game until Etna comes to visit January 16.

Game times for league games are as follows: JV girls 4 p.m.; JV boys, 5:30 p.m.; varsity girls 7 p.m. and varsity boys, 8:30 p.m.

Modoc's wrestling team goes to the Reed Tournament in Sparks, January 9-10 then goes to the Burney Rotary Invitational January 16-17.

For the Big Valley Cardinals start Evergreen League play at home against Happy Camp January 9.

Surprise Valley is home on January 9 in a league game against McCloud and on Saturday they travel to Dunsmuir.

Elks Hoop Shoot is Jan. 9

The 26th annual Elks Hoop Shoot is set for January 9, 3:15 p.m. at Modoc Middle School in Alturas.

The event is open to all youngsters ages 8 through 13 and all young people are encouraged to participate. The Alturas Elks Lodge sponsors the local event and local winners qualify to go on. The Hoop Shoot is a free-throw shooting contest and is a national competition.

For more information, contact Steve Riley at 233-3531.

Record sports for January 15, 1998

¥ Modoc girls dominate Burney

¥ Brave boys open league with win

¥ Modoc wrestlers 5th in huge tourney

¥ Big Valley girls looking strong

¥ SV Hornets open evergreen league play

¥ Cedar Pass Ski Hill enjoying good snowpack

Modoc girls trounce Burney easily, Etna in town this week

Modoc girls started the Shasta Cascade League the way most people expected, with an easy win over Burney 66-32.

This week Modoc has Etna at home Friday night and travels to Trinity Saturday, both SCL games. On January 20, Fall River comes to Modoc.

Modoc head coach Mike Martin figures Etna and Mt. Shasta to be the toughest two teams in the SCL and thinks Etna has a chance at giving Modoc a tough game.

"They're a good team and we expect them to be tough," said Martin. "If we play our game, we'll be fine; but if we're off, they could give us some trouble. It won't be an easy game."

Martin said Etna has quality players and expects them to press the Braves. The Lions have lost only three games this season and have their sights on knocking Modoc off the throne. Tuesday night Etna lost to Mt. Shasta's girls, 60-40.

Dethroning Modoc will be no easy task. Modoc's starting five is as strong or stronger than last year and Martin feels his bench strength is solid. Martin has brought up sophomore Megan Orner and Freshman Jessica Kern to the varsity.

"I'm confident in our team play right now and the starters are playing very well," said Martin. "I feel I have a very good eight-per son rotation and even our second team is good."

The Braves beat Burney's Raiders 66-32 last week, in a game that was only close at the tip-off. The Braves rolled up a 26-4 first pe riod lead and by the half led 43-12. The Braves outscored Burney 14-1 in the third to lead 57-13 when the fourth period started.

Martin only used his starting lineup about half the game, and the reserves played very well.

Kayte Christensen led the Braves scoring with 19, Andrea Knox added 11, Megan Orner had nine, Leah Siegel added eight and Jennifer Kern had seven. Knox and Siegel each hit a three-point shot.

Modoc's junior varsity also won its game, 46-43, with Tatum Dunn leading the way with 16 points.

Modoc opens SCL with win over Burney, faces Etna here Friday nite

For the Modoc boys basket ball team, winning their Shasta-Cascade League opener last week was just a matter of trying a new de fense. The Braves used an ef fective zone to hold a much taller Burney team to an ice-cold 2-26 from the field in the second and fourth quarters as Modoc came away with a 62-44 win.

Since quickness is Mod oc's strength, coach Lane Bates usually likes to put his squad in a man-to-man. However, he was also aware that Burney would be showing up with a team that could start a front line that went 6-5, 6-7, 6-4, while Modoc doesn't list anyone over 6-3 on their ros ter. Therefore, Bates had the Braves practice the zone specifically for the Raiders.

It turned out that Modoc needed it. Burney held a 14-9 lead after the first quarter be cause they kept dumping it down low to their big guys who were able to take the smaller Braves to the bucket.

Therefore, the Braves threw a tightly packed zone at the Raiders in the second quarter and dared Burney to hit from outside. The Raiders couldn't do it. They were 0-7 from three-point range on the night and in an eight minute second quarter they could only manage one field goal and six points. Modoc was therefore able to take a 25-20 lead into the locker-room at halftime.

"The kids did a nice job with that defense," Bates said. "We wanted to play behind their big people and then have the guards collapse down on them when they got the ball. I thought it was a good team ef fort."

The Braves also got a big boost in the first half when se nior sixth man Duane Knighton came in and changed the tempo of the game with his aggressive and hus tling style of play. Knighton seemed to be everywhere as he got 11 points on 5-7 shooting, six rebounds, three steals, two assists and a blocked shot.

"It's really nice to have a kid like that who can come in and do so many different things for you," Bates said of Knighton.

While the defense was clicking in the second quar ter, Brave guard Ryan Camp bell was also figuring out how to attack the Burney defense. The answer for most of Camp bell's 19 points was to drive the middle and hit amazing double-clutching up-and-un der shots while spinning around Burney's tall trees.

The Braves also got a stel lar performance from sopho more center Brett Hamilton. The youngster banged inside with the big boys and came away with 13 points on 6-8 shooting and seven rebounds.

However, just when Modoc thought they had Burney fig ured out, the Raiders came up with their own strategy for beating the Modoc zone de fense - get down the court be fore the Braves can get set up in that defense. The Raiders at one point hit five fast-break lay-ups in a row while also out rebounding the Braves 13-5 the third quarter. As a result, Burney had regained the lead at 39-38 as the teams headed into the fourth quarter.

Since Modoc had turned slow-footed in the third quar ter, Bates had the Braves start running a half-court trap out of a zone to "get them moving again." The Braves got mov ing quickly as they scored the first six points of the quarter to take a 45-39 lead.

Each team scored one more basket to make the score 47-41 before Burney's 6-7 center Dane Howell went down on a lay-up attempt with an injury. From that point on, the Braves went on a 15-3 run to put the game away easily.

Modoc has a tough three games in five days stretch coming up. They host Etna tomorrow before traveling to Trinity Saturday. They then come back home on Tuesday, the 20th to face Fall River.

Modoc wrestlers fifth in huge Reno Tournament

Modoc wrestling team placed fifth at the Reed Invitational in Reno last week, out of some very big schools including the Nevada State Champs, Wooster.

"The competition was intense and we held our own," said Modoc coach Shaun Wood. "It was a long tourna ment. We wrestled until 11:45 p.m. on Friday and then from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday. Everybody got tired and a little flat on Saturday."

The highest place finisher for Modoc was 215-pound Iven Wilson, who placed second, losing only his final match.

Greg Jacques, Modoc's 179-pounder took a fourth in a tough weight class.

Tony Willis at Heavyweight, Phil Weed at 152, Teddy Simmons at 125, and Richard Lutz at 119 each took a fifth. Eric Hunter placed sixth at 140 and Dan Flournoy placed sixth at 189.

"We had several wrestlers who finished just one match out of the medals," said Wood. "Overall, I was pleased with our performance against some very tough competi tion."

The Braves head to the Burney Invitational this week end and it should be more in line with their level of compe tition. Wood expects the Braves to be favored to win the 23-school tournament and figures the toughest challenges from Trinity, Kelseyville and Corning.

"We're back to more of our pool at the Burney tourna ment and we should do very well," said Wood. "I expect to place in 11 of the 14 weights."

Cardinal girls open with a win

The Big Valley girls bas ket ball team picked up a win last Friday night after a see saw battle against Happy Camp in Bieber.

Cardinal coach Janiece Criss started her squad in a press that helped them take an early lead. However, the In dians came storming back to take a 10 point lead before the Cards could get their press working again. Big Valley finally came back to take a two point lead at 58-56 in the last minute of the fourth quarter. BV then made a de fensive stop and got the ball in the hands of Ileah Jackson who was fouled.

Jackson went to the line and hit one of two to make the score 59-56. Happy Camp still had one more chance to send the game into overtime by hit ting a three-pointer, but the Cardinal press came up with one last steal to ice the victory.

Jackson had 30 for Big Val ley while Carrie Scwebach also hit double figures with 15 points.

The Big Valley JV took a 29-12 loss to Happy Camp. Carly Nordell and Kelsey Hunsacker were the high scorers for a six member team that got worn down in the sec ond half against a Happy Camp squad that suited up 11 players.

Boys basketball: A weak second quar ter cost the Cards in their first Evergreen League game as they lost 57-50 to Happy Camp. In the other three quarters, the Car dinals outscored the Indians 17-15, 19-17 and 10-9, but were on the wrong end of a 16-4 run in the second.

Kasey Criss poured in 16 for Big Valley while Corado Reginnato added 10.

The Big Valley teams are in the midst of a long homes tand. Tomorrow night they will host McCloud with JV girls be ginning at 3:30. Since McCloud does not have girls varsity team, the boys JV will play at 5:00 and the boys var sity will be at 6:30. On Satur day, Tulelake will be at Big Valley with girls JV starting at 1:30 fol lowed by boys JV at 3:00, girls varsity at 4:30 and boys varsity at 6:00. Next Tues day, January 20, Sur prise Valley will make their annual appearance in Bieber. Games will again begin at 3:30 with girls and boys var sity playing at 6:30 and 8:00 respectively.

Hornets open EL with pair of losses

Surprise Valley's boys and girls basket ball teams opened up their Evergreen League schedules in Cedarville last Friday against McCloud.

The boys varsity fell be hind by 12 in the second quarter against McCloud, and could n't recover despite con sistent play in the third and fourth quarters. The young Hornets, with just one senior on the squad, ended up taking a 70-53 loss.

The Hornets did make sev eral small runs to get the Mc Cloud lead down to single digits but McCloud used their fast break to go on runs of their own to answer back.

Junior forward Tom Har ris led SV with 16 points. He was particularly hot in the fourth quarter going 4-4 from the field. He also had five re bounds in the final stanza.

Chris Harris and Avon Ray got 12 and 9 points respec tively on the inside.

Surprise Valley also got a promising per formance from sophomore Mike Northrup who was just recently moved up to the varsity level. Northrup came off the bench to shoot 2-3 from three-point land on his way to eight points while also contributing two steals on the defensive end.

The Hornets only had a short time to re cover from the McCloud loss as they had to travel to Dunsmuir on Satur day to face the team that is generally thought to be the class of the EAL. The pattern of the game was very similar to the night before. Surprise Valley got outscored 12-10 in the second quarter and then actually outscored Dunsmuir in the sec ond half before los ing 69-55.

Chris Harris led in the scoring column with 20, while Northrup had 17 and Tom Har ris had 12.

The Hornet JV also fell to 0-2 in league after losing 71-35 at Dunsmuir. Anthony Schultz hit four treys on his way to scoring 13 points.

Girls basketball: The SV girls varsity got a break on Friday night because Mc Cloud is not fielding a girls varsity team this year. It turned out to be a good time for a bye since two Surprise Val ley starters are out with in juries. The understaffed Hornets still had to play Dun smuir on Saturday and lost 52-43. It was also the first game in 28 days for the Hor net girls squad and coach Lon Holloman pointed out that the team may have needed a game to get rid of the rust.

Surprise Valley fell behind 44-26 in the third quarter be fore making a major run to wind up trailing by nine. Heather Tufts led the way with 16 points while Brooke Beeman tossed in 10.

Holloman predicts that the girls EAL will be very bal anced this year.

"The league is going to be real tough," he said. "We're all evenly matched. Every body's going to beat everybody else. It's just a matter of who can win on the road."

One team that can win on the road is the Hornet JV, which posted an impressive 53-23 win at Dunsmuir to go along with an easy 47-26 win over McCloud in Cedarville. 5-11 freshman Ashlynn Dol cini has been a strong per former scoring 23 against Dunsmuir and 14 against McCloud.

The Surprise Valley teams must now play three road games in a row over the next five days. Tomorrow they play at Tulelake. On Satur day they will meet Happy Camp in the Dunsmuir gym for a neutral site game. Next Tuesday, the Hornets will head down the 299 to face Big Valley.

Ski Hill open on holiday;

Super Bowl fun slated

Cedar Pass Ski Hill has some fun planned for Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 25. Come by the Ski Hut where the game will be televised and enjoy a potluck barbecue throughout the day.

"We have plenty of snow, and got another foot," said Tim Harris on Tuesday morning.

The Hill will be open for skiing Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 17 and 18, plus be open on the holiday, Monday, Jan. 19 from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

On Super Bowl Sunday, hot Chili will be provided and beverages will be available through concessions. Bring hot dogs and hamburgers, as the barbecue will be available throughout the day. Everyone's invited to enjoy the skiing and the "extras."

 

Record sports for January 22,1998

¥ Braves stage pair of comebacks

¥ Modoc girls carving up the SCL

¥ Big Valley back on track

¥ Modoc wrestlers win Burney Invite

¥ Waterfowl hunt in Modoc productive

Braves' 'cardiac crew' stage two last second come backs

When the Modoc boys bas ketball came out to warm up for Tuesday, the music that was playing over the gym loud speakers was the heavy metal polka stylings of "Weird Al" Yankovic. The musical se lection could have hardly been more appropriate since the way the Braves have gone 3-1 in the Shasta-Cascade League thus far can best be de scribed as "weird."

The Braves are, after all, a team with a consistent pattern of letting the other team build up a double digit lead in the first half before mounting an exciting comeback and win ning on a last second shot.

That pattern was evident again against Fall River on Tuesday as Modoc came away with a 50-48 win to stay among the leaders in the SCL. The Braves fell behind 15-6 in the first quarter and trailed by six early in the fourth quarter before Ryan Campbell hit the winning shot with three sec onds on the clock. Was this the miracle comeback game of the year? Hardly. Rather, it was just another day at the of fice for the Braves this sea son. Campbell had hit an other last second game win ner just three days earlier and Modoc overcame a 17 point deficit against Etna last Friday.

"I'll tell you one thing, you'll get your money's worth when you come see us play," senior guard Eric Lancaster joked after beating the Bull dogs.

"We just come out dead," Campbell noted of the horrid first quarters the Braves are now famous for. In that case, the Braves are leading the league in resurrections.

Modoc coach Lane Bates noted that while he wasn't too worried about his half-time speeches, "I've been working on my pre-game speeches."

What is Modoc's secret for overcoming bad first halves? One reason Bates identified is that he is coaching "smart guys." The Braves have shown a remarkable ability to identify where adjustments need to be made as the game goes along. For example against Fall River, Brian Ri ley, the Bulldogs' 6-9 center, exploded for 19 points in the first half. However, Modoc kept the ball away from him in the second half and held him to just seven more points for the rest of the night.

Lancaster ventured the the ory that the Braves are in bet ter shape than their opponents and therefore just wear people down (including Modoc fans).

Both Bates and Lancaster also observed that, even the Modoc offense is struggling, at the defensive end, the Braves have been able to come up with steals when they most need them.

In the Fall River game on Tuesday night, the Bulldogs opened up by shooting 6-7 from the floor and they held a 17-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Braves got back to within striking distance in the second quarter as Bryan Parker got eight of his team high 13 points in one short time period.

The Braves finally took the lead at 5:16 in the third after sophomore Cody Holloway made a steal at mid-court and went to the other end for a lay-up, foul and three point play to make the score 32-31.

The lead would be short-lived however as Fall River bolted back to a 43-37 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter Modoc got a lift off the bench from junior post player Jeff Doss. In the first two minutes of the fourth quarter he hit a three-pointer, made a steal, grabbed a rebound and blocked one of Riley's shots. While Doss was doing all of that, Campbell was hitting on three drives to the rack, the last one coast-to-coast (on the court - not the hardward store) after grabbing a rebound.

While Doss and Campbell were putting nine straight points on the board, Modoc was holding the Bulldogs scoreless at the other end for the first 3:23 of the quarter. The Braves would also limit FR to just two buckets the en tire quarter.

After Fall River finally scored and Lancaster an swered with a basket, Modoc held a 48-45 lead until Fall River's Riley scored his final points of the night on a trey that tied the score at 48-all with 41 seconds left.

After Modoc committed turnovers on their next two possessions, the Bulldogs had the ball out with 10.7 seconds left and a chance to win the game. The Braves needed a huge play and got it from Lancaster who tipped away the inbounds pass, dived to the ground, got the ball and called timeout with 6.9 seconds left.

The play called in the Modoc huddle was to get the ball to Campbell in the key. After all, they had done the same thing in their last game against Trinity and Camp bell had hit the last second shot to give the Braves the win.

Campbell said he didn't feel pressured knowing the outcome of the game was in his hands, he was flattered.

"It gives me more confi dence when we go in with the play coming to me," he said.

That confidence showed as Campbell got the ball and hit a left-leading fade-away five-footer to give Modoc a 50-48 lead with 3.2 seconds left.

Fall River still had one more chance to tie or win the game, but Holloway, guard ing the inbounds pass, tipped the ball and Lancaster was able to get to the ball before it got to any Bulldog. He ap peared to hit a three-pointer as time ran out but the referees did not count it.

As mentioned earlier, the Braves got a win over Trinity in their first road game last Saturday when Campbell hit almost exactly the same shot at the end of the game, only this time going to this right. Parker led the scoring against Trinity with 15 and Duane Knighton had 14.

The only Modoc loss in SCL play came last Friday against Etna. What the Braves showed in that game was how poorly they could play yet still have a chance to win the game on their last possession. The Braves missed their first seven shots, fell behind by 17, committed 25 turnovers and shot just 10-17 from the free throw line. Yet despite all of that, they had a good shot at winning the game.

After Etna took a 34-17 lead in the second quarter, Parker led a Modoc charge in the third by going to the hoop five straight times and making all five. He would end up with 22 points and eight rebounds.

Despite Parker's efforts, the Braves were still down by nine with just 5:24 left. Modoc came back with two baskets each from Parker and Brett Hamilton, who had 14 points for the game. Hamilton's and Modoc's final basket made the score 56-54 with 1:08 left. From that point on, Mod oc's defense would allow just one free throw made in Etna's final four possessions. The problem was that Modoc couldn't come up with any points of their own and ended up on the short end of a 57-54 score.

The Braves are 3-1 and very much in the champi onship hunt in a league where every team has at least one loss. Modoc will now have to go on a three game road-trip. Tomorrow night they travel to Weed and then play at Burney next Tuesday. On Friday, January 30 they will play at Mt. Shasta.

Modoc girls carving up SCL

Modoc girls varsity coach Mike Martin figured the Etna Lions would be one of the toughest teams in the Shasta Cascade League and stressed the Braves would have no easy time against them.

Right . . . and the moon is made of cream cheese.

The Braves wasted no time in setting the tone of the game with a 14-2 first period and cruised to a 53-23 win. Modoc led 26-10 at the half and 41-22 after three. They outscored Etna 12-1 in the final period.

It wasn't a pretty picture for the Lions. Still, Martin is nervous about a Mt. Shasta team that beat the Etna girls last week. There may be some cause of concern over the Bears, but the Braves are obviously not the Lions.

Modoc has Weed there this Friday night, then goes to Burney Tuesday. They meet Mt. Shasta there next Friday.

"We're playing well, and we're hoping the Mt. Shasta game allows us to use our starters longer," said Martin. "They're going to be the toughest team we have to play in league. Honestly, we need to get our starters more work, but it's difficult in some games."

What's difficult is the fact that the Braves generally have set the tone of the game early and by the end of the fist period have a com manding lead. The reserve players also do an excellent job.

"I expected Etna to be a little tougher than they were," said Martin. "The Trinity and Fall River games were about what I expected. We're looking forward to the Mt. Shasta game, but I have to keep reminding the girls that they have to get up for each game."

In the Etna game, Kayte Christensen had 14 points and Jennifer Kern added 13. Kern is shooting her excellent jump shot with more regularity. Christensen picked up 12 re bounds and Kern grabbed 11. Megan Orner added seven, Leah Siegel had six and Andrea Knox had five. Knox added four as sists and Siegel had five steals. Holly Brown led Etna with 12 points

Modoc whipped the Trinity Wolves Saturday in Trinity with Christensen out nursing a sore ankle. Jennifer Kern, Knox, and Siegel stepped it up for another lopsided win.

The Braves led 15-2 after one and 28-17 by half. By the end of the third Modoc held a 46-35 lead and outscored Trinity 13-6 in the fi nal eight minutes. Knox led the scoring with 19, Jennifer Kern added 11, Siegel had six, Megan Orner had nine and Lake had nine.

In the Fall River game Tuesday night it was almost over before it started as the Braves took a 27-8 first period lead and led 42-12 at the half. By the end of three, Modoc led 61-15 and cruised to a 70-24 win. The starters played a total of about nine minutes 9 (out of 32) in the game.

Christensen led the scoring with 18, in cluding one three-pointer, Knox added 11, Lake had nine, Jennifer Kern had six, Jessica Kern had seven and Siegel had five.

Modoc's junior varsity girls beat Fall River Tuesday night 41-19. Leading scorers were Rebekah Richert with nine, Tiffany Parker and Sara Howell with eight each.

Modoc lost to Etna 48-40.

Big Valley Cardinals win three in league

Big Valley's Cardinal boys put together a good series of three wins in the Evergreen League this last week.

On January 16, the boys beat McCloud 61-60 in over time when Renden Ellenberger got a put back off a 12-footer by Kasey Criss with one second left in the game.

The Cardinals blew a 53-46 lead with 1:46 left in regula tion, said coach Bryan Gerig, then in overtime overcame a five-point deficit. Criss led the scoring with 27 points and Ellenberger added 10.

On Saturday, the Cardinals beat Tulelake 66-64, surviv ing 12 three-point ers by the Honkers. Big Valley led 36-26 at the half and 46-45 after three. They built up another 10-point lead in the fourth, but Tulelake's shooters drained some treys to keep it close. Criss led the scoring with 22 points.

Tuesday night, Big Valley beat Surprise Valley, 74-44. The score was close at the half, with Big Valley leading 31-29, but the Cardinals outscored the Hornets 43-15 in the second half. Criss led with 22, Corado Reginatto added 14, Ellenberger had 12 and Jason Oney added 10. Tom Harris had 25 to lead the Hornets.

Big Valley is now 3-1 in league and meets Dunsmuir at home Friday, and Butte Valley at home Saturday.

The JV Cardinals beat Big Valley 63-41 after taking a 39-13 lead at half. David House had 22 points and Calvin Jackson and Mike McClain each added 15.

Big Valley tripped Tulelake 43-42 with Carlos Escalante's final-second free throw making the difference. House had 16, Jackson added 14. Tulelake was 12-1 coming into the game.

The Cardinals beat Surprise Valley 64-36 Tuesday with Jackson getting 18, Clint Haury 15 and Mike Lemke 12. Surprise Valley was led by Craig Carpenter, Mike Carpenter and Joel Ruiz each with 11.

The JVs are now 11-1 over all and 4-0 in league.

Braves win Burney Rotary Invitational

Modoc Brave wrestlers put on a good showing at the Burney Invitational last weekend, coming home with the championship and another win over league rival Trinity.

"We were without three key wrestlers and I didn't ex pect us to win it," said Modoc coach Shaun Wood. "But our kids really did well. We had some excellent perfor mances and while it was close until the finals, we took care of business."

Modoc's next match is a duel at Burney with Burney and Trinity Wednesday. They then travel to the big time Corning tournament on January 31.

The Braves amassed 189 points in the Burney Rotary meet, ahead of second place Trinity's 156.5. Corning had 145, Bonanza 119.5, Kelseyville 98, Lakeview 88, Durham 88, Pershing County 83, Tulelake 78. Big Valley finished with 29 points in 16th place. Modoc's JV finished 13 out of the 26 schools.

Modoc's Greg Jacques won the individual title at 171 pounds and was also named the Outstanding Heavyweight wrestler in the event.

Teddy Simmons, Modoc, won the individual title at 125 pounds, beating Brines of Durham. Simmons is ranked number one in Division Four.

Dan Flournoy took a second place at 189 pounds, losing to Misquez of Corning.

Other placers for Modoc were: Justin Cavasso, third at 112; Phillip Weed, third at 145 pounds; Eric Hunter, third at 140 pounds; Tony Willis, third at 275 pounds; Richard Lutz, fifth at 119 pounds; Andy Nowak, fifth at 160 pounds and Dirk Lundgren, fifth at 171 pounds.

Wood was pleased with the winners and said that he was especially pleased with freshman Tony Willis and junior Phil Weed.

For Big Valley, Russ Carpenter took a fifth at 275 and also had the fastest pin of the meet. The Cardinals' Luke Stevenson took a third at 215.

Surprise Hornets drop 3 EL games

The Surprise Valley Hornet girls are without the services of a couple of key players, and as a result dropped three Evergreen League games this week.

 

Tuesday night the girls lost to Big Valley 49-31 after stay ing close the first period 15-11. By half, the Cardinals led 28-16 and outscored the Hornets 21-15 in the second half.

Jeanne Bunyard and Heather Tufts led the scoring with 10 each.

On Saturday, the Hornets lost to Happy Camp 59-39. Happy Camp got up early. 17-4, in the first period and the Hornets fought back to trail 24-18 by half. Happy Camp put together a 35-point second half, while the Hornets hit 21. Bunyard and Stacy DePaul led the scoring with 10 each.

Last Friday, Tulelake beat the Hornets 49-32 after Surprise Valley led 12-10 in the opening period. By half the Honkers led 29-22 and the Hornets managed only 10 points in the second half while Tulelake added 20. DePaul led the scoring with 10.

The SV Hornet junior vas rity is doing very well. They beat Big Valley 52-10 Tuesday behind the scoring of Cassie Cockrell and Tracy Reeves who each had 12.

Cockrell and Reeves also led the girls to a 50-17 win over Happy Camp Saturday. Cockrell had 16 and Reeves added 15.

Friday the Hornets lost to Tulelake, 48-28.

Waterfowl hunt on Modoc Refuge was productive

January 11 marked the end of the 1997-98 waterfowl sea son at Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, and the fi nal num bers for hunting have been tallied.

Refuge staff reported that 1851 hunters took 2533 ducks and 385 geese. The most nu merous ducks bagged was as fol lows: 1122 Mallards, 379 Wigeon, 284 Gadwalls, 261 Pin tails and 201 Green-winged Teal. The goose har vest was 356 Canada Geese, 24 White-fronted geese, four Snow Geese and one cackler.

Due largely to the longer season and more liberal lim its compared to past years, the duck season that just ended pro duced some good numbers. The total number of ducks har vested was 60% greater than the average for all sea sons dur ing the 1990's and the total number of hunters was the second highest for the same period.

The goose season and limit remained similar to those of recent years. As a result there was no significant change over last year. The total number of geese harvested was up just slightly over the previous season, but down a whopping 83% from the aver age for the 1990's. This drop in harvest ap pears to be due to a decline in the number of smaller sub species of Canada Geese using the Alturas area rather than a decline in the local resident population. Since the late 1980's there has been an increasing trend for the medium-sized geese to stop in the Willamette Valley and not migrate to Modoc County. Other geese may fly straight through to the Central Valley. While this has reduced the number of geese on the refuge, it has greatly increased the odds that any goose a hunter does shoot will be a big "trophy" Modoc honker, and that's what draws most folks from out of town to hunt in this area.

Anyone with questions concerning the hunting pro gram or any other aspect of the refuge public use program is wel come to contact the refuge at 233-3572 for more informa tion.

 

Record sports for January 29, 1998

¥ Modoc girls in league lead, Mt. Shasta next

¥ Braves boys stay ahead in the SCL

¥ Cardinal girls working for Evergreen lead

¥ Hornets Homecoming yields no win

Modoc heads to Mt. Shasta to settle questions

While there seems to be some question in the Mt. Shasta area about Modoc's girls basketball proficiency, that question will be answered this Friday night when the Braves play a visit to the Bears camp.

The Braves finally come home for a game February 7 against Trinity. They then travel to Fall River, Feb. 10 and Etna Feb. 13. The finish with home games against Mt. Shasta Feb. 17 and Weed Feb. 20.

The Bears and Braves are tied for the Shasta Cascade League title, each un beaten, but the Bears should probably relish the league lead this week. It'll change Friday night.

"We know they're a good team," said Modoc coach Mike Martin. "We have to go over there to play and that may give them a little boost. But they are still going to have to stop us."

Actually, a tougher game could be good for Modoc since the starters are only play ing about a half (or less) of each game now.

Tuesday night the Braves beat Burney in Burney 53-28. Mt. Shasta beat the Raiders by eight. The game started strong for Modoc with the Braves leading 22-3 af ter one and 32-18 by half. By the end of the third, the Braves led 44-24 and allowed Burney just four points in the fourth.

Kayte Christensen led Modoc with 18 points, Jennifer Kern pumped in 16 and Leah Siegel added seven.

Last Friday night, Modoc whipped Weed, there 56-28. again without any dif ficulty. Modoc opened up a 21-5 first period lead and led 32-13 by half. By the end of the third period, Modoc led 46-15 and cleaned up in the fourth.

Christensen led with 13 points, Andrea Knox and Wendy Stafford each added eight and Kern had seven.

Braves have hold on SCL, test is Friday

The Modoc Boys Basketball Team continued their win ning ways over the past week with road victories over Weed and Burney. Their ways of winning also continued to be the same as well. While the Braves have achieved a 5-1 Shasta-Cascade League record that has left them alone in first place, they continue to do it in a way that leaves Modoc fans with graying hair, ulcers, elevated blood pressure and chewed off fin gernails.

On Tuesday night, the Braves held a 10 point lead at half-time over Burney and continued to hold a lead of between five and eight points through most of the second half. The term "most" does not include the final two minutes, which was when the Raiders came back to tie it up. The two teams traded buckets until Bryan Parker hit two key free throws down the stretch to give Modoc a 62-59 lead. Burney tried a last sec ond three-pointer to tie the game again but missed.

Look at it this way, at least now the Braves are having other teams come back on them to make it exciting rather than the other way around, which was how it was through the first four games of the SCL season.

Against Burney, Modoc got balanced scoring from Parker with 16 points, Brett Hamilton with 15 and Ryan Campbell with 14.

Campbell was the leading scorer with 22 in last Friday's 59-49 win over Weed.

"Ten points is an easy win for us," Modoc coach Lane Bates joked.

Actually, 10 points for this team is a blowout. Still, wins are wins and the Braves are piling them up.

"At this point our record is better than I would have hoped," Bated said. "I'd have been really happy at 3-3 or 4-2."

However, the SCL season is only half over, and with three more road games on the schedule in what is turning out to be very balanced league, Bates isn't just tossing out a cliché when he says, "We have to take it one game at a time. We can't look past any body in our league." In the SCL this season, that's the honest truth.

With the Braves having al ready played Burney twice now, the one team they haven't faced yet is Mt. Shasta, the team Modoc goes on the road to play tomorrow night. The boys varsity will play at Mt. Shasta around 8:30 p.m.

Lady Cards tie for Ever green lead

The Big Valley girls bas ketball team pulled into a first place tie in the Evergreen League on Saturday with a 54-41 win over previously un beaten Butte Valley. Both teams are now 4-1 after the first half of the EAL sched ule.

The critical portion of the game between the Cardinals and Bulldogs was the third quarter, and that was when junior Ileah Jackson simply took over the game. Jackson went 5-6 from the field and scored 12 of her team's 16 points during the eight min utes of the third stanza. The Car dinals went from a three point half-time lead to a 12 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. Jackson would finish with 22 points on 10-17 shooting, 19 rebounds, four assists and two steals.

"She can really control the tempo of the game," BV coach Janiece Criss said of Jack son. "She can really change the way a game is going."

Actually, 22 points could be consid ered a somewhat slow night for Jack son, who is no stranger to the 30 point club. However, against Butte Val ley, she was getting plenty of support from her teammates who were shooting over 50 per cent from the field them selves. Nicole Silva was 5-7 from the field on her way to 12 points and six rebounds. Amy Plemons came off the bench to have what Criss called her best game so far. Plemons was also 5-7 from the field to finish with 10 points and five rebounds.

While the Cards were burning up the nets shooting nearly 60 percent from the field, their packed-in zone de fense was holding the Bull dogs to just 16-67 at the other end of the floor, or 24 percent shooting. The disparity be tween the two shooting per centages and Jackson's con trol of the boards allowed Big Valley to get the win even though they com mitted 35 turnovers against Butte's 2-2-1 full-court press. This was probably the first time since James Naismith nailed up a peach basket that a team gave the ball away 35 times yet still won by double digits.

"It doesn't make any dif ference if you're doing every thing else right," Criss noted of the turnovers.

Big Valley also picked up a win last Fri day when they beat Dunsmuir 48-36. Jackson had 24 points while Silva, Plemons and Car rie Schwe bach tossed in six each.

The Cards have a tough schedule remain ing, with four of their five games on the road. Tomorrow night they (along with the boys teams and girls JV) will play at Happy Camp. The league championship may come down to the final game of the season on February 20 when the Cardinals play at Butte Valley.

Big Valley boys basketball: While the BV girls team leads the league, the boys varsity isn't far behind. The Cardi nals also beat Butte Valley on Saturday night to make their EAL record 4-2, good enough for a second place tie with McCloud behind unde feated Dunsmuir.

The Cards took a 58-39 vic tory over the Bulldogs thanks to a balanced contribution from all nine players on the squad. Consider that the BV bench of Corado Reginatto, John Saltzman, Joe Haury and Wyatt Harbert com bined to score more points than the start ing five.

Reginatto used the strategy of al ways tak ing it to the bas ket to come away with a team high 14 points on 5-8 shooting. Crowd fa vorite Saltzman had seven points, three blocks and two steals while Harbert con tributed five points and five rebounds and Haury had four points, two assists and two steals.

For the starters, Kasey Criss had 10 points on 5-9 shooting to go along with seven re bounds, two steals and a block. Chris Clark had nine points and five re bounds.

While the two teams played even through the first quarter, Big Valley began to build a lead in the second by using a full-court press that forced nine turnovers in just that quar ter. Chris Click made a steal and took it the other way for a lay-up that went through the net just before the buzzer to give the Cardinals a 27-18 lead at the half.

Big Valley continued to build on that lead in the sec ond half by com mitting only three turnovers for the rest of the night and by hold ing the Bulldogs without a field goal over an eight minute stretch during the last four minutes of the third quarter, and the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. After Butte Valley finally ended their drought, they were down by 15 with just 4:04 left to play. The Bulldogs then went with a strategy of launch ing three-pointers that didn't go in (0-6 in the fourth quarter) while Big Valley continued to pull away.

Cardinal coach Bryan Gerig noted that his team did well playing a man-to-man against Butte, a defense that the relatively short Car dinals don't get to play very often. They usu ally have to try to pack the paint in a zone to stop the taller teams.

"We did a nice job on the defense," Gerig said. "That's about the first time this whole year we went straight man-to-man the whole game. Butte Valley is a team we match up with well size-wise.

Big Valley lost on the road to league leader Dunsmuir 67-52 on Friday night. Clark, Click and El lenberger each had 10 for the Cardi nals.

While Gerig feels the Cards have a shot at beating Dunsmuir in Bieber on February 13, he doesn't have a lot of confidence in seeing anyone else in the EAL knock off the Tigers, which is what Big Valley would need to hap pen to have a shot at winning the league title. Nevertheless, the Cards are looking strong for getting the sec ond place spot and also a berth in the Sectional playoffs.

To do that, they will need to survive a vi cious stretch of scheduling over the next four weeks. Five of their re main ing six games are on the road with the only home game against a tough Dunsmuir squad.

The boys JV team is 13-1 on the year and undefeated in the Evergreen League. This past weekend they beat Dunsmuir 62-45 and Butte Valley 59-38. David House is leading the squad in scoring, averaging about 18 points a game, while Calvin Jackson car ries an average of 15 points per game.

SV Hornet's Home coming yields no victory

Not even the presence of royalty could bring victories to the Surprise Valley boys and girls basketball teams last Friday. SVHS crowned a Homecoming Queen for 1998, varsity guard Brooke Bee man, but also had two losses to visiting Butte Val ley.

The boys team fell 74-53 to the Bulldogs to go to 1-5 in the Evergreen League. The Hor nets threw a tough 1-2-2 match-up zone defense at Butte, but the Bulldogs re sponded with an impressive double stack offense that they were able to run several dif ferent precision plays out of. Butte Val ley started 7-8 from the field to jump to a 14-7 lead. After that they never looked back. After taking a nine-point lead to the locker-room at half-time, the Bulldogs would end up pulling away in the second half by hitting an incredible 5-7 from three-point land.

Despite the loss, Hornet center Chris Harris was sim ply a workhorse inside. He used his muscle to pull down 14 re bounds while also going 7-9 from the field on his way to 15 points. Tom Harris was top scorer for SV with 23 points. He also had eight rebounds. Nick Fenske had a good all-around game with five as sists, three steals and four re bounds.

The Hornets have a full weekend schedule coming up. Tomorrow night they go to McCloud before returning home to face Dunsmuir on Saturday. The times for Sat urday will be - JV girls at 1:30, JV boys at 3:00, varsity girls at 4:30 and var sity boys at 6:00.

Surprise Valley girls bas ketball: The Hornet girls team is still winless after a 60-40 loss to the Bulldogs. The key swing for Butte was the second quarter when the Dogs used their press and fast break to hit on 11 of their 15 shots - mostly lay-ups. Dur ing that same quarter, the Hornets were suffering through a cold streak of 6-18 on field goal attempts. Thus, it was no surprise that Sur prise Valley went from being in a close game to being down by 22 at the half. The Hornets played Butte evenly in the sec ond half but couldn't over come the deficit they had al ready racked up.

Junior guard Heather Tufts led SV in scoring with 12 points on 6-9 shooting. She also had six rebounds, two steals and a block. Jeanne Bunyard contributed nine points while Stacy Cook tossed in eight. Stacey DePaul led the squad in assists with four.

February

 

Record sports for Feburay 5, 1998

¥ Modoc wrestlers win Shasta Cascade League

¥ Modoc girls have commanding league lead

¥ Modoc boys keep ahead in SCL

¥ SV, BV basketball had tough EGL week

¥ Brave wrestlers second in tough Corning Invite

Brave wrestlers win League meet

After presstime: Modoc's Braves wrestling team won the Shasta Cascade League Championship Wednesday night in Trinity. The meet was close with Modoc winning it all with 219 points, Trinity second with 215.5, Tulelake 77, Fall River 76, Big Valley 50.5, Burney 45, Hayfork 11 and Etna 8.

League Champions for the Braves are: Ted Simmons, 127 pounds; Eric Hunter, 142 pounds; Phil Weed, 147 pounds; Greg Jacques, 173 pounds; Daniel Flournoy, 191 pounds; and Iven Wilson, 217 pounds.

Taking second places are: Tony Willis, heavyweight; Dirk Lundgren 171 pounds; Robert Mendoza, 137 pounds; Justin Cavasso, 114 pounds.

Third places went to: Andy Nowak, 162 pounds; Derek Alvarez, 132 ponds; Richard Lutz, 121 pounds; Justin Semenko, 114 pounds; Wesley Shirk, 105 pounds. Taking a fourth place was Jon Wellemeyer at 154 pounds.

Junior varsity champions were Jeremy Urban 127 pounds; Ross Lundgren, 191 pounds; and David Wolverton, 121 pounds. Second place in the JV were: Chad Araujo, 215 pounds, Robert Cox, 191 pounds and Daniel Irvin, heavyweight. Miguel Sanchez took a third at heavyweight.

Girls win rough one at Mt. Shasta,

Trinity comes to visit Saturday

Modoc's varsity girls team didn't have any trouble beating a rough Mt. Shasta Bears team Friday night 56-47, but it wasn't a game coach Mike Martin particularly enjoyed.

"It was a big win for us, and it just amazed me that we could play as badly as we did and still beat them so easily," Martin said this week. "We didn't run an offense and we shot 25 percent from the floor. We are normally shooting 51 percent."

The saving grace for the Braves is that they hit 28 of 40 free throws. Jennifer Kern did a good job before fouling out of the game in the fourth. She hit five of eight field goals. Wendy Stafford also sparked the Braves with some good hustle defense. The Braves, meanwhile, turned the ball over 24 times, well more than their nine per game average.

"We were making mistakes, but it wasn't because of what Mt. Shasta was doing," said Martin. "We were not running an offense. On the few times we ran an offense we got easy scores or at least good looks."

Modoc popped up with a 13-9 first period lead and a good second period put them up 28-13 at the half. After three, the Braves led 37-22 and pulled out to more than a 20-point lead in the fourth. The Bears hit three three pointers and four free throws in the final two-and-a-half minutes to cut into the lead.

Martin said he never felt the outcome of the game was in question, he was just unhappy with the way the Braves played.

"I look at the Mt. Shasta win as a lucky win," said Martin. "Lucky, because we just happen to have much better players and can win games like that in our league. But we can't play like that and get to where we want to go this season. It will get fixed."

Martin said his defense played pretty well most of the game and didn't have much of a problem with that side of the ball.

Kayte Christensen led the Braves scoring with 20 points, hitting 12 of 14 free throws but only four of 21 field goals. Kern put up 13 on five-of-eight from the floor and three-of-four from the line.

The Braves meet Trinity here this week end in another league game, then head to Fall River Tuesday and to Etna on Friday.

Braves come back to beat Mt. Shasta, lead SCL

It was business as usual for the Modoc boys basketball team last Saturday night. The Braves squad that has surely by now earned the title of "The Most Exciting Team On Planet Earth," once again came back from behind to win in the final seconds - this time over Mt. Shasta by a score of 53-51.

The win put first-place Modoc in the driver's seat in the Shasta-Cascade League. The Crunch-Time Braves now stand at 6-1 with three of their remaining five games at home.

So what if Modoc was down by 12 to Mt. Shasta midway through the third quarter, trailed by five with just over two minutes left and didn't take the lead until there were just 33 seconds on the clock? These are the Cardiac Kids, and they guarantee a full re fund if the game is decided be fore the final buzzer.

What is even stranger than the manner in which the Braves are winning these games is the fact that they are doing so in the same way as in previous SCL games. For example, in the final seconds against Mt. Shasta last Satur day, Cody Holloway tipped the Bear's pass that was grabbed by Eric Lancaster to seal the Modoc victory. The exact same scenario happened in the closing seconds when the Braves beat Fall River on January 20. Against the Bears, Bryan Parker hit the key free throws that put the Braves on tip, just as he did when the Braves beat Burney just three days earlier in the week. And there was yet an other important contribution from a bench player, this time Brandon Roberts with four re bounds and two steals to help key a late third quarter run, as there has been in just about any other SCL win Modoc has chalked up this season.

"We admit it's a little nerve-racking," senior for ward Bryan Parker said of the team's coming back from the edge of oblivion style. "But we know we can do it. We don't get down."

Parker was perhaps the biggest reason for the Braves to have faith (or ice water in their veins) against the bears. He hit for 18 points while also finding time to get 10 re bounds, two assists and a block.

Although the Braves beat the Bears in their usual style, the Modoc team seemed to be more emotional about the win than they have been about oth ers. Parker credited it to the "no love lost" rivalry with Mt. Shasta and to the fact that the Mt. Shasta itty-bitty sauna, er...gymnasium, may be the toughest place to win in the SCL.

"We knew we were coming into a hostile environment tonight." Parker said. "That just made it all the more im portant."

The Braves started the night - what else but - slowly. They got plenty of good looks at the basket in the first half but could only knock down eight of their 25 shots from the field. It was thus no surprise that they trailed 27-20 at the half.

It was more of the same in the second half as Modoc started off by shooting 1-5 from within three feet of the basket. At the other end, Mt. Shasta started off the third quarter by hitting three straight lay-ups. The Bears would take their biggest lead at the six minute mark by a score of 35-23.

Modoc began to close the gap thanks to the defensive play of Roberts and Duane Knighton. They combined to force two straight turnovers that allowed the Braves to cut the Mt. Shasta lead to 38-33 heading into the fourth quar ter. Knighton would end up with 11 points on the night.

The Bears were able to hold onto that five point lead until 3:44 in the fourth. That was when they hit the 10 foul mark and the Braves finally started making their free throws. Modoc was just 7-13 from the line in the first three quarters but they went 9-12 from the charity stripe in the final frame.

From the 4:13 mark until the end of the game the Modoc defense would hold Mt. Shasta to zero field goals and just two points from the foul-line. The Bears got those final two points at 2:18 to make the score 51-46.

The Braves then brought the ball up the floor and Parker found Brett Hamilton underneath for two. When Mt. Shasta got the ball back, Holloway made a steal and the result at the other end was that Parker got fouled. He hit both free throws to make the score 51-50 with 1:26 left.

Mt. Shasta went into a stall on their next possession and ended up flinging up a poor shot when the shot clock was at seven seconds. Parker grabbed the rebound and then got fouled at the other end as he was posting up with 33 sec onds left.

Parker again sank both free throws to give Modoc their first lead (52-51) since the first quarter.

Mt. Shasta had a chance to take the lead again, but the Modoc defense continued to be tough as Ryan Campbell came up with yet another steal. That led to Eric Lancaster be ing fouled with six seconds and he put another point on the board for the Braves.

Mt. Shasta had one more chance to go full court in six seconds and get a shot off but Holloway tipped a pass that Lancaster intercepted. Lan caster heaved the ball from half-court towards the Modoc basket and time ran out.

The first place Braves will next host Trinity on Satur day. JV girls will begin at 2 p.m. followed by JV boys at 3:30. The varsity girls will take the court at 5:00 and the varsity boys will finish off the night at 6:30.

SV, BV teams had tough EGL week

Big Valley and Surprise Valley began the second half of the Evergreen League sea son this past weekend. Of the four teams that played, only the Big Valley boys came away with a win.

The Cardinals were able to get a one point win (50-49) on the road at Happy Camp thanks to the last second hero ics of Chris Click. After click scored the final points that put Big Valley ahead, he then took a charge at the defensive end that sealed the win for the Cards.

Kasey Criss was top scorer for BV with 18 points while John Saltzman added 11. The 5-2 Cardinals are still solidly in second place behind Dun smuir in the EAL heading into this Friday's match-up on the road against Tulelake. JV boys will play at 5:00 p.m. while the varsity will take the floor at 8:00.

The Big Valley girls didn't fair so well at Happy Camp, picking up just their second loss of the league season. They will put their 4-2 record on the line against Tulelake on Friday with the JV playing at 3:30 and the varsity at 6:30.

Surprise Valley basket ball: The hot team for the Hornets has been the JV, which posted a 5-1 record in the first half of league play. Just one game behind Tule lake, (who they get to play at home this weekend) the junior Hornets were looking at a shot at a league title.

However, all of that changed on Friday when SV suffered a 39-29 loss at Mc Cloud. The Hornets led 15-14 at the half but then got steam rolled in the third quarter.

"We were just flat," Sur prise Valley coach Lon Hol loman said. "I guess that's the politically correct way to say it."

While Holloman feels the JV team can beat Tulelake in Cedarville, it may not matter now since the Hornets are two games behind the Honkers in the loss column. For a shot at the league title, Surprise Val ley would now need the help of another EAL team beating Tulelake, something Hollo man doesn't feel is likely to happen.

The Hornet girls JV re bounded from the loss quite well the next day with a 44-26 home win over Dunsmuir. Cassie Cockrell was top scorer with 12 points.

The Surprise Valley girls varsity got the night off on Friday since McCloud is not fielding a girls varsity team. On Saturday, they lost to Dun smuir 66-49. Heather Tufts had 15 for the Hornets while Stacy Cook added 11.

The SV varsity team has been a M.A.S.H. unit this season with injuries abound ing. They have had three starters out for most of the sea son due to various ailments. On Saturday things only got worse as starter Jeanne Bun yard sustained what may have been a season ending in jury."Injuries - that's the key to the varsity team this sea son," Holloman said.

The Surprise Valley boys varsity squad lost in McCloud on Friday night and then came home on Saturday to face an undefeated Dunsmuir team. The Tigers took a 61-37 win in Cedarville. Avon Ray led the Hornets with 13 points.

Surprise Valley came back on Tuesday night to force Butte Valley into overtime before the bulldogs got the 75-71 win. That was a major improvement for the Hornets considering that they lost to Butte at home by over 20 points a couple of weeks ago.

Tuesday's game started off very much the same, with the Hornets falling behind 8-0 to start the game.

"I thought it was going to be another long night," coach John Christie said.

However, the Hornets went on to outscore the Bulldogs 30-21 for the rest of the half to take a one-point lead into the locker room.

Surprise Valley held a lead until the final moments of regulation before two straight turnovers in the waning moments allowed Butte to tie the game up and sent it into overtime.

Tom Harris was huge for SV with a 35 point performance.

The Surprise Valley teams will face Happy Camp at a neutral site on Friday night and then host Tulelake on Saturday. JV girls will play at 1:30 p.m. followed by JV boys at 3:00. The varsity girls will play at 4:30 and the var sity boys will tip-off at 6:00.

Modoc grap plers second in Corning

Drop big schools in the process

Modoc's wrestling team made its mark on the north state by finishing second in the Corning Tournament last week end.

Yesterday, the wrestling tning Invitede League tournament. Results were not available at presstime. Look for those re sults as of Thursday night on the Modoc Record web site at www.modocrecord.com. Modoc is favored to win the SCL meet.

"I figured we'd finish in the top five at Corning, if we did really well," said coach Shaun Wood. "Finishing sec ond in the tournament was big time. We wrestled very well. We were also without three guys: Wesley Shirk, Justin Cavasso and Daniel Flournoy."

Modoc lost only to Golden Sierra at Corning. The top 10 (of 30) team scores were as fol lows: Golden Sierra 179, Modoc 153, Corning 151.5, Willows 150.5, Central Valley 123, Shasta 119, Casa Robles 109, Pleasant Valley 103, Oroville 85 and Sutter 83.

"We turned a few heads at Corning, especially when we beat the number one seed in the section, Willows," said Wood. "Our kids are wrestling well right now, and I expect them to continue to improve." Individual champions at Corning for Modoc were Teddy Simmons and Iven Wilson. Simmons won the 127-pound division with a 5-2 victory and Wilson grabbed the 217-pound title with a 4-2 win. Simmons and Wilson are wrestling at the top of their divisions.

Greg Jacques wrestled to a third place finish at 173 pounds and Andy Nowak took a fourth at 162 pounds.

Phil Weed took a fifth in the 147-pound group and Eric Hunter grabbed fifth in the 142-pound class.

Freshman Tony Willis took a third in the heavy weight division. Willis has had a great year and Wood expects him to be one of the top guys in the section over the next three years.

Robert Cox placed sixth at 191 pounds and Miguel Sanchez took sixth at 217. Richard Lutz took a sixth at 121.

The junior varisty Braves will be heading to Portola this weekend and the team is off until the small school cham pi onships in Trinity Feb. 20-21.

 

Record sports for Feb. 12, 1998

¥ Brave girls dominate SCL foes

¥ Modoc boys in SCL lead for title

¥ Wrestling team wins the SCL

¥ Snow hampers Cardinal schedule

¥ Hornets lose a tight one

¥ Modoc hosts Middle School boys tourney

Brave girls dominate SCL

Modoc's girls varsity team stepped up the tempo Saturday against Trinity's Wolves, beating them easily 73-24 and coach Mike Martin expects the girls to continue to roll as the play-offs near.

Modoc travels to Etna Friday night and is looking for ward to hosting a rough Mt. Shasta team here Tuesday. The Braves com plete league play at home Feb. 20 against Weed.

"We played really well against Trinity, and I was very pleased with the fact that we had 22 assists in that game," Martin said. "We ran the man offense very well. It was a good game for us."

The Braves took off to a 26-3 first period lead and by halftime led 49-10. The Braves led by 50, 63-13, after three and added 10 in the fourth.

Kayte Christensen led Modoc with 16 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Jennifer Kern added 15 points and had four assists. Leah Siegel added nine points and picked up four steals. Andrea Knox scored eight and had the same number of rebounds.

The Braves didn't have any trouble against Fall River Tuesday, beating them 55-33, but a sloppy second half didn't set well. But, it's difficult to remain focused when the half-time score is 34-4.

Modoc jumped out quickly to a 23-3 first quarter lead and didn't allow a Fall River field goal in the first half. The Bulldogs scored on four free throws.

'We came out a little flat in the third pe riod," said Martin. "But our starters didn't play in the second period and had probably sat out for about 45 minutes. They were a little stiff to start the third."

Even with the slow start in the third, the Braves still led 46-16 after three.

"What bothered me about the game was the bad passes and ball handling in the second half," said Martin. "We had 34 turnovers in the game. I would expect us to overcome that type of play and get together to take care of the prob lem."

Against Fall River, Christensen had 14 and Jennifer Kern added nine.

Modoc's JV girls beat Trinity 38-30 after falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter and trailing only 15-12 at half. Modoc took the lead in the third 24-17. Sara Howell led the scoring with 15 and Lindsey Delmas had six.

Tuesday night, the JVs beat Fall Rver 44-22 with Howell netting 10, Rebekah Richert getting nine and Tatum Dunn 7. The Bravestook a 7-0 first period lead, and built that to a14-8 second period. Theyled 27-17 af ter htree and added a good fourth period.

Braves lead battle for SCL basketball title

The success of the Modoc boys basketball team in the Shasta-Cascade League this season means that, even with three games left on the sched ule, it's time to start thinking about their magic number for clinching the SCL Title. In the Brave's case, that number is one.

After the past week's win over Trinity and loss to Fall River, the Braves stand at 7-2 and are still in first place in the SCL. Right behind Modoc is Etna with three losses, and everybody else has at least four losses. Modoc plays Etna to morrow night at Etna, and if the Braves can win that game, they could assure themselves that they would do no worse than finish in a first place tie in league. A win at Etna would mean that even if the Braves lost their final two home games against Mt. Shasta (Tuesday, February 17), and Weed (Friday, February 20), they would still have an 8-4 record and every other team, including Etna, would also have at least four losses. The SCL is so bal anced this year that an 8-4 record might be all that is needed to claim the ti tle.

Should Modoc beat Etna on Friday the 13th, all they would need to do to guarantee them selves the league title outright would be to win just one of those final two home games to as sure at least a 9-3 record. However, an Etna win tomor row night would mean both teams would head into the fi nal week of the season in the first-place tie.

On Tuesday night, the Braves lost 50-44 at Fall River in large part because they went 3-17 from the free throw line for the game and 1-9 in the fourth quarter.

"That was the game," Modoc coach Lane Bates said of the team's woeful perfor mance from the charity stripe. "We were in a position to win but we couldn't do it be cause we couldn't make our free throws."

Ryan Campbell led the Braves in scoring with 20 while Bryan Parker added 12.

Last Saturday, Modoc had the lead from wire to wire in a 52-41 win over Trinity. The Braves took a 13-8 lead in the first quarter and then went on a 10-1 run in the final 3:25 of the second quarter to open up a lead they would never relin quish.

The Wolves were a team that decided to live (or in this case die) by the three-pointer. They launched 23 treys as compared with 24 shots inside the arc. Either way, they weren't very successful against the Modoc defense. They managed just 27 percent from three-point land and only 30 percent from closer in.

When those shots weren't dropping, Parker and Brett Hamilton were sweeping the glass as they combined for 27 rebounds.

The Modoc offense was a balanced attack that saw eight players get in the scoring col umn. Campbell orchestrated most of the performance with eight assists. Parker was top scorer with 13 while also adding two assists and a block. Duane Knighton came off the bench to hit his first five shots on his way to 11 points, six rebounds, three as sists, a steal and a block. Cody Holloway added eight points and four re bounds.

Modoc wins SCL wrestling title

Modoc's Braves wrestling team won the Shasta Cascade League Championship last Wednesday night in Trinity.

"It was close the entire tournament," said Modoc coach Shaun Wood. "It came down to the final matches and the guys that really picked us up were the third and fourth place finishers. They made a huge difference. Overall, we wrestled well and I was pleased."

The next outing is the small schools finals in Trinity Feb. 20-21, followed by the section matches Feb. 27, 28 in Redding.

Modoc has several wrestlers ranked highly in the north section. Teddy Simmons is ranked number two at 127 pounds. Iven Wilson is ranked third at 217, and Greg Jacques, Phil Weed and Justin Cavasso are all ranked in the top six.

The meet was close with Modoc winning it all with 219 points, Trinity second with 215.5, Tulelake 77, Fall River 76, Big Valley 50.5, Burney 45, Hayfork 11 and Etna 8.

League Champions for the Braves are: Ted Simmons, 127 pounds; Eric Hunter, 142 pounds; Phil Weed, 147 pounds; Greg Jacques, 173 pounds; Daniel Flournoy, 191 pounds; and Iven Wilson, 217 pounds.

Taking second places are: Tony Willis, heavyweight; Dirk Lundgren 171 pounds; Robert Mendoza, 137 pounds; Justin Cavasso, 114 pounds.

Third places went to: Andy Nowak, 162 pounds; Derek Alvarez, 132 pounds; Richard Lutz, 121 pounds; Justin Semenko, 114 pounds; Wesley Shirk, 105 pounds. Taking a fourth place was Jon Wellemeyer at 154 pounds.

Junior varsity champions were Jeremy Urban 127 pounds; Ross Lundgren, 191 pounds; and David Wolverton, 121 pounds. Second place in the JV were: Chad Araujo, 215 pounds, Robert Cox, 191 pounds and Daniel Irvin, heavyweight. Miguel Sanchez took a third at heavyweight.

Modoc's junior varsity team traveled to the Portola tournament last weekend and came home with tourna ment championship. The tournmanet was a varsity tour nament and having the Modoc JVs win was pretty im pressive.

"I didn't think they would win the whole thing, but we have some kids who are really stepping up," said Wood. "I was a little surprised that we won it."

Individual champions were: David Wolverton 119 pounds; Blake Wilson 171 pounds; Ross Lundgren 189 pounds; and Daniel Irvin at 275 pounds.

Justin Semenko took a second at 112 pounds. Jeremy Urban was second at 125 pounds, Derrick Alvarez was sec ond at 130 pounds, Robert Mendoza was second at 135 pounds, Robert Cox was second at 189 pounds, Miquel Sanchez was third at 215 pounds and Chad Araujo was third at 275 pounds.

Snow raising havoc with Cardinal schedule

"Old Man Winter" has been creating havoc with the Big Valley basketball sched ule. The Cardinals were sup posed to travel to McCloud on Saturday but the games were postponed because snow storms made the roads to Mc Cloud impassable.

BV boys basketball coach Bryan Gerig said he had hoped to reschedule the game for Tuesday, February 10, but the schools weren't able to get together. There is talk of try ing to play the game some time next week although both schools have full schedules down the stretch. It will have to be done sometime before February 20, the date when the CIF Committee meets to pick teams for the Sectional tour nament.

The Big Valley-McCloud match-up is pivotal in the boys race in the Evergreen Athletic League. If the Cards (6-2) can beat McCloud (6-2) they will probably lock up second place, and with it, a playoff berth. McCloud has the tougher re maining schedule, they must still play at Happy Camp and undefeated Dunsmuir. BV has Dunsmuir at home and then goes on the road to face Surprise Valley and Butte Valley, two teams they beat easily at home.

The Big Valley boys team did get a win before the snow fell when they beat Tulelake on Friday. After grabbing a 26-19 half-time lead, Big Val ley continued to extend that lead in the third quarter and ended up with a 58-42 win over the Honkers.

The Cardinals continued to have balanced scoring. Corado Reginatto was top point-getter with 14 followed by Chris Click with 10, Ren den Ellenberger with 10 and Kasey Criss with eight.

The next scheduled game for the Cards is Friday the 13th, against league leading Dunsmuir.

The Big Valley JV boys team had their first loss in EAL play against Tulelake by a score of 41-32. Calvin Jack son led the Cards with 11 and David House added 10. The loss dropped BV into a first place tie with Tulelake. Both teams are now 8-1 in league and will likely share the league title.

Big Valley girls basket ball: After going 4-1 during the first half of EAL play, the Lady Cards have stumbled in their last two games to fall to 4-3. On Friday theY lost 59-48 at Big Valley despite 19 points from Ileah Jackson and 17 from Carrie Schwebach. The Cardinals will try to stay in the playoff hunt when they take on Dunsmuir tomorrow. JV girls are scheduled for 3:30, followed by JV boys at 5:00, varsity girls at 6:30 and varsity boys at 8:00.

Hornets lose tight game

The Surprise Valley boys basketball team suffered a close loss at home Tuesday night, falling to Tulelake by the razor thin difference of 64-62. Tom Harris led the Hor nets with 26 points while Nick Fenske and Chris Harris each added 13.

Last Friday, the Hornets also lost to Happy Camp 76-42. Tom Harris and Chris Har ris each had 13 points.

Both the Surprise Valley girls varsity and JV teams suffered losses on Tuesday night against Tulelake. The game was especially impor tant for the JV squad because Tulelake is unbeaten and the Hornets (now 8-3) were sitting within striking distance of the Honkers.

The Surprise Valley teams have one more game left, next Tuesday, February 17, when they host Big Valley.

Middle School boys host annual tourney

Modoc Middle Schools' boys teams are hosting the 49th annual boys basketball tournament this weekend in Alturas.

The event starts Friday at noon. Modoc's seventh grade plays at 7 p.m. and the eighth grade plays at 8 p.m. that night. The tournament starts up again Saturday at 8 a.m. and runs all day. The seventh grade championship game is set for 8 p.m. and the eighth grade follows.

Teams coming to the tournament are: Modoc, Surprise Valley, Big Valley, Tulelake, Lakeview, Johnstonville and Gerlach.

Admission is $1 for students with an ASB card and for senior citizens and $2 for everyone else.

 

Record sports for Feb. 19, 1998

¥ Modoc boys win varsity basketball title

¥ Modoc girls repeat with ease as SCL champs

¥ Big Valley in the hunt for playoffs

¥ Women's bowlers have successful tourney

¥ Modoc wrestlers are at small schools

Playoff games here Tuesday

With both the Modoc Braves Boys and Girls basketball teams winning the Shasta Cascade League titles, it guar an tees a home court advantage in the CIF North Section Playoffs starting next Tuesday.

According to Modoc Athletic Director and head boys coach Lane Bates, the Modoc girls will get the number one seed in the north state and the boys team will be in the top eight, maybe the top four.

Bates said the girls will be guaranteed a home court ad vantage until the section title game, which will be played at Chico. The boys could get one or two home games, de pending upon their seeding.

The CIF section tournament is single elimination, so one loss and the teams are out. There are 16 teams to start the CIF section tournament.

Braves win SCL, fin ish at home Friday

Who knew?

Who could have possibly guessed back in November that, come late February, the group of players constituting the Modoc boys basketball team would end up being the Champi ons of the Shasta-Cas cade League?

The Braves posted wins this past week over their near est pursuers, Etna and Mt. Shasta, to run their record to 9-2 and clinch Modoc's first league title in boys basketball since 1991.

If you find anyone who says, "I knew it all along," laugh in their face and call them a liar. The fact is, not even Modoc coach Lane Bates thought his team could per form the way they have.

"I'll be honest," Bates said just minutes after the Braves clinched the title. "We were short on numbers. I had to bring sophomores up to fill in some spots.

"I knew we'd play hard; I had no doubt about that. But when you looked at us on pa per against some of the other teams in the league, we just didn't match up."

And Bates was not alone. Most everybody had labeled the Braves as "middle-of-the-pack" material. However, once Modoc went 5-1 in the first round of the SCL and survived a three game road trip to Mt. Shasta, Weed and Burney, Bates reached the conclusion, "We knew we could play with every team."

Bates feels the team has performed well because of their tough defense and be cause, "I think we just real ized early on that playing as a team was our strength."

He also mentioned Mod oc's knack for winning the close ones this year.

"Usually if you can win half of your close games, as a coach, you're happy. These guys do it all the time."

The Braves have had seven close SCL games thus far, and have won six of them, gener ally with impossible come backs.

Tuesday night's title-clincher against Mt. Shasta was not a nail-biter. The Braves came away with an easy 56-47 win. Modoc opened a nine-point lead late in the second quarter and never al lowed the Bears to come any closer than six for the rest of the game.

The Modoc offense was a thing of beauty at times as the Braves shot 50 percent from the field and worked a variety of picks and passes to get easy open shots. Free throws are still downright painful to watch for Modoc fans. Against Shasta, the Braves were just 11-26 from the line and that was actu ally one of their better performances lately. (They were a com bined 5-30 against Fall River and Etna).

The Braves could afford to throw bricks at the backboard because their defense held the Bears to just 35 percent shoot ing. Shasta also went without a basket for the first 5:37 of the fourth quarter.

Bryan Parker got 14 of his 18 points in the second half while also pulling down five rebounds and coming up with four steals. Cody Holloway had 11 points while shooting 4-5 from the field. He also had five rebounds and two steals. Brett Hamilton had eight points on 4-4 shooting and six boards. Ryan Campbell had a strong all around game with 11 rebounds, seven points, five assists and three steals.

Last Friday's game against Etna was more typi cal of how Modoc has been winning this season. The Braves entered the fourth quarter trailing by six and were down four late in the game before two Etna turnovers gave the Braves the op portunity to win 51-49. Brandon Roberts ended up be ing the one who made the most out of the Lions' late collapse. He came off the bench to score all nine of his points in the fourth quarter.

Parker led the scoring with 12 points while Duane Knighton had 11 and Hamil ton registered 10.

The Braves will finish off the league season tomorrow night when they host Weed at 8:30 p.m.

Girls take league with big game win

Modoc's varsity girls team won the Shasta Cascade League Tuesday night with a con vincing 56-35 win over their closest rival, Mt. Shasta. That came on the heels of a less-than-perfect-outing atning the game in Etna, 63-39, Friday, it didn't come without some pensive moments.

The Braves weren't able to shake the swarming Lions early in the game and led only 14-11 after the first period. Modoc widened the gap to 28-17 by the half time break. But Etna came out strong in the third period and cut the Braves' lead to 36-30 when the final eight minutes started. Modoc is not used to having a team close after three peri ods.

Modoc woke up in the fourth period, and led by strong defense, outscored the Lions 27-9 for the win.

"I think Etna shocked us a little," said Modoc Coach Mike Martin. "We had 35 turnovers in the game. But we came out in the fourth period and took care of business."

Jennifer Kern led Modoc with 24 points and Kayte Christensen added 18. Leah Siegel had eight points.

The Mt. Shasta game was entirely differ ent as a focused and business-minded Braves team took the floor at home. Modoc set the tone early and jumped out to a 17-5 first period lead, with most of Mt. Shasta's points coming on free throws.

For the game, the Braves would only allow the Bears nine field goals, while putting in 22 of their own. Mt. Shasta hit 17 of 34 free throws while Modoc struggled a little, hitting 10 of 23. Leah Siegel and Andrea Knox each hit a trey in the game.

While the Bears fought back in the second, they still trailed 28-17 at half. The third pe riod started and ran very badly for both teams early. Modoc finally got going at the mid-way point and led going into the fourth quarter 36-24. Then they controlled the final eight minutes for the 56-35 win.

"We dominated that team from the start," said Martin. "We played a good, positive ball game. I feel pretty good about how we're play ing at this point and we just need to finish strong against Weed Friday and enter the play-offs on a positive note."

While no one can predict the play-offs, num ber one ranked Modoc will enter the section tournament as a huge favorite and might run into Mt. Shasta one more time.

In the Mt. Shasta game, Knox led the scor ing with 17, Christensen added 13, Jennifer Kern had nine and Siegel had eight.

Cardinals trip up SV boys and girls

Big Valley and Surprise Valley met up in Cedarville on Tuesday night with dis tinctly different agendas.

For the Hornets, it was an end to what has become a very long, very injury filled sea son. The SV varsity boys and girls ended the season a com bined 1-21 in the Evergreen Ath letic League.

For Big Valley, both the boys and girls teams were coming in looking to stay in the race to finish second in the EAL and grab a playoff spot.

Thus it came as no surprise that the Car dinals came away with wins in both games.

Boys: The Cardinals got a 69-44 win over SV led by Corado Reginatto's 18 points and Kasey Criss' 15.

The win moved Big Val ley's record to 7-3 with games remaining against Butte Val ley on Friday night (a team they've already beaten easily) and McCloud on Saturday. The problem with this scheduling is that the Mc Cloud game, which had to be rescheduled, could end up be ing the game that determines second place in the EAL, and thus a playoff spot. However, the Cards won't tip-off in Mc Cloud until Saturday evening, hours after the CIF committee has already set the playoff brackets. If CIF de cides to take three teams from the EAL, then both teams would get to go, but it is also very possible they could take just one of the teams before the two have had a chance to play. Big Valley beat McCloud by one point in overtime when the two squads met earlier this season in Bieber, so they might get the nod from CIF.

The Cardinals also got a shot at unde feated Dunsmuir this past week when they hosted the Tigers on Friday night.

It was the last regular sea son home game for Big Valley seniors. It will unfortunately be remembered by the Cards as "the one that got away." Big Valley led the league cham pion Tigers by eight points with less than two minutes left and ended up falling 60-58 on a last second Dunsmuir shot.

The Cardinals started slowly on the night and trailed after the first quarter, mainly be cause they were getting pounded on the boards by the taller Tigers. That changed in the sec ond quarter when BV coach Brain Gerig put 5-8 Chris Click on 6-1 Dunsmuir junior Shawn Smith, the guy who had been getting a lot of the tigers' points and rebounds in the first quarter. Click used his superior speed to shut Smith down on the defensive end while also directing the Car dinal offense with four as sists. That allowed the Cards to build a 36-28 halftime lead as Criss and Reginatto scored 20 of their combined 24 points in the first half.

The first half lead was short-lived though as Dun smuir needed less than six minutes in the third quarter to erase the deficit and tie it up at 41-all. However, Big Valley had an answer for the Tiger run - the Cardinal bench. The pine riders were once again great for the Cards, combin ing to score just as many points (29) as the starters.

At the end of the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, the strategy was to throw long passes over the Dunsmuir press and go inside to John Saltzman and Renden Ellen berger. Saltz man had 13 points while shoot ing a perfect 5-5 from the field and 3-3 from the line. Three of Saltzman's baskets came off assists from fellow sub Wyatt Harbert. Ellen berger was 4-6 with eight points, four rebounds and a block.

Big Valley recovered to build up a 49-43 lead at the end of the third and had their biggest lead of the night at 53-43 after a Har bert basket with 6:21 left in the fourth. How ever, the Cards would score just one more basket on the night - Saltzman on a three-point play at 5:21 - and they would not score any points in the last two minutes. The fi nal BV points came when Reginatto hit two free throws with 2:50 remaining to give the Cards at lead of 58-50.

The score would stay that way until the clock showed 1:42. Even though the Tigers had hit just 3-12 from three point land to that point on the night, they would end up hit ting two treys during a 25 sec ond span to make the score 58-56 with 1:17 left. After Big Valley missed a three point attempt on their next posses sion, Dunsmuir came down and scored again to tie the score with 31 seconds left.

Dunsmuir called time-out to set up their press and Big Valley had to call another time-out when they couldn't inbound the ball. After the BV time-out, the Tigers had the Cards covered on the in bounds pass, but El lenberger was able to get free behind ev ery one else and open for a lay-up. However, the pass to him fell just short and Dun smuir in tercepted it and called time-out to set up for one last shot.

The Cardinals played ter rific defense on that last pos session and forced Dun smuir's Smith to take an off the dribble 17 footer just before the buzzer with Click all over him. The defense couldn't have been any better but Smith's shot still went in to give the Tigers the win.

"I've won some like that and I've lost some like that," Gerig said after the roller coaster ride was over. "I have nothing but praise for my kids. They played hard.

"That was a great one to watch, but a tough one to coach."

Girls: The Big Valley girls ran their record to 6-3 with a 40-25 win over Surprise Valley. The Cards only led by one at the half and were up just 28-25 before scoring the final 12 points to finish off the game.

The Cardinals are cur rently in second place in the EAL with one game remain ing against Butte Valley, a team they smashed with ease on a previous occasion. Since Mc Cloud is not fielding a girls varsity team, the Lady Cards will end their season on Friday night, probably with a 7-3 record and probably with a good shot at the play offs.

Last Friday the Cards posted an easy 52-39 win over Dunsmuir. The game started out close, tied at 15-all mid-way through the sec ond quar ter, before Ileah Jackson (as usual) simply took the game over. She led the Cards on a 8-0 run that would give them a lead they would never come close to relinquishing.

Jackson finished the night with 24 points, 23 rebounds and five steals while control ling the game from baseline to baseline. She got plenty of help from Nicole Silva who seemed to be everywhere with 10 rebounds, seven as sists and three steals. Carrie Schwebach put in 13 points in her last home game.

Wrestlers head to small schools tourney

The CIF North Section Small Schools wrestling tour nament will probably come down to a battle between the top three schools: Modoc, Trinity and Willows.

The two-day tournament, Friday and Saturday will be at Trinity High School in Weaverville. Coach Shaun Wood's Braves won the Shasta Cascade League title there on February 11.

"I think it's going to be pretty tight, but we have some strong kids in many weight classes and we'll take our share of the matches," said Wood this week during prac tice. "We have some kids who will also take some impor tant places along the way."

Wood is expecting finals matches from his SCL champs: Iven Wilson, Teddy Simmons, Dan Flournoy, Eric Hunter, Phil Weed and Greg Jacques. He also ex pects very strong showings from Tony Willis, Andy Nowak, Justin Cavasso, Dirk Lundgren, Robert Mendoza, Richard Lutz, Justin Semenko and Jon Wellemeyer.

Women's City Bowling Tourney was success

The 32nd Annual Wom en's City Tournament was held February 27 through February 1 with the following results.

Team event (Handicap Tournament), Division I: first place -- The Rose Room, Mary Lakey, captain, Jenny Brooks, Ruth Holloway, Maria Mueller, Debbie Buchanan, 2751, ; second place -- Les Schwab, Debbie Buchanan, captain, Dallas Primorac, Penny Keeney, Dolly Gover, Maggie Duncan, 2606; third place -- 4 Corners Market, Shelly Holloway, captain, Connie Goldfarb, Dolly Gover, Becky Arnado, Ruth Porter, 2592.

Division II: first place -- , Alturas Gardens, Kim Gen try, captain; Marie Barnes, Dani Johnston, Yavette Arm strong, Deanna Van Lone, 2825; second place -- Fayes Jewelry, Lois Bailey, captain, Sue Caughey, Carol House man, Sarah Jennings, Bon nie Kasko, 2744; third place -- Benny's, Deanna Olsen, captain, Jeannine Primorac, Cindy Poindexter, Helen Goulden, Lois Cain, 2739.

Doubles event, Division I: first place -- Susan Philpott, Toni Albertson, 1194; second place -- Kim Crites, Lillian McKenzie, 1123; third place -- Marie Barnes, Dani John ston, 1110;

Division II: Liz Neid, Terrie Northrup, 1194; Betty Barlese, Lala Parrish, 1172; Mary Lakey, Jenny Brooks, 1101.

Singles event, Division I: first place -- Marie Barnes, 626; second place -- Dawn Baird, 605; third place, Debbie Buchanan, 596

Division II: first place -- Betty Barlese, 578; Sarah Jen nings, 576; Becky Arnado, 575.

All events, Division I: first place -- Marie Barnes, 1808; second place -- Sue Caughey, 1773; Toni Albert son, 1758.

Division II: first place -- Betty Barlese, 1802; Liz Neid, 1679; Terrie Northrup, 1673.

 

Record sports for Feb. 26, 1998

¥ Modoc girls are favored in section tourney

¥ Girls win league in perfect fashion

¥ Modoc boys top Rio Vista in opening round

¥ Braves blow out Weed in finale

¥ Wrestlers heading to North Section Finals

¥ No justice for Big Valley girls, boys are in

Modoc moves into post season as big favorite

The Modoc Braves girls varsity team goes into the post-season tournament as the unanimous favorite to repeat as North Section Division 5 basketball champions. They are also favored to win the north state in the state tournament. But, that's down the road three games.

Tuesday night the Braves opened the CIF Arco-AM/PM North section playoffs against Champion Christian, the number 16 seed from Sacramento. It wasn't pretty for the Sacramento team as the Braves rolled over them 74-30.

The Braves host Portola in the second round of the play offs Friday night, with game time set for 6:30 p.m. That game will be followed by the boys second round matchup be tween Modoc and either Burney or Mercy, who played Wednesday night. Modoc beat Rio Vista Tuesday to ad vance.

First round action in the girls brackets saw Modoc top Champion Christian, Portola beat Elk Creek, Durham whip Butte Valley, Liberty Christian top Los Molinas, Capital Christian club Rio Vista, Burney beat Hayfork, Mt. Shasta down East Nicolaus, and Westwood beat Biggs.

Matchups in the second round are: Modoc-Portola; Durham-Liberty Christian; Capital Christian-Burney; and Mt. Shasta at Westwood. Of those matchups, the key games are Mt. Shasta-Westwood and Capital Christian-Burney.

"We played well after the first couple of minutes," said coach Mike Martin of the Champion Christian game. "We were just not mentally sharp to start the game and didn't play hard. Once we fixed that, we were fine."

"Fine" is probably an understatement as the Braves used a pressure defense to stifle Champion Christian and put the game on ice in the first period with a 24-4 lead. Lynda Lake came of the bench to spark the defensive effort as she and Leah Siegel and Wendy Stafford harassed the opponent's ballhandlers into mistakes. By halftime, Modoc held a 43-12 lead.

"We came out in the second half hard and jumped right on them," said Martin. "We talked about the need to play hard and sharp at halftime and the girls responded well."

When the third period was finally over, the Braves led 59-18 and would end up with the 74-30 win.

Kayte Christensen led the Braves scoring with 13, Megan Orner added 10, Jennifer Kern had nine, Lake had seven and Siegel had six. Every one of the Braves players scored at last one field goal.

Predictably, the toughest challenges for the Braves will come from either Mt. Shasta, Capital Christian or Westwood. While Martin knows plenty about Mt. Shasta and Westwood, the Capital Christian squad is an unknown. They are ranked third, behind Modoc and Westwood, but Martin said their only losses this season have been to upper division schools.

"I don't know much about Capital Christian, but we hear they are good," said Martin. "We have to take care of Portola Friday night and move into the semi-finals. We're playing well, and we need to be sharp."

Modoc girls finish with perfect SCL

Modoc's girls have been perfect in Shasta Cascade League action for three years, winning each year in strong fashion.

The Braves capped off the 1998 league championship Friday night by beating Weed 51-15 at home, finishing with a 12-0 mark.

Weed didn't pose much of a threat to Modoc. The Braves got up 15-1 in the opening pe riod, and by the halftime in termission, led 28-5. The Braves outscored the Cougars 15-4 in the third quarter to take a 43-9 lead,

Kayte Christensen led the Braves with 21 points. She also had four steals. Jessica Kern added nine points for Modoc while Jennifer Kern pulled down six rebounds and had four assists. Lynda Lake also had six rebounds and Leah Siegel dished out three assists.

Braves drop Rio Vista, ad vance in playoffs

If a basketball team is go ing to pick a certain time of the season to peak, its obvious that the best time to do it would be during the playoffs. That's exactly the strategy the Modoc boys basketball team seems to be employing given their easy 60-42 win over Rio Vista in the opening round of the CIF Sec tional playoffs on Tuesday night.

"I think that was our best game so far," Braves coach Lane Bates said after his team dismantled a very athletic Rams squad. "It's a nice time to be doing that."

Staying alive through all of those horrible first halves that Modoc experienced in the early portion of the Shasta-Cas cade League schedule is suddenly paying off in divi dends of perfectly executed of fensive patterns and defen sive schemes in late Febru ary. The Braves seem to have given up the whole "cardiac kids" approach that got them through Jan uary and have now become the team that steamrolls people in the sec ond quarter.

Modoc went on a 14-2 run in the first 3:45 of the second stanza to take a 30-14 lead that would stand up the rest of the night. The run was keyed in large part by the Braves forc ing seven turnovers in the second quarter off of their half-court zone trap which currently seems impenetra ble. Eric Lancaster led the Modoc band of thieves with four steals and Ryan Camp bell had three.

"The kids really know what they can do in that defense now," Bates said. "I have a real good feel now for what each person can do and when we can gamble and extend."

The Braves got plenty of fast-break buckets from their de fense, but their half-court offense was also well exe cuted. Eleven of Modoc's 20 first half baskets came off of assists. Cody Holloway and Campbell led the team in that category with three each.

The Rams tried to run a 1-3-1 defense and Modoc beat it like a rented mule. "The Ryan and Bryan Show" of Camp bell and Parker slashed through the lane and went a com bined 14-18 from the field in the first half.

"We've seen several 1-3-1's this year," Bates noted.

After taking a 43-23 half-time lead, the Braves did try to make it interesting in the third quarter by missing their first six shots of the second

half against Rio Vista's man-to-man defense. However, the Rams could only manage to hit 20 percent of their shots in the third quarter and were never able to get closer than 15.

Parker would wind up with 19 points on the night while Campbell had 14. Duane Knighton added 11 and led the team in rebounding with eight.

The No. 4 seed Braves now take their 17-6 record into the quarter finals which they will get to play in Alturas. Their opponent will be the winner of the Mercy (No. 5) vs. Burney (No. 12) game that was played on Wednesday night. The game is tentatively scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday night right after the girls playoff game.

Should the Braves win this weekend, they would then be in the semi-finals next Tues day (March 3) or Wednesday (March 4). Should the seeding hold to form, Modoc would be on the road at No. 1 seed Delta.

Braves end SCL with 72-40 win

The Modoc boys basketball team waited until the last game of the season to finally register their first blow-out in the Shasta-Cascade League, a league that they won with 10-2 record. While Braves fans have become used to the girls' games being garbage time after the first four minutes, this was the first chance to re ally sit back and have fun during the second half of a boys game.

The Braves beat Weed 72-40 on Friday night. The Cougars showed up in Alturas with a 1-10 SCL record and just six players in uniform. Two of them ended up fouling out and Weed had to finish the night with four on the floor.

Of course, it wouldn't have been a true Modoc game if the Braves hadn't allowed the other team to take the early lead. Weed was ahead 14-8 mid-way through the first quarter after hitting on their three-point attempts. How ever, Modoc went into a mid-court trap that forced 11 turnovers in the first half (22 for the game) and led to a 20-2 run by the Braves during the last part of the first quarter and the early part of the sec ond quarter.

Eric Lancaster led the way on the trap with four steals fol lowed by Duane Knighton and Cody Holloway with three each. Modoc only coughed the ball up nine times on the evening and thus put up 80 shots as compared with just 47 for the cougars. The large shot differen tial was also caused by Modoc controlling the boards. Knighton, Jeff Doss and Brett Hamilton each ripped down nine rebounds.

Although the Braves only hit on one-third of their field goal attempts, they still man aged to get all nine players on the team into the scoring col umn. Bryan Parker was top scorer with 15 followed by Holloway with 10. Ryan Campbell finished with nine while Knighton, Doss and Hamilton all registered eight. Doss got all eight of his points in the fourth quarter including hitting two treys.

Lancaster put in six points while Brandon Roberts had five and Travis Dunn scored three.

Braves at CIF

North Section wrestling finals

It's been a week of tough and long road trips for the Modoc Braves wrestling team, more than planned or an ticipated.

The small schools championship meet was held last weekend at Trinity High School in Weaverville. While the wrestlers got the first rounds in Friday, a power outage canceled all of Saturday's matches. So, they came home and headed back to Weaverville on Tuesday to complete the small schools titles. The traveling took its toll on the Braves, although coach Shaun Wood said he won't use it as an excuse.

"It was pretty brutal for us, we've been on the road a lot this season," Wood said Wednesday. "We didn't wrestle as well as we could have on Tuesday, but, hey, it's been a great year and we have eight kids in the section tourna ment." Wrestlers had to be in the top four at small schools to advance to sections.

Friday, the team heads to the North Section finals in Redding's Convention Center. Modoc High School is host ing the section tournament, but it's in Redding.

Opening rounds will start Friday at 1 p.m. and end at 6 p.m. On Saturday, wrestling starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. The championship matches will start at 5 p.m.

To qualify for state, wrestlers must win the North Section finals. Modoc wrestlers with a good shot are Teddy Simmons and Iven Wilson.

On Tuesday, Wilson was the only Modoc wrestler to claim an individual small schools title. He won the 217 pound division. Wood figures Wilson has a good shot at winning the overall section title and heading to state. "But, he'll have tough matches all along the way," said Wood.

Modoc's 127-pound wrestler, Teddy Simmons, had a bit of a tough go in Trinity, placing second in the small schools. Wood believes Simmons also has a legitimate shot at qualifying for the state finals, but he'll have to beat the number one seed.

Also taking seconds at small schools were Eric Hunter at 142 pounds and Dan Flournoy at 191 pounds. Wood feels that both wrestlers will place high at the section meet.

Phil Weed took a third place at 147 pounds at small schools and should do well this weekend.

Greg Jacques finished in fourth place in small schools at 173 pounds, and Wood said he'll have to step it up to place high in the section. Also taking fourth places were Tony Willis at heavyweight and Andy Nowak at 162 pounds.

Justin Cavasso took a sixth place for Modoc at 114 pounds.

No justice for Big Valley girls

Don't try to discuss the con cept of "justice" with the Big Valley girls basketball team this week. While Plato might have believed just could exist, the Lady Cards will tell you there is no such thing - at least not when it comes to the North Section playoffs.

Just consider the following situation. The Big Valley girls team took second in the Evergreen League. The Big Valley boys team also took second in the EAL. The re sult? The boys team played in the Sectional Championship tour nament this week while members of the girls team got to start working out for the track season a week earlier. This Cinderella did not get invited to the big dance.

While the Lady Cards probably cheered for the BV boys as loud as anyone on Wednesday night, they had to be wonder ing, "Why not us too?"

The girls team finished off the season at 6-4 in league and 7-14 overall. They were the only team to beat first place Butte Valley, back in late January in Bieber. On Fri day night they traveled to Dorris to take on the Bulldogs and lost 72-42 despite a 28 point performance from Ileah Jackson.

The Cardinal boys team beat both Butte Valley and Mc Cloud to end their season at 9-3 in league and 11-12 over all.

On Friday the Cards dou bled up the score on the Bull dogs and won 70-35. Corado Reginatto led the scoring with 15 fol lowed by Renden Ellen berger with 12 and Chris Click with 10. All nine Big Valley players scored at least one basket.

The Cardinals were given the No. 14 seed in the NSCIF playoffs and played at No. 3 seed Chester (18-3) on Wednes day night. Should they win that game, they would then face No. 6 seed and EAL champion Dun smuir (21-2, 12-0 in league) on Saturday at Dunsmuir.

March

 

Record Sports for March 5, 1998

¥ Modoc girls play for title in Chico

¥ Modoc boys eliminated by Mercy

¥ Pair of Modoc wrestlers play at section

¥ Cardinals knocked out of playoffs

¥ Ski Hill hosts racing weekend

¥ Gala Bowl is just for the fun of it

Modoc's girls play for Section Title Saturday

Modoc's varsity girls basketball team is powering through the North Section CIF Division 5 tournament, not unexpectedly.

On Saturday, the Braves play for the North Section Championship at Chico State. They'll meet Shasta Cascade League rival Mt. Shasta at 2:30 p.m. The Braves haven't had a lot of trouble with Mt. Shasta this year, although the Bears play a rough brand of basketball. Modoc has whipped Mt. Shasta 56-35 at Modoc and 56-47 in Mt. Shasta. Mt. Shasta beat Capital Christian 54-47 Tuesday.

While Modoc coach Mike Martin has Mt. Shasta's num ber, he doesn't like the thought of playing the same team a third time. The neutral court and referees should be in Modoc's favor. A win Saturday will give the Braves a third section title and the top seed in the CIF Division 5 State tour nament. It would also give them a home court advantage to start the state finals.

"I really don't like having to play a team three times, but we've controlled the game both times before, and I don't see anything different happening this time around," said Martin. "We are playing better now than we have and ev eryone's healthy. I'm pleased with how we're playing and the girls are fo cused."

Martin said his "buzz" defense is working better now than it did all of last year, and he feels that pressure hurts his opponents. One of the big reasons the defense is working better is the play of Wendy Stafford, who along with Leah Siegel make life tough on opposing guards. Against Liberty Christian Tuesday, Stafford had nine steals. She has had a very solid season.

On Tuesday, Modoc dropped a scrappy and good shooting Liberty Christian team 65-31 at Modoc. Liberty tried to live by the three, and while they made several, they also died by the three when misses turned into fast break op portunities for Modoc.

The Braves set the tone early when they went up 16-0 in the first six minutes of the opening period. When the quarter ended, Modoc led 16-2. The Braves, with most of the starters on the bench increased their lead to 30-11 at the halfway point of the second period and wound up leading 37-11 by half.

Liberty Christian started the third period by shooting only three point tries, which would see them boost their score to 27 by the end of the quarter. Trouble was, Modoc took advantage and led by 30, 57-27. Neither team put the ball in the hole much in the fourth pe riod and Modoc came away with the 65-31 win, eliminating Liberty Christian and sending the Braves to the title game.

To Liberty Christian's credit, they played the game hard and fought to the end.

Kayte Christensen led the Braves with 23 points, Jennifer Kern added 11, Andrea Knox had eight and Megan Orner had nine.

Friday night the Braves destroyed Portola 64-24 after tak ing a 24-0 first period lead when the Tigers tried to use a press and run with the faster and taller Braves.

Martin used his entire team in the game, starting with the second period. The reserves didn't allow Portola to get on track either.

By the end of the opening period, Modoc led 27-5 and by halftime held a 41-13 advantage. The starters got off quickly in the third and by the time the fourth quarter started, Modoc led 56-19.

"We played well the entire game, and didn't have a let down the whole way," said Martin. "It was good to see us start and finish a game that well."

In other CIF tourney quarterfinal action, Capital Christian beat Burney 60-59, Mt. Shasta beat Westwood 57-48 and Liberty Christian topped Durham 49-43.

Kayte Christensen and Jennifer Kern led the Braves against Portola, scoring 13 points each and grabbing six re bounds apiece. Andrea Knox put in eight and Leah Siegel added eight, plus six steals. Megan Orner had six and Ginny Greene, five, for the Braves.

Modoc tops All-league team

Modoc's Jennifer Kern and Kayte Christensen were named by coaches this week as co-Most Valuable Players for the Shasta Cascade League. The pair was a unanimous selection.

Modoc's Leah Siegel and Andrea Knox were named to the All-league second team for the Braves.

Shots didn't fall for Braves in Mercy loss

The shots just wouldn't fall. That's the easiest way to ex plain the Modoc boys bas ketball team losing 45-32 to Mercy in the quarter finals of the CIF championships on Tuesday. Tight rims ended an unexpectedly successful season for the Shasta-Cascade League champs.

After all, the Braves held Mercy to just 32 percent shoot ing through the first three quarters and their half-court trap forced the Warriors into 20 turnovers. With the excep tion of the third quarter, Modoc took good care of the ball and had only 12 turnovers on the night. They also controlled the boards well, led by Bryan Parker with 10 rebounds, and got 10 more shots on the night than Mercy did.

Sounds like a recipe for winning, doesn't it?

"I figured when we hold teams in the 40's we'll win," Modoc coach Lane Bates said.

But while the defense re bounding and ball handling all went well, the shooting statistics were truly frighten ing. The Braves were 11-47 from the field and for about 23 percent shooting and they didn't register a single field goal in the third quarter. Take away the 6-12 shooting and 15 points of Ryan Camp bell and the rest of the squad was 5-35 with a total of 17 points.

This wasn't the result of the Braves shooting 35-foot left-handed hook shots. Most of those misses came when Modoc shooters had good looks at the basket. It also wasn't a case of a bunch of brick-lay ers throwing rocks at the backboard. What was most painful was that of the 36 misses, at least 18 of them seemed to be of the type where the ball rolled around the rim and went out. Each time the ball would roll off the rim the large Modoc crowd could be heard making a collec tive groan. If the Braves had just managed to hit one more shot in each of the first three quar ters (six more points and still not even 30 percent shooting) they would have had the lead in the final two minutes.

It should also be noted that the Braves played well against a tough opponent that brought their own very sup portive crowd. Mercy was led by a sparkling performance from se nior point guard Tim Carlton, perhaps the best visit ing player to show up in Al turas all season.

"At this point in the season, you're playing good teams," Bates said. "You can't afford to have a night like that"

The Braves started slowly on the night, as they have in most of their games this sea son. They played a man-to-man which Carlton broke down with ease. Mercy opened an 11-2 lead in the first 5:19 before Modoc went to their half-court trap and came back to 13-6 to end the quarter.

Once again, the second quarter was the best one for the Braves. They held the War riors to just one basket in that quarter on 1-7 shooting while also forcing seven turnovers. Campbell got three of his four steals on the night in the sec ond quarter. After Campbell hit a three and then made a steal and a lay-up to pull the score to 15-13, the Braves fi nally tied it up at 15-all with 2:12 left in the half. Neither team could score the rest of the quarter.

The second half started disastrously for Modoc. Mercy scored on three of their first four possessions while the Braves turned the ball over on three of their first four pos ses sions. To make matters worse, Carlton drilled three treys for the Warriors while Modoc couldn't manage a single field goal. Thus, the Warriors held a 30-19 lead at the end of three.

However, anyone who had watched the Braves play this year knew that it was too early to go home. In fact, based upon past performances, Modoc had their opponents right where they wanted them.

Once again, the Braves came storming back thanks to forcing eight more turnovers out of their half-court trap. They came their closest at 37-32 after Eric Lancaster hit two free throws with 1:53 left. However, those would be the last points Modoc would put on the board for the season. They had to start fouling the War riors and gambling on the press and Mercy hit their shots down the stretch to pull away for the win.

The loss ended a 17-7 year for the Braves that Bates called a success.

"I'm really proud of the kids," he said. "They played hard all year and they had a great season. I think we ex ceeded a lot of expectations."

Parker leads in league picks

To the victors go the spoils. In the case of the Modoc boys basketball team being champions of the Shasta-Cascade League, it meant that the Braves walked away with Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year honors.

The SCL coaches named Modoc senior forward Bryan Parker the league MVP and declared Lane Bates to be the best of the coaches this year after the Braves posted a 10-2 mark in the SCL.

The Braves also placed senior guard Ryan Camp bell on the All-League first team.

Modoc's Eric Lancaster was one of several players who earned honorable men tion from the SCL coaches.

Pair of Braves place at section tourney

Modoc finished up a very successful 1997-98 wrestling season last weekend at the North Section finals in Redding. And while the Braves didn't do as well as coach Shaun Wood had anticipated, he certainly remains proud of their league championship season.

"We were a little flat, but we've been living on the road the past couple of weeks, and that had to have an effect," said Wood. Modoc had to travel twice in four days to Trinity, when a power outage canceled the second day of the small school tournament. They also had a trip to Trinity for the league championships earlier in the month.

The Braves also hosted the North Section Championship in Redding last weekend, which created more distractions.

"I'm not going to make excuses," said Wood. "The section tournament is tough and it takes a great effort to place or win the event. We were a match away from placing in several weight divisions and often one match away from placing very high."

Modoc's top placer at section was senior Iven Wilson at 217 pounds. Wilson took a third place in a very tough weight class.

Modoc's only other medal winner was junior Phil Weed, who took a third at a strong 147-pound weight group.

One of Modoc's highest ranked wrestlers, Ted Simmons had a tough day and finished out of the medals at 127 pounds.

The same thing happened to another top Modoc wrestler, 173-pound senior Greg Jacques, who had a very strong weight class and did not place. Eric Hunter, a junior at 142 pounds, also had his work cut out for him and did not place. Senior Daniel Flournoy also drew a tough weight class at 191 and didn't place. Freshman heavyweight Tony Willis wrestled well, said Wood, but could not get into the medals.

Overall, the Braves finished 15th out of all schools in the North Section -- not too bad for a small school. In wrestling there are no divisions at the section tournament so Modoc is wrestling against much bigger schools.

Wood said there is a movement to move wrestling into di visions, much like basketball and football, for the section finals and he is in total support of that concept. Currently only the winner of the north section tournament qualifies for state.

"In many cases our second place finishers have a good shot at placing at state," said Wood. Other sections get to send their medal winners to the state finals, not just the champion. "We would compete very well at the section and state levels if we are wrestling in schools of our size. No school our size or smaller placed higher than us at the sec tions."

Cardinals lose to Chester

The Big Valley boys bas ketball season came to an end last week in the first round of playoffs.

After post ing a 9-3 record and grab bing second place in the Ev ergreen League, the Cardi nals were given the No. 14 seed in the North Section CIF Championships and were shipped off to face 18-3 Chester, the No. 3 seed.

Chester ended up with the 65-56 win despite 19 points from Big Valley's Corado Reginatto and 10 from Ren den Ellenberger. The Cards had two more field goals than Chester but 11 fewer free throw attempts and 11 fewer free throw makes.

Chester had a seven point lead at the half. The Cardi nals were able to close that gap in the second half but Chester ended up pulling away in the final minutes.

The Cardinals ended the season with an 11-13 mark.

Ski races/boarder cross

Cedar Pass Ski Hill will hold the second Ski Race/Snow Boarder Cross for the season on Saturday, March 7.

There's plenty of snow, and much of it is fresh fall at Cedar Pass Ski Hill. The event is being co-sponsored by Terri Privett's Tax Matters in Alturas, with ribbons to the winners.

Sign-ups open at 10 a.m. and will be open until race time. There will be separate race groups for youths, six years and up, through adult age. All youths must have a parent or guardian signature on the release forms. Course inspection begins at 11:00 a.m.

Entry fee will be $5 per racer, with discounted lift tickets for racers and free rentals available to racers on a first come, first served basis.

Ski with new group rate offer

Private individuals are now offering free ski lessons by pre-arrangement by calling Tim Harris at 233-2552 or 233-2807.

For ski groups of five or more, Cedar Pass Ski Hill is now offering a special package rate available for the rest of the ski season, for $15 for the lift ticket and ski rental package, making the equipment rental free of charge. To make arrangements for groups of five or more, contact Tim Harris at 233-2552 or 233-2907.

Gala Bowl is for fun, come out and try bowling

The public will have a chance for fun and cash awards at the Gala Bowl to be held Sunday, March 15 at the Alturas Bowl. One need not be a member of a league or a great bowler to participate.

"It's something that's fun and healthy," offers Jamie Wheeler, one of the organiz ers for this event. "We want to give people who haven't bowled lately, a chance to try it and have some fun."

Two squads will be set up to bowl with times at 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. Cost is $8.50 per bowler. Anyone 18 and older is welcome to par ticipate. No amateurs.

Doubles, same sex or op posite sex duos can bowl. The first game will be "No Tap" where nine pins will count as a strike; second game, "Low Ball"- has the person with the lowest score win ning and gutterballs count as strikes and strikes count as strikes. Third and fourth games will be a "Scotch Dou bles" where partners share the score.

If interested in bowling in Gala Bowl, sign up at Al turas Bowl beginning March 1 or contact Jamie Wheeler at 233-3072 or Carol House man, 233-3935 for more in formation.

The event is meant to be fun for all. Wheeler wants to make special note to bowlers that participation in such a tournament may possibly af fect the amateur standing of any junior, and may make them ineligible for partici pa tion in high school or col lege athletics, because of the cash prizes offered. This also in cludes pacing or sub stitut ing, which will make a youth ineligible for YABA membership.

 

Record sports of March 12, 1998

¥ Modoc girls win section, in state playoffs

¥ Baseball opens with tourney this weekend

¥ Ski hill has races, fun, new plan

¥ Take ski hill seriously, it's great place

¥ Little League looks for volunteers, coaches

Modoc girls win 1st game in state tourney; play in Alturas tonight

Modoc's varsity girls basketball team did what most peo ple figured it would -- win the third straight time. Since it's so easily expected, fans almost forget how hard it is to win the Shasta Cascade League, the 16-team North Section tourney and now the eight-team North State finals.

The Braves got the number one seed in the North State tourney and play host for the first two rounds. If they beat Sacred Heart tonight, they'll play for the North State Championship March 14 at Delta College in Stockton. A win there puts them in the state title game at ARCO Arena in Sacramento March 21. As of today, there are four teams left alive in the north and four in the south.

Tuesday night the Braves beat a very good Rincon Valley Christian Eagles team (Santa Rosa) 48-44 in the opening round of the state tournament. Tonight at 7 p.m. they meet Sacred Heart Prep in Alturas in the second round.

First round results in the North State were as follows: Modoc 48-Rincon Valley Christian 44; Sacred Heart Prep 52-Central Catholic 31; Branson 66-Mt. Shasta 51; and Pinewood 81-Denair 42.

"Sacred Heart is a very good team and they match up with us pretty well," said Modoc head coach Mike Martin. "I ex pect a dog fight. They have a good 6-2 girl and a pair of 5-10 kids who play well. They start three good sophomores and they come hard at you. You can expect to see two very good teams here tonight. We need to shoot the ball and finish bet ter, but I think our defense can keep us close and we'll be us ing some different looks on them."

Last year Rincon Valley beat Modoc in the north state fi nals game and went on to win the Division 5 state champi onship. Two starters off of last year's state championship team, Leslie Dubois and Becky Carpenter, were in champi onship form as they combined for nine three-pointers Tuesday at the Griswold Gym. In the first half, Rincon Valley scored 19 points, on six three-pointers and one free throw.

"We didn't shoot well and they were red hot," said Modoc coach Mike Martin. "We played good defense, but just couldn't pull away. It was a very good win for us. When you get to this level, every game is tough and you just hope your team comes out and plays better than the other team."

The Braves opened up in normal fashion against the Eagles, grabbing an early lead, 9-3, paced by sophomore Andrea Knox's seven points. But Carpenter hit four treys to put the Eagles up 12-11 when the first period ended. While the Braves' and their fans were a little shocked, they didn't panic.

Both teams played well early in the second period with Modoc finally getting a run late to go up 25-19 at halftime with Jennifer Kern and Kayte Christensen leading the way.

The game stayed close in the third period with Modoc leading 29-28. then trailing 32-31 with just over two minutes left. Modoc missed several key shots in the period, but man aged to go up 39-37 when the final eight minutes started. The Eagles would not go away.

Modoc got on track opening the final period and built their lead to 43-37 in the first couple of minutes. But again, missed lay-ups kept them from putting the final kill on the Eagles. With 2:53 left in the game, Modoc fans were breathing a lit tle easier as Modoc led 47-39. But the Eagles hit a three, got a steal for two and cut the lead to 47-44 with 2:03 left. Modoc's shooting didn't improve in the final two minutes, and they made only one of six free throw chances, but luckily, the Eagles cooled off and Modoc sealed the win.

Christensen led Modoc with 20 points, Jennifer Kern and Knox each added 11. Carpenter had 18 for Rincon Valley and Dubois added 16

The Braves whipped Mt. Shasta 49-37 at Chico State Saturday for the North Section championship. Mt. Shasta suffered its third loss of the season to the Braves, who simply have more talent.

In the game Saturday, the Bears did the only thing they could to have a shot at beating the Braves -- they put Modoc starters in foul trouble early. But, it still wasn't going to be enough.

The Braves jumped up 12-5 in the first period and led 18-8 early in the second before Christensen picked up her third foul of the game and sat out the rest of the half. Mt. Shasta took advantage of the situation and by half and pulled to within two, 23-21.

The game stayed close through three with Modoc clinging to a 34-29 lead, In the fourth, Modoc proved their dominance and outscored Mt. Shasta 15-9.

Christensen led the Braves with 17 points, pulled down 15 rebounds and had a pair of blocked shots. Knox finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, plus three assists. Jennifer Kern had seven points and Leah Siegel added six, all in the second half.

The game was rough with Modoc picking up 24 fouls and Mt. Shasta 22. Christensen fouled out as did Dickinson of Mt. Shasta. Kim Harrison led the Bears with 18 points. Christensen, Wendy Stafford and Lynda Lake each had a pair of steals for the Braves.

The team seeding and opening round games of the state tournament are are follows: Modoc (number 1) vs Rincon Valley Christensen (number 8); Sacred Heart (number 5) at Central Catholic (number 4); Mt. Shasta (number 6) at Branson (number 3); Denair (number 7) at Pinewood (number 2).

Braves open baseball season this weekend

Never let it be said that Modoc baseball and softball teams lack optimism. They are hosting a tournament in Alturas this weekend. Baseball weather in March is not always a sure thing in Modoc.

There will be a baseball division and a softball tourney going on at the same time at the Youth Park Complex on West C Street in Alturas.

Head baseball Coach Earl Russell is looking forward to starting the 1998 season, with a pretty good squad led by sev eral seniors. They get their first action when they open the tournament against Mt. Shasta's JVs, 10 a.m. Friday. That game will be followed at 12 noon by Etna vs Butte Valley. Hayfork will play the winner of the Modoc-Mt. Shasta game at 2 p.m. and Portola will play the winner of the Etna-Butte Valley game at 4 p.m. The tournament continues through Saturday starting at 10 a.m. A full concession stand will be available.

Jake Fussell will get the nod from Russell to open on the mound in the first game. His supporting cast includes Eric Lancaster behind the plate, Jim Lloyd at first, Ryan Campbell at second, Ted Lewis at short, Matt Hamilton at third, Chris Sherer in left, Brandon Roberts in center and Duane Knighton in right.

Other pitchers on tap for this weekend include Steve Rodriguez, Jeff Doss and Larry Cavasso.

There will be a tri-tip barbecue following the last game Friday about 5 p.m. Dinner is $4 for adults and $2 for all ath letes. In addition, the teams are hosting a dance at the Modoc High Social Hall from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday.

Top skiers take part in 2nd Cedar Pass ski race

Several top skiers jumped on board for the second set of Ski Races at Cedar Pass last weekend. The weather was great and plenty of skiers showed up for the event.

There were ski races as well as boarder cross races for several age groups.

In the 14-16 age group, Jason Dewey, 16, of Redding skied away with the win in a time of 77.81. Second place went to Ryan Privett, age 14, of Alturas.

In the women's category, Elizabeth Cavasso was the win ner at 1:04.94 with Laura Harris second at 1:06.52.

In the age 12-13 group, Logan Wilson was the winner in 1:02.07 with Jack Britton second in 1:08.03.

In the age 14 girls, Cassidy Lee won in 1:22.77; Jamie Cavasso was second in 1:40.26 and Katelyn Tate, third in 1:52.53.

For girls age 12-13, the winner was Elizabeth Younger in 1:45.76; second went to Andrea Harris in 1:47.86; and Stephanie Parnow was third in 2:00.15

For age 10 boys, William Battram was first in 2:26.89 and Chris Gray placed second in 2:39.49. Stacy Parnow took a first in age nine girls in 1:09.79.

Tyler Stains won first in the age six boys in 35.34 and Marybeth Delanie was second in 37.76.

Adrion Lee was first in the age four group at 52.0, Martin Delanie, second in 53.41 and Jake Baker, third in 1:06.20.

In the snow board cross, Nick Grimme won one group with Jason Privett, second and Nick Felske, third.

Jim Houseman won the second group, with Jeremy Favia, second and Justin Cavasso, third. Garret Chapman was the youngest snowboarder.

In the men's division, Ted Lee was the winner in 1:34.98 and Willy Hagge took second at 2:01.96.

Ski with new group rate offer

Private individuals are now offering free ski lessons by pre-arrangement by calling Tim Harris at 233-2552 or 233-2807.

For ski groups of five or more, Cedar Pass Ski Hill is now offering a special package rate available for the rest of the ski season, for $15 for the lift ticket and ski rental package, making the equipment rental free of charge. To make arrangements for groups of five or more, contact Tim Harris at 233-2552 or 233-2907.

Chance to get involved with Little League '98

A Little League coaches meeting is scheduled for March 17 at 7:00 p.m. at Al turas Elementary School multi-purpose room. All per sons interested in coaching or helping with the league are encouraged to attend.

Tryouts will be held on Saturday, March 21 at 10 a.m. at the Little League complex near the concession stand off West C Street, Alturas.

All boys ages 9 to 15 and girls, ages 8 to 15, who were not on a team last year, or are moving to the next division of play, need to be at tryouts.

Division: T-ball - boys and girls, ages 5-6; Farm - boys ages 7-8; girls age 7; Minor - boys ages 9-10; girls ages 8-10; Major - boys and girls ages 11-12; Seniors - boys and girls ages 13-15.

Playing age is the child's age on August 1, 1998.

Call Lynn or Cindy Culp at 233-4255 to register your child or for information.

Modoc Little League: 1998 Lynn Culp was re-elected as presi dent; Vice President is Heidi Hall; Secretary Kim McCombs, Treasurer, Kathy Oates; Safety Officer, Joe Catania; Baseball Player Agent, Roger Dorris; Softball Player Agent, Dennis Banis ter; Chief Umpire, Steve Privett.

 

Record sports for March 19, 1998

¥ Modoc girls win north state, play for state championship

¥ Little League try-outs are Saturday

¥ Modoc boys take second in baseball tourney

¥ Girls place third in softball event

¥ Wrestling kids doing well

¥ Ski area has a hot deal for you

¥ Karate tourney set for April

Braves top Pinewood to win NorCal title

One more game and the dream becomes reality for the Modoc Braves varsity girls basketball team. On Saturday 10 a.m. Modoc meets Mission Prep of San Luis Obispo at Arco Arena in Sacramento for the Division 5 state championship.

No Modoc team has ever played for a state title in any sport. This group of athletes will play for two state titles in the same year, vol leyball and basketball. The five starters on the bas ketball team -- Leah Siegel, Wendy Stafford, Jennifer Kern, Andrea Knox and Kayte Christensen -- were also starters on the volleyball team.

There will be a send off for the team Friday morning on Main Street. The girls' vans will leave the city park at 8:30 a.m. escorted by police to the city limits. Come out along Main Street and wish them luck.

"I feel really good about our chances against Mission Prep," said Modoc coach Mike Martin Monday. "We know they're very quick and rely on pressure defense. They're not tall and don't match up with Kayte (Christensen) or Jennifer (Kern) and we're quick ourselves. I think they might be sur prised at the quickness of our tall girls. If they overlook the quickness of our guards, that will be interesting."

Modoc's girls team will leave town Friday morning and have some time to relax and prepare for Saturday's game.

Mission Prep beat Chadwick 50-47 to win the south state tournament. Martin believes the Braves' defense will once again be the key.

The Braves whipped Pinewood, of Los Altos Hills, 52-42, Saturday in Stockton to win the North State Championship. Last year the Braves lost the North State title game to Rincon Valley Christian, who went on to win the state title. The Braves are striving to keep in the state title in the north -- in this case the real north.

"I'll tell you, our buzz defense worked as well as it could against Pinewood and they couldn't handle it," said Martin. "We had them pretty frustrated in the fourth quarter. We're told Mission Prep plays hard and ob viously they're very good or they wouldn't be playing for the state title. But, if we play as well as we did in Stockton, we're going to do very well. I'm confident and the girls are confident, just not cocky."

Modoc whipped Sacred Heart Prep in the semi-final game of the north state tourna ment Thursday night in Alturas, 51-42, in a game the Braves dominated.

Modoc is playing well and its defense has been the real key to its success against good shooting teams. The Braves simply don't al low opposing players good looks at the basket and dis rupt normally successful guards and shooters.

The Braves take their 28-1 season record into the state title game against Mission Preps' 28-3. Both teams were seeded number one in their respective tournaments.

Saturday in Stockton, the Braves got up early on Pinewood 17-12, but a cold second pe riod let Pinewood take a 25-23 lead at the half. The Braves tied the game at 34-34 after three after getting down by seven early. They then outscored the Panthers 18-8 in the final eight minutes for the win.

'That was a big win for us and every one of the girls played great," said Martin. "Our de fense kept a team that had scored over 100 points down to 42 and we had their shooters very frustrated. We were flying in their face all day and they did not get good looks."

Christensen had a solid game for Modoc, hitting 11 of 15 shots and pulling down 11 re bounds. She led the team with 23 points. Leah Siegel had another outstanding game, get ting 11 points, three assists and four steals. Jennifer Kern had eight points and eight re bounds. Andrea Knox added six points and had three assists.

Pinewood is usually hot from the outside, but only hit 3-of-25 three-point attempts. The Braves also scored at the free throw line, hit ting 15-of-29, while Pinewood didn't get the chances, hitting just 7-of-11 free throws. Pinewood picked up 23 fouls and Modoc had 20.

The Braves' defense kept the Panthers in check allowing only two girls in double fig ures, Kacey Scheppler with 11 and Sebnem Kimyacioglu with 10.

Thursday night at home, Modoc put to gether a solid game against a good Sacred Heart team and played one of their best over all games of the year, winning 51-42.

Modoc jumped up 11-6 in the opening pe riod, even though they missed several lay-ups and by half led 21-15. Sacred Heart started a run early in the second period, cut ting Modoc's lead to 13-11 in the opening two minutes and 15-14 with about four minutes left. But Modoc didn't allow Scared Heart another point in the period.

The start of the third period was Sacred Heart's undoing as Modoc jumped up 27-17 in two minutes and wound up leading 33-22 at the end of the period.

Christensen took the game in hand at the beginning of the fourth quarter, scoring six straight points and giving the Braves a 39-24 lead. The Braves then took a 47-26 lead at the three minute mark. Sacred Heart got three treys late in the pe riod to make the score look closer than it really was.

Christensen led the scoring with 19, Siegel added 11 and Kern had 10.

Pre-sale tickets for the state championship game are available at Modoc High School for $9.50 each.

Modoc baseball heads to Redding after 2nd place finish in tourney

Modoc's baseball team plays in the Redding Tournament today after placing second last week in its home tourna ment.

Modoc lost the title game to Etna Saturday afternoon, 12-2 after beating Mt. Shasta JV 13-0 and Hayfork 9-2.

The Braves open the Redding tournament against Weed, with Steve Rodriguiz getting the nod on the mound. Jeff Doss is scheduled for the second game and Jake Fussell for the third.

In the title game here against Etna, the Braves got into trouble early when the Lions blasted Modoc pitchers for six runs in the first inning, four coming on a grand slam. The Braves picked up a run in the second and another in the fourth. Etna added three in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth to win 13-2.

Rodriguiz got the loss for the Braves. Brandon Roberts led the hitting going two-for two.

Modoc coach Earl Russell said the Braves just couldn't recover from the first inning.

In the semi-final game the Braves topped Hayfork 9-2 with Jeff Doss getting the win. He fanned seven, walked a pair and allowed six hits.

Modoc jumped up 4-0 in the first and 9-0 in the third. Hayfork added a run in the fourth and another in the fifth.

Eric Lancaster knocked a two-run homer in the game. Roberts and Matt Hamilton were each two-for-three in the game. Modoc had nine stolen bases, with Ryan Campbell, Hamilton, Roberts and Chris Sherer getting two each.

The Braves opened the tourney with an easy game over Mt. Shasta's JV, winning 13-0. Jake Fussell got the win by striking out 11, walking none and allowing just two hits.

Modoc scored two in the first, three in the second, four in the third and four in the fourth. Campbell went four-for-four, Roberts, Sherer and Duane Knighton were all two-for-three.

Named to the All-tourney team were: Fussell, Knighton, Roberts and Lancaster.

Modoc softball third in tourney

Modoc's softball team took a third place in its tourney over the weekend in Alturas, beating Butte Valley 22-1.

Modoc opened the tourney with a loss to Liberty Christian 6-3 with Lindsey Lieurance getting the loss. She went five innings, struck out three, walked three and al lowed six hits.

Liberty Christian scored one in the second, two in the third and three in the fifth. Modoc got its three runs in the fifth. Lieurance went two-for-three at the plate, Cheyenne Menkee was one-for-two and Michelle Wheeler was one-for three.

The Braves lost the second game to Mt. Shasta 6-1 with Lieurance and Jamie Harris sharing the pitching duties. The Bears scored two in the third, two in the fourth and two in the fifth. Modoc scored one in the fourth.

Lieurance went three in nings, giving up two runs, fanning two, walking two and allowing two hits. Harris went two, striking out two, walking one, allowing four hits and four runs. Modoc did not get a hit in the game.

Against Butte Valley, Modoc benefited from 13 walks and three hit batters. They also collected seven hits.

The Braves scored five in the first, 12 in the second and five in the third for the win. Butte Valley scored one in the fourth.

Lieurance got the win. She struck out five, allowed three hits and didn't walk a batter.

Stephanie Northrup got two hits for Modoc, Menkee added one, Jennelle Jacques had a pair and Laura Toaetolu added one.

Lieurance and Northrup were named to the All-tourney team. Liberty Christian beat Mt. Shasta for the champi onship.

"I am pleased with our team, overall," said coach Harold Montague. "Our hit ting needs to improve and our fielders were getting a fair chance to play. Lieurance pitched very well. Menkee, Megan Marks, Jacques, Northrup and Harris all played well defensively." Michelle Wheeler, Laura Toaetulo, Jami Harris and Molly Busby are filling in at the varsity level until the bas ketball season ends and those players join the team

at the Griswold Gym in Alturas.

Youth wrestlers do well in meet

The Modoc Youth wrestling team under coach Shaun Wood did very well at a big Susanville tournament last weekend.

The team placed second out of 12 schools. They head back to Susanville this Saturday for another tournament.

Taking first places from Modoc were: Robert Veverka, Andrew Simmons, Jared McGarva, David Lutz, and Charlie Cox.

Second places went to Collin Cook, Robert Flournoy, Anthony Gatlin, Cam Jeffers, Tim Johnson, Blake McGarva, Scott McMasters, Doug Wellemeyer and Guthrie McMahon.

Third places went to: Casey Poindexter, Bill Moriarity, Mike Main, Chris Goslin,

Ski Hill offers hot deal

A hot deal with a two for one lift ticket offer will be available at Cedar Pass Ski Hill this Sunday, March 22 from 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., for any age.

Free ski lessons by pri vate individuals and group rates for five or more, are still available.

Keep an eye on the sign at Alturas Chevron to ensure weather/snow conditions are good for skiing. All is de pendent on the snow condi tions at this time of year. For Ski Hill information call 233-2552 or 233-2907.

The Ski Hill will be closed Saturday, March 21. Many of the ski hill volun teers and users will be at tending the Modoc High Varsity Girls basketball championship game for the State Title.

"We had lots of good vol unteers and enthusiasm, this season," notes a grateful Tim Harris. "We've had a great year - the best we've ever had, and it will provide the money for a new rope for the rope tow for next year."

Watch for the special Blow Out - End of the Season event at the Ski Hill March 29.

Karate tourney set for April

The seventh annual Northeastern Karate and Kung Fu Championships are scheduled for April 4 at the Griswold Gym in Alturas.

The local tourney is one of the biggest in the region and attracts some of the top karate specialists in Northern California, Southern Oregon and Nevada. Spectator admission is free.

The event is organized by the Modoc Martial Arts Association and is hosted by the Alturas Rotary Club. A ma jor sponsor of the event is the Modoc County Tobacco Coalition.

There are 45 divisions in the tournament and competi tors come from throughout the area and Oregon and Nevada. For more information, contact Joe Battram at 233-5267.

 

Record sports for March 26, 1998

¥ Great ride comes to end for Jennifer, Kayte

¥ Softball team opens league at home

¥ Baseball team gets rained out, but is home

¥ Modoc tracksters head to West Valley

¥ Free ski day at Cedar Pass

¥ Big karate tourney comes to Modoc

The great ride comes to an end for Jennifer and Kayte

Modoc High School Seniors Jennifer Kern and Kayte Christensen have been on a wonderful ride through high school, and it ended gloriously at Arco Arena Saturday aboutteam won the state championship.

Both girls will play in the high school all-star basketball game Saturday in Chico, the last time they'll officially get together on the same floor. Kayte heads to University of California, Santa Barbara next year on a basketball scholarship and Jennifer heads to UC Davis on a volleyball scholarship.

While both girls, who are great friends, have been the foundation around which the Braves championship team was built, both give plenty of credit to their teammates and coach Mike Martin. There is a real bond be tween these two and the close-knit team.

There is also some sadness that goes with the overwhelming joy of winning the state ti tle. The two very good friends now see a change of direction.

"For years, Jennifer's and my locker have been side by side," said Kayte. "Monday, we were standing at our lockers, just thinking, and I asked Jen what she was going to do af ter school that day? It was weird not having to go to practice or something. I'm going to miss playing with her on the same team. It's just been great for us. I think us playing together for so many years helped us both out."

Jennifer also feels some blues now that the era is over. "It's hard to know it's almost over; it's been great," Jennifer said. "We're very close, and I've never envied her because she's better. We have always played well to gether and for the team as a whole. I really never worried about who scored the most or whatever, as long as the team was winning. It's going to be hard playing without her."

While Jennifer is the quieter of the two, she has a very keen sense of competition and losing isn't something she tolerates. Both are very appreciative of the community support and the attention.

"The game's over, but everything else is still going on," said Jennifer. "Things are going on at school and the community is still congratulating us. It's been great. I guess I can't believe it's over because we won and as long as we were winning we kept going on. I keep thinking we should have another game, for the nationals or something. You really don't want it to end."

The duo was named co-Most Valuable Player of the Shasta Cascade League in bas ketball and the top players offensively and defensively in volleyball. The team played for the volleyball state championship this year and lost, something that eats a little at both of them.

"We were a better team than the team we lost to in volleyball," said Kayte. "We just didn't execute and play the way we could. We weren't going to do that in basketball."

Actually all the starters in this year's state championship basketball team -- Christensen, Kern, Wendy Stafford, Andrea Knox and Leah Siegel -- were starters in the volleyball team as well.

"It feels really good to win the state title, especially after the volleyball game," said Jennifer. "We knew we could beat Mission Prep and we did what we had to do. I think the volleyball experience helped. I never had a doubt about us beating Mission Prep, even when they went ahead for a minute. We had worked very hard and we deserved it."

Both girls said a major difference in this year's team over all others is that they get along well and are all friends. The lack of selfishness put them over the top.

"We all trusted one another," said Kayte. "We knew what to expect and we knew the other people were going to play hard all the time. We all had the same goal and that was to win the state championship. It's still a little hard to believe it really happened, but I think it's going to sink in soon. This is a great team."

Coach Martin has been with the girls through the journey, and both would have it no other way. Martin also got the girls in volved in a summer Amateur Athletic Union basketball program which was very competi tive and a real learning experience. It also meant a lot of extra effort during the summer for coach and players.

"I think Mr. Martin is a great coach and the good thing is that everyone on the team re spects him," said Kayte. "We all trust him and what he's doing. Plus, we believe he treats everyone well."

Jennifer agreed. "Mr. Martin is great and he respected us and he knew what we were ca pable of," she said. "He cared about us and he worked hard with us to get us where we are. He knew what we expected and we knew what he expected from us."

The community support for the team has been exceptional with more than 500 Modoc'ers making the trek to Sacramento last Saturday for the state title game.

"We really appreciated the community support, but I don't think I felt any pressure from that," Jennifer said. "I think the com munity would have been supportive even had we lost. It's just great that we won."

Kayte said she's been somewhat amazed and very gratified by the amount of support for the team. "Having all those people in Sacramento was great," she said. "It was un believable and the team was really im pressed and thankful."

For now the two go home after school, and well, at the moment, eat. They're resting, but will be getting busy in the near future.

While Modoc will wish them well, other volleyball and basketball coaches throughout the north state are breathing a collective sigh of relief. The Shasta Cascade League will now go back to its competitive self, after three years of Modoc's twin tower dominance.

Modoc softball opens league play this week

The young Modoc girls softball team opens Shasta Cascade League play this week host ing Fall River Friday, 2 p.m. in Alturas.

The Braves are one of the top three teams in league, said coach Harold Montague, with Mt. Shasta and Burney standing in the way. The team is young, with just two seniors, Wendy Stafford and Danielle Poindexter out. Juniors on the team are Lindsey Lieurance, Megan Marks, Cheyenne Menkee and Stephanie Northrup, with sophomores Molly Busby, Jennelle Jacques and Megan Orner. Also on the team are freshmen Jessica Kern and Michelle Wheeler.

Modoc also has a home game against Bonanza March 31, 2 p.m.

The Braves did well in the Liberty Christian tournament over the weekend in Redding, beating Chester 12-0 and Mercy 10-0. They were scheduled for the championship game, but were rained out.

Lieurance got the win in both games with Cheyenne Menkee doing an excellent job be hind the plate, said Montague. The Braves played well and the hitters responded at the plate.

In the Chester game, Modoc scored two in the first, added one in the second, four in the fourth, one in the fifth and four in the sixth. Modoc picked up six hits against a good Chester pitcher, while Lieurance allowed just one hit. She fanned seven and didn't walk a batter.

She was also 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs. Wheeler was 2-for-4 with a double and Jacques was 2-for-3.

Against Mercy, the Braves hit production fell off to three, but they picked up 11 walks. Lieurance held Mercy to just one hit in her second shut-out of the day.

The Braves scored one in the first, three in the second, five in the third and one in the fourth. Modoc committed just one error in the game and three in the first game.

Lieurance went five innings, striking out 10, walking three and allowing just one hit. Modoc's leading hitter was Jacques, who had one double.

Montague was pleased with the Braves per formance in Redding, following a weak out ing against Lakeview when Modoc dropped a pair badly, 12-4 and 14-2.

The Braves had just nine players avail able, because of some injuries. Lieurance and Wheeler both got time on the mound and everyone got playing time. Lieurance pitched well but Modoc batters only collected six hits in two games and the defense had 12 mis cues.

"We're young, but very competitive this season," said Montague. "We're now at full strength, with Stafford, Orner and Kern com ing back from basketball. I look for a good year."

Braves rained out of LC title game

Modoc's Braves were scheduled to play for the champi onship in the Liberty Christian tournament Saturday, but a massive downpour washed out the chance.

Modoc beat Weed 6-4 in the opening game of the tourney and dropped Liberty Christian 5-3 in the semi-final. They were scheduled to meet Hayfork for the title. According to coach Earl Russell, that game may be rescheduled.

In the Weed game, Modoc led 1-0 after one and the game was tied at 3-3 in the second. The Braves added two runs in the third and another in the fifth. Weed pushed one run across in the first.

Steve Rodriguez got the win for Modoc and was relieved in the fifth by Duane Knighton. Rodriguez fanned six, al lowed six hits, walked five and hit two batters.

Knighton led the hitting, going 3-for-4. Matt Hamilton was 2-for-4, Larry Cavasso and Chris Sherer were 2-for-3 and Ted Lewis went 2-for-2. The Braves had nine stolen bases with Knighton, Jake Fussell, Cavasso and Sherer getting two each.

Jeff Doss got the win in the second game against Liberty Christian. He went the full five innings, allow ing just one hit, struck out seven and walked only one.

The Braves were down 1-0 in the second but took a 3-1 lead in the third and added another pair in the fourth. Liberty added two in the fourth to give Modoc the 5-3 win.

Knighton went 2-for-3 at the plate, with Hamilton going 1-for-3 and Fussell and Lewis each going 1-for-2. Sherer and Cavasso each stole a pair of bases.

Sherer and Knighton were named to the All-tourney team.

Modoc meets Burney at Fall River Wednesday to open Shasta Cascade League play. The Burney field is under repair this year. On Friday they meet Fall River here in a doublebill starting at 2 p.m.

Braves open track at West Valley

Modoc's Braves open the 1998 track season at the Eagle Classic Relays in West Valley this Saturday.

The track team should have a good season under coach John Geldreich. The team is coming up to full strength now that the bas ket ball play-offs are over. The team heads to a dual meet at Lakeview March 31, 3:30 p.m.

Some athletes expected to do well this year are Ginny and Julia Greene, Missy Lieurance, Rebekah Richert, Courtney George, Billie Geldreich, Christy Cartner, Tatum Dunn, Elizabeth Eatmon, Kate Burshem and Amanda Moriarity.

On the boys side, Geldreich looks for good seasons from Josh Keyes, Matt Carroll, Jeremy Favia, Cody Holloway, Aaron Wishart, Travis Dunn, Jed and Richard Tate and Chris Lauppe.

Ski Blow Out promises free lift tickets for kids

A special end of the season Blow Out party and Free Ski Day for kids 18 and younger, plus ski and snowboard races, will be sponsored by the Modoc Tobacco Control and Education Program for Sunday, March 29 at Cedar Pass Ski Hill.

The Tobacco Program will be picking up the tab for race entry fees for ages four through 18-year-olds and offer free ski lift passes for the 18 and under crowd.

The hill will be open from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Race signups will begin at 10 a.m. March 29. Awards will be given to the racers.

The Ski Hill will furnish the hot grill and encourages all coming to enjoy the day even more by bringing some thing to grill for the potluck lunch.

It may be the last day to use the hill for the season, de pending on the snow conditions.

If the Cedar Pass Ski Hill has the snow, it may be open a few days during Spring Break. Updates will be given closer to those dates.

Karate championships set for April 4 at Griswold Gym

The seventh annual Northeastern Karate and Kung Fu Championships are scheduled for April 4 at the Griswold Gym in Alturas.

The local tourney is one of the biggest in the region and attracts some of the top karate specialists in Northern California, Southern Oregon and Nevada. Spectator admission is free. New teams are coming this year from Red Bluff and Chico.

The event is organized by the Modoc Martial Arts Association and is hosted by the Alturas Rotary Club. A ma jor sponsor of the event is the Modoc County Tobacco Coalition.

There are 45 divisions in the tournament and competi tors come from throughout the area and Oregon and Nevada. For more information, contact Joe Battram at 233-5267.

April

 

Record sports for April 2, 1998

¥ Modoc girls earn All-state honors

¥ Big Karate tourney here this weekend

¥ Track team heading to Fall River

¥ El Nino cancels ball games

¥ Youth wrestlers brave the weather

Modoc players named best of state hoopsters

A pair of Modoc High School girls varsity basketball players have been honored by Cal-High Sports this week.

Kayte Christensen has been named the state Player of the Year for Division 5 by the recognized authority on the state's high school sports.

Fellow Modoc senior Jennifer Kern was named to the 10-member All-State team for Division 5 by Cal-High Sports.

Modoc won the state varsity girls basketball champi onship for Division 5 this year. Cal-High Sports had Modoc ranked number one in the state all season.

Karate champi onships set for April 4

Don't miss the seventh annual Northeastern Karate and Kung Fu Championships scheduled April 4 at the Griswold Gym in Alturas.

The local tourney is one of the biggest in the area and attracts some of the top karate specialists in Northern California, Southern Oregon and Nevada. Spectator admission is free. New teams are coming this year from Red Bluff and Chico.

There are divisions in fighting, forms and weapons and competition begins at 10:30 a.m.

The event is organized by the Modoc Martial Arts Association and is hosted by the Alturas Rotary Club. A ma jor sponsor of the event is the Modoc County Tobacco Coalition.

There are 45 divisions in the tournament and competi tors come from throughout the area and Oregon and Nevada.

 

Tracksters hope for Fall River

 

Modoc's track team is still waiting for its first op portunity to compete, as the weather has canceled the last two meets.

The Braves are scheduled for the Fall River Invitational this weekend, but chances that it will be run do not look good. Fall River has a standard track, as does Modoc and it's been very wet.

The Braves did go to Lakeview for a dual meet Wednesday. That meet was canceled Tuesday and rescheduled.

A meet at West Valley March 28 was canceled when it snowed several inches.

Modoc is scheduled to compete in the Lakeview Invitational April 11. Lakeview does have an all-weather track.

 

El Nino nixes ball games

 

El Nino dropped a bunch of rain and snow on Modoc this week, canceling all softball and baseball games. And the future looks bleak.

Modoc was supposed to play Burney March 25, Fall River, March 27 and Bonanza March 31. All of those games were postponed because of the weather.

Modoc is supposed to meet Lost River in baseball today, but local fields are muddy. On April 4, Mt., Shasta jayvees are scheduled in Alturas. The forecast calls for showers.

Modoc softball teams were scheduled to play Bonanza March 31, but that game was put off. On April 2, they are scheduled for a game in Lost River.

Following Spring Break, the Braves return to the dia monds April 15 in Modoc against Mt. Shasta.

 

Big turnout, despite weather for bouts

 

There was a big turnout for the Youth Wrestling Tournament Saturday, de spite a strong winter storm that dumped five inches of snow in Alturas.

According to Modoc coach Shaun Wood, 180 wrestlers from nine schools partici pated in the all-day event. For Modoc, 41 wrestlers placed. Modoc finishes the youth sea son this weekend at Tulelake.

Taking first places in the middle school division were: David Lutz, Doug Wellemeyer, Jared McGarva (2), Colin Cook, Mike Main and Andrew Simmons.

Coming in with second places were: Robert Flournoy, Landon Brown, Bill Moriarity, K.C. Poindexter, Cameron Jeffers, and Tim Johnston.

Third place finishers were: Guthrie McMahon, Robert Veverka, Morgan Dunn, Benny Pavan and Blake McGarva.

Fourth places went to: Jessi Willhite, Anthony Gatlin, Morgan Dunn, K.C. Poindexter, Moe Sphar and Cherrity Courtney.

In the youth divison, first places were won by: Hank Raabe, Travis Wood (2), Joshua Wood, Tyler Wood, Jalen Estes, Ethan Haas, Alex Moreo, Breanna Fogerty, Rowan Fogerty and Derek Wood.

Taking second places in youth were: Nick Hawes, Daniel Shafer, Jack Veverka, Will Battram, Tim Cruse, Zack McElwayne.

Third places were earned by: Hank Raabe, Jack Veverka, Mark Main, Garrett Chapman and Joshua Wood.

Taking fourths in the event were: Sean Jacobs, Nick Hawes, Daniel Shafer, and Justin Estes.

 

Record sports for April 9, 1998

¥ Tracksters finally get to run one

¥ Karate Tourney was a good show

¥ Ball teams hopes to get in some games

Modoc gets in one track meet

It really hasn't been track and field weather yet this year, but Modoc did get one dual meet with Lakeview in last Wednesday. The meet was scheduled for Tuesday, but snow canceled it and it was rescheduled for the next day.

The Braves are supposed to go back to Lakeview for an Invitational meet April 11. The Lakeview facility is an all-weather track, so it can handle some moderately bad weather conditions.

The dual meet last week was Modoc's first and a meet at Fall River was canceled because of weather last Friday.

In Lakeview, Modoc's Josh Keyes won the 1500 meters in 4:37.59 and the 800 meters in 2:13.63. James Drennan won the discus at 120-11 1/2 and the shot at 39-3/4. Matt Carroll won the 400 meters in 56.07. Cody Holloway won the long jump at 18-6. Modoc's 4x400 meter relay team also own.

Taking second places for the Braves were Holloway in the 100 meters at 12.0, Jeremy Favia in the 200 meters at 24.38, Aaron Wishart in the high jump at 5-4 and Chris Lauppe in the pole vault at 9-0.

Coming in third place were Wishart in the 110 hurdles at 19.29, Favia in the 100 meters at 12.4, Holloway in the 200 meters at 25.13, Carroll in the high jump at 5-4, Travis Dunn in the 800 at 2:34.15, Sheldon Benson in the triple jump at 29-4 1/2, and Wishart in the pole vault at 8-6.

Julia Greene led the Modoc girls in the meet, winning the 100 meters in 13.37 and the 200 meters in 28.01. Modoc also won the 4x100 meter race. Susanna Wise won the 400 in 1:17.88 and Missy Lieurance won the pole vault at 6-6.

Second places went to Billie Geldreich in the 100 hurdle at 18.2, Lieurance in the 300 meter hurdles, and Wise in the high jump at 3-6. Modoc's 4x400 meter team placed sec ond.

Taking third places were Geldreich in the 300 hurdles at 58.36, Rebekah Richert in the discus at 79-1 1/2, Kate Bershem in the pole vault at 6-0.

 

Karate tourney was good show

 

The Northeastern Karate Championships went off well Saturday, even with a snow storm that kept some of the par ticipants at home.

"We were pleased and the tournament went very smoothly," said organizer Joe Battram. "A few participants stayed home because of the roads, but we still had an excel lent turnout and the quality of the tournament was very good."

The tournament results for forms are as follows:

Forms:

6 and Under: 1st, Cara Mooney; 2nd, Billy Gordon; 3rd, Andrew Stewart.

7-8 Beg: 1st, Tanner Hall; 2nd, Kayla Brown.

7-8 Adv: 1st, Cameron Boyle; 2nd, Tony Padilla.

9-10 Beg: 1st, Douglas Furlow; 2nd, Sean Conway; 3rd, Chrissy Compton.

9-10 Adv: 1st, Thomas Hevener; 2nd, Kyle Brown; 3rd, Janathan Ramos.

11-12 Beg: 1st, Jeannie Stevenson; 2nd, Terez Compton.

11-12 Adv: 1st, Brian Stevenson; 2nd, Andrew Es pino; 3rd, Marya Gates.

13-15 Beg: 1st, Michael Marrow; 2nd, Zane Win gate; 3rd, Clayton Broman.

13-15 Adv: 1st, Christy Mooney; 2nd, Crystal God ing; 3rd, Joseph Gates.

Women over 16 Adv: 1st, Jenny Andrea; 2nd, Paulette Cone; 3rd, Raelene David.

Men over 16 Beg: 1st, Robin Brush; 2nd, Clayton One Star; 3rd, Dominque Castellanos.

Men over 16 Adv: 1st, Douglas Furlow; 2nd, William Stevenson; 3rd, Ken Ballard.

Adult Brown Belt: 1st, Bubba Hill; 2nd, Matt Zaiesny; 3rd, Bruce Boldon.

Black Belt Forms: 1st, Ryan Gayheart; 2nd, David Reynolds; 3rd, Vincent Finnianous.

Weapons:

Brown & Under: 1st, Cameron Boyle; 2nd, Dou glas Furlow; 3rd, William Stephenson.

Black Belt Weapons: 1st, Ryan Gayheart; 2nd, Sally Clark; 3rd, Mike Kraft.

Fighting:

6 and Under: 1st, Cara Mooney; 2nd, Billy Gordon; 3rd, Andrew Stewart.

7-8 Beg: 1st, Kayla Brown; 2nd, Corey Conway; 3rd, Tanner Hill.

7-8 Adv: 1st, Tony Padilla; 2nd, Cameron Boyle.

9-10 Beg: 1st, Douglas Furlow; 2nd, Sean Conway; 3rd, Anthony Orchard.

9-10 Adv: 1st, Thamas Hevener; 2nd, Caitlin Mooney; 3rd, Kyle Brown.

11-12 Beg: 1st, Jeanne Stevenson; 2nd, Marya Gates; 3rd, Terez Compton.

11-12 Adv: 1st, Andrew Espino; 2nd, Brian Steven son.

13-15 Beg. Boys: 1st, Zane Wingate; 2nd, Michael Morrow.

13-15 Adv. Girls: 1st, Crystal Goding; 2nd, Chris tine Mooney.

Women over 16 Yrs: 1st, Paulette Cone; 2nd, Jenny Andrea; 3rd, Lisa Boos.

Men over 16 Beg. Lt: 1st, Dominque Castillanos; 2nd, Robert Foster; 3rd, Mike Smith.

Men 16 Beg. Hvy: 1st, Clayton One Star; 2nd, Mike Smith.

Men 16 Adv. Lt: 1st, Amos Hoffman; 2nd, Kevin Skel ton; 3rd, Dan Hoover.

Men 16 Adv. Hvy: 1st, Douglas Furlow; 2nd, William Stevenson; 3rd, Robin Brush.

Men 40 and Up Adv: 1st, Larry Manzer; 2nd, Larry Shippen; 3rd, Roger Luke.

Physically Challenged: 1st, Will Compton; 2nd, Nancy North-Gates; 3rd, Lisa Boos.

Men Brown Belt Lt: 1st, Bubba Hill; 2nd, Matt Za leghy; 3rd, Chris Mulligan.

Men Brown Belt Hvy: 1st, Larry Manzer; 2nd, Mike Nagy; 3rd, Larry Shippen.

Women Brown Belt: 1st, Jenny Andrea; 2nd, Paulette Cone; 3rd, Josanna Clark.

Men Black Belt Lt: 1st, David Reynolds; 2nd, Ryan Gayheart; 3rd, Vince Finnianous.

Women Black Belt: 1st, Sally Clark; 2nd, Josanna Clark; 3rd, Jenny Andrea.

Men Black Belt 40 and Up: 1st, Vince Finnianous; 2nd, Mike Kraft.

Tag Team Fighting:

1st Place Team: Ryan Gayhart, David Reynolds, Bubba Hill.

2nd Place Team: Larry Shippen, Paulette Cone, Domonique Castellanos.

3rd Place Team: Chris Battram, Mike Nagy, Bruce Boldon.

1998 Mens Black Belt Grand Champion: David Reynolds, Redding.

1998 Womens Black Belt Grand Champion: Sally Clark, Alturas.

 

Modoc hopes to get ball games in next week

 

Modoc's Braves have been forced to cancel several baseball and softball games and are hoping to get back to business next week after spring break.

Modoc baseball and softball are scheduled to meet Mt. Shasta in a home Shasta Cascade League game April 15 at 2 p.m. On April 16, the junior varsity baseball and softball teams meet Lost River in Alturas.

The Braves will reschedule the lost league games.

 

Record sports summaries for April 16, 1998

¥ Modoc Tracksters off to Shasta

¥ Conner selected to bicycle team camp

¥ Destruction Derby set for Cedarville

¥ Modoc girls hoop team honored by town

¥ Full streams predicted for trout opener

Braves head to Shasta after Lakeview invite

Modoc's track team hits the road again this week to a meet at Shasta College. A holi day-spring-break-depleted Braves team competed at the Lakeview Invitational last Saturday on a pretty chilly day.

Modoc's varsity boys team was without several athletes and the girls team was also represented by just a few of the regulars. Most were out-of-town from the spring break.

The Braves head to the Enterprise Hornet Invitational at Shasta College in Redding Saturday. About 15 schools will be in competi tion, most of them large schools, so the Braves will face some stiff competition.

Head coach John Geldreich expects his boys varsity to do well and figures he'll keep most of his girls at the junior varsity level for this meet. Those sophomores and freshmen will probably move up in the smaller school meets. The girls competing at the varsity level, including Ginny Greene, Courtney George and Kate Bershem should fare well.

Modoc's boys varsity finished fourth in the Lakeview meet with 60 points, behind Mazama with 150, Lakeview with 90 and Bonanza 67. Chiloquin had 51 points, Gerlach 25, Fall River 20, Butte Valley 15, Culver 10 and North Lake 10.

Sophomore Cody Holloway won the varsity long jump at 19-6 1/2. He placed fourth in a very fast 100 meters at 11.84.

Matt Carroll took a second in the 400 me ters at 55.10 and Jeremy Favia was fourth at 56.88. Carroll also took a third in the high jump at 5-4. Holloway, Favia, Travis Dunn and Carroll teamed up to place third in the 4x400 meter relay at 3:55.52 and the 4x100 meter relay at 47.81.

James Drennan took a fourth in the shot put with a 39-7.

In the girls varsity meet, Rebekah Richert took a fifth in the discus at 87-9 and in the shot put at 27-3.

In the junior varsity part of the meet, Modoc's Aaron Wishart took three firsts, in the high hurdles at 18.45, in the pole vault at 8-0 and in the high jump at 5-2.

Modoc's Tatum Dunn took a second in the 200 meters and Suzanna Wise was second in the 400 meters.

 

Conner selected for bicycle team camp

 

Alturas bicycle racer Josh Conner, a sophomore at Modoc High School has been invited to the Regional Team Selection Camp of the Lance Armstrong Junior Olympics.

Conner will attend that camp in August on his way up the ladder to the national junior team and champi onships. He was invited be cause of his exceptional performance in Junior Olympic races.

Last weekend, Conner won a big Junior Olympic race, the Copperopolis Road race in Milton, Ca. He won the 42-mile race in the 15-16 age group by more than two minutes.

His next race is April 17-19 in Madera, where he is looking forward to the stage races which include a time trial.

Conner got a late start on training because of the winter weather in Modoc, but has won his last three races. On April 3-5 he won the Redding 3-day road race and a mountain bike race at Shasta Lake.

Early this season, he placed fourth in one of the biggest races on the west coast, the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey. Thousands of racers compete in that race.

He also placed second in the Wine Country Classic March 28 and 29.

Conner expresses his ap preciation for the moral and financial support he's received this spring from Alturas bicycle racer Matt Dorgan, who has been in strumental in his ability to go to these races.

 

Destruction derby gives $1,000 purse

Entry deadline May 15

 

The Surprise Valley Ro tary Club is bringing back some good old fashioned fun and laughs by pitting driver to driver in their first Annual Destruction Derby on Memo rial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 23, at the Modoc County Fair Grounds in Cedarville.

The 6 p.m. grand entry will include all participants fol lowed by the first heat at 6:30 p.m.

For you daredevils com pelled to take on this chal lenge and fun, entry forms are available at Arreche En terprises, Surprise Valley Parts, Valley Chevron, Pages Market, Coast to Coast, Les Schwab, Alturas Tire, Alturas Motor Parts, Modoc Motor Parts and Carstens Motors or you may contact Roy M. Moore at 530-233-4079 after 5 p.m. A signed Certifi cate of Ownership and a $30 deposit must accompany each entry. The Certificate and deposit will be returned within two weeks after the Derby, pro vided the entry car has been removed from the fair grounds immediately follow ing the contest.

The entry form, $25 entry fee for regis tration, certificate and $30 de posit must be postmarked by May 15. Registration will be $50 thereafter until 5 p.m. May 23 at which time the reg istration period closes.

The winners of each heat will receive $100. The main event will award a first place of $1,000, second place $400, third place of $200 and fourth place of $100. All winners will be awarded trophies at the conclusion of the derby.

A small general admis sion of $5 for adult and $2.50 for children under 12 will be charged at the gate. Pit crew mem bers will be charged $5 each for a maximum of three. Addi tional crew will be $15 each.

Be sure to mark May 23 on your calendar to attend the Rotary's first Annual De struction Derby.

 

Modoc girls feted with parade, reception

 

On April 1, the Modoc High state championship girls bas ketball team was feted to a parade and reception, which was well attended and fun.

The event was organized by the Alturas Rotary Clubs with some help from the Alturas Chamber of Commerce. The pa rade started at 4 p.m. and took the girls in classic convert ibles from the park to the Griswold Gym. In a near miracle, the heavy rain clouds parted at the start of the parade and stayed apart until the girls arrived at the gym.

Rotary provided the food and staff for the reception where presentations were made and fans got a chance to watch a video of the state championship game.

The girls received gifts and honors from the following groups and individuals: Governor Pete Wilson, the Alturas Chamber of Commerce, City of Alturas, Modoc Joint Unified School District, Modoc County Office of Education, County Board of Supervisors, the Alturas Elks Lodge, Senior Citizens Association, Xi Zeta Kappa, Beta Sigma Phi, Gil's Burger Stop, and Kinman and Curry.

Speeches were also made by Althetic Director Lane Bates, coach Mike Martin, Principal Duke Pasquini, and the girls.

 

 

Full streams predicted

 

El Nino's saturation of the north state with rain and snow over recent months may present some rather swift flow conditions for the Saturday, April 25, opening of the stream trout fishing season, the Department of Fish and Game's Region 1 office pre dicted.

But, the same generous pre cipitation of past months also promises to keep streams in excellent condition through most, if not all, the summer and fall, the DFG said.

Closed to trout fishing since November 16 to protect their populations of spawning wild trout, the medium and small streams of most--but not all--north state areas will open to angling an hour before sunrise on April 25 under a bag limit of five trout per day, 10 in possession.

Anglers must possess a valid sport fishing license, on sale at $27.05 for residents, and must wear it visibly above the waist to take part in the outdoor sport. Most streams remain open through November 15.

Exceptions to the general trout season dates, bag limits and permitted gear can be found in free booklets titled "Sport Fishing Regulations," available from license agents and DFG offices.

Fish and Game said weather in the days leading up to the opener, as usual, will be a key ingredient in the prospects for opening week end. Anglers will hope for clear, dry weather that allows streams to settle down, but without intense heat that could trigger stream flows boosted by increased snow melt.

With or without favorable conditions, the DFG said, an glers are almost certain to face sizable stream volumes and possibly cloudy water for the opener. Under such cir cumstances, fishing with bait or nymphs weighted down to the stream bottom's lesser ve locities is considered a good approach.

While literally hundreds of miles of north state streams tucked away in mountain canyons grow their own wild trout to challenge anglers, many convenient, roadside streams and lakes will be the targets of DFG trout stocking plans.

Trucks from Darrah Springs, Mt. Shasta and Crystal Lake hatcheries plan to have delivered some 66,900 sport-sized rainbow, brook and brown trout to 58 streams and lakes by opening day. By the end of next October, the three hatcheries will have planted a total of 927,000 fish in 107 waters.

For the six northeastern counties of Tehama, Shasta, Trinity, Siskiyou, Modoc and Lassen, the DFG's Region 1 office provides a recorded message with trout plant in formation updated weekly. The number is 530-225-2146.

 

Record sports for April 23, 1998

¥ Modoc track does well against big schools

¥ Jackson leads Cardinal thinclads

¥ Braves split in baseball double header

¥ Softball team win one, loses one in SCL

¥ SV Hornets earn split with McCloud

Braves do well at big school track gathering

Modoc's track teams did very well at the John Frank Memorial track meet at Shasta College Saturday, in a predominately large school gathering.

Modoc coach John Geldreich told the team Monday he was very pleased with their per formances and is looking for very good things from both the boys and girls teams the remainder of the season.

Modoc's boys varsity team took fifth out of 20 schools and the junior varsity girls took fourth overall. Most of the JV girls will be moving to varsity in the league meet.

Friday the Braves travel to Burney for the Burney Classic Invitational. That meet will be a gathering of the area's small schools and Geldreich expects the boys and girls team to have excellent days. Many of the JV girls will be moved into the varsity ranks for this meet.

"I was very pleased with the team's per formance in Redding," said Geldreich. "We set some goals and for the most part the kids met them. We finished well ahead of the other small schools and many large schools."

Senior Ginny Greene, in her first full track meet of the season had an excellent day. She won the 400 meters with a 63.9 clock ing, was second in the 100 meters in 13.99, third in the 200 meters in 28.37 and won the Pennsylvania 3,000 meters.

One of the best marks of the day came from sophomore Cody Holloway in the varsity boys long jump. He won the event with a 21-3 3/4 leap, one of the best in the north section.

The varsity boys 4x400 meter relay team placed third with a solid time of 3:41.6. That team consists of Jeremy Favia, Holloway, Josh Keyes and Matt Carroll. Geldreich ex pects the team to do very well in league and small schools finals.

The boys 4x100 meter team also placed third with a 46.47 clocking. That team has Rowdy Campbell, Carroll, Holloway and Favia running.

Josh Keyes won the novelty 1500 meter steeple chase with a time of 4:50. Favia took a sixth in the 100 meters in 12.26 and in the 200 meters in 24.4.

In the junior varsity ranks, Julia Greene took a third in the 100 meters in 13.59 and clocked a 27.98 in the 200 meters. She com bined with Susanna Wise, Billy Geldreich and Missy Lieurance for a 4:49.6 4x400 meter relay. The 4x100 meter relay ran a 55.69.

Aaron Wishart took a second in the JV boys high jump with a 5-8 effort, his personal best. He also ran an 18.66 high hurdle race and ran on the 4x100 meter relay team with Jesse Duran, Sheldon Benson and Chris Lauppe with clocked a 55.70.

Other results from the meet are as follows: 100 meter hurdles, Geldreich 17.8, Lieurance 18.81, Courtney George 19.69; boys JV, Lauppe 18.36, Wishart 18.66; 100 meters, girls, Berhsem, 13.81; boys Campbell 12.06; Favia 11.87; 200 meters, girls, Tatum Dunn 31.2; 400 meters, girls, Wise 78.1; boys, Carroll, 55.5; 800 meters, girls, Amanda Moriarity, 3:01.5; boys, Keyes, 2:10.81, Travis Dunn, 2:27.22; 1600 meters, girls April Dorton, no time listed; Keyes 4:53.9; 300 hurdles, girls, Lieurance 57.21, sixth Geldreich 58.02, George 59.2, boys, Lauppe 46.80, sixth; triple jump, Holloway 37-7, seventh, Carroll 34-7; discus, girls Dorton 58-5; boys, Greg Buck 92-0, Benson, 90-6; shot put, girls, Rebekah Richert 30-5 3/4, Dorton, 20-7 1/4, boys, Jed Tate, 39-2 1/2; Buck 36-0, Benson 31-0; high jump, girls, Dunn 4-0, Wise 4-0, George 4-4; long jump, Dan Hoover 12-6.

Jackson leads Cardinal thinclads

While the weather has been unpredictable for the meets on Big Valley's track schedule this spring, one thing has been very constant for the Cardinals -- Ileah Jackson winning her events.

And not just one event ei ther. Jackson's top perfor mance of the season probably came at the West Valley Oc tathlon a couple of weeks ago where she won the whole thing with the top score in all events combined.

Last weekend Jackson, a junior, continued her win ning ways at the John Frank Invitational at Shasta College with wins in both the 300 hur dles and long jump as well as a second place finish in the high jump.

This weekend Jackson, and teammate Joe Haury, a distance runner, will be go ing to the prestigious Chico Invitational. The rest of the Cardinal team will be at the Burney Classic.

The BV girls team consists of Jackson, Kelsey Hunsaker and Nicole Silva. The boys team features Jacob Ashford, Chris Clark, Renden Ellen berger, Morgan Halpenny, Joe Haury, Colton Jeppson, Patrick McCauley, Mike McLain, Corado Reginatto, Chris Silva, Heath Urey and Justin Wood.

The team is coached by Gary Bennett and Dan Dahle. Sam Thompson is the team manager.

Big Valley will host its own Small Schools Invitational on Saturday, May 9, beginning at 10:30 in Bieber.

 

Braves split with Bears

 

The Modoc baseball team had every excuse to be rusty. After all, the local weather had forced them into a 26-day vacation between games. They had also only managed three full practices during that stretch.

Having not played since March 20, the Braves nonetheless took to the diamond on April 15 last week and fought their way to a double header split against Mt. Shasta to open the Shasta-Cascade League season.

The Mt. Shasta games were supposed to have been games five and six in the SCL schedule for the Braves in stead of one and two. The Bears already had plenty of SCL experience having played six games already this year.

But those six games could n't get Mt. Shasta ready for the pitching of Jack Fussell in the first game. Modoc won that game 5-4 behind six strong innings on the hill from Fussell. The Modoc se nior notched six strikeouts while only allowing one walk and five hits. Jeff Doss came on in the seventh to pick up the save.

At the plate, Brandon Roberts (3-3) and Eric Lan caster (2-2) both hit 1.000 for the game while Duane Knighton also had a 3-4 per formance.

Game two of the double-header saw snow (that's right, snow!) delays in the second and fifth innings, and unfor tunately, a come from behind win by the Bears. Modoc car ried a 3-1 lead into the fourth inning only to see the Bears score five unanswered runs for a 6-3 win.

Top offensive perfor mances in the game were turned in by Ryan Campbell and Chris Clark who com bined to steal four bases.

Braves coach Earl Russell said that what hurt about the loss was that only two of Mt. Shasta's six runs were earned. He also noted that the pitching staff gave up several walks and said that "the pitching has got to come around," for the Braves to do well in league.

Modoc will travel to Weed on Friday for a double-header that begins at 2:00. The Bur ney and Fall River games that were previously canceled due to bad weather have been tentatively rescheduled for May 6 (Fall River at Modoc) and May 12 (Modoc at Bur ney).

 

Modoc splits with Bears

 

When Modoc and Mt. Shasta took to the softball field last week in Alturas, they were bound and determined that, no matter what the weather, they were going to play a doubleheader. After all, with the "El Nino" spring that has hit Modoc County, the Braves had already canceled all four league games that had been on their schedule.

So, even though the temperature was in the mid 30's and there were periods of snow, the Braves and Bears coura geously played two ball games last Wednesday afternoon.

"We had to get it in," Modoc coach Harold Mon tague explained. "It gets to a point where you can't afford to take off any more days."

The young Braves squad, which sports as many fresh men (two) as seniors, did a great job in their Shasta Cas cade League opener, winning the first game of the afternoon 22-3 in five innings. The Braves could have raised some serious cash if they had solicited door-to-door before the game for a walk-a-thon. That's what the Modoc team experience as Mt. Shasta pitchers gave them 18 free passes in just four at bats.

Despite all of the wild pitch ing, the Braves still managed to bang out ten hits, sending a total of 39 batters to the plate in just four innings. Center fielder Wendy Stafford, shortstop Megan Orner and third baseman Janelle Jacques had two hits each. Orner and catcher Cheyenne Menkee led the squad with four RBI's each.

Also picking up base hits were Stephanie Northrup, Molly Busby and Michelle Wheeler.

Lindsay Lieurance pitched four and one-third innings and only gave up one earned run. She had three strikeouts while only allowing two hits. Lieurance helped herself by turning a double play to get out of a one-out bases loaded jam in the fourth. She snagged a line drive and threw to third to double up the runner.

The defensive play of the day came when Danielle Poindexter killed off a sure triple with a running one-handed grab in right field in the fifth inning.

In the second game of the afternoon, the Braves got off to a slow start and were down 8-2 after the first three innings. Modoc scored seven runs in the last two innings but it wasn't enough as they lost 14-9 to end the day at 1-1 in league. Seven errors, five walks and two hit batters gave Mt. Shasta too many free op portunities according to Montague.

"Once you start putting people on base without them earning it, then you have to get outs with runners on base. That makes it tough," he said.

Stafford provided all of the Modoc offense through the first five innings. In the first she knocked a solo home run clean over the left field fence. In the third she singled, worked her way around to third, and then stole home on a wild pitch.

The Brave offense finally got rolling in the sixth, again with the help of Mt. Shasta pitching. Northrup, Jessica Kern, Lieurance and Stafford all walked while Busby sin gled. However, just as the Modoc bats were getting hot, they were also hitting into hard luck.

With the bases loaded, Menkee hit a solid shot into left field that looked like it would go over the fielder's head. However, the Mt. Shasta left fielder stuck her glove up in the air and made what looked like a very ner vous and unsure catch. The lucky stab turned what would have been at least a bases-clearing three-RBI double into a one-RBI sacrifice fly.

The hard luck continued with Jacques next up at the plate. She hit a solid line drive, but it went straight at the Bears' second baseman for the third out of the inning.

In the seventh, Kern walked and came home when Megan Marks doubled. Two more runs came in when Lieurance singled and Stafford doubled, but the Bears eventually stamped out the comeback.

The Braves will travel to Weed tomorrow for a double header that begins at 2:00. The Burney and Fall River games that were rained out in March will be rescheduled for May.

 

Hornets split with McCloud

 

The Surprise Valley base ball team opened the Ever green League season at home last Friday by earning a dou bleheader split against Mc Cloud.

The Hornets invoked the 10-run mercy rule against McCloud in the first game with good hitting and a com plete game pitching perfor mance by Mike Northrup.

The Hornets will be at home again tomorrow when they host Butte Valley in Cedarville. The double header begins at 2 p.m.

The Surprise Valley team is composed of Aaron Teuscher, Andy Tierney, Nathan Moore, Chris Harris, Tom Harris, Mike Northrup, John Arreche, Justin Free man, Tim Wood, Brandon Wood, Craig Hymer, Andrew Dolcini and Brian Darst. The team is coached by Mike Ray.

Record sports for April 30, 1998

¥ Braves win Burney Invitational meet

¥ Modoc sweeps Weed, Etna a must

¥ Christensen is state MVP all-star

¥ Get your Duck Race tickets soon

Modoc girls, boys win invite

Modoc girls and boys var sity track teams won the rain-shortened Burney h standing a very poor day for track.

The Braves travel to a very solid Westwood Invitational this Friday. According to coach John Geldreich, all the small schools in the area plus a couple of big schools, Central Valley and Lassen will be at the meet. He expects his boys team to compete very well and figures several of the girls will have solid meets.

Leading the way for the Modoc boys in Burney was Josh Keyes who won the 800 meters, 2:12 and the mile in 3:55.

Matt Carroll took a first in the 400 meters with a 54.9 time on a sloppy track. Cody Holloway took a second in the long jump at 19-0. Carroll and Holloway joined Jeremy Favia and Rowdy Campbell to win the 4x100 meter relay in 47.8. Campbell took a fourth in the 400 meters at 59.0. Travis Dunn competed in the mile and 800 meters.

Jed Tate put the shot 37-2 for third place. Greg Buck hit 35-11, Dan Irvin hit 32-7 and Josh Velasco tossed it 27 feet. Tate hit 92-6 in the discus and Irvin hit 78-9.

Ginny Greene led the girls team with a 61.0 win in the 400 and anchored the winning 4x100 meter relay team to Billie Geldreich, Kate Burshem and Julia Greene.

Julia Greene win the 100 meters in 13.8, Burshem was third in 14.2 and Tatum Dunn took a fourth in junior var sity.

Billie Geldreich took a sec ond in the 100 hurdles at 18.3 and Missy Lieurance was fourth in 18.9. Lieurance won the pole vault at 6-6.

Chris Lauppe won the JV boys pole vault at 9-8 with Aaron Wishart second at 9-8. Wishart won the hurdles at 18.2 and Lauppe was second at 18.3.

Modoc's junior varsity boys 4x100 meter relay placed sec ond with Jesse Duran, Sheldon Benson, Lauppe and Wishart Running.

Susanna Wise took a third in the JV 400 meters in 78.3. Amanda Moriarity was fourth in 79.4. Moriarity ran a 3:20 800 meters and triple jumped 22-3 and long jumped 10-0. Dunn high jumped 4-0.

Braves get two sweeps against Weed Cougars

The Modoc baseball and softball teams both pulled sweeps in doubleheaders at Weed last weekend. Both teams now stand at 3-1 in the Shasta Cascade League head ing into the month of May.

Baseball: In their first game at Weed, the Braves got a masterful pitching perfor mance from ack Fussell. He went the full seven innings on the hill, striking out six and allow ing only two hits as Modoc took a 7-1 win.

Helping Fussell out at the plate was Brandon Roberts who hit his first varsity home run while going 2-3 at the plate along with two steals on the basepaths. Eric Lancaster was also 2-3 with two steals while Ted Lewis, Larry Cavasso and Duane Knighton all added doubles for the Braves in a six run sixth in ning that broke the game open.

The Modoc bats weren't so hot in the second game, but they put just enough runs on the board to get the 4-3 win.

"The bats were cold," Modoc coach Earl Russell said of game two where the Braves failed to register any extra-base hits. "We just ba sically played really good de fense and got really good pitching."

The good pitching came from Steve Rodriguez and Jeff Doss. Rodriguez registered seven K's in the first six in nings and Doss came on to get the save.

The Cougars had the tying run on first in the seventh when second baseman Ryan Campbell brought the game to an end with a double play. Campbell picked up a ground ball, tagged the runner going to second and then threw to first to dash the Cougar's hopes.

What offense there was came from two hits by Matt Hamilton and three steals by Larry Cavasso.

The Braves next travel to Etna tomorrow for a double header against a team that is 8-0 in the SCL with a slugging attack that is averaging eight runs per game.

"They just hit really well," Russell explained. "Our pitchers need to realize they're going to get hit, so they need to rely on the defense which has really been playing well lately.

"We need to work on our hitting this week. We'll need to score five or six runs a game to beat them."

The Modoc hardballers return home next Wednes day, May 6, to host Fall River in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.

Softball: The Braves needed just 10 innings to post their two wins as they twice invoked the 10-run mercy rule against the Cougars with scores of 13-1 and 14-2.

In the first game, the Modoc run-producing machine put to gether nine hits, seven walks and eight stolen bases. Megan Orner led the way with a 3-4 hitting performance to go along with two RBI's, two runs scored and two stolen bases. Jen nelle Jacques was 2-3 with two RBI's and two stolen bases. Molly Busby and Jessica Kern added two RBI's each.

The hitting continued hot in game two to go along with su perb pitching by Orner and Lindsey Lieurance. The two com bined to strike out 10 hit ters while not issuing a single walk.

At the plate, the Braves drew 14 walks to go along with five hits and eight stolen bases. Busby was 2-3 with two RBI's and Orner chalked up another two RBI game. Lieu rance was the top run scorer with three.

Like the baseball team, the softball Braves will play a dou bleheader tomorrow in Etna before returning home next Wednesday to play Fall River.

 

Christensen wins State All-Star MVP

Kayte Christensen's dream season of 1997-98 does n't seem to want to end. First she received a full-ride schol arship to UC Santa Barbara. Next she was the best player on Modoc High's State Cham pionship girls basketball team. Then she was named the MVP of Division 5 for the entire state. Finally, last weekend, Christensen proved that she is the best player in the entire state of California. Period. End of Story. Nuf said. No further discussion needed.

Last Saturday Christensen took part in the State All-Star game. The top 24 players in California were invited to play a North vs. South game at Cal-State Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles.

The invitation alone was an honor, but Christensen made the most of it by scoring 29 points, dominating the best players in California and winning the Most Valuable Player award. She had more than one-third of her team's total points as the North All-Stars smoked the South 83-57.

Christensen was simply a woman amongst girls as she scored at all times and in all places. She scored the north's first 10 points of the game and had the final basket for the game at the buzzer. She drained three three-pointers and also got plenty of lay-ups because she beat the other for wards and center up and down the floor on fast breaks.

The huge MVP trophy was frosting on the cake for Christensen, who was just happy to be there.

"That really wasn't what I was thinking of going in," Christensen said of winning the MVP. "I just wanted to have fun and get to know some of the other girls. I had no idea something like that would happen."

The secret of Christensen's talent, which Modoc County has known for the last few years, is now out all over the place. Christensen basically caught everyone by surprise. Before the game, the news media was focusing on play ers from around the Southern California area. Christensen was spelled incorrectly in the game program and Fox TV announcers called her Kay-Lee throughout the entire game. Even other players were asking her who she was during the scrimmage the night before the game.

"I really don't think any of the news media knew who I was," Christensen said.

They do now. A typical conversation with the media or other players generally started with two questions - "What was your name again?" and "Where is Modoc" and ended up with one empathic statement, "Wow, you sure are a great player."

The best player in all of California.

 

Get Duck Race tickets early, only 3,000 available

Great Pit River Duck race tickets are moving quickly, better than last year, so don't wait too long to purchase one and a chance at a brand new Chevy 4x4 pickup.

Members of the Alturas Noon and Sunrise Rotary Clubs are out selling Duck Race tickets now, and according to Race Chairman Billy Madison, the duck tickets have started quickly out of the gate with a better first week than last year. Tickets are $25, which includes the 49-coupon book.

The tickets are the same price as always and the limit of 3,000 is maintained like last year.

The new 1998 Chevy 4x4 step side pickup is valued at $26,000. New this year is a great sec ond prize of a 1998 fish ing boat and trailer with a value of $8,071.

Gold Crown Sponsors, those people who buy at least 10 ducks, will also have another shot at winning one of two Polaris Express four-wheelers. Only Gold Crown sponsors have a shot at the four-wheelers.

All proceeds from the Duck Race go into the improve ments and new ball fields at the Alturas Rotary Youth Park. The past two years have seen the Duck race raise over $60,000 and Rotary is anticipating a $30,000 net out of this year's race.

There has been a lot of progress at the Youth Park this past year, including a paved parking lot, leveling of new fields, a new fence, a new sprinkler system, new trees and the grass will be planted this summer. With any luck, the new fields will be playable next spring. But improvements and new fa cilities cost money and that's why the Duck Race continues.

The following is an order of other prizes in the Duck Race: third, $2,500 worth of custom lumber from High Desert Milling; fourth, Monitor Stove from Ed Staub and Sons; fifth new roof, siding or rain gutter ($1,000 value) from J.S. Roofing; sixth set of four tires from Les Schwab, $600; riding lawn mower from Coast to Coast, $568.41; Power lift/recliner from Home Medical, $500; One year on-line service from High Desert On-Line, $359 value; 25 tons of driveway gravel from Fitch Sand and Gravel, $350; Husquvarna chain saw from Modoc Engines, $330; custom barbecue from Surprise Valley Rotary, $300; 18-speed mountain bike from D&L Distributing; one dozen donuts weekly for a year from the Donut Shop, $260; $250 gift certificate from the Belligerent Duck; 55 gallon aquarium setup from Tahiti North, $250 value; three watt cell phone from Modoc Motor Parts, Napa, $225; The Big One fireworks kit from Village Video, $199; Zenith 13 inch color television from Phillips Appliance, $199; Weekend retreat for two at Cockrell's High Desert Lodging, $150; free muffler and tail pipe, Ron Campbell, Inc. $125; complimentary two-night stay for two at the Best Western Trailside Inn, $110; CB Radio and gift certificate from High Desert Electronics, $109; one night stay for two at Mill Creek Lodge, $100; one free pair of Vans or Skechers from Family Footwear, value up to $100; Outdoor plant stand from Gary's Woodworks, $100; and one pair of Oakley Sunglasses from Tom Krauel, OD, $100 value.

 

May

 

Record sports for May 7, 1998

¥ Modoc thinclads win Westwood Invite

¥ Brave ball teams in the playoff hunt

¥ Jackson tops out in track events

¥ Hornets win a pair of league games

¥ Endurance run set for Modoc

Braves win Westwood invite easily

The Alturas Rotary Clubs' Invitational Track meet is all set for Friday at Ed Carver Stadium, weather permitting.

Late Thursday! The Rotary Track meet scheduled for Friday has been canceled because of very poor weather. The Braves' next meet is the SCL meet at College of the Siskiyous, next Thursday.

The event is the only home meet for Modoc's Braves who have won each of the small to medium school meets they have competed in this year. Modoc coach John Geldreich expects good results from both the boys and girls teams, who are favored to win.

There are 10 teams invited to the meet in cluding Burney, Fall River, Etna, Big Valley, Bonanza, Lakeview, Mt. Shasta, Weed, and Portola. Several of the area's top athletes will be in competition at the meet.

Field events will start at 11 a.m. and run ning events will begin at 12 noon.

Last week both the girls and boys won the Westwood Invitational in fairly easy fash ion.

Leading the way for the Modoc boys was Josh Keyes who won the 1600 meters in 4:53.1 and the 3200 meters in 10:56.07. Cody Holloway topped the long jump with a 19-3 1/2 effort. Jeremy Favia won the 200 meters in a time of 23.5 and Jed Tate won the shot at 39-9 1/2.

Modoc's 4x100 meter relay team of Matt Carroll, Rowdy Campbell, Holloway and Favia blew the competition away with a 47.0 time. The same four won the 4x400 meter re lay by more than 200 yards in a clocking of 3:52.57.

Favia took a second in the 100 meters at 11.63 and Holloway was fourth at 11.81. Tate took a second in the discus with a 94-5 effort and Carroll was third in the 400 meters in 56.0. Keyes took a fifth in the 800 meters in 2:19.14.

Ginny Greene took the lead for the Modoc girls winning the 200 meters in 26.91 and the 400 meters in 61.15. She also anchored the winning 4x100 meter relay with Kate Burshem, Billie Geldreich and Julia Greene with a 54.45 and the winning 4x400 meter team of Geldreich, Julia Greene and Missy Lieurance.

Geldreich won the 100 meter hurdles in 17. 57, Lieurance won the 300 hurdles in 53.70 and Burshem won the high jump at 4-6.

Lieurance also placed second in the 3200 meters in 13:23.16 and Rebekah Richert was second in the discus at 79-3. Richert took a third in the shot at 29-11. Julia Greene was third in the 200 meters in 28.32 and in the 100 meters in 13.77. Lieurance was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 19.29, Burshem took a fourth in the 100 meters in 13.90 and Geldreich was fourth in the 300 hurdles in 56.66. Burshem took a fifth in the 200 meters in 29.09.

In the JV boys division, Modoc's Chris Lauppe won the 300 meter hurdles in 46.00 and Aaron Wishart won the high jump at 5-8.

Lauppe placed third in the 100 hurdles in 17.34 and Wishart was fourth in 17.62. Wishart was also fourth in the 300 hurdles in 48.99. Modoc's 4x100 meter relay of Wishart, Lauppe, Sheldon Benson and Jesse Duran took a third. Benson placed sixth in the 100 at 13.22 and in the 200 at 26.87.

For the junior varsity girls, Tatum Dunn took a second in the triple jump at 28-5. April Dorton was third in the discus at 59.05. Dunn took a fourth in the 100 meters at 14.69. Amanda Moriarity was fourth in the 800 me ters in 3:06.58 and in the triple jump at 25-10. Dunn was fifth in the 200 meters in 31.04 and Moriarity was sixth in the 400 meters in 74.82.

 

Braves ball clubs still alive in playoff hunt

 

Because of rainouts earlier in the season, the Modoc base ball and softball teams are in the midst of a vicious six games in six days schedule to wind-up the Shasta Cascade League season.

Both teams cancelled against Fall River for double head ers yes terday and will host Trinity for doubleheaders to morrow, with games begin ning at 2 p.m. The SCL sea son will end on Monday, May 11, when both teams travel to Bur ney.

They are hoping those won't be the last games of the sea son. The girls softball team holds a 5-1 record, is tied for the league lead, and is looking to win an SCL title and go on to play in the Sec tionals. The boys baseball team still has a shot at getting a wildcard berth in the Sec tionals.

Softball: The Braves picked up easy wins of 19-2 and 14-0 last Friday at Etna. In their five league wins, Modoc has outscored the oppo sition by a total of 82 to 8. That's an aver age score of about 16-1. All of the wins have also taken five innings or less because of the 10-run mercy rule.

In the first game against Etna last Friday, the Braves scored in everyone of their five at bats. Cheyenne Men kee led the way with a home run and three RBI's. Molly Busby and Wendy Stafford also added two hits each.

The pitching combo of Lindsey Lieurance and Megan Orner was great whether throwing the ball or hitting it. On the mound they combined the five innings with four strike outs and five hits. At the plate Orner and Lieurance went a combined 4-7 with seven RBI's, two dou bles and four runs scored.

The second game was rained out after four innings but Modoc got the win with a 14-0 lead at that point. Lieu rance and Orner were again masterful on the mound al lowing just one hit over four innings. Both pitched two in nings and both had three strikeouts.

The Modoc offense piled up 12 hits led by Megan Marks who went 3-3 with two doubles and three runs scored. Orner also banged out two hits while Danielle Poindexter and Stafford had two RBI's each.

At 5-1, the Braves are tied with Burney for the league lead. They will meet the Raiders on the last day of the season, probably with the league title on the line. There is probably also a good chance that both teams will go on to Sectionals with one team as the wildcard.

Baseball: The Braves had two very close, very frustrat ing losses in Etna last Fri day. In game one, Jack Fussell went against an Etna batting order that had been averaging eight runs a game and shut them down. He al lowed just four hits over seven innings while getting four strikeouts. Unfor tunately, the defense behind Fussell made four errors and Etna scored three unearned runs in a 3-2 win over Modoc.

"That's his only loss of the year, and he didn't pitch a loss," Modoc coach Earl Rus sell said of Fussell. "He's car ried this team this year."

The Braves could only manage to get two runs across the plate in game one despite a 3-3 day by Jimmy Lloyd, a 2-3 performance by Chris Sherer and 2-4 batting by Eric Lan caster. Lancaster and Larry Cavasso each swiped two bases as well.

The second game was de cided by one-run again, this time 7-6 for Etna. Steve Rodiguez pitched five and one-third in nings followed by Jeff Doss who didn't allow a hit in one and two-thirds in nings of relief.

Lancaster was again hot with the bat as he went 3-4 with another two steals. Modoc fans would say he should have actually been 3-3 with a walk and three stolen bases. In the top of the seventh, with two outs and the Braves down one run, it appeared that Lancaster had taken ball four and walked according to the official scorekeeper. However, the home plate ump ruled that there were only three balls and brought Lancaster back to the batter's box. Lancaster flied out on the next pitch to end the game. Had he walked, the tying run would have been on base, and Lan caster surely would have stolen second to get in scoring position (he had already stolen four bases that day). The Braves would therefore have been just one single away from going to extra in nings.

"Umpires are going to make some mistakes, that's just human nature. But that's the first blatantly thrown game I've ever seen," Russell said. "We were having trou ble with that ump all day. Et na's coach and the other ump even apol ogized to me for that ump."

Dropping both games left undefeated Etna in the driver's seat for winning the SCL. Modoc now was a 3-3 record, but Russell said there is still a good shot at making the playoffs as a wildcard be cause all of the other teams (who have played more games than Modoc) have three or more losses. There fore, a n nice run over these last six games could leave the Braves at 9-3 or 8-4 and solidly in second place.

 

Jackson excels in track events

 

Big Valley junior Ileah Jackson is continuing to rack up the first place finishes dur ing the 1998 track season. Last weekend, she grabbed five wins in two days in two different meets.

Jackson's fabulous 48 hours started on Friday at the Westwood Invitational. She won both the 100 meters (with a time of 13.1) and the high jump at that meet. The next day she went to the Gottschalk's Invitational in Oregon and won three more events. Jackson was again first to the tape in the 100 and the high jump while also tak ing top honors in the 300 hur dles and a second place in the long jump.

Two weekends ago, Jack son traveled to the Chico Invi tational to take on what BV coach Gary Bennett calls "the big dogs" - the top athletes from the big schools of Sacramento, Reno and the Bay Area. She took third in the long jump with a personal best leap of 17-6 and also placed fourth in the 300 hur dles with a time of 48.8.

The Cardinal boys team also saw some strong perfor mances this past weekend. At Westwood, Justin Wood won the high jump after clearing the bar at 5-10 while Robert Haury won the 1,500 in a time of 5:05. On Saturday at the Gottschalk's meet, senior Corado Reginatto was third in the triple jump at 37-7.

The Cardinals will host their own Small School Invi tational in Bieber this Satur day. Field events will begin at 10:30 and races will start at 11:00. Bennett estimated that the meet would end some where between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. Schools that will be at the meet are: Surprise Valley, Dunsmuir, Tulelake, Butte Valley, McCloud, Happy Camp, Westwood, Loyalton, Chester, Mercy, Herlong, Fall River and Burney.

 

Hornets earn double win over Tigers

 

After dropping five straight league games, the Surprise Valley baseball team bounced back nicely by sweeping a doubleheader against Dun smuir in Cedarville last Fri day.

The Hornets got a great pitching perfor mance from sophomore Mike Northrup in the opener on the way to an 8-4 win. Northrup rang up 11 strikeouts in seven innings while only giving up two earned runs. He used a good fastball and worked quickly on the mound as the game took less than two hours to com plete.

Several walks and doubles by Tom Harris and Nathan Moore gave Northrup a 5-1 lead to work with after four in nings.

The Hornets would then add three more in the sixth. Second basemen Brian Darst sin gled and went on to third on a pick-off throw ing error. Northrup brought him home with a sacrifice fly to center field. Third baseman Andy Tierney followed with a sin gle and Craig Hymer got on with a walk. They moved around to second and third be fore both came home on an odd play.

Tierney stole home on a passed ball. As the Dunsmuir catcher was trying to throw the ball from the backstop to home plate to the pitcher to tag Tier ney, the ball got by the pitcher and rolled out towards the mound. Hymer had mean while gone to third and came home while the pitcher went to retrieve the ball.

The game ended with SV shortstop Nathan Moore trig gering a double play. He caught a line drive and then threw to Tierney at third to double off the runner and give Surprise Valley the win.

"That's the best game we've played all season, espe cially as a unit," SV coach Mike Ray said after the game.

The Hornets took a close 7-6 win in the second game with Moore on the mound. He had six strikeouts in the five in ning game and broke open the scoring in the first inning with a two-run homer. John Arreche was al ready on sec ond having just missed a dinger. The Hornets added two more in the first on sin gles by Darst, Aaron Teuscher and Andrew Dol cini, a sacrifice fly by Hymer and Tierney reaching on an error.

SV got two more in the third when Dolcini hit a two-run homer over the centerfield fence.

After the Tigers came back to tie it up at 6-all in the top of the fourth, Moore went out and got himself the winning run in the bottom half. After reaching on a single, he stole sec ond. The throw to get him there ended up in centerfield and he moved straight on to third. Moore then came home when Dunsmuir mis played a grounder.

In the fifth and final in ning, Dunsmuir threatened, getting runners to second and third before Moore got the fi nal two hitters to pop up.

On Tuesday, the Hornets traveled to Tule lake for their final doubleheader of the year. They wound up split ting on the day to end the sea son with a 4-6 record in the Evergreen League.

After the Honkers won the first game 6-4, SV came back to win 4-1 in the second. Moore held the honkers to a single run while Dol cini and Hymer put the Hornets on the board with a pair of homers.

 

Endurance run on Likely Mountain

 

The Likely Mountain Run is set for August 29 in Modoc County with three distances being offered: 50 miles, 50 kilometers (31 miles) and 10 miles.

Organizer Ron Barager invites all runners, joggers and walkers to participate and all proceeds from the run will go to the Modoc High School Cross Country team.

The race will start and finish at Sherlock Springs, 11 miles south of Alturas on County Road 62. All three out and back courses will traverse dirt roads, Jeep tracks and primitive trails between Sherlock Springs and Likely Mountain. The 50 mile turnaround will be the summit of Likely Mountain.

For more information, or to help with the run, call Barager at 233-6684.

 

Record sports May 14, 1998

¥ Track team head to league finals

¥ Braves draw end to weird ball season

¥ Softball team drops pair, playoff hopes

¥ Cardinals hoping to get into track

¥ Middle school team does well

Track teams slight favorite for SCL win

The always powerful Modoc High School track teams are heading to the Shasta Cascade League Championships Friday at College of the Siskiyous in Weed.

The Braves will enter the meet as slight favorites to re peat as league champions in both the girls and boys divi sions. Fall River, Trinity, Etna and Mt. Shasta are the biggest hurdles for Modoc.

The girls team had a sure lock on league before the sea son, but then several of the state champion girls basketball players chose not to come out. While the girls team is not a certain fix ture this season, it still has a better-than-aver age shot to win another title.

Modoc coach John Geldreich is bringing up a bunch of tal ented junior varsity girls to help bolster senior Ginny Greene, who will run four individual events. Sophomore sister, Julia Greene, is also set to run four individual events.

The girls have the talents of Kate Burshem, Billie Geldreich, Missy Lieurance, Rebekah Richert, Amanda Moriarity, Susanna Wise, Tatum Dunn and April Dorton to carry them through.

The boys team has several strong areas, led by distance runner Josh Keyes; long and triple jumper Cody Holloway, and he and sprinters Matt Carroll and Jeremy Favia. They are bolstered by strong showings by Rowdy Campbell, Jed Tate and Travis Dunn. The Braves will bring talented ju nior varsity members Aaron Wishart and Chris Lauppe up to varsity. They will also rely on Richard Tate, Josh Velasco, Sheldon Benson and Jesse Duran.

The meet is set at COS's all-weather track, with a start time of 11 a.m.

 

Weather puts end to weird base ball loop

By Geoff Griffin

Special to the Record

A very weird, very frus trating, very rail-filled sea son came to an end this past week for the Modoc baseball squad. To get an idea of just how out of whack things got, consider that the baseball team's season can best be de scribed with statistics you usually hear on the Weather Channel instead of ESPN.

Modoc coach Earl Russell pointed out that, due to the constant downpour from the skies, his team had full prac tices on their baseball field a total of 11 times over a period of 77 days. (For you math ma jors, that averages out to one day a week, even Little League teams practice more often than that.) Ten of the 23 games were cancelled, two were played in the snow and three more were contested in the pouring rain.

While Russell noted that he didn't want to make excuses for his squad, he still pointed out, "It was a tough season for the kids. I really feel bad for the seniors. The had 10 games canceled. They were a talented group of kids."

The season ended last Fri day down in Redding, in a doubleheader against Trin ity. The Braves fled Alturas and headed south in hopes of escaping the rain, but it was coming down hard in Red ding as well.

"The balls were so wet they probably weighed about two or three pounds," Russell said. And heavy balls are obviously hard to throw, thus a final score of 16-12 for Trinity in the first game. Duane Knighton led the offensive onslaught by going 3-4 and stealing two bases. Eric Lan caster also added two hits.

The Braves knew going in that they needed a sweep to stay alive for the playoffs, so in game two, Russell started all nine seniors on the team so that players who have played together since Little League, could play together one last time.

Modoc took a 9-4 loss in that game as Lancaster went 2-3 with three steals and Steve Rodriguez went 1-2 at the plate while also pitching four in nings.

The team finished the sea son at 3-5 in league and 7-6 overall, but officially had to forfeit one of their wins over Weed because of a paperwork mix-up on an ineligible transfer student who played half an inning in that game. The Braves could have played Burney and Fall River in make-up games this week, but the Shasta Cascade League will only let teams play after May 8 if their games would affect the League title.

On the season, Modoc hit .390 as a team. Lancaster was the top slugger with .540 aver age. Jake Fussell was the top pitcher with a 4-1 record, in cluding a stretch where he al lowed just four runs in four games.

After two years as man ager, Russell will be moving on to Modesto. He said he was proud of the fact that the team went from stealing 52 bases in the season before he arrived, to swiping 95 this year, over seven per game.

 

Softball team drops pair and playoff hopes

By Geoff Griffin

Special to the Record

The Modoc softball team went into Monday afternoon's doubleheader against Burney tied for first in the Shasta-Cascade League and looking towards the Sectional playoffs this Saturday. After dropping both games to the Raiders, they ended the day in third place in league with a 7-3 record and their season (10-7 overall) over for good.

In the first game in Bur ney, the Braves took a 7-5 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning before a series of walks and a critical bases loaded error allowed the Raiders to come back and take an 8-7 win.

The Braves had eight hits in game one led by center fielder Wendy Stafford who went 3-4 with two doubles, a triple and three RBI's. Lind sey Lieurance added two hits and three runs and Megan Marks had two RBI's.

Errors were a problem for Modoc the entire day. The Braves committed 11 on the afternoon, and three in the fourth inning of game two. Burney scored five runs in that inning and ended up tak ing a 10-4 win over Modoc. Megan Orner went the dis tance on the mound striking out six while only allowing one walk. She was also tough at the plate going 3-4 with a double and two runs scored.

Her battery-mate, catcher Cheyenne Menkee hit her sec ond homer of the year while going 2-4 with two RBI's.

Stafford was again power ful with the bat going 2-4 with a double, and Modoc coach Harold Montague had noth ing but praise for the senior.

"You couldn't ask any thing more from a player," he said of Stafford. "She played fantastic this year. She's just a neat kid to have on the team."

As for the Burney double header, Montague saw field ing errors as the chief prob lem.

"We just had too many er rors," he said. "They played more solidly in the field than we did. That was the differ ence."

As for the season on the whole, Montague said that the young Braves team, which only loses Stafford and out fielder Danielle Poindexter to graduation, generally played well despite all of the prob lems the weather caused this spring.

"I think things worked out fine. We controlled our own destiny for winning league, we just didn't win a double header we had to. Otherwise, we beat the teams we had to."

One of those teams was Trinity, which Modoc swept last Friday. The teams trav eled to Redding in hopes of finding sunny weather, but wound up playing in the rain anyway.

Modoc took game one eas ily 13-0. Orner and Lieu rance struck out seven of the 15 hitters they faced while only allowing one hit over five innings. Stafford, Men kee and Jessica Kern each de livered two hits and two RBI's at the plate.

Game two was a 12-4 win for the Braves behind the pitching of Lieurance. She threw the first four innings striking out 10 while walking just two. Modoc only needed five hits to deliver their runs since Trinity committee eight errors. Marks had three stolen bases and Stafford knocked a double.

 

Rain cancels Cardinal track meet

 

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Or, if it just won't quit raining, just call off the whole thing. That's what the Big Valley track team had to do this week. Af ter their Small Schools Invita tional was rained out last Sat urday, the Cardinals rescheduled for Tuesday, but, surprise, surprise, it was raining then too.

Therefore, the meet has been scrapped for this year and Big Valley will instead focus on getting ready for the Evergreen League Meet this Saturday. The meet will be held at Lost River High be ginning at 10 a.m.

 

Warriors do well in Lakeview track meet

 

While the weather was ter rible, some of the results for the Modoc Middle School track team were good at the Lakeview Invitational May 9.

The eighth grade boys placed second overall but had several first place finishers.

Ricky Scott won the 3000 meters in 10:38.46, the 1500 meters in 5:05.06 and the 200 meters in 26.61.

Luke Hughes won the 800 meters in 2:20.77 and the 400 meters in 62.64.

Blake Thorn and Matt Krauel tied for first in the high jump at 4-10. Krauel won the triple jump at 32-6 1/2 and Thorn was second in the 100 meters in 13.23. Krauel was third in the long jump at 14-7 1/2 and Thorn was fourth at 13-11 1/2.

Modoc's 4x100 relay won in 53.12 and the 4x400 meters team won in 4:27.

The eighth grade girls also finished second overall as a team in the meet.

Dawnelle Gaskey won the 200 meters in 30.56 and the 4x100 meter relay placed sec ond in 58.50.

Stacie Wells was second in the 400 meters in 1:10.06, in the triple jump at 25-8 and was third in the 1500 meters in 6:07.31. The 4x400 meter relay team placed second in 5:03.42. Heather Ward was third in the long jump at 11-5 and Jodie Freeman was fourth in the 200 meters in 33.13.

The seventh grade boys team placed fourth overall with Keith Wishart taking a first in the high jump at 4-0. Ryan Lieurance took a first in the discus at 74-3 1/2. Wishart was third in the 75 meter hurdles in 15.30. Clint Tate placed third in the shot put at 24-5 with Lieurance fourth at 23-9. Tate also took a third in the discus at 68-3 1/2.

The seventh grade girls took second overall with Kayla Harness winning the 1500 meters in 6:35.03 and Bettie Jessup winning the high jump at 3-10. Colleen McElwain took second in the 100 meters in 14.22 and Jamie Kuhn was second in the high jump at 3-8. Harness took a second in the 800 meters in 3:19.21. Kuhn was third in the 75 meter hurdles at 16.41 and the girls 4x100 meter relay team placed third. Jessup was fourth in the discus at 45-8 1/2.

 

 

May 24, 1999 Sports

 

Conner wins national mountain bike race

Alturas' Josh Conner won the National Offroad Bicycle Association, NORBA, National Finals King of the Hill stage race at Mammoth this last weekend.

The win is one of the biggest in Conner's career and got him a nod from a national race team who has shown some serious interest in the racer.

Conner won the junior expert category in the combined race, for those riders under 18. Conner is 15. There were five stages of the race, a hill climb, cross country, cri terium, downhill and point-to-point. The overall winner is the rider with the most combined points of the stages.

Conner earned the overall win by taking a first in the uphill race, an 11th in the cross-country, a fourth in the criterium and a second in the point-to-point. Riders did not have to compete in all five races.

"The competition at this race represented the best in the world and nation," said Rick Conner, Josh's father. "We weren't able to take Josh to this race, so we're extremely thankful to Matt Dorgan, who took him to the finals. Matt has been extremely supportive and we wouldn't be able to do all of these races without his help." Last month, Conner won the California state road race Time Trial Championship and is gearing up for the National Junior Olympic Time Trial finals in the 15-16 age group later this summer.

This weekend Conner goes to the prestigious Best of the West road race in Medford. The stage race includes a road race, a time trial, another road race and a criterium. Some of the best riders in the nation will be in Medford this weekend so Conner has his work cut out for him.

Braves dominate SCL,

head to small schools

The Modoc Braves completely dominated the Shasta Cascade League track and Field Championships Friday at College of the Siskiyous in Weed.

 

Modoc's boys team won the title with 194 points, compared to second place Trinity's 128 and Fall River's 74. The win extends the Braves' boys track titles to five straight.

The powerful girls team won its 21st league championship (out of the last 23) with 201 points, followed by Trinity with 126 and Etna with 46.

"I'll tell you, our kids really stepped it up," said coach John Geldreich. "I believe most of them had personal bests and they competed at a very strong level. It was impressive."

Geldreich was a little nervous going into the meet, but at about the midway point, the teams were so far ahead, he was able to just enjoy the performances.

"This was a very gratifying performance by our teams and they worked very hard to get it done, in spite of the weather and no real de cent practice days this year," said Geldreich.

The Braves now head to the Small Schools Championships in Yuba College today where several athletes are expected to do well and advance to the large school finals.

Geldreich expects Ginny Greene, Josh Keyes, Cody Holloway, Kate Burshem, Jeremy Favia, Matt Carroll and all of his girls and boys relay teams to advance. He also ex pects good things from Billie Geldreich, Julia Greene, Jed Tate, Missy Lieurance and Aaron Wishart.

Leading the Modoc boys team in the SCL championships was Josh Keyes who won the 1600 meters in 4:41.9; the 800 meters in a solid 2:06.4 and the 3200 meters in 10:24.

Cody Holloway won the long jump with an excellent 21-3 3/4 leap and the 200 meters in 23.7. He also placed second in the 100 meters in 11.5 and in the triple jump at 40-10.

Jed Tate won the shot put at 41-8 and the discus with a 109 foot toss. Greg Buck took a second in the shot at 37-6.

Jeremy Favia won the 400 meters with a clocking of 53.8. He took a close second in the 200 meters at 23.7 and was third in the 100 meters in 11.6.

Aaron Wishart took a first in the 100 meter hurdles in 17.9. He was also second in the high jump at 5-5 1/4. He also took a pair of fourths, in the 300 hurdles and in the pole vault at 9-6. Chris Lauppe took a third in the pole vault at 10-0.

Matt Carroll took a third in the 400 meters at 53.7 and in the high jump at 5-3 1/4. he was also a member of the third place relay teams. Lauppe took a fourth in the 100 hurdles in 18.8 and a fifth in the 300 hurdles at 49.5. Dan Hoover took a fifth in the 3200 meters at 12:29. Travis Dunn placed sixth in the 1600 at 5:28.7 and in the 800 at 2:29. Rowdy Campbell ran on both third place relay teams.

Ginny Greene led the Modoc girls team with an excellent day. She won the 100 meters in 12.8, the 200 meters in 26.8, the 400 meters in 60.8 and tied for first with sister Julia in the 800 meters at 2:52.4.

Billie Geldreich took a first in the 100 me ter hurdles in 18.5, ran on both winning re lay teams and was third in the 300 hurdles in 58.3.

Kate Burshem won the pole vault at 7-0 and ran on the winning relay teams. She was also second in the high jump at 4-7 1/2 and third in the 100 at 13.6.

Missy Lieurance won the 3200 meters in 14:30 was second in the 300 hurdles in 57.3 and in the pole vault at 6-6. The winning 4x100 relay team ran a 56.7 and the winning 4x400 meter team ran 4:55. Burshem, Geldreich, Susanna Wise and Tatum Dunn ran on the relay.

Julia Greene tied for first in the 800 meters at 2:52.4, sec ond in the 400 meters in 64.9, third in the 200 meters in 26.9 and fourth in the 100 at 13.6.

Dunn took a second in the triple jump at 29-3, a fourth in the high jump at 3-11 1/2.

Rebekah Richert took a third in the discus at 88-8, a third in the shot at 28-7, a fourth in the 3200 at 17:58 and a fifth in the 1600 at 7:37.

Amanda Moriarity placed fifth in the 400 meters in 75.3 and sixth in the 800 meters in 3:15.1.

In the junior varsity boys division, Sheldon Benson ran a 60.4 in the 400 meters to place fourth, placed fifth in the shot at 34 feet and sixth in the discus at 84-10.

Jesse Duran was fifth in the pole vault at 7 feet.

While the overall results of Modoc's track team is im pressive, what's even more im pressive is many of the var sity winners are sophomores, including Cody Holloway, Aaron Wishart, Julia Greene, and Billie Geldreich. Missy Lieurance is a freshman.

The track team, with support from the Tobacco Coalition, is proud to be tobacco free.

 

Record sports for May 28, 1998

¥ Braves win track section championship

¥ Jackson leads BV with two records

¥ Rotary hosts Fish Derby

Girls win section track title, boys finish second

Modoc's girls track team did what many thought was im possible this year, they won the CIF North Section 2A cham pionship. And they won it going away.

The winner of each event, boys and girls, now qualifies for the large schools meet at West Valley this Friday evening.

When some of Modoc's best female track athletes did not come out after a grueling basketball season, the track team's 20-year dominance was in doubt. But short-changing senior Ginny Greene was simply not in the cards. Not only did Greene step it up, her teammates were on a mission. And that mis sion was to make sure Greene got her fourth section title in four years.

"They really competed well," said coach John Geldreich. "We're very proud of them, especially when you figure that we had one senior and the rest were sophmores and freshman. Our younger kids were outstanding."

Modoc won the section meet easily with 120 points, ahead of second place Durham with 75 and the remainder of the field far behind. The performance was a credit to the girls and coaches Geldreich, Mike Martin, Steve Tate, Kevin and Jennifer Pent and Louise Dunn.

Greene won the 100 meters in 12.79, the 200 meters in 26.27 and the 400 in 60.01. She also anchored the winning 4x400 meter relay team with a 4:25.1 time. Greene, Tatum Dunn, Billie Geldreich and Julia Greene ran the relay.

Ginny Greene dominated every one of her events at the Yuba College meet and is looking forward to large schools.

Her sister Julia Greene won the 800 meters in a clocking of 2:39.0. She also ran on the winning 4x100 meter relay team with Dunn, Geldreich and Kate Burshem who ran a 53.18.

Burshem set a school record by winning the pole vault at 8-0. Missy Lieurance took a first in the 3200 meters when she ran a 14:26. Lieurance was also second in the pole vault at 7-6.

Julia Greene took a fourth in the 200 meters in 27.65. Burshem was fourth in the 100 at 13.4. Geldreich took a fourth in the 100 hurdles in 17.6 and Lieurance was second in 19.3. Lieurance was also fourth in the 300 hurdles in 54.95.

Rebekah Richert was fourth in the shot put at 27-2 and fifth in the discus with a 85-8 effort. She was also fourth in the 3200 at 17:53. Amanda Moriarity took a sixth in the 400 in 74.0.

Modoc's boys placed second to East Nicolas, 109 to 92, but were in the lead for much of the meet. They finish as the North Section runner-up.

Josh Keyes set a school record in the 1600 meters when he clocked a 4:28.7. Jeremy Favia turned in a personal best to win the 400 meters in 51.96.

The Modoc 4x400 relay team of Matt Carroll, Keyes, Cody Holloway and Favia also won with a 3:38.18.

Holloway, nursing a sore leg, placed second in the long jump. He tied for first at 20-5 3/4, but a Durham jumper had a longer second distance. Holloway, based on his season best mark of 21-3 3/4 gets the shot at large schools.

The 4x100 meter relay team of Aaron Wishart, Carroll, Holloway and Favia took a second at 45.8. Favia took a sec ond in the 200 meters in 23.25. Keyes took second in the 3200 meters in 10:14.2. Carroll took a third in the 400 at 54.0. Wishart was third in the hurdles at 17.78.

Wishart also took a fourth in the high jump at 5-6 and Carroll was sixth at 5-6. Jed Tate took fourth in the shot at 40-5 1/2 and was sixth in the discus. Keyes took a fifth in the 800 in 2:11.2 and Holloway was fifth in the 100 at 11.65. Dan Hoover was sixth in the 3200 at 12:22.

The winner of each large school event qualifies for the state finals at Cerritos College June 5-6.

Geldreich figures he has four atheletes with a legitimate shot at making it to the state finals: Keyes in the mile; Greene in the 400 meters; Holloway in the long jump and Favia in the 400 meters. He's also expecting his boys 4x400 meter team to place high and his girls relay teams to do very well.

Each of them will have to have personal bests to move on, but Geldreich said they have a real chance.

 

Jackson sets pair of meet records

 

Big Valley's Ileah Jackson was a perfect 4-4 in events at tempted and events won last Thursday at the "A" Champi onship Meet for the North Sec tion.

Three other Cardinals also finished in the top three in various events, but only first place will move on to the North Section Championships held tomorrow at West Valley in Redding. Thus, Jackson will be the only BV trackster who will compete on Friday for a chance to move on to the California State Meet held June 5-6 at Cerritos College in Southern California.

Jackson won the 300 inter mediate hurdles, the 100 high hurdles, the high jump and long jump last week at the "A" meet in Lassen. She had meet records in both the 300 hurdles (48.5) and the long jump (17-1 and three-quar ters). Her time in the 300 hur dles would have placed her third in the boys race. She cleared 5-3 in the high jump and ran 16.4 in the 100 high hurdles.

To top it all off, these per formances occurred on a cold and wet day at Lassen Col lege.

"It was a pretty ugly day," BV coach Gary Bennett said of the weather. "Had it been a better day, she could have beat the record in the 100 high hur dles too."

To move on to the State Meet, Jackson will have to take first place in one of her four events at the Sectional Meet tomorrow. Jackson has registered marks among the top three performances this year in all four events. She has the second best mark in the long jump, getting into the 17 foot area, but Macklin Har ris of Enterprise High regu larly registers over 18 feet. In the high jump, Jackson will have to compete against a cou ple of leapers who regularly clear the 5-6 mark. It's the same situation in the 100 hur dles, where there are two com petitors who regularly run in the 15 second range.

Therefore, Bennett thinks that Jackson's best bet may be in the 300 hurdles.

She'll have to run a low 46 (seconds) or a high 45 to win," Bennett said. "I think she's capable of that. The 300 is one of those races where anything can happen if somebody hits the hurdles just right."

Another top performer for Big Valley last week was Nicole Silva who took a sec ond in the 100 meters with a time of 13.6.

On the boy's side, Justin Wood had a great day in three different events. He was sec ond in the high jump at 5-8, third in the 100 high hurdles at 19.5 and third in the 300 high hurdles at 48.6. Joe Haury took third in the 3200 meters, which at times was run through a hailstorm. Haury finished with a time of 11.30.

At the JV level, Mike McLain was second in both the 100 and 200.

 

Rotary hosts 41st Fish Derby

 

The 41st annual Alturas Rotary Clubs' Fish Derby is scheduled June 6, 8:15 a.m. at Pine Creek Reservoir.

The derby is open to all kids age 12 and under. For chil dren who don't have transportation, show up at the Alturas Chamber of Commerce sign at Veteran's Park with fishing gear and someone will provide a ride. Kids must be at the sign no later than 7:30 a.m.

A drawing will be held for a girls and a boys bike. There are also prizes of a rod and reel for the first fish, largest fish and most fish caught in the boys and girls division.

The event is co-sponsored by the Alturas Noon and Sunrise Rotary Clubs and the Modoc County Tobacco Education Program.

 

 

June

 

Record sports for June 4, 1998

¥ Jackson wins 300 hurdles, on to state

¥ Keyes takes a second in 1,600 meters

¥ Modoc 3-on-3 tourney set for July 4

¥ Modoc Super Bull gets ready for ride

¥ Fish Derbies for the young anglers

Jackson heads to state in 300 meter hurdles

Because of her perfor mance lately, Big Valley ju nior Ileah Jackson will be re quired to stay after school. Even though Big Valley High School will finish up the aca demic year and graduate the class of '98 this week, the year is not over for Jackson, who has earned a trip to the Cali fornia State Championships in Southern California this weekend.

Jackson got her spot in the state meet by winning the 300 meter hurdles at last week's North Section Meet in Red ding. She had the best time of anyone, regardless of school size, and will now be one of 27 competitors who get a shot at the state title in the 300 hur dles. The meet begins tomor row at Cerritos College in the Los Angeles area and fin ishes up on Saturday.

"She's going up against some really stiff competi tion," Big Valley coach Gary Bennett said of Jackson mak ing the state meet. "It's an honor just to be there and it will be a great experience for her."

Bennett had predicted that Jackson would need to run the 300 hurdles in around 45 or 46 seconds to win the North Sec tion, but in fact her time of 47.37 allowed her to win the race "pretty handily," as she finished over one second ahead of her nearest competi tor.

"It was raining while they ran," Bennett noted. "I think that had an effect on the times. I thought she had run faster than what her time was."

Jackson also competed in three other events at the North Section Meet, registering sec ond, third and fourth places. She was second in the long jump at 16 feet 7 and one-half inches, even though she had to miss a jump to go run a hurdle race. Jackson was third in the 100 meter high hurdles at 16.7 and she took fourth in the high jump after clearing the bar at 5 feet 2 inches.

 

Keyes second in section finals

 

Modoc's miler Josh Keyes took a second in the 1600 meters at the North Section finals (all schools large and small) last Friday at West Valley High School out of Anderson.

A lousy track day, cold and raining greeted athletes at the meet, but it wasn't anything new this season.

Keyes clocked a 4:31.22 in the mile, losing to Phillip Ogilvie of Delta who ran 4:25.45. Keyes holds the Modoc record in the race at 4:28.

Modoc's Ginny Greene took a fourth in the 200 meters in 27.27, behind Macklin Harris, Enterprise, who won in 26.31. Greene also placed fifth in the 400 meters with a 60.16.

Modoc 4x100 meter girls relay team of Billie Geldreich, Kate Burshem, Julia Greene and Ginny Greene placed fifth in 51.91. West Valley won in 50.37. The girls 4x400 meter team of Tatum Dunn, Geldreich, Julia and Ginny Greene, was sixth in 4:23.81. West Valley also won the race in 4:06.38.

Burshem placed sixth in the pole vault at 8-0.

For the boys, Modoc's Cody Holloway placed fifth in the long jump at 20-1 1/2 and Jeremy Favia took in fifth in the 400 meters in 52.30. Modoc's 4x400 meter relay of Matt Carroll, Keyes, Holloway and Favia placed sixth.

 

3-on-3 hoop tourney is July 4

 

Lace up those sneakers for the 2nd annual Modoc 3-on-3 basketball championships July 4 at the Griswold Gym.

The event is open to the following groups in male and female: grades 1 through 3; grades 4-5; grades 6-8; grades 9-10; grades 11-12; an open division; and an over age 40 division. Players may move up an age group, but not down.

Teams may have a maximum of four players. Team entry is $30 per team with half the proceeds returned to the players and half returned to the Modoc High School Basketball Program. Enter by mailing the entry form in this week's Modoc Record to the Modoc County Record, P.O. Box 531, Alturas, Ca. 96101, or bring the entry form in at 201 West Carlos Street. Out-of-town teams may enter by calling Rick Holloway at 530-233-2632. The deadline for team entry is July 1.

Anyone interested in helping with the tourney is in vited to a meeting Tuesday June 9 at the Modoc Record of fice in Alturas. For more information, call 233-2632.

 

2nd Annual Super Bull June 20 in Cedarville

 

The 2nd Annual Modoc Super Bull, coming off a rous ing success last season, takes place June 20 at the Modoc County Fairgrounds Arena in Cedarville.

The event, a professional bull riding rodeo, starts at 7 p.m. with tickets $12 at the gate or $10 presale. Kids age seven and under are admitted free.

In addition to the bull rid ing, there will be cowboy poker with a $500 purse, and Burt Davis is the clown and specialty act. There are also door prizes offered.

Tickets are available at Jay's, Coast to Coast, L&B Ranch Supply, Arreches, Page's Market and Western Irrigation.

This is a tobacco free event, sponsored in part by the Modoc County Tobacco Education Program.

 

Rotary hosts 41st Fish Derby

 

The plan is to surround a lot of trout with a lot of kids and worms, and have the trout cooperate. In the past, the trout have been a little reluctant, but this year, they're hungry.

At least that what K.C. Tierney of the Alturas Rotary Club said this week.

The 41st annual Alturas Rotary Clubs' Fish Derby is scheduled June 6, 8:15 a.m. at Pine Creek Reservoir.

The derby is open to all kids age 12 and under. For chil dren who don't have transportation, show up at the Alturas Chamber of Commerce sign at Veteran's Park with fishing gear and someone will provide a ride. Kids must be at the sign no later than 7:30 a.m.

A drawing will be held for a girls and a boys bike. There are also prizes of a rod and reel for the first fish, largest fish and most fish caught in the boys and girls division.

The event is co-sponsored by the Alturas Noon and Sunrise Rotary Clubs and the Modoc County Tobacco Education Program.

 

Fish Derby on Ash Creek

 

The Pit River Rod and Gun Club is hosting its third an nual Junior Fishing Derby at the Ash Creek Wildlife Area in Big Valley June 13.

Check in will be at the Bassett Road Angeling Access parking lot, one mile east of Adin on SR 299. Look for signs to lead into the area. The fish derby is open to any one age 15 and under. All participants must pre-register at the Bassett Road Angling Access before 8 a.m.

The derby begins at 8 a.m. with a free lunch for kids pro vided and it finishes at 12 noon.

Top prizes will be a girls and boys bike and they will be awarded to the kids who catch the biggest trout.

 

Record sports summaries for June 11, 1998

¥ Jackson does well at state meet

¥ Fish Derby had kids and fish

¥ Super Bull out to be even better event

¥ Sign up soon for 3-on-3 hoop tourney

¥ Cardinals host football camp

¥ Get your racing ducks quickly!

 

COURTNEY HOLLOWAY caught a couple of fish at the Rotary Club Fish Derby and wound up winning a couple of fishing poles.

Jackson does well at State

The Modoc County high school sports year for 1997-98 finally came to an end this past weekend. After begin ning back in August of 1997 and going through the fall, winter and spring (and we use the term "spring" loosely after this past one) there was only one athlete left from Modoc, Surprise Valley or Big Valley high schools. The last, but certainly not the least was Big Valley junior Ileah Jack son who ran the 300 hurdles at the State Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College last Friday.

Jackson ran a little bit off her best time in her heat. She finished in 47.51 seconds and did not advance to the finals.

Jackson was running against the best in the Golden State, regardless of school size. Many of the top sprinters and jumpers from Southern California train year-round only on specific events (no volleyball or basketball) in track clubs that are coached by former Olympians.

Jackson just missed quali fying for State in the long jump and high jump. She was second and third respectively behind seniors at the North Section Championships. Therefore, she would be the North Section favorite to make State in those two events in 1999.

Big Valley coach Gary Bennett noted that Jackson's best performances in the jumps would have put her in the middle of the pack for this year's State competition, which bodes well for next year.

 

Plenty of fish, kids at derby

 

There were plenty of coop erative fish and kids for the 41st Annual Alturas Rotary Fish Derby last Saturday.

The winner of the first fish for boys was D.J. Northrup and for girls it was Courtney Holloway. The most fish caught went to Justin Sperle for the boys and Courtney Holloway and Meddy Halvorson for the girls. The biggest fish went to Jeffrey Barclay in the boys and Anna Castillo in the girls. The kids each won a fishing rod and reel and Kayleen Breese won a reel.

The winner of the girls bike was Whitney Ponti and Kyle Stefani won the boys bike.

 

Super Bull out to be better success

 

If you try something new, and it turns out to be a great success, why not try to make it even bigger and better the next time you do it?

That's the attitude of the folks putting on the second annual Modoc Super Bull on June 20, at 7 p.m., at the Modoc County Fairgrounds Arena in Cedarville.

Thirty card-carrying pro fessional bull riders will try their luck that night, includ ing three local professionals. Brothers KC and Jason Bo neck of Lake City and Donny Richardson of Cedarville will be competing to make sure that first prize stays at home. After all 30 competitors have had a chance to ride, the top six will compete in the finals.

The super Bull drew over 1,100 spectators last year and is aiming to get 1500 this year, according to Dave Jones who is helping to organize the event. Orders for tickets have already been coming in from far away as Reno, Susanville and Clear Lake.

"Bull riding has been in a real popular upswing over the last couple of years," Jones noted. "It's broken away from the traditional rodeo cir cuit and there are a lot of events now that are just bull riding events alone."

"We had a real good year last year and we think we can have an even better one this year."

What accounts for bull rid ing being the most popular of the various rodeo events? Jones can sum it up in one word - "danger."

"All rodeo events have some danger," Jones ex plained. "But in bull riding you've got a 140 pound rider on a 2,000 pound bull. A lot of things can happen."

In addition to seeing all of that action in the arena, there will be the added attraction of having portable shoots placed right up next to the grand stand. The action of coming out of the shoots "will be right under your nose," according to Jones.

The idea for the Super Bull was hatched a couple of years ago after the loss of an annual professional rodeo.

"A bunch of people got to gether and decided to do this for the community. It's a group effort," Jones explained while pointing out that there are many local sponsors of the event, including the Modoc County Tobacco Education Program.

Tickets are $10 if pur chased in advance, or $12 at the door. Children seven and under are admitted free. Tickets are available at Jay's, Coast to Coast, L & B Ranch Supply, Arreches, Page's Market and Western Irrigation.

Following the bull riding that night, there will also be a dance sponsored by the Cedarville Fire Department. There will also be cowboy poker with a $500 purse and door prizes. Burt Davis is the clown and specialty act.

 

Sing up now for 3-on-3 basketball tournament

 

The second annual Modoc 3-on-3 basketball champi onships are all set for July 4 at the Griswold Gym in Alturas.

The event is open to the following groups in male and female: grades 1 through 3; grades 4-5; grades 6-8; grades 9-10; grades 11-12; an open division; and an over age 40 division. Players may move up an age group, but not down.

Teams may have a maximum of four players. Team entry is $30 per team with half the proceeds returned to the players and half returned to the Modoc High School Basketball Program.

Enter by mailing the entry form in this edition of the Modoc Record to the Modoc County Record, P.O. Box 531, Alturas, Ca. 96101, or bring the entry form in at 201 West Carlos Street. Out-of-town teams may enter by calling Rick Holloway at 530-233-2632. The deadline for team entry is July 1.

Anyone interested in helping with the tourney is asked to call Rick Holloway at the Modoc Record of fice at 233-2632.

Cardinals host football camp

The Big Valley Wing-T Football Skills Camp is scheduled for August 3-7 and 10-14 at Big Valley High School's football field.

The camp is open to students in fourth through 12th grades and the fee is $20 to Shasta College, $7.50 to the Sports Association for a $27.50 total. Registration is June 23, 24, 25, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the High School Gym.

The camp is headed by Big Valley coach Matt Hunsaker, with other local coaches Vance Knoch, Mike Duncan, Dan Johnson and Steve Gagnon helping.

The non-contact camp will emphasize individual skills, basic technique, team concepts, defensive and of fensive positions and will enhance the athlete's ability to compete.

For further information, contact Hunsaker at 299-3408.

 

Want a duck to win a truck? Better hurry to get one soon

 

A couple of days of sun shine really picked up sales for ducks in the third annual Great Pit River Duck Race scheduled for July 4.

According to Alturas Rotary duckmaster Bill Madison fewer than a third of the ducks remain and are go ing quickly.

"I guess the sunny days re ally perked up people's spirits, because ducks were really moving out of here," Madison said. "We're very pleased with the continued support and we'd advise people who are considering buy ing a duck to get it soon. When we're out, we're out."

The tickets are the same price as always, $25 each, and the limit of 3,000 will be sold.

For the first time, the first prize win ner will get a choice between a 1998 Chevy 4x4 step side pickup or a 1998 Chevy Silverado Extra-Cab two-wheel drive pickup, each val ued at about $26,000.

Also new for this year is a great sec ond prize of a 1998 fish ing boat and trailer with a value of $8,071.

Gold Crown Sponsors, those people who buy at least 10 ducks, will also have another shot at winning one of two Polaris Express four-wheel ers. Only Gold Crown spon sors have a shot at the four-wheelers.

All proceeds from the Duck Race go into the improve ments and new ball fields at the Alturas Rotary Youth Park. The past two years have seen the Duck Race raise over $60,000 and Rotary is antici pating a $30,000 net out of this year's race.

Progress at the Youth Park includes a new fence, park ing lot, sprinkler system and trees. Once the weather clears up and the ground dries, the grass will be planted at the fields.

The race is sponsored by both the Alturas Noon and Sunrise Rotary Clubs of Alturas.

The following is an order of other prizes in the Duck Race: third, $2,500 worth of custom lumber from High Desert Milling; fourth, Monitor Stove from Ed Staub and Sons; fifth new roof, sid ing or rain gutter ($1,000 value) from J.S. Roofing; sixth set of four tires from Les Schwab, $600; riding lawn mower from Coast to Coast, $568.41; Power lift/recliner from Home Medical, $500; One year on-line service from High Desert On-Line, $359 value; 25 tons of drive way gravel from Fitch Sand and Gravel, $350; Husquvarna chain saw from Modoc Engines, $330; custom bar becue from Surprise Valley Rotary, $300; 18-speed mountain bike from D&L Distributing; one dozen donuts weekly for a year from the Donut Shop, $260; $250 gift cer tificate from the Belligerent Duck; 55 gallon aquarium setup from Tahiti North, $250 value; three watt cell phone from Modoc Motor Parts, Napa, $225; The Big One fire works kit from Village Video, $199; Zenith 13 inch color television from Phillips Appliance, $199; Weekend retreat for two at Cockrell's High Desert Lodging, $150; free muffler and tail pipe, Ron Campbell, Inc. $125; complimentary two-night stay for two at the Best Western Trailside Inn, $110; CB Radio and gift cer tificate from High Desert Electronics, $109; one night stay for two at Mill Creek Lodge, $100; one free pair of Vans or Skechers from Family Footwear, value up to $100; Outdoor plant stand from Gary's Woodworks, $100; and one pair of Oakley Sunglasses from Tom Krauel, OD, $100 value.

To buy a duck, look for the happy duck signs in store windows, or call Madison at 233-3432.

Record sports for June 18, 1998

¥ Super Bull set for bucking time on Saturday

¥ Floods had little impact on refuge nesting

¥ Conner fourth in nation as junior bike racer

¥ Sign for now for the 3-on-3 hoop tourney

¥ Golf lesson program starts at Arrowhead

¥ Father's Day golf tourney at Arrowhead

 

Pro riders out to win the Modoc Super Bull

Saturday is the big day for the 2nd annual Modoc Super Bull at the fairgrounds arena in Cedarville.

The show starts at 7 p.m. Saturday night, and if last year is any indication, it's a going to be a very exciting evening.

Thirty card-carrying pro fessional bull riders will try their luck that night, includ ing three local professionals. Brothers KC and Jason Bo neck of Lake City and Donny Richardson of Cedarville will be competing to make sure that first prize stays at home. After the first go round of all 30 riders, the top six will compete in the finals.

The Super Bull drew over 1,100 spectators last year and is aiming to get 1,500 this year, according to Dave Jones who is helping to organize the event. Orders for tickets have al ready been coming in from far away as Reno, Susanville and Clear Lake.

According to Jones, bull riding events are popping up all over the country. He feels this year's event will draw a big ger crowd and will be worth the effort.

In addition to seeing all of that action in the arena, there will be the added attraction of having portable chutes placed right up next to the grand stand. Those chutes are much closer to the grandstands than the regular chutes which are on the far side of the arena.

The idea for the Super Bull was hatched a couple of years ago after Modoc lost the Warner Mountains Roundup, a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association event.

Jones pointed out that there are many local sponsors of the event, including the Modoc County Tobacco Education Program.

Tickets are $10 if pur chased in advance, or $12 at the door. Children seven and under are admitted free. Tickets are available at Jay's, Coast to Coast, L & B Ranch Supply, Arreches, Page's Market and Western Irrigation.

Following the bull riding that night, there will also be a dance sponsored by the Cedarville Fire Department. There will also be cowboy poker with a $500 purse and door prizes. Burt Davis is the clown and specialty act.

 

Floods had minor impact to refuge goose nesting

 

The floods of May had an impact on bird nesting at the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge near Alturas, but not a sigiologist Jenny Barnett, the refuge lost nine Sandhill Crane nests, but half of those pairs re-established nests. In addition, she said, there are 45 crane pairs nesting on the refuge, up from around a normal 30 to 38.

Barnett said the increase in pairs may make up for any loss in Sandhill Crane production caused by the floods. She said the refuge won't know the actual success rate on cranes this year until about August when the young birds (colts) start to fly.

She said it takes 65 days for the colts to fledge, and during that time they are very susceptible to predators.

Most of the Canada Goose nesting habitat is not in the area that flooded last month. Many of those in the flooded area hatched before the flood and fared well. She said about 10 percent of the goose nests may have been adversely affected.

Refuge staff was out taking a detailed survey of nesting birds late this week.

As far as the duck nesting success goes, most duck species have just begun to nest so the flooding did not have an im pact.

 

Conner 4th in nation junior bicycle racers

 

Alturas' bike racer Josh Conner is currently ranked fourth overall in the national Lance Armstrong Junior Olympics race series. The Armstrong series has the top junior bicycle racers compet ing throughout the nation and the national finals in San Diego is a part of the package.

Conner has a goal of win ning the national champi onship in time trials, adding to his win of the state time trial finals. He expects to place higher this year than last in the national finals. The Lance Armstrong races in clude time trials, road races and criteriums. Conner races in the 15-16 year old group.

Conner, who started his racing career with the Great Historic Hotel Bicycle Race in Modoc at age five, is now 15 and well known in bicycle racing circles. It's common to see his name among the top juniors in national maga zines promoting both road and mountain bike racing.

This week Conner heads to Colorado for a summer's worth of tough training with a friend. They do several races this summer, getting prepped for the national finals August 13-16 in San Diego.

Last weekend Conner moved up in the national point standings by finishing sec ond in the tough Nevada City race. He was just edged at the finish line in that race.

In one of the top races in the nation, The Best of the West in Medford over Memorial Day, Conner finished in fourth place overall among 55 of the nation's top junior rac ers.

In that race, he placed a seventh in the road race, fin ishing in the lead pack, and took a second in the time trial. He also took an eighth in a grueling road race fin ishing in the lead pack again, and came back to take a fourth in the criterium, giving him a fourth place overall.

 

Sign up now for 3-on-3 basketball tournament

 

The second annual Modoc 3-on-3 basketball champi onships are all set for July 4 at the Griswold Gym in Alturas.

The event is open to the following groups in male and female: grades 1 through 3; grades 4-5; grades 6-8; grades 9-10; grades 11-12; an open division; and an over age 40 division. Players may move up an age group, but not down.

Teams may have a maximum of four players. Team entry is $30 per team with half the proceeds returned to the players and half returned to the Modoc High School Basketball Program.

Enter by mailing the entry form in this edition of the Modoc Record to the Modoc County Record, P.O. Box 531, Alturas, Ca. 96101, or bring the entry form in at 201 West Carlos Street. Out-of-town teams may enter by calling Rick Holloway at 530-233-2632. The deadline for team entry is July 1.

Anyone interested in helping with the tourney is asked to call Rick Holloway at the Modoc Record of fice at 233-2632.

 

Evie Capik Youth Golf Program getting a start

 

The Evie Capik Memorial Youth Golf Program is just beginning and comes at a good time with the onset of the summer vacation for kids.

The new program orga nized through Arrowhead Women's Golf Club, will of fer golf lessons free of charge, and green fees waived for boys and girls ages 8 to 12 interested in learning how to play golf.

Arrowhead Men's and Women's Golf Club mem bers are volunteering their time to teach good beginning instruction and promote golfing to young people. Golf etiquette will also be taught with two pupils to each teacher, depending on the level of interest from young people. Several adult volun teers are ready to start, but a few more are needed.

Golf equipment may be borrowed and will be free of charge to students at the clubhouse. The only cost to the student will be $5 for the golf balls for lessons.

Any youth, ages 8 -12, who may be interested in signing up for the program's golf in struction, can leave their name, age and phone num ber by calling Arrowhead Golf Course at 233-3404. The instructors will call the stu dents to make class time ar rangements.

An August drawing for a prize afghan will help boost the program's funding. A crocheted afghan, made by Vi Tillman, with materials donated by Lillian McKen zie will be given to a lucky ticket holder. Tickets will be available for $1 each or 10 for $5. Watch for details.

 

Father's Day Golf Tourney June 21

 

Make reservations now to participate in the annual Fa ther's Day Scratch and Scramble Golf Tournament to be held at Arrowhead Golf Course in Alturas on Sun day, June 21.

The Arrowhead Women's Golf Club will host. Golf and dinner will be $12 for members of the golf course; $19 for non-members. Sign up at the Arrowhead Club house.

Record sports summaries for June 26, 1998

¥ Auto racers gear up for July 4-5

¥ Golf program starts for youngsters

¥ Sign up now for 3-on-3 basketball tourney

¥ Lake City lad wins Super Bull

¥ Junior bird hunt has two choices

¥ Art/recreation camp offered for summer

 

Get set for July 4-5 Modoc auto racing

Independence Day will be a big deal at the Modoc Fairgrounds Oval in Cedarville as the Modoc Street Stockers stage two days of races.

Races will be held on Saturday night, July 4 and then again on Sunday. Concessions are available and the Sunday race is sponsored by the Modoc County Tobacco Education Program. Gates open Saturday night at 6 p.m. with time trials at 7 p.m. On Sunday time trials are at 2 p.m. with racing at 3 p.m.

In the first race of the season, the A Main was won by Scooter Voth, with second place going to Lee Conner, third to Gordon Russell, fourth to Dick Steyer and fifth to Curtis Leslie.

The B Main was won by Damon Wheeler, with Fudd Russell, second, and Nathan Moore, third.

In the A trophy dash, Lee Conner won, followed in order by Gordon Russell, Walt Vanderheyden and Dick Steyer.

The B trophy dash was won by Fudd Russell, followed by Avon Ray, Dillon Montre and David Warren.

In heat one, Fudd Russell won with Damon Wheeler, second. Scooter Voth won the second heat with Nathan Moore, second. Bill Miller won the third heat and Lee Conner was second.

Dick Steyer had the fast time of the day, running a 21:09 lap. The record for the track is 19:10, set in 1997 by Gordon Russell.

 

Evie Capik Youth Golf Program sets start date

 

A start date has been set for the Evie Capik Memorial Youth Golf Program.

The program is just be ginning and comes at a good time with the onset of the summer vacation for kids.

Any youth, age 8 - 12, who plans to participate in the program should attend the July 13 meeting at 9:00 a.m. at the Arrowhead Golf course. Instructors will meet with the students to begin the program that morning.

The new program orga nized through Arrowhead Women's Golf Club, will of fer golf lessons free of charge, and green fees waived for boys and girls ages 8 to 12 interested in learning how to play golf.

The only cost to the stu dent will be $5 for the golf balls for lessons.

Arrowhead Men's and Women's Golf Club mem bers are volunteering their time to teach good beginning instruction and promote golfing to young people. Golf etiquette will also be taught.

Golf equipment may be borrowed and will be free of charge to students at the clubhouse.

To sign up for the pro gram's golf in struction youths should leave their name, age and phone num ber by calling Arrowhead Golf Course at 233-3404. The instructors will contact the stu dents to make class time ar rangements.

An August drawing for a prize afghan will help boost the program's funding. Tickets are available for $1 each or 10 for $5.

Sign up for hoop tourney

Don't forget to sign up a team for the 2nd annual Modoc 3-on-3 basketball tournament July 4 at the Griswold Gym.

The event is open to the following groups in male and female: grades 1 through 3; grades 4-5; grades 6-8; grades 9-10; grades 11-12; an open division; and an over age 40 division. Players may move up an age group, but not down.

Teams may have a maximum of four players. Team entry is $30 per team with half the proceeds returned to the players and half returned to the Modoc High School Basketball Program.

Enter by mailing the entry form in this edition of the Modoc Record to the Modoc County Record, P.O. Box 531, Alturas, Ca. 96101, or bring the entry form in at 201 West Carlos Street. Out-of-town teams may enter by calling Rick Holloway at 530-233-2632. The deadline for team entry is July 1.

Anyone interested in helping with the tourney is asked to call Rick Holloway at the Modoc Record of fice at 233-2632.

 

Lake City lad wins Super Bull

 

Thirty top bull riders from around the western U.S. showed up in Cedarville last week, hoping to win the championship of the Super Bull held at the Modoc County Fairgrounds.

However, the bragging rights for bull riding in Sur prise Valley will be staying east of the Warner Moun tains and west of the Nevada state line --in Lake City, to be exact. K. Cee Boneck of Lake City came away as the best of the 30 riders at the Su per Bull.

Dave Jones also reported that the Super Bull had an other good year, drawing an audience of between 1,100 and 1,200.

 

Junior bird hunt offers two choices

 

The first Rotary Ultimate Junior Hunt is scheduled for Sept. 5 and Oct. 24 at the Canyon Creek Ranch south west of Alturas.

The event is free of charge for all licensed junior hunters up to 16 years of age. Hunters will get a choice of a pheasant hunt on Sept. 5 or a chukkar hunt on Oct., 24.

The hunt is being orga nized by Chris Battram and Jesse Boyer, who are raising the game birds as a 4-H pro ject for the two hunts.

Hunters interested in par ticipating are asked to send a post card to Battram's Game Birds, HC2-Box 25001, Alturas, 96101. The card needs to have the hunter's name, address, phone num ber, hunting license number, age and preference for pheas ant or chukkar, as well as a morning or afternoon hunt.

The Alturas Noon Rotary Club is sponsoring the event.

 

Art/recreation classes coming this summer

 

The Summer Youth Employment Program is offering something new and exciting this summer -- an Arts and Recreation Camp.

The camp leader, Leslie Lancaster, said the camps will be offered in Alturas, Cedarville, Adin, Canby and Newell. The staff at the camp is Mariah Cook, Bryar Holloway, Lane Wingate and Elaine Bales.

The camp is open to fourth through sixth graders and is first-come, first served, accepting the first 40 students. Students may pre-register at New Directions, or the first day of camp.

The first Alturas camp is set for July 13-16 with each camp starting at 9:30 a.m. and running through 2:30 p.m. The second Alturas camp will be August 3-6.

The Canby/Newell camps will be July 20-24 and the Cedarville Camp will run July 27-30. The Adin camp will be held August 10-13. or more information, contact New Directions at 233-7703.

July

 

Record sports summaries for July 2, 1998

¥ Bonceck liked chances on two bulls

¥ Modoc All-stars begin their tournament

¥ Stock cars racers gear up for Fandango

¥ 3-on-3 hoop tournament starts 3 p.m. July 4

¥ Fandango golf tourney is Sunday

¥ Ginny Greene gets X-Country scholarship

Boneck happy with two good bull draws

Talk about your home field advantages. Since the last Super Bull you can rank K Cee Boneck and the Modoc County Fairgrounds in Cedarville right up there with the Celtics and Boston Gar den, the Yankees in "The House that Ruth Built", or the Packers at Lambeau Field.

On June 20, 25 year-old Bo neck, competing just a few miles down the road from his home in Lake City, finished at the top of the heap among 30 other professional bull riders in the second annual Super Bull. He drove home that night with $3,000 in his pocket and a new championship belt buckle.

Boneck said he appreciated being able to win in front of a crowd of friends and family who were cheering him loudly. Then again, "Every time I get on a bull I want to win."

Boneck said it also helped that he drew well in terms of the bulls he got to ride. For the riders, it's a case of the meaner the better.

"That's the whole thing," Boneck said of the bull draw. "You want the rankest bull. The better they buck the better the score. I had two good draws."

Of course here was the small detail of him hanging onto those bulls as well, something Boneck has been doing since he was 16 years old. His father "used to rodeo" and he asked young K Cee if he would like to try it. He has been hooked on the ex citement of bull riding ever since.

Of course, there is some times a price to pay for the thrill of it all. Boneck has had cracked ribs and been knocked out while bull rid ing. However, when it comes time to ride, "I just get on there and block everything else out."

The Super Bull was just another in a long line of wins that Boneck has posted in his years as a professional rider. He estimates that he has won over 12 professional rodeos. He and his younger brother Jason, who also competes, travel to over 40 events each year.

This past year, K Cee earned close to $20,000 at rid ing competitions. Not bad money for work that gets measured by the second.

 

Modoc All-Stars begin play

 

Modoc Little League is hosting half of the District 48 major baseball tournament and all of the major and se nior softball tournaments.

The major baseball tour nament will be played at the Al turas Youth Park begin ning July 9 with Modoc play ing Quincy at 5:30 p.m. The tournament will run through July 14. The major baseball All-Stars are coached by Au die Mc Combs of the U.S. Bank championship team.

The softball tournaments will begin July 16 and run through July 23. The tourna ment schedule has not been set at this time. The major soft ball All-Stars are coached by Jeff Wingate of the champi onship Rotary team. Michelle Hom merding is coaching the senior softball All-Stars. Michelle's Warner Mountain Welding team won the senior division.

The senior baseball All-Stars, coached by Ernie Givens of the championship Holiday Market team, will play in West wood beginning July 17 against Chester/ Greenville at 5:30 p.m.

The junior baseball All-Stars will play Susanville in a best of three series in Su sanville on July 17 and 18. The junior team is coached by Weaver Chiropractic's Robert Dolan.

The public is welcomed and encouraged to come and sup port our local teams and enjoy some good baseball and soft ball. The concession stand will be open for all games.

Modoc Little League thanks the local businesses and the community for all the support this season.

 

Modoc Stock Car racing season off and rolling

 

The 1998 Modoc Stock Car Racing Association season is off and rolling, with more ac tion, more thrills and more cars.

This, the second season for the M.S.C.R.A. has seen an increase in the number of fans and the number of rac ers. Sunday afternoon's ac tion saw 15 racers from three states battling it out on the three eighths mile dirt oval at the fairgrounds in Cedarville.

In the "B" trophy dash, Surprise Valley's Avon Ray took the checkered flag, then Blaine Hill completed the Surprise Valley trophy dash sweep by taking the "A" dash in his "OO" car.

The standout of the day was Tom Lightle of Lakeview, Ore. It was Tom's first day ever behind the wheel of the stocker, but it was a good one as he was able to win a heat race and then finish the af ternoon with a victory in the 20 lab "B" main event.

"It was fun. I'll be back," said an excited Lightle as he collected his trophies,

Gordon Russell, the cur rent point leader, emerged victorious in the 25 lap "A" main that saw lots of fence-slamming, guardrail-scrap ing action.

The racers return to action Saturday evening July 4, and Sunday afternoon July 5. These races should prove even more exciting because the drivers from Susanville will be there, and Sunday has seen the addition of a Powder Puff race for the ladies.

Point leaders: Gordon Russell, 95; Lee Connor, 84; Curtis Leslie, 45; Scooter Voth, 44.

 

3-on-3 hoop tourney starts at 3 p.m. July 4

 

The second annual Modoc 3-on-3 Basketball tournament will start at 3 p.m. at the Griswold Gym in Alturas. There is no admission cost for fans.

The tournament is sponsored by the Modoc Record and proceeds from the event will go to the Modoc High School basketball program.

The event is open for basketball players ele mentary school age through adult. There are divisions for male and female players.

The age groups for the tourney are as fol lows: grades 4-5; grades 6-8; grades 9-10; grades 11-12; an open divi sion; and an over 40 division. The open division has the most teams signed up.

The winning team in each division will receive half the division entry fee.

Games will be seven minute running halves with one minute half-time. There will be a five minute warm up pe riod. Younger teams will have referees, older teams will call their own fouls until the final games.

For more information contact Rick Holloway at the Modoc Record, 233-2632.

 

Fandango tourney Sunday

 

The annual Fandango Days Golf Tournament is scheduled for Sunday, July 5, with a shotgun tee off at 9 a.m.

The tourney is hosted by Arrowhead Golf Course and fees are $10 for members and $17 for non-members. There are three divisions: gross, net and Calloway (those golfers without established handicaps.)

The tournament is individual competition and golfers will be assigned to a four-person team. To register call 233-3404 or sign up at the golf course. Pre-registration is not required.

 

Greene gets X-Country Scholarship

 

Modoc's Ginny Greene has received a Cross Country scholarship from San Jose State University.

Greene, who has starred in both cross country and track at Modoc High School, was recently noti fied of the scholarship which covers full tuition and books.

Her father, Chip Greene, credits the work of coach John Geldreich and former coach Ed Carver for keep ing Ginny's name and per formances high on the list of San Jose coaches. The coach, Estle "Augie" Augabrite is a former Modoc'er who has kept close track of Greene. Ginny finished a solid season by leading her girls team to a league and section champi onship, earning eight first places along the way.

She will report to San Jose State on August 12 to begin the cross-country season.

 

Record sports summaries for July 9, 1998

¥ Plenty of competition in 3-on-3 tourney

¥ Little League stars start play this week

¥ Modoc stock cars had a Fandango

¥ Webb wins Fandango Golf event

Great competition in

3-on 3 hoop tourney

Competition was exceptional for the second annual Modoc 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament July 4 at the Griswold Gym.

A very strong open division had nine teams competing for the title. The Modoc Record team of Micah Windbigler, Cody Holloway, Eric Lancaster and Ryan Campbell took the title in a one-point win over the Family team of Collin Richardson, Carl Simmons and Bryan Slinkard. The Record team went unbeaten in the tourney.

Other teams in the open division included: Jay Freeman, Lawrence Harlan, Calvin Albright, Bryan Parker; Richard Belarde, Pete Swanson, Shane Bredeau; Zack Richardson, Mike Server, Shane Estes; Jeff Fredrick, Roger Ryman, Joe Catania, Rex Northrup; Geoff Griffin, Harold Montague, Jack Britton, Josh Windbigler; Alex Marr, Jeff Ross and friends; Steven Blevins and Klamath Falls friends.

There were two over 40 teams who chose to donate their prize to the basketball program. The teams were: Bunk Richardson, Dean Blevins, Larry Estes, Danny Parker; and Lane Bates, Dave Kern, Terry Dunn, Louise Dunn.

In the 9-10 grade girls division, the Record team of Tatum Dunn, Jodie Freeman and Stephanie McMasters won the title over the team of Dawnelle Gaskey, Jilene Mastagna and Charlene Stevens.

The 9-10 grade boys was real battle between a team from Alturas and another from Cedarville. The Alturas team of Blake Thorn, Matt Krauel, Eric Miller and Kris Server just edged the team of Michael Carpenter, Joel Ruiz and Ryan Burresch.

A good group in the 6-8th grade boys battled through the brackets with the team of Jack Britton, Brodey Thorn, Michael Bates and Boston Windbigler getting the title. They beat the teams of Adam Server, Skyler Oates, Jared Teeter and Marty Stevens; and Jerry Wheeler, Brendon Richardson, Terrin Shouse and Nathan Wheeler.

The team of Micah Eppler, Justin Mason and Travis Wood won the 4-5th grade title. They beat the teams of Chris Crosby, Matt Lamb, Mark Teeter; Boston Windbigler, Dustin Oates, Keith Montague; and Taylor Dunn, Grant Hall and Tim Cruse.

The event was sponsored by the Modoc County Record with added help from Napa, Modoc Motor Parts.

The Record would like to applaud the assistance of Richard Belarde for his excellent running of the open di visions, and to Jay Eppler and Louise Dunn for their help in the younger divisions. Also thanks to Lane Bates, Shaun Wood and Barbara Baker.

The proceeds from the event go to the Modoc High School Basketball Program.

 

M.H.A. hosts Midsummer Classic Horse Show

 

The Modoc Horseman's Association will be present ing its 16th annual "Mid summer Classic" Horseshow and Gymkhana on July 10, 11 and 12, 1998 at the Junior Livestock Showgrounds in Alturas.

Events scheduled for Fri day, July 10 include five dif ferent Gymkhana events in three separate age groups, Pee Wee - 10 and under, 11 through 17 years and 18 and over. Classes include: Cloverleaf Barrels, Pole Bending, Bi-Rangle, Single Stake and Potato Race. In ad dition there will be two "Jack pot" classes, one for Clover leaf Barrels and one for Pole Bending. These are "open" classes with the winners tak ing 100% of all entry fees for the event. The Gymkhana events start at 1 p.m.

A total of 38 classes are on tap for Saturday, July 11 and include: Showmanship, Halter, Trail, Western Plea sure-Walk/Trot, Western Pleasure Junior Horse, West ern Pleasure 1st/2nd Year Rider, and Western Equi tation.

Sunday, July 12 is "En glish" day, with a total of 27 classes. The following events are scheduled: Hunter Hack Mini Jumper, Beginning Jumper, Hunter over Fences, Intermediate Jumper, En glish Pleasure-Walk/Trot, English Pleasure Junior Horse, English Pleasure 1st/2nd Year Rider, Dressage Suitability and English Equi tation.

Six Championship classes include: Champion Mare, Champion Gelding/Stallion, Champion Western Pleasure (17 and under and 18 and over), and Championship En glish Pleasure (17 and under and 18 and over). Two $100.00 Stake Classes are Western Pleasure and English Plea sure. Also included are two "medal" classes, one for En glish Equitation and one for Western Equitation.

High point awards will be presented in eight separate divisions: 12 and under, 13 through 17, 18 and over, Ju nior Horse (five and under), En glish Horse/Rider Combi na tion, Western Horse/Rider Combination, M.H.A. Mem ber Overall Horse/Rider Combination, and High Point Overall Horse/Rider Combi nation. High points will be accumulated for a one horse/one rider combination (horse to be ridden by only one rider to count for any high point award).

For further information, or to request a copy of the show schedule and entry forms, please contact Pat Gaylord, Show Secretary, P. O. Box 160, Adin, CA 96006 or call her at (530) 299-3310.

 

Little League stars start play

 

The Modoc Major League boys all stars will start their All-Star tournament with a game against Quincy, here, 5:30 p.m. tonight. The stars will move out of Alturas for other games.

Modoc hosts both the entire major and senior girls softball tournaments with play beginning July 16, 2:30 p.m. as Modoc takes on Intermountain.

The games will be played at the Youth Park Complex on West C Street in Alturas.

The senior boys all-stars will play Greenville/Chester in Westwood beginning July 17.

 

Modoc Stock Cars: twice the action

 

On a July 4th weekend that saw Nascar postpone its race in Daytona, the Modoc Stock Car Racing Association got busy with racing on both Sat urday evening and Sunday afternoon at the Cedarville Speedway.

Tom Lightle of Lakeview again made a strong showing by winning the "B" Trophy Dash and a heat race Satur day night. Lightle is off to quite a beginning to his rac ing career. He had a five race undefeated record that was not ended until he took second to Gordon Russell in the "B" Main later in the evening.

The "A" Main belonged to Scooter Voth who took the lead in the second lap and never looked back.

Lee "The Hangman" Con ners won the "A" Trophy Dash and by the end of the evening, only four points sep arated Conners, in second place, from points leader Gor don Russell.

Sunday afternoon saw more beautiful weather and a good sized crowd. For the sec ond day in a row more than $100 went to the winner of the "50-50" drawing. The Elks and the D.A.V. were on hand to provide concessions.

On the track, Gordon Rus sell and Damon Wheeler won the "A" and "B" Trophy Dashes respectively. The rest of the afternoon represented the youth movement in M.S.R.A. Avon Ray, Cody Geaney, Brian Barnes all scored victories in the heat races. In the main events, Fudd Russell won the "B" and Brian Barnes won the "A" fi nale. All are younger drivers who represent the bright future of the M.S.R.A.

Racing resumes Saturday evening July 18 at 7 p.m. at the Cedarville Speedway at the fairgrounds in Cedarville.

Points as of July 5, 1998 are as follows: Gordon Russell, 184 points; Lee Conners, 164 points; Scooter Voth, 128 points; Dick Steyer, 93 points.

 

Webb wins Fandango tourney

 

The weather could not have been better for the Fandango Golf Tournament Sunday at Arrowhead in Alturas.

Bobby Webb won the men's gross division when he shot a 72. Steve Buffum placed second with a 73 and Phil Smith was third with a 75.

Nona Vance won the women's net division with a 67.

Jim Barney took the men's net division with a 62. Three players tied for second with a 64, Glenn McManus, Earl Lovenguth and Adam Server. In fifth with a 65 was Bob Brooks and Oakley Porter was sixth with a 66.

Jeff Buffum won the Calloway division when he shot a 72.

Record sports for July 30, 1998

• MHS students need sports physicals
• Stock car racers going full bore
• Youth soccer camp in August
• Destruction Derby for the fair

 

HS fall ath letes require physicals

 

Modoc High School ath letes preparing for football or volleybal to practice.

Shaun Wood, head foot ball coach, said he will hand out gear August 11, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and players must have their physicals and athletic information cards in before he will hand out equipment.

Football practice will start August 13 at 6 p.m. For more information, contact Wood at 233-4649.

Volleyball tryouts will be held August 17 under new head coach Matt Dorgan. Tryouts for var sity will be held at 7 a.m. and for junior varsity at 5 p.m. Tryouts are expected to last two to three days. Practice times will be scheduled following try outs.

Dorgan also reminds athletes that physicals must be completed prior to try outs.

 

Russell leads pack as MSRA heads for fair

 

Summer is heating up and so is the action at the Cedarville Speedway. An other large crowd was on hand as the Modoc Stock Car Racing Association took to the track July 18. Nineteen cars showed up which made for more racing action when it was decided to add a fourth heat race.

Blaine Hill was driving car "OO", but finished num ber "1" in the day's first race the 4-lap "B" trophy dash. Gordon Russell, Lee Connor, Scooter Voth and Dick Steyer are the top four drivers in the point standings, and also made up the field for the "A" trophy dash with Russell tak ing the Checkered flag.

Hill, Dillon Montre, Tom Lightle, and Lee Connor all won heat races leading up to the main events.

The "B" main got off to a wild start when Donnie Richardson was involved in a spectacular end over end, side over side rollover in lap two. Richardson was driving car "69" and it was a good thing because when his car finally came to rest on its hood. his number "69" could still be clearly read. Richardson was unhurt in the crash. A red hot Blaine Hill emerged victorious.

The "A" main saw "Lightning" Tom Lightle of Lakeview take the lead in the first lap, and never let go to win the race.

Action resumes at the 3/8 mile dirt oval, this Saturday, August 1, 7 p.m.

 

Soccer Camp shows skills for fall sport

 

A Youth Soccer Camp for children ages 7 - 12 will be held August 17, 18 and 19 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Alturas Ele mentary School, 809 West Eighth Street.

Families Matter and Modoc County Tobacco Education Program are sponsoring the opportunity. Registration is required and forms may be obtained from Modoc Family Resource Center, T.E.A.C.H., Inc. or Alturas Chevron.

The camp will be free to all children who register.

Please call Debbie Mason at 233-7125 or Bill Hall at 233-5807 for further information.

 

Destruction derby ready for rumble

 

The first Surprise Valley Rotary Club Destruction Derby is set to bump and grind at the Modoc County Fairgrounds August 22 for the Modoc Fair.

 

Local drivers are still needed to compete against en tered drivers from Klamath Falls, six cars; Lakeview with five cars; Chester with four cars; Susanville with three cars, and McArthur with three cars.

Organizer Roy Moore said the event is shaping up nicely and he has some verbal commitments from local drivers but they need to get their entries in and set up early.

The grand entry for the Derby is 7 p.m and actual crashing starts at 8 p.m.

The overall winner will get a check for $1,000, with second place netting $400, third $200 and fourth $100. Heat winners will be awarded $100 and all winners will re ceive trophies.

The entry fee is $25 per car and driver, and a pit pass of $5 for crew members up to three. Over three pit crew is $15. The pit area opens at 5 p.m. and registration must be com pleted by 7 p.m.

For additional information, contact Moore at 233-4079 after 5 p.m.

 

August

Record sports summaries forAugust 13, 1998

• Sprint 100s ready for Fair run
• Destruction Derby new fair item
• Fall sports programs start this week
• Junior golfers hit the links for fun
• Soccer camp all set for kicks

Get ready for several speeders, sprint cars

 

Sprint 100s auto racing comes to the Modoc Fair this year, preceding the Modoc Street Stock races and will start at 7:30 p.m. August 21.

Sprint 100 cars are open wheeled racers with a maxi mum of a 1600cc engine. They are very fast, quick and exciting to watch.

There are 20 sprint cars set for the Modoc race with two racers, Rick Koster and Gary Koster well known in the Sprint race and the "World of Outlaws" racing circuits. Major Sprint 100 races are held throughout the northwest and the Modoc Fair is excited about their debut this month in Modoc.

Tickets are available at the gate or at Coast to Coast, Page's Market and the Fair Office. Show a race ticket at the main gate for free admission to the fair on Friday only. Tickets are $8 for adult, $5 for children 12 and un der, and six and under are free.

 

A crashing good time in destruction derby

 

Local drivers are still needed to compete in the first annual Modoc Fair Destruction Derby, sponsored by the Surprise Valley Rotary Club August 22.

Drivers are coming from Klamath Falls, Lakeview, Chester, Susanville, and McArthur.

Organizer Roy Moore is looking for local drivers but they need to get their entries in and set up early.

The grand entry for the Derby is 7 p.m. and actual crashing starts at 8 p.m.

The overall winner will get a check for $1,000, with second place netting $400, third $200 and fourth $100. Heat winners will be awarded $100 and all winners will re ceive trophies.

The entry fee is $25 per car and driver, and a pit pass of $5 for crew members up to three. Over three pit crew is $15. The pit area opens at 5 p.m. and registration must be com pleted by 7 p.m.

For additional information, contact Moore at 233-4079 after 5 p.m.

 

Football practice starts tonight

 

Modoc High School Football practice starts tonight, but players must have their physicals before they will be al lowed to checkout gear or practice.

Those sports include re quiring physicals include foot ball, volleyball and cross country for Modoc High and volleyball and soccer in Surprise Valley.

Football practice will start August 13 at 6 p.m. For more information, contact Head coach Shaun Wood at 233-7309.

The opening scrimmage in football will be at Incline against Incline, Yerington and Hawthorn Aug. 28-29.

Volleyball tryouts will be held August 17 under new head coach Matt Dorgan. Tryouts for var sity will be held at 7 a.m. and for junior varsity at 5 p.m. Tryouts are ex pected to last two to three days. Practice times will be scheduled following try outs. Volleyball opens with a scrimmage against Tulelake Sept. 8.

 

Junior Golfers hit the links, Playday Tournament set

 

Youths participating in the Evie Capik Memorial Junior Golf Program this summer will have the opportunity to try out their new skills during a Junior Golf Program Playday tournament on Wednesday, August 19 starting at 8:00 a.m. at Arrowhead Golf Course in Alturas.

Volunteers interested in helping the youth groups keep golf scores are welcome to sign up at the Golf Course or call 233-2118 and leave a message. The older golf groups will play nine holes and the younger ones up to three holes.

The Junior Golfers will be treated to lunch following the tournament and receive ribbons for first, second and third places, plus participation ribbons for the day's play.

Twenty-six youths signed up for golf lessons this sum mer in the program which was initiated in June. Local golfers volunteered their time to instruct small groups and numerous people donated golf clubs, golf balls, golf bags and more to assist the junior golfers. Instructors for this first season of the program included John Fogerty, Earl Lovenguth, Fritz Barclay, Terry Williams, Jim Barney, Mary Bauer and Lillian McKenzie.

A drawing for a variegated dusty rose colored afghan created by Vi Tillman, will be given as the prize in an up coming drawing. The afghan is on display and tickets for sale $1 each or 10 for $5 at the What Not shop on Main Street, Alturas.

Junior Golfers who plan to participate in the Playday are asked to sign up at the golf course.

 

Soccer Camp starts Mon day; register kids for sea son play

 

Registration for the upcom ing Modoc Youth Soccer League soccer season will take place on August 17, 18 and 19 during the Youth Soc cer Camp at Alturas Elemen tary School.

Participants in the camp and anyone interested may register between 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. any of those three days of the camp.

Registration will also be held on the evening of Mon day, August 17 at Alturas El ementary from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Youths ages Kinder garten through high school are wel come to play. Cost is $25 per player or $45 for two or more players per family.

For more information, please call Alan Hopkins at 233-7102 or Heather Wingate 233-3361. Registration forms are also available at the Fam ily Center next to Alturas Ele mentary School, the T.E.A.C.H., Inc. office or Modoc County Office of Edu cation.

 

Record sports summaries for August 20, 1998

•  
• Braves have numbers, talent for 1998
• Destruction Derby highlights Saturday night
• Sprint 100s, stock cars race on Friday
• Arrowhead sets gold tournanments
• Endurance run on Likely Mountain
• Junior pheasant hunt are set

Braves have numbers, good talent for 1998

Modoc's Braves varsity football team has over 30 players out for the 1998 season, most of whom have plenty of varsity and junior var sity experience.

Modoc Coach Shaun Wood said he sees a solid chance for a repeat of last year's Shasta Cascade League championship, even though the team will be relative young in some ar eas.

"It's been a while since we've had over 30 players out, and the junior varsity has about 37," said Wood. "We'll have good depth, espe cially on the line, and good speed in several areas, and good size. We have never repeated as champions and that's our goal for this sea son."

Returning from last year's squad are se niors: Phil Weed, Bradley Ray, Andy Nowak, Ted Lewis, Greg Buck, Jed Tate, Robert Oliver, Eric Hunter, Dan Irvin, Andrew McLaughlin, and Justin Cavasso. Seniors out new this year are Brandon Roberts, Chad Arajio, and Matt Jeffers. Other players are expected to come out.

Juniors up from last year's successful ju nior varsity team are: Bert Austin, Kaylon Benson, Cody Holloway, C.J. Straub, Anthony Silva, Brett Hamilton, Jon Wellemeyer, Josh Conner, Robert Cox, Aaron Ford, Miles Flournoy, and Richard Lutz. A new player out this year is Ron Lafferty. Sophomore Tony Willis is also out for varsity.

The Braves will start the season with a two-day scrimmage at Incline Village August 28-29. The Braves will have a seven-man passing warm-up on Friday night and a full blown scrimmage Saturday. Both events will be against larger schools: Incline, Hawthorn and Yerington.

"This is new for us and it will give coaches a real chance to see a lot of kids in game situations, without really being in a game," said Wood. "We're really looking forward to the scrimmage, plus the kids will have a good time. It's a good way to start the season out."

Wood said the attitude of the team is very good and moving into the second week of practice he's seeing lots of improvement. "They have a lot to learn and we're giving them a lot up front," said Wood. "We have several positions up for grabs and kids are working hard. We'll know more next week and especially after the Incline scrimmage. Right now, though, we feel pretty good about what we are seeing."

Modoc opens the season itself September 4 at home against Lakeview.

 

Destruction Derby has local, out of towners

 

The Modoc Fair Destruction Derby, sponsored by the Surprise Valley Rotary Club August 22, has some local competitors and should be very exciting.

Drivers are coming from Modoc, Klamath Falls, Lakeview, Chester, Susanville, and McArthur.

Organizer Roy Moore said he expects the Derby to be very exciting and the audience will have plenty of local drivers to cheer on. The SV Rotary hopes to make the De struction Derby an annual event.

The grand entry for the Derby is 7 p.m. and actual bumping starts at 8 p.m.

The winner will get a check for $1,000, with second place netting $400, third $200 and fourth $100. Heat win ners will be awarded $100 and all winners will re ceive trophies.

The entry fee is $25 per car and driver, and a pit pass of $5 for crew members up to three. Over three pit crew is $15. The pit area opens at 5 p.m. and registration must be com pleted by 7 p.m.

For additional information, contact Moore at 233-4079 after 5 p.m.

 

Auto races feature some fast Sprint 100s

 

They aren't really super-powerful go-carts, but they are an awful lot of fun to drive and they are very fast.

That's what to expect when the Sprint 100s auto racing comes to the Modoc Fair this year, preceding the Modoc Street Stock races at 7:30 p.m. August 21.

Sprint 100 cars are open wheeled racers with a maxi mum of a 1600cc engine. They are very fast, quick and excit ing to watch.

Some 20 Sprint 100 cars are racing in the Modoc race.

Major Sprint 100 races are held throughout the northwest and the Modoc Fair is excited about their debut this month in Modoc.

Tickets are available at the gate or at Coast to Coast, Page's Market and the Fair Office. Show a race ticket at the main gate for free admis sion to the fair on Friday only. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for children 12 and un der.

 

Arrowhead men's tourneys set

 

The Spyglass qualification rounds will be held on August 29 and 30 at Arrowhead Golf Course in Alturas.

The cost for the two-man team is $40. Starting time both days is 8 a.m. and the maximum handicap allowed is 18.

The Men's Club will meet Sept. 1 at 7:15 p.m. to finalize the member-guest tournament whitewall be held Sept. 11, 12, 13.

The Arrowhead Men's Club invitational is the big tourney of the year and includes a practice round Friday, plus two days of tournament play. The cost of $100 per person also in cludes a banquet and two cocktails for Saturday's dinner.

Registration is open for the Invitational and is restricted to the first 32 teams.

 

Endurance run on Likely Mountain

 

The Likely Mountain Run August 29 in Modoc County is expecting about 40 endurance runners with three dis tances being offered: 50 miles, 50 kilometers (31 miles) and 10 miles.

Organizer Ron Barager said 26 runners have signed up to date and he expects more in the next week. Joggers and walkers are welcome to participate and all proceeds from the run will go to the Modoc High School Cross Country team.

The event is being sponsored by the Alturas Sunrise Rotary Club.

The race will start and finish at Sherlock Springs, 11 miles south of Alturas on County Road 62. All three out and back courses will traverse dirt roads, Jeep tracks and primitive trails between Sherlock Springs and Likely Mountain. The 50 mile turnaround will be the summit of Likely Mountain.

For more information, or to help with the run, call Barager at 233-6684.

Barager said he still needs help on some of the rest stops and anyone is invited to take part in the event.

The race course goes from an elevation of 4,600 feet at Sherlock Springs to a maximum of 7,400 feet at the Likely Mountain Summit. The course will be well marked and runners are advised to carry water. Aid stations will be set up every five miles.

The 50 mile/50km races start at 6:30 a.m. and the 19 mile run starts at 8 a.m., both from Sherlock Springs.

 

Youth have pheasant hunt dates

 

It's being billed as the Ultimate Junior Pheasant Hunt and it's set for Sept. 5 at Canyon Creek Ranch west of Alturas.

The Alturas Rotary Club is hosting the event, in conjunc tion with Battram's Game Birds of Alturas. Hunters will get a chance to select Chinese Ringneck, Melanistic or Alaskan White pheasants and should make that choice on their regis tra tion cards.

To register, send a post card or letter to Battram's Game Birds, HC2 Box 25001, Alturas, Ca. 96101, including the fol lowing information: name, address, phone, age, junior hunting license num ber, and preference for morn ing or af ternoon hunt.

There are plenty of free prizes offered plus a tri-tip barbe cue. For more informa tion, call 233-5267.

Record sports for August 27, 1998

• Braves have weekend of action
• Volleyball coach sees promise
• Cross-country runners hitting the pavement
• SCL Shuffle impacts Evergreen
• Endurance run set on Likely Mountain
• Alturas Car wins Destruction Derby

 

Modoc Braves set for plenty of weekend football scrimmages

 

As the season draws nearer for the Modoc football team, more and more of the starting lineup is starting to get set for coach Shaun Wood. There are plenty of positions still up for grabs, and Wood said he is planning to try a variety of combinations this weekend when the Braves travel to Incline Village to scrimmage against three other teams.

On Friday, August 28, all four teams will scrimmage in seven-on-seven non-contact games. Full pads and the full 11-per-side will come out on Saturday.

We'll throw a lot of different groups to gether and see what works best," Wood said, "I'm glad we're doing a scrimmage before we have to play a game."

The Braves will once again run a Wing-T offense led by either Josh Connor or Brad Ray at the QB spot. If Ray doesn't line up behind center, he will be catching passes from the wing spot along with split end Cody Hol loway. The only returning starter in the backfield is senior fullback Andy Nowak. Lining up behind him at tailback will be Kaylon Benson. Wood said that Anthony Silva will also be seeing some time in the backfield.

The offensive line will be anchored by se niors Jed Tate and Ted Lewis along with ju nior tackle Brett Hamilton.

The 4-4 defense for the Braves will have Greg Buck and sophomore Tony Willis up front in the defensive tackle positions. Mid dle linebacker Robert Oliver is a returning starter who will be flanked by Benson, Bert Austin and Jon Wellemeyer. Silva and C.J. Straub will be trying to shut down the opposi tion's passing attack from their cornerback spots.

Depth is one of the strong points of this year's team, so one of Wood's goals for this year is "to try not to start too many guys both ways."

The Modoc JV squad will also have plenty of depth this season. Thirty-seven players are currently toiling under head coach John West and assistant coaches Craig Flournoy and Eric Lancaster.

The Braves open the season on September 4 when they meet Lakeview.

 

New volleyball coach sees some promise

 

Modoc volleyball is preparing for a new season with high hopes. Then again, as new coach Matt Dorgan noted, "Ev erything al ways looks so hopeful at this point in the sea son." Late August is to volleyball what spring training is to base ball.

Dorgan is taking over the coaching duties from Harold Montague while the players on this year's squad are essen tially taking over the incredible legacy of Kayte Chris tensen and Jennifer Kern. The 6-3 Christensen and the 6-1 Kern led the Braves to three straight Section Titles and a trip to the State Finals last year. If that comparison persists, (and we promise not to bring it up any more in the newspaper) it will be unfair, because this is a team that can claim to be very good in it's own right. They may not stomp opponents match-after-match, but Modoc is still a con tender for the Shasta-Cascade League crown and one of the top teams in the North Section.

"I think we're very capable of a league ti tle," Dorgan said. "We're still sitting pretty good as far as league is con cerned."

Dorgan predicts that Mt. Shasta and Etna will be the biggest challenges for the Braves in the SCL.

As for Sectionals, Dorgan said, "We'll see how things stack up," when Liberty Christian and several other top teams come to Alturas for the Modoc Invitational on Septem ber 25 and 26.

This year's Brave squad can list plenty of assets heading into the fall campaign.

First of all, the team has a legitimate "go-to" player in six foot junior Andrea Knox.

"She's hitting the ball really well," Dor gan said of Knox. "She's definitely going to be a force."

Dorgan said that one of the challenges for the Braves will be to keep other teams from being able to focus their defen sive efforts solely on Knox. That challenge may well be met because Modoc has an experienced setter in senior Leah Siegel and another legitimate net threat in high-flying se nior Ileah Jack son, a transfer student from Big Valley.

The Braves can also count on seniors Christie Cartner, Stephanie Northrup and Lindsey Lieurance. All three picked up valuable experience on the road to the State Finals last year.

Finally, the group of juniors moving up to the varsity level this year went un-defeated in the SCL JV division last fall even though they didn't have Knox on the squad. The class of 2000 includes: Megan Orner, Kate Bushem-Farn ham, Lindsey Delmas, Alli son Ferry and Molly Busby.

"Everything is going to be based off of our passing this year," Dorgan said. "We need to start with good passing so we can run all three options for our setter."

"Before, if we messed up on our passing we could still just go to Kayte and she'd put it away. We can't count on that anymore."

All-right, all-right. No more compar isons.

The braves start the season on September 8 when they travel to Tulelake.

 

Cross-country runners are hitting the pavement

 

Modoc cross-country runners have already been out log ging miles for about two weeks now in preparation for the upcoming road-racing season.

The harriers will be led by the new coach Kevin Pent who takes over for John Geldreich. Pent coached the distance runners on the track team last year and said, "I know where most of them are at, having worked with them before."

The girls team will be gunning for their third straight Section Championship led by junior Julia Greene. Joining her in the chase will be April Dorton, Missy Lieurance, Re bekah Richert, Billie Geldreich, Stacy Wells, Amanda Mo riarty, Sonja Wilson and Joanna Clark.

The boys team thus far has Travis Dunn, Jonathan Richert and freshman Luke Hughes. Pent said Hughes is a "very strong" runner who will compete well right off the bat.

The season will start on September 5 when the Braves travel to Cottonwood to compete in the West Valley Invita tional.

For now, Pent has the runners concentrating on lowering their times to certain bench marks. He said he also hopes the team members can pick up precious seconds this year by having strong knowledge of the courses they are running. After all, it's not at all unusual to go to a high school cross-country meet and see runners get completely lost.

"I want to make sure our team gets to each meet in plenty of time to go over the different courses," Pent said. "That way there will be no surprises."

 

SCL shuffle impacts Evergreen

 

The latest dance craze around the North State is the "SCL Shuffle." It's pretty easy to do. You just take Fall River and Weed out of Shasta-Cas cade League in Division 5, and move them over to the Ev ergreen League in Division 6. Then, just to make sure you have six teams in the SCL, bring in Quincy.

You better learn the "SCL Shuffle" quick though, it will take place during the football season. For all other sports, it's back to business as usual.

One person who is not happy about all of this league hop ping is Modoc football coach Shaun Wood. Fall River and Weed asked to be transferred because they felt they couldn't compete in the SCL. Wood isn't buying it. He feels that the predictions of doom those schools made over the last couple of years became self-fulfilling prophecies for the way those teams per formed last year. However, he thinks both Fall River and Weed are now heading into strong years in their pro grams at the same time they are moving to a different league.

Big Valley football coach Matt Hunsaker, who will now have Fall River and Weed in his schedule, agrees with Wood. In Hunsaker's opin ion, Fall River has their best team in 10 years, and may well challenge for the EAL ti tle. He also feels that Weed has its best team in five or six years.

Another big issue for Wood is the fact that Fall River has been a traditional rival, and perhaps most important of all, it was relatively short bus ride by SCL standards.

"It takes another close game away from us and makes us travel further." Wood said. "I even tried to get a pre-season game with them (Fall River), but they didn't want to. It's too close a game not to have it."

The Braves will now have just five league games in stead of the usual six. "It makes every league game that much more important." Wood said of the new sched ule.

Quincy will no doubt make one of those five games tough for Modoc. Quincy went just as far as Modoc last year, the Section Semi-Finals. Wood said Quincy will also add some excitement to the league because they run a very pass ori ented offense that will help to "balance out" all the run ning attacks that have been the staple of the SCL over the past few years.

 

Endurance run on Likely Mountain

 

Some 40 endurance run ners are expected for the Likely Mountain Run with three dis tances being offered: 50 miles, 50 kilometers (31 miles) and 10 miles.

Organizer Ron Barager said 26 runners have signed up to date and he expects more in the next week. Joggers and walkers are welcome to par ticipate and net proceeds from the run will go to the Modoc High School Cross Country team.

The event is being spon sored by the Alturas Sunrise Rotary Club.

The race will start and fin ish at Sherlock Springs, 11 miles south of Alturas on County Road 62. All three out and back courses will tra verse dirt roads, Jeep tracks and primitive trails between Sherlock Springs and Likely Mountain. The 50 mile turnaround will be the sum mit of Likely Mountain.

For more information, or to help with the run, call Barager at 233-6684.

Barager said he still needs help on some of the rest stops and anyone is invited to take part in the event.

The race course goes from an elevation of 4,600 feet at Sherlock Springs to a maxi mum of 7,400 feet at the Likely Mountain Summit. The course will be well marked and runners are advised to carry water. Aid stations will be set up every five miles.

The 50 mile/50km races start at 6:30 a.m. and the 10 mile run starts at 8 a.m., both from Sherlock Springs.

 

Alturas car tops all in destruction derby

 

An Alturas car driven by Greg Albertson took home the $1,000 first prize in the first annual Modoc Fair Destruction Derby Saturday in Cedarville.

The Destruction Derby was deemed a big success by Fair Board member and SV Rotary member Roy Moore, who or ganized the event. He said he hopes the fair will continue the offer the event in coming years.

The grandstands were packed and they enjoyed a real treat as cars slammed into one another until only the car of Albertson remained moving.

Taking second place was Jerry Holloway of Lakeview, with third going to Michael Ray of Cedarville and fourth to Chris Hicks of Klamath Falls.

In the rookie heat race, Bo Gordon, Jr., of New Pine Creek was the winner with Mike Ray second, Mike Orner of Alturas third and Steve Buhr Chester, fourth.

The veteran race found Chris Hicks, first, Ryan Sullivan second; Bo Gordon, Sr. third and Jerry Holloway, fourth.

 

 

September

 

Record sports summaries for Sept. 3, 1998

• Modoc, Lakeview opens season Friday night
• Big Valley and Burney meet on Saturday
• The game of the week is continued rivalry
• Hornets, Cardinals square off in SV tourney
• The week ahead in sports

Modoc scrimmages in Inclince, faces Lakeview

When the Modoc football team plays their season opener tomorrow night against Lakeview, it will ac tually be about their fourth game of the year. Huh?

The Braves got a head start on the '98 campaign last weekend with two or three games worth of scrimmages down at Incline Village against Incline, Yerrington, Dayton and Hawthorne.

"It was nice," coach Shaun Wood said. "We got two and a-half games in of full con tact scrimmage plus another game worth of non-contact passing games."

Wood said he was pleased with the performance of the team, which regularly beat up on the other schools at Incline.

"People were coming up and asking us, 'What's your enrollment? About 700?,'" Wood reported. "I thought these other teams would be tougher. I feel like we're a lit tle further along than I thought we'd be."

The defense in particular seems ready to go.

"The defense really shined," Wood said of the per formance at Incline. "Of course, early on, the defense is usually ahead of the of fense."

As for the offense, Wood found that he the Braves have an abundance of people who can carry the ball. He al ready knew that Andy Nowak and Kaylon Benson would be strong running backs, but he was also pleasantly surprised with the performances of Brandon Sharp, Anthony Silva and C.J. Straub.

The passing game is a little more uncertain. Junior quarterback Josh Connor cracked the thumb in his non-throwing hand and will be out for at least one month. Brad Ray, who played wing-back last year and is used to catch ing passes, will be the one throwing the ball as the Braves begin their season.

Modoc's first game is Friday night at home against Lakeview.

The Braves have a tough season ahead. Four of their nine scheduled opponents were ranked in the top three of their divisions in a recent poll.

However, the Braves them selves are ranked No. 2 in Division IV, right behind No. 1 East Nicholas and just ahead of No. 3 Etna, also of the Shasta-Cascade League.

New SCL member Quincy is ranked No. 2 in Division III.

As for the non-league schedule, Chester is No. 2 in Division V while Big Valley is the top-rated squad in Division VI.

Wood will be the first to tell you that early season rank ings don't mean a whole lot. Last year, Modoc started 0-3 before going on to win the SCL. What you're doing in November is far more impor tant than what people think you will do in September.

Wood said he also has a policy of scheduling tough non-league games early be cause, "it pays off when we hit league."

 

Big Valley looks to continuing winning streak

 

How's this for a streak? Over the past three seasons, the seniors at Big Valley have gone a remarkable 28-0 in football. They've walked onto the gridiron 28 times, and walked off as victors all 28 times.

They went 9-0 as fresh men on the BV JV. As sophomores they were 9-0 again in JV play. Last year, as juniors, they were part of a 10-0 effort that led to an Evergreen League Championship and a CIF Sectional Title.

The magnificent seven of Joe Haury, Renden Ellenberger, Wes Brakefield, Jason Oney, Colton Jeppson, Jesse Coakley and Wyatt Harbert are the Cal Ripken's of high school football.

And here's a news flash - they have no plans to have the streak come to an end.

"They're showing a lot of spunk and spirit," Cardinals coach Matt Hunsaker said of the team's pre-season workouts. "We've got more offense in stalled right now than we had all last year."

While last year's unde feated squad featured a killer combo of size and speed, the four best things about this year's team are 1. speed, 2. speed, 3. speed and 4. speed.

The Cardinals have four backs who were recently timed at under 4.8 in the 40. (And that was after practice in tall grass.) Hunsaker said, "It's the fastest back field I've ever had."

Faster even than any of the backfields he had when coaching at large schools in Southern California.

Leading the pack of speedsters are senior run ning backs Ellenberger and Brakefield. Both rushed for over 100 yards in several games last year. They are joined by juniors Mike McLain and Carlos Escalante. As a JV player last year, Escalante rushed for over 1600 yards in just eight games.

As for the defense, Hunsaker admits, "We're not quite as solid as we were last year."

However, he feels that the overall speed of the defense, plus some experience, will have the Cards playing in top form by the end of the sea son.

Big Valley will open the season on Saturday at Burney. The JV game will start at noon followed by the varsity at around 2:00 p.m. The Cards' other non-league game will be against Modoc, in Bieber, on September 11.

Big Valley will have seven games this year in the newly expanded EAL that includes Fall River and Weed who have moved over from the Shasta-Cascade League.

Who is the league fa vorite?

"I think we are," Hunsaker said. "But I'm not sure the other teams see it that way. Week in and week out the league's going to be pretty tough."

One strong challenger could be Happy Camp, the team the Cardinals played in the CIF Division 6 finals last year. This year Big Valley has to play the Indians in Happy Camp. The distance alone always makes that one a tough road trip. Furthermore, the Indians are "better than they were last year," according to Hunsaker.

Another tough game could be Fall River.

"They've got the best team they've had in 10 years."

Joining the aforemen tioned group of seniors are new players Justin Wood and Andrew Wilkes. Juniors on the team are Escalante, McLain, Mike Lemke, Nate Hanawalt, Luke Stevenson, Josh King and JT Wilson.

 

Game of the Week: Modoc vs. Lakeview

 

When: Friday, September 4, 1998, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Carver Field, Modoc High School, Alturas

History: "The Border War" began way back in 1929 when Lakeview replaced the Reno YMCA on the Modoc schedule. The Braves, coached by I.C. Illiott, took a 76-6 win in the inaugural contest. That still stands as the most lopsided score in this long-running rivalry.

In those days, the Honkers were the last game on the Modoc schedule. It didn't become the first game of the sea son until 1966.

Over the years the two squads have played 54 times in 70 years, with Modoc winning two out of every three games. The Braves' record against the Honkers currently stands at 36-17 with one tie, a 0-0 affair in 1953. The Braves posted one-point wins in 1954 and 1957.

Modoc won five in a row in the years 1991-95, but the Honkers have won the last two times the schools have met.

"This is still a big one," Modoc coach Shaun Wood said of the game against Lakeview. "The bragging rights go back so many years."

Scouting Report: Wood said the Honkers are a very experienced team this year because many young players were forced into duty when Lakeview experienced a rash of injuries in 1997.

"They have a lot of guys this year who had to play last year," he said.

One guy who didn't play last year but is on the Honker roster for this season is Eric Bixler. The speedster ran a 10.8 in the 100 meters last year and took second in the state or Oregon.

The Honkers ran a full-T formation on offense last year with very little passing and Wood doesn't expect that to change. Modoc will also likely depend on its running game.

Now that there are only five Shasta-Cascade League games per season, Wood pointed out that non-league games can have a significant effect on where the Braves would be seeded should they make the playoffs.

Best guesses: Rick Holloway - Modoc's junior varsity got a game stolen by the refs last year, and the juniors on this team will remember it. The Braves preseason scrimmages will do wonders, but a passing game is needed. Braves will win, 18-12.

Geoff Griffin - Season openers are generally filled with lots of penalties and defensive dominance. Look for both teams to grind it out on the ground with Modoc taking a 14-7 win.

Big Valley and Surprise Valley volleyball teams start at Hornet Invitational

 

The Big Valley and Surprise Valley volleyball teams will both start their sea sons at the Hornet Invitational in Cedarville this weekend. Besides these two Evergreen League rivals, the tourney will also include Hayfork, Trinity and Lassen. The Modoc JV will also be competing in the JV division of the tournament.

Both the Hornets and the Cardinals figure to challenge for the EAL title this fall along with Tulelake.

The Hornets, coached by John Christie, are led by se nior Heather Tufts, who was All-League last season. Seniors Jeanne Bunyard and Cara Pearce are expected to be strong at the net.

Other seniors on the squad are Julie Bordwell, Erin Hawn and Jennifer Reeves. The three juniors on the team are Alida Fox, Juana Sanchez and Tammy Small.

The Hornet JV is composed of sophomores Cassie Cockrell, Meghan Darst, Megan Farschon, Jodie Jones and Traci Reeves along with freshmen Ashley Cockrell, Kate Hawn, Jamie Parriot, Alyssa Tierney, Shannon Wilson and Christina Worley.

Big Valley, coached by Paula Silva, will be led by senior hitters Amy Plemmons and Adonica McGarr. Setting the balls high for them will be senior Amy Kresge and junior Megan Armstrong. Other members of the team are Anita Babcock, Carly Nordell, Michelle Terry, Lisa Fitts and Tiffany Silva.

Big Valley has a large JV team this year consisting of Kelsey Hunsaker, Lisa Piper, Jamie Hawkins, Luena Harbert, Cory Click, Heather Oney, Heather Hawkins, Holly Baker and Jennifer Dowell.

 

The Week to Come

 

Friday, Sept. 4

Football

Lakeview at Modoc

7:00 p.m.

Volleyball

Surprise Valley and Big Valley at Hornet Inv.

in Cedarville

Saturday, Sept. 5

Football

Big Valley at Burney

2:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 8

Volleyball

Modoc at Tulelake

6:00 p.m.

Big Valley at Burney

6:30 p.m.

Soccer

Surprise Valley at McCloud

4:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 9

Volleyball

Modoc at Surprise Valley

6:00 p.m.

All times varsity

 

October

 

Record sports for Oct. 1, 1998

• Modoc loses tough one to Chester, 3-0
• Big Valley remains on winning edge
• Liberty Christian wins Modoc volleyball tourney
• Modoc cross country team doing well
• Hornets on streak in Evergreen League
• BV loses match of streaks
• The week ahead in sports

Braves lose tough one at Chester, 3-0

Modoc coach Shaun Wood could only shake his head after the 3-0 loss to the Chester Volcanoes in Chester Friday night.

"We didn't get beat by a better team," Wood said. "We just did too many stupid things and shot ourselves in the foot, al ways after good plays. Or, we didn't make plays we had open."

Wood said he wouldn't take anything away from the Chester team, which is now 4-0 on the season and Modoc falls to 1-3. The Braves are off this week and will play host for Homecoming to Trinity October 9. Trinity will also open Shasta Cascade League competition for the Braves.

The Braves defense played well at Chester, only giving up some sporadic big plays, none that scored. The offense had moments of brilliance, overshadowed by penalties and mistakes.

Taking the place of injured tailback Kaylon Benson was Anthony Silva and C.J. Straub. Silva broke free for a couple of good gains on the night and finished with a very re spectable 94 yards on 12 carries. He had another screen play for more than 40 yards to within the Chester 10 that was called back on a penalty.

The Braves looked good in the opening series as quarter back Josh Conner hit wide receiver Cody Holloway on an out that went for 15 yards. That set up and out and up pattern, where Holloway was well beyond the defense, but the pass was short.

The Braves would wind up stalling on the drive. The first period went back and forth with neither team getting into the endzone.

In the second quarter, Modoc's defense tackled the Chester runner in his own endzone for an apparent safety, but the of ficials put the ball at the Chester two-inch line. According to Wood, the play was one of two things, either a safety or a fumble that Modoc recovered. But the refs didn't see it that way. The Braves allowed Chester a good run out of trouble and Chester moved down the field, but the drive stalled.

On a next series, Chester moved again down the field and the Braves defense pressured the Chester quarterback, Aaron Hardesty, into a roll-out where he tossed a sideline pass that was apparently picked off by Modoc. The referees ruled the pass hit the ground. Chester's Ryan Bateman came in and kicked a solid 35-yard field goal to put the Volcanoes on the board before half. That turned out to be the only scor ing in the game.

Modoc had its chances throughout the game and dropped at least one certain touchdown pass in the second half. Penalties actually plagued both teams in the game.

"We made our mistakes, but one play really didn't decide the game," said Wood. "We had our chances and just didn't convert. It was frustrating, and we're working on some changes this week so we'll be able to execute better."

Chester generated 208 yards offense for the night with Modoc netting 184. Each team had nine penalties for 70 yards. The teams punted a total of 16 times in the game.

In addition to Silva, Andy Nowak carried the ball nine times for 34 yards, Brad Ray four for 14 and C.J. Straub, two for six. Chester's leading rusher was Matt Matulonis with 119 yards on 16 carries. Tyson Yates had 66 yards on 12.

Conner was 6-for-20 passing on the night with Holloway catching five for 42 yards.

 

Big Valley defense pitches shutout

 

Big Valley won its Evergreen League opener last Friday behind a stellar de fensive performance.

The Cardinals took a 20-0 win over Dunsmuir while al low ing the Tigers just 78 yards of total offense, three first downs, and three turnovers.

Dunsmuir was able to av erage just over two yards per play thanks to the play of emerging juniors Nate Hanawalt and Luke Stevenson.

Hanawalt, a defensive lineman, had a fumble recov ery and was "in their back field all night long," accord ing to Big Valley coach Matt Hunsaker.

Stevenson is a linebacker who is still getting used to play ing that position. He con tinued to show a strong learn ing curve against Dunsmuir as he led the team with 13 tackles.

"He just gets better every game," Hunsaker said of Stevenson.

The Cards also got an in terception and a fumble re covery from Carlos Escalante.

The BV offense got some big runs from Wes Breakfield, who had 118 yards and two touchdowns, to put more than enough points on the board to get the victory.

Breakfield had a 10 yard touchdown run in the second quarter and broke loose for a 65 yard score in the third. Fullback Renden Ellenberger put more points on the board in the fourth with a seven yard scoring run.

"We moved the ball real well," Hunsaker said. "I was real happy with our perfor mance. We had two other op portunities to score."

Now that the Cards are 1-0 in league, they will get their next test in Happy Camp to morrow night.

 

Liberty Christian wins Modoc Invitational

 

Modoc was the host but Liberty Christian was the winner of the Fourth Annual Modoc Volleyball Invitational. The Patriots beat Lakeview in a Saturday afternoon final 3-15, 16-14, 15-9.

Modoc struggled in the tournament. In pool play on Friday, the Braves beat Mt. Shasta in their first match be fore dropping three straight to Liberty Christian, Lakeview and Red Bluff.

The Braves were able to beat Mt. Shasta from the ser vice line. Modoc missed just one serve in two games while record ing 18 aces.

"Serving has been a big part of our game," Modoc coach Matt Dorgan said. "Mt. Shasta was a good match for us."

The Braves were down 12-6 in the first game before launch ing an incredible comeback. Sophomore Jessica Kern served four straight aces to bring Modoc even with the Bears at 13-all.

The two squads then got into a deadlock where each team got a sideout three times in a row. It finally broke when Allison Ferry served an ace to give the Braves a 14-13 lead, but Mt. Shasta got the sideout and then a kill to tie the score up at 14-14.

Leah Siegel put a kill to the floor to get the serve back for the Braves. Once they had it, Lindsay Lieurance didn't waste it as she served two straight aces to give Modoc the 16-14 win.

Serving was again the key in game two as Megan Orner served four straight aces to give Modoc a quick 9-1 lead. After that the Braves were able to hang on for a 15-7 win.

For the match, Modoc had a good balance in stats with sev eral different players contributing in a variety of areas.

Lieurance led the team in kills with six, while also adding two aces and a dig. Siegel had five kills, two blocks and an ace. Kern had four kills, five aces and two digs. Orner had four kills, five aces, three blocks, and a dig. Stephanie Northrup had two kills, three aces and a dig.

After beating the Bears, Liberty Christian was next on Modoc's list and the Patriots took a 15-8, 15-7 win. In game one, the Braves had 13 hitting errors. In game two, the Patriots scored four points on blocks at the net.

Lieurance and Orner each had four kills for the Braves while Siegel had two kills, two blocks and four digs.

Modoc next played Lakeview and the two teams put on what may well have been the game of the weekend in game one of that match. After a marathon the Honkers finally escaped with a 17-16 win. (17 was set as a cap in pool play.)

"We had a great match with them," Dorgan said of Lakeview. "That match also kind of wore us out though."

The worn out Braves faced Red Bluff in their fourth match in five hours and lost.

The 1-3 record in pool play left Modoc as the No. 6 seed for Saturday's bracket play. In the quarter-finals the Braves faced No. 3 seed Red Bluff, an opponent they had faced just 14 hours before.

The Spartans took the win again, 15-6, 15-5 as they con trolled the net with their supe rior height. Red Bluff had 22 kills on the match compared to just six for Modoc.

"We couldn't get past their block," Dorgan said. "They could hit around our block and found the right spots.

"If we played deep they hit short. When we played short, they hit deep."

When the back row did guess right they did a good job as Northrup, Kern and Lieurance combined for 11 digs.

Siegel led in kills and blocks with three in each de part ment.

The good news from this tournament is that there doesn't appear to be a domi nant team in the Shasta-Cascade League this season. The four SCL teams at the Modoc Invitational finished in the bottom four spots. The Braves have as good a shot as anybody in what appears to be a wide open race.

 

Harriers race well at Lakeview

 

Justin Semenko, Luke Hughes and Stacie Wells all had high finishes for Modoc in the Lakeview Cross-Country Invitational last Saturday.

Semenko, running in just his second career race, fin ished fourth in the boys var sity compe tition at Lakeview. He needed just 19:41.08 to cover the 5 kilometer course.

At the JV level, Luke Hughes won the boys race with a time of 20:07.98 and Stacie Wells was second in the girls race at 23:55.97.

Also for the boys team, Dan Hoover ran a 23:56.87 in the varsity race and Jonathan Richert had a time of 36:07.17 in the JV race.

The top runner for the girls varsity was Julia Greene who finished 17th with a time of 25:55.88 followed by Rebekah Richert (30:28.15), Billie Geldreich (30:40.16), Josanna Clark (35:12.21) and April Dorton (36:23.08).

Besides Wells, the JV girls also got good races from Missy Lieurance and Amanda Moriarty with times of 25:29.25 and 26:34.38.

Middle school races (three kilometers long) were also run in Lakeview and the Modoc boys team was led by Ross Montague who finished 10th with a time of 16:22.73 followed by Mark Main at 16:53.16 and Clint Nardoni at 17:19.96. Missy Ackley ran for the Braves in the girls race and took ninth at 17:05.13.

 

Hornets roll on undefeated in EAL

 

The Surprise Valley vol leyball team upped its Evergreen League record to 3-0 after defeat ing Happy Camp on Saturday 15-5, 8-15, 15-4, 15-0.

Because of the distance be tween the two schools, the teams played the match at Butte Valley.

Heather Tufts was tough for the Hornets whether setting or spiking. She registered 13 as sists to go along with seven kills.

The team leader in kills was Jeanne Bunyard who had 12 spikes hit the floor along with five aces. Erin Hawn also had two aces for SV.

Cara Pearce had five kills and two blocks while Jennifer Reeves added three kills to the victory.

Last week the Hornets lost a non-league home match to Bonanza 15-8, 15-9, 15-3.

Tufts had five kills, five assists and an ace. Bunyard had five blocks and two kills.

Surprise Valley hosted Butte Valley on Wednesday night and will hardly have time to rest has they go to Dunsmuir on Saturday (JV starts at 1:30 followed by var sity) and McCloud next Tuesday (JV starts at 5:30 fol lowed by varsity).

The only other unbeaten team in the EAL is McCloud, which beat Big Valley on Tuesday night to go 4-0. (See Big Valley article on page 14.)

By the night of October 6, the Hornets could find them selves at 6-0, having gone un de feated for the first half of the EAL season.

 

Big Valley loses match of streaks

 

Big Valley and McCloud traded streaks in their Evergreen League match on Tuesday night. In the end, McCloud put together more runs and came away with a 15-8, 16-14, 10-15, 15-0 win.

In game one, McCloud opened with a 10-0 lead before the Cardinals ran off eight points in a row. McCloud then stopped the bleeding and put together five in a row to win the game.

In game two it was Big Valley's turn to open a 10-0 lead, only to see McCloud come back and win 16-14.

After Big Valley won game three, the biggest streak of the night came in game four when the Cards were shutout.

Big Valley dropped to 2-2 in league. The Cardinals had to play the McCloud match with out two starters who were sick, but coach Paula Silva still noted, "We're not playing consistently. We didn't play together as a team. We have too many silly errors."

The Cards will have a break this week before hosting Tulelake on Thursday, October 8.

 

The Week To Come

 

Friday, Oct. 2

Football

Big Valley at Happy Camp 7:30 p.m.

Volleyball

Modoc at Red Bluff Tournament

Saturday, Oct. 3

Volleyball

Modoc at Red Bluff

Tournament

Surprise Valley at Dunsmuir 2:30 p.m.

Monday, Oct. 5

Soccer

Butte Valley at Surprise

Valley 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 6

Volleyball

Surprise Valley at

McCloud 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 7

Volleyball

Modoc at Fall River

7:00 p.m.

 

All times varsity

 

Record sports for Oct. 22, 1998

• Braves wins at Burney, Quincy next
• SV Hornets still perfect in Evergreen
• Modoc girls get easy win over Trinity
• Modoc runner do well at West Valley
• Race of the week is cross country at home
• Cardinals win two in a row
• The week ahead

 

Braves drop the Raiders, get teeth of SCL here Friday

Modoc's Braves had no trouble whipping Burney's Raiders, 33-6, Friday night in Burney and now come home to face Shasta Cascade League newcomer and favorite, Quincy, Friday night.

"The winless Raiders put up a first half fight, trailing just 14-6, but Modoc buried them in the second. "It's amazing what you can do if you don't turn the ball over or the margin is in your favor," said Modoc coach Shaun Wood. "Quincy is going to be a different story. We'll be coming in as the heavy underdogs and I think they'll be looking past us to Trinity."

Quincy comes to Ed Carver Stadium sporting the top passer in the north state, Matt Ray, at 6-3, 195 pounds. "He's good, he likes to roll out and he has a very strong arm," said Wood. "His receivers are also making catches for him. We'll be doing some things to upset his rhythm."

For the seven-game season, Ray is 94-for-143 for 1,651 yards and 21 touchdowns. He is averaging 236 yards and three touchdowns per game.

Modoc got on the board early against the Raiders after Brandon Roberts picked off his first of three Burney passes. On a first and 10 from the nine, quarterback Josh Conner hit Cody Holloway on an short out and Holloway took it into the endzone with 10:11 left in the period. Conner kicked the point after and Modoc led 7-0.

With just over a minute left in the opening period, Conner hit Holloway on another short out and Holloway took it in for a touchdown. Conner kicked the point after and Modoc led 14-0. Conner and Holloway, both juniors, have connected for four touchdowns in the past two games. Bert Austin also picked off a Burney pass in the first half.

The Raiders got on the board with one second left in the half when Matt Schechla hauled in a Asam Spearin pass from the 24 and broke into the endzone. The point after failed and Modoc led 14-6.

Andy Nowak took over in the second half, scoring first on a 45-yard run in the third and then adding a 21-yarder in the fourth quarter. Nowak had a great night running the ball and was a standout on defense as well. Nowak packed the ball 15 times for 198 yards. He ran through the middle and over several Burney Raiders in the opening drive of the sec ond half.

Modoc's final score came on an 11-yard run by Roberts with 4:18 left in the game. Modoc had another touchdown by Silva called by on a holding penalty.

Austin and Tony Willis led the Modoc defense with 13 tackles each and Brad Ray had eight.

In addition to Nowak, Silva carried the ball 18 times for 77 yards, Roberts twice for 16 and Brian Massey one for 12.

Conner was six for 15 passing for 74 yards. Holloway caught five for 60 yards and Robert Cox snagged one for 14 yards.

In total offense the Braves amassed 367 yards and Modoc's defense limited Burney to 180 yards. The Braves only had to punt twice while Burney kicked the ball away six times.

 

Surprise Valley still rolling with 9-0 record

 

The Surprise Valley volleyball team is one week closer to their goal of taking the Evergreen League Title. The Hornets can clinch their first League Championship since 1988 if they beat second place McCloud this coming Tuesday.

Surprise Valley upped their record to 9-0 this past Tuesday by winning on the road at Tulelake.

The Hornets beat out a scrappy Honker squad 15-5, 17-15, 15-12 behind the strong net play of Cara Pearce who had eight blocks and seven kills.

She also got plenty of help from senior standouts Jeanne Bunyard (six kills and four aces) and Heather Tufts (six kills, 13-13 serving and two aces.)

Hornets coach John Christie said he was happy with the way his team played against a Tulelake team that seems to be at the top of it's game.

"They played the best we've seen in the league," Christie noted of the Honkers. "We were able to win because Pearce is doing a really nice job at the net and Bunyard is right there with her."

The Hornets also defeated Happy Camp this past week 15-9, 15-5, 15-7. Serving was the strong point for SV as they put 55 of 58 service attempts between the lines.

Bunyard and Pearce again dominated at the net. Bunyard had eight kills and two blocks while Pearce came up with six kills and four blocks.

The Hornets will host Dunsmuir (3-4) on Saturday, with the JV taking the floor at 1:30 followed by the varsity at 2:30.

On Tuesday night, McCloud comes to Cedarville, for a match with the JV starting at 5:30 followed by the varsity.

Second place McCloud has just one loss - to Surprise Valley at McCloud back on October 6. If McCloud wins on Tuesday, the two teams would likely finish in a tie for the league title.

If Surprise Valley can win at home on Tuesday (and beat Dunsmuir on Saturday of course), they would clinch the EAL Championship. Even if the Hornets were to lose their last match on November 5 to winless Butte Valley, they would still end up 11-1 while McCloud could do not better than 10-2.

 

Braves volleyball gets easy win at Trinity

 

Right now deuces are wild for the Modoc volleyball team. They've rolled to two easy wins, two weeks in a row, to up their league record to 2-1.

The latest victim of a renewed Braves squad was Trinity. On Saturday Modoc took a quick 15-4, 15-4, 15-7 win on the Wolves' own court.

The Braves were impressive in their serving. Lindsay Lieurance whacked five aces with her specialized windmill serve that has to be seen to be believed. Andrea Knox and Leah Siegel also knocked some fear into the Wolfpack with their jump serves.

Modoc had 29 kills on the night, 23 of them coming off as sists by Siegel. Knox was the top killer with 11, while Jessica Kern added five and Lieurance had four.

"It was short, and that's the way we like 'em," Modoc coach Matt Dorgan said. "We started off pretty quickly and played aggressively."

Dorgan thinks there are four teams that have a shot at the Shasta-Cascade League title, or a berth in the Sectional play offs - Modoc, Burney, Mt. Shasta and Etna.

The SCL has pretty much always been able to get its top two teams into the playoffs, and usually a third as well.

The Braves (12-11 overall) played in Mt. Shasta last night, and will next come home to Alturas to take on Weed on Wednesday, October 28, with the JV starting at 6:00 and the varsity following at 7:00.

 

Braves race in West Valley

 

One more cross-country meet, one more great perfor mance from Stacie Wells and Luke Hughes.

The Modoc X-C squad traveled to West Valley last Saturday where Hughes and Wells showed again that they are among the best in the North State, regardless of school size.

Hughes took third out of 86 runners in the JV boys race, covering the 2.2 mile course in a blistering 13:07. That's running at a clip of 5:54 per mile.

Jonathan Richert also competed in the boys JV with a time of 20:56.

In the girls JV, Wells was eighth out of 51 racers with a time of 16:28. She was followed closely by teammates Missy Lieurance at 17:09 and Amanda Moriarty at 17:36.

In the three-mile varsity races, Justin Semenko was 15th out of 66 racers with a time of 17:55. Travis Dunn posted a time of 18:45 followed by Dan Hoover at 21:14.

"The varsity boys team is definitely getting stronger," Modoc coach Kevin Pent said.

In the varsity girls race, Julia Greene was the top Modoc finisher at 23:13. Billie Geldreich came in at 25:57 and Rebekah Richert earned a time of 29:02. Josanna Clark and April Dorton also completed the race.

Middle-schoolers ran a one-mile course and Ross Montague led the way for Modoc with a time of 7:43. Close behind him were Mark Main (8:04) and Missy Ackley (8:13).

The Braves will now get ready for their own home meet this Saturday. (See related article.)

 

Races of the Week:

Modoc Invitational

What: Cross-Country

When: Saturday, October 24

Girls Mid. School Race (1.5 miles) starts at 10:30 a.m.

Boys Mid. School Race (1.5 miles) starts at 11:00 a.m.

Girls JV Race (2.5 miles) starts at 11:30 a.m.

Boys JV Race (2.5 miles) starts at 12 noon

Girls Varsity Race (3.1 miles) starts at 12:30 p.m.

Boys Varsity Race (3.1 miles) starts at 1:00 p.m.

Where: Arrowhead Golf Course, Alturas

History: Behind 1998 grads Josh Keyes and Ginny Greene, the Braves have owned this meet over the last couple of years. For the Girls varsity team the past two years, this has been the last stop on the way to winning back-to-back Sectional Titles.

Scouting Report: Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta are two of the squads on their way to compete along with several others who had yet to confirm for sure. Pepsi and Holiday Market are donating food and drinks for the runners.

The JV squad has shined the best for Modoc, particularly freshmen Stacie Wells and Luke Hughes. They have consis tently finished high in all of their races, no matter how large the race.

The Girls Varsity has been getting solid performances all season long from Julia Greene. The Boys squad will be look ing for a breakout performance from Justin Semenko and Travis Dunn.

Best guesses: Picking a cross-country race is a lot like go ing to the horse track, which our wives have banned us from doing. Therefore, we will give a quick pick on the Modoc-Quincy football game the night before.

Rick Holloway (4-2) Quincy's football team may remind folks of the old San Diego Chargers - what ground game? The Braves defensive backs are going to be tired when this one's over. Modoc has a good passing game, and can run, but I'll have to give the nod to Quincy on this one, 46-18.

Geoff Griffin (3-4) This could be a high scoring affair with plenty of passing on both sides. After the track meet is over look for Quincy to emerge the winner 47-35.

 

Cardinals win two in a row

 

The Big Valley volleyball team beat both Tulelake and Butte Valley this past week to up their record in the Evergreen League to 4-3 and hang onto their playoff hopes.

On Tuesday night, the Cards beat the Bulldogs 15-3, 15-3, 15-5.

"We finally played like we did earlier in the season, like we knew we could," BV coach Paula Silva said of the Butte Valley match. "We had well rounded team play. We haven't been able to do that for a while."

Amy Plemmons led the way with five kills and Adonica McGarr finished off the match with five jump serves. Silva also praised the hitting of junior Michelle Terry and the serv ing of set ter Amy Kresge.

The Cardinals will try to keep the winning streak go ing tonight when they travel to Dunsmuir. The JV will start at 5:30 followed by the varsity. Next Tuesday, Big Valley will play at Tulelake. Again beginning at 5:30.

 

The Week To Come

 

Thursday, Oct. 22

Volleyball

Big Valley at Dunsmuir 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 23

Football

Quincy at Modoc

7:30 p.m.

Big Valley at Tulelake

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 24

Cross-Country

Modoc Invitational at Arrowhead G.C.

Volleyball

Dunsmuir at Surprise Valley 2:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 27

Volleyball

McCloud at Surprise Valley 6:30 p.m.

Big Valley at Tulelake

6:30 p.m.

Soccer

McCloud at Surprise Valley 4:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 28

Volleyball

Weed at Modoc

7:00 p.m.

All times varsity.

 

Record sports for Oct. 29, 1998

• Quincy downs Braves, Bears here Friday
• SV Hornets win EL volleyball title
• Modoc Volleyball in hunt for title
• Braves Cross Country runs in the rain
• BV football hosts homecoming
• BV volleyball looking for playoff berth
• The week ahead

Modoc's Stacie Wells had a very good day for Modoc's runners.

 

Braves fall to Quincy, Bears next

 

While the score may sound bad, Modoc's Braves played the unbeaten Quincy Trojans tougher than anyone has in the Shasta Cascade League this year, in a losing effort, 35-16.

The Modoc defense held the most prolific passer in the north state, Matt Ray, to 195 yards on 10 of 22 passing and picked off one ball. The effort by Modoc gave Ray his worst performance of the season at about 50 yards below his nor mal game average. Modoc's de fense also held Ray to mi nus five yards on nine runs.

"I felt our defense played pretty well, de spite the points," said Modoc Coach Shaun Wood. "We pressured Ray all night and forced him into some bad throws. He knew he was in a football game and at times got a lit tle frustrated."

And Modoc's defense couldn't buy a break. The Braves were called for defen sive pass inter ference on the goal line when it should have been offensive pass interfer ence on Quincy and the de fense popped the ball loose from the Quincy back in the second half only to have to bounce down the field and be recovered by Quincy for a first down. In addition, the team was hit by illness dur ing the week and didn't start the regular starting lineup.

"We're not going to make any excuses," said Wood. "Quincy is a good team and we knew they were going to be. You know, Quincy's a blessed team, things just bounce their way. That hap pens sometimes. I felt we played with them and earned some confidence going into the final two games. I feel pretty good about our chances."

The Braves meet Mt. Shasta's Bears here Friday night and close out the regular season at Etna the following Friday. Modoc has to win both games to be considered for the North Section play-offs. Wood feels his team can win them both and figures the Quincy game actually helped their confidence. Couple that with the fact that Trinity beat Etna, 67-20, last weekend.

The Quincy game started off as though it might be a very long night for the Braves when the Trojans took the opening kickoff from their 35 and marched down the field to the nine where Nick O'Bryant took it over for the score. The extra point was good and Modoc trailed 7-0 with 9:05 remaining in the open ing 12 minutes.

Modoc survived an inter ception and a start from their one in the remaining part of the first period, but Quincy would mount a drive from deep in Modoc territory as the pe riod closed. The Trojans scored when Ray hit Shannon Montgomery on a 30-yard pass for a touchdown. The point after was good and Quincy led, 14-0.

Modoc held the Trojans out of the endzone in the second period and as the period ended put a lot of pressure on Ray, disrupting his rhythm. When the half-time buzzer sounded, Modoc was still very much in the game, down 14-0.

In the third period, the Braves were hit by a question able interference call which led to a quarterback keeper from the four. The Trojans went up 21-0 and would add another score on a six yard run from O'Bryant to put Modoc down, 28-0.

In the fourth period, Josh Conner found Cody Holloway on a short out from the 13 and Holloway blasted his way to the endzone and dove in for the score. Anthony Silva ran in the conversion and Modoc trailed, 28-8. The Trojans would add a final touchdown on a one-yard run by O'Bryant to give them a 35-8 lead.

The Braves didn't quit and Conner hit Holloway on a deep route for a 52-yard gain. On the next play, Conner found a wide open C.J. Straub in the endzone for the score on a 16-yard pass. Andy Nowak ran in the point and Modoc trailed 35-16. Neither team would add a score.

Conner threw the ball well all night, with Braves re ceivers dropping some balls. He completed eight of 18 for 127 yards and both scores. Holloway grabbed two for 65 yards, Straub had four catches for 43 yards, Robert Cox caught one for 14, and Richard Lutz snagged one for five.

Modoc rushed the ball 25 times for 106 yards, with Nowak gaining 52 in 13 car ries, Silva had 50 yards on eight. Quincy's O'Bryant led all runners with 140 yards on 19 carries.

The Braves had 233 yards total offense, compared to 348 for Quincy. The Trojans had a slight margin in first downs 14 to 12.

Champions!

Hornets go 11-0 to win EAL Title

 

On Tuesday night, October 27, 1998, at 7:32 Pacific Standard Time, Surprise Valley's Jennifer Reeves served an ace on match-point against McCloud to give the Hornets their first league title in volleyball in 10 years.

Surprise Valley beat second place McCloud 15-9, 15-4, 15-13 on Tuesday to run their record to 11-0 in the Evergreen League and clinch the league championship. The Hornets also locked up their second playoff berth in the past four years. During their 11 match streak in the EAL, SV has had an incredible 33-3 record in games.

The Hornets do have one more league match, against last place Butte Valley on November 5. Even if the im possible were to happen and the Bulldogs were to win that match, SV would still finish first because everyone else in the league, including second place McCloud, has two or more losses.

The Surprise Valley team was in classic form against McCloud, doing it the same way they have all season. Heather Tufts provided the setting and serving, Cara Pearce the net defense and Jeanne Bunyard the hitting. The other three starters Erin Hawn, Julie Bordwell and Reeves did a great job of fill ing in with digs, sets and kills when needed, and Alida Fox, Tammy Small and Juana Sanchez provided a lift off the bench.

"The team chemistry is great this year," Surprise Valley coach John Christie said. "They're all contribut ing and they all seem to know their roles."

The Hornets took early 7-1 leads in each of the first two games.

In game one, SV took ad vantage of several Logger hitting errors while Pearce had three kills, two blocks and two aces.

McCloud did pull to within 9-8 before the Hornets could get back on track.

With the score 11-9, McCloud called a time-out, but it didn't help. Pearce had an ace on the next point and then the Loggers miss-hit on three straight kills to allow the Hornets to take game one.

In game two, Surprise Valley rode the serve of Hawn, which at its best acts like a forkball and appears to roll right off a table, to an early lead and then steam rolled to the finish with four kills and two blocks by Bunyard.

In game three, the Loggers turned things around and took a 5-1 lead. Surprise Valley gradually fought back to tie the score at 11-all.

An ace by Pearce and a kill by Bunyard made it 13-11, but then McCloud came back with an ace and kill of their own to make it 13-13.

A McCloud hitting error gave SV the sideout and the opportunity to move the score to 14-13. The two teams traded sideouts again before Reeves' ace ended it all.

For the match, Tufts had 16 assists and six aces. Pearce had eight kills, seven blocks and three aces. Bunyard had 11 kills and four blocks.

Hawn had three aces and three digs while Bordwell added three digs and two as sists. Reeves finished with three kills and two digs.

After their match against Butte Valley, the Hornets will wait for November 7, when the playoff pairings are an nounced. As a league cham pion, Surprise Valley should get one of the top eight seeds and a home match in the first round.

Last Saturday, the Hornets also defeated Dunsmuir, 15-8, 15-7, 15-6.

 

Next up Etna and a shot at second in SCL

 

They were down, but they refused to be out.

Last week the Modoc vol leyball team came back from an 8-0 deficit in game five to beat Mt. Shasta and end a marathon match with a final score of 15-7, 4-15, 15-11, 7-15, 15-12.

The Braves had a very bal anced hitting attack with Lindsay Lieurance and Andrea Knox each ringing up 13 kills and Jessica Kern get ting 10.

"The distribution to all of our hitters by Leah (Siegel) was really nice to see," Modoc coach Matt Dorgan said. "That's going to help us down the road if we can have our attack coming from several different places."

During Modoc's game five comeback, Knox served three aces and seven straight points to help get the Braves back into the match.

The win put the Braves at 3-1 with a shot at second place in the Shasta-Cascade League. (See standings below.) Modoc hosted 1-3 Weed on Wednesday night.

A win over the Cougars would put the Braves in posi tion to play for second place in the SCL when they host Etna on Saturday, November 7, in their last regular season match of the year.

Burney has pretty much locked up the league title. They just need to win one more match against last place Fall River. A win there would leave the Raiders at 5-1 with only a loss to Mt. Shasta. Etna or Modoc can also finish at 5-1, but Burney beat both teams and would thus win the head-to-head tiebreaker for claim to first place.

Etna and Modoc will likely both be 4-1 when they play on November 7. Since both teams beat Mt. Shasta, the winner on November 7, will claim sec ond, the loser third.

As for the playoffs, the CIF has always taken two teams from the SCL, and usually, but not always, three.

"I know Etna is going to be out to get us," Dorgan said. "We beat them three times last year and that kept them out of the playoffs."

 

Braves race in the rain

 

The runners on the Modoc cross-country team are somewhat like the folks who deliver the mail - neither snow, nor sleet, nor hail, nor rain can keep them from their appointed rounds.

On Saturday, the Braves had to compete against rain, wind and low temperatures besides the other runners. And just where was this hor rible place they had to run? Alturas of course.

Modoc hosted its own Invitational at Arrowhead Golf Course and had winners in both the boys and girls JV races.

Luke Hughes covered the 2.4 mile course in 14:08 to win the JV boys race. Stacie Wells won the JV girls with a time of 17:18. Missy Lieurance fin ished just behind her at 17:43. Jonathan Richert also com pleted the JV boys race.

At the varsity level, Julia Greene and Justin Semenko both grabbed third place in the 3.1 mile races.

Greene had a 24:38 followed by fourth place Billie Geldreich at 24:57. Rebekeh Richert, Josanna Clark and April Dorton also ran for Modoc.

In the boys varsity, Semenko finished at 19:32. Travis Dunn was fifth at 19:45 and Dan Hoover was seventh at 21:45.

Middle school racers ran 1.3 miles and Missy Ackley was second with a time of 11:18. For middle school boys, Ross Montague was Modoc's top finisher at 10:18 followed by Mark Main at 10:55 and Clint Nardoni at 11:27.

"Things are looking good for Sections," coach Kevin Pent said. "We're moving right along."

Before Sectionals, in Redding on November 12, the Braves will next compete at Mt. Shasta on November 7.

 

Cards to host Homecoming

 

Big Valley will hold its annual football Homecoming game tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. against Butte Valley.

Last Friday the Cardinals rolled over Tulelake 43-0, to move solidly into second in the Evergreen League at 4-1.

Matt Hunsaker has been known to add new phases to Big Valley's offense as the season moves along, and it appears that this year the latest weapon is a strong passing game.

Big Valley quarterback Jason Oney had a stellar evening in Tulelake completing 8-11 passes for 152 yards. Two of those tosses were for TD's, both to Chris Chall.

Oney also hooked up twice with Carlos Escalante on long gains for a total of 92 yards. Add in 107 yards rushing for Escalante and his total offense for the night came to 199 yards. He also converted all five of his point-after kicks.

Butte Valley comes to Bieber just 1-4 in league and 1-6 overall. However, Hunsaker said, "After the disaster with Weed, we're not overlooking anybody."

Speaking of Weed, Butte Valley played them tough last week, losing just 38-24, a slightly closer score than when Weed beat Big Valley 25-7.

"If everybody's healthy and everybody's there, we should be fine," Hunsaker said. "The kids always seem to rise to the occasion at Homecoming."

A win for the Cardinals on Friday, would set up a league championship game with undefeated Fall River on November 6.

 

Big Valley looking for shot at second & playoffs

 

The Big Valley volleyball team ran their win streak to four in a row with victories over Tulelake and Dunsmuir this past week. The Cardinals 6-3 record gives them a legit imate shot at second place in the Evergreen League, and pos sibly a spot in the playoffs.

On Tuesday night, the Cards took a while, but finally de feated Tulelake 15-9, 15-11, 17-19, 15-10.

"We started out really strong," BV coach Paula Silva said of the match. "We controlled the tempo and did what we wanted to do."

In the end, the setting of Adonica McGarr and Megan Armstrong along, with the net play of Amy Plemmons, al lowed Big Valley to finish on top.

Last Thursday, the Cards won at Dunsmuir 15-13, 15-8, 16-14. Plemmons had five blocks while Amy Kresge had seven kills.

If the Cardinals can win there last three matches, most importantly against McCloud on Tuesday, November 3, they could finish 9-3 in a second place tie with the Loggers.

Such a finish would also give Big Valley a chance at get ting into the playoffs.

 

The Week To Come

 

Thursday, Oct. 29

Volleyball

H. Camp at Big Valley 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 30

Football

Mt. Shasta at Modoc

7:30 p.m.

Butte Val. at Big Valley

7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 3

Volleyball

Big Valley at McCloud

6:30 p.m.

All times varsity .

November

 

Record sports for November 5, 1998

• Big Valley meets Fall River for title
• Modoc football heads to Etna for finale
• Braves volleyball team stumbles, falls
• BV volleyball looking to playoffs

Big Valley at Fall River

EAL Championship Game

What: Football

When: Friday, November 6, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Fall River High School. Take Highway 299 south to McArthur, turn left at McArthur Mercantile and go three blocks to FRHS.

History: Big Valley (5-1, 6-2), the No. 1 ranked team in Division VI, is trying to win its second straight Evergreen League title. Fall River (6-0, 8-0), is the No. 2 ranked team in Division V and is playing in the EAL for the first time this year after many seasons in the Shasta-Cascade League.

Scouting Report: After a season filled with injuries, sick ness, games with only 12 players available and two new Division V teams in the EAL, Big Valley has still managed to battle its way into a shot at another league title.

Injuries are still a factor though for this last regular season game. Renden Ellenberger reinjured an ankle that has been bothering him all season. He will tape it up and play no mat ter what tomorrow night, but whether he is at 50 percent speed or 90 percent speed could have a big impact on the game.

The Bulldogs have a talented squad led by 6-7 defensive lineman/tight end Mark Wilson, who recently signed a letter of intent to play football for Cal.

While most high schools will run some variation of a 4-4 defense, Fall River has a unique set-up with six down line men, one linebacker and four defensive backs. Given the Cards' ability to run the ball, BV coach Matt Hunsaker pre dicts that the Bulldogs may move to two linebackers. That alignment will especially be necessary if speedsters Wes Breakfield and Carlos Escalante are able to break through the line and into the secondary.

"If we get to that linebacker, we're off to the races," Hunsaker said.

Two good teams in the league that both Big Valley and Fall River have defeated are Happy Camp and Dunsmuir.

Fall River had a much bigger win over Happy Camp than Big Valley did at 15-6. But Hunsaker pointed out that the Indians also had fumble turnovers four times inside their own 30 when they played the Bulldogs.

The Cardinals beat Dunsmuir 20-0, while the Bulldogs beat them 17-0, but led just 3-0 going into the fourth quarter.

Besides winning the league, tomorrow night's game may also be important for the Cards with regard to the playoffs.

If the Cardinals win, they will no doubt be the No. 1 seed in the Division VI bracket, with the home field advantage throughout the entire playoffs.

However, a loss to Fall River might drop Big Valley to the No. 2 seed and move Westwood up to No. 1. Under that sce nario, the Cards might have to play for the Sectional Championship at Westwood.

Best guesses: Rick Holloway (5-3) Fall River wimped out of the Shasta Cascade League and moved down to the Evergreen League, where they're one of the big schools. Rewarding them with an EAL title would invoke nausea. The Cardinals have guts and will win 27-12.

Geoff Griffin (4-5) The Cards will show Fall River what "playing down" can lead to, and win 21-14.

 

Breakfield rushes for 258 yards in BV win

 

It was supposed to be Homecoming, but Wes Breakfield kept running away - from the Butte Valley defense.

Breakfield rushed for 258 yards on just 12 carries (an av erage of 22.5 yards for each time he took a hand-off) as Big Valley stomped Butte Valley 42-0 for Homecoming.

The Cardinals have outscored their last two opponents 95-0 in preparation for an Evergreen League Championship match-up tomorrow night at Fall River. (See related arti cle.)

Breakfield had three touchdown runs of 60, 75 and 14 yards in the first quarter alone to quickly let the Bulldogs know they would be in for a long night.

Renden Ellenberger caught a 22 yard pass from Jason Oney to put seven more on the board in the second quarter and Breakfield capped off the night with two more TD's in the second half.

While the Cards' offense was piling up 477 yards of total offense, the BV defense kept Butte to just 128 yards and three first downs.

 

Braves lose to Bears but can still make playoffs

 

A few statistics from the Modoc-Mt. Shasta game. The Braves had 241 yards of of fense to 187 for their oppo nents. The Braves had twice as many first downs (14-7) as the Bears. The Modoc defense held Mt. Shasta's Clint Feminis, one of the top run ning backs in the North State, to just 50 yards on 18 carries. The Braves went 6-7 on fourth down conversions. Oh, and, by the way, the final score was Mt. Shasta 17, Modoc 12.

Here's another stat to con sider, Modoc got inside Shasta's 25 yard line six times and within the Bears' 10 yard line four times - and came away with a total of 12 points.

Or how about this one? The Braves had three pass comple tions for 41 yards called back on penalties.

Out of exactly 100 plays in the game (including punts and kick-offs) just two of them ended up killing the Braves.

The first-one was the open ing kick-off, which Feminis ran all the way back to put Shasta up 7-0.

The other one came in the third quarter when Mt. Shasta fullback Joe Meredith went straight up the middle, found nobody there, and continued on for a 60 yard touchdown run.

Then again, what else would you expect given the weird season Modoc has had?

"It's been one of those sea sons," Modoc coach Shaun Wood said. "The ball just hasn't bounced our way."

The entire Braves' season could be summed up in the ex perience of one player Friday night. Running back Anthony Silva had 72 yards on 11 carries with a touch down in the first half, and then injured his knee on the last play of the first half.

How unfortunate. How bizarre. How typical.

After the Braves gave up the opening kickoff TD, they took the ball 60 yards on their open ing drive to set up first and goal at the Mt. Shasta seven yard-line. However, the scor ing threat ended with a turnover.

The Braves would finally get on the board in the second quarter. Facing fourth down with eight yards to go on the Bears' nine yard-line, Wood elected to go for it and Silva came through with a nine-yard TD run.

Mt. Shasta answered with a drive to set up a 27 yard field goal with 1:07 left in the sec ond quarter. The two teams went to half-time with the score 10-6 for the Bears.

In the third quarter, the Braves gave up another TD to fall behind 17-6.

Early in the fourth quarter they would have first down at the Mt. Shasta 12, and then pick up just three yards on four plays and come away with nothing.

Modoc finally got into the endzone with 1:07 left on a one-yard run by Andy Nowak.

The Braves tried an onside kick, but it was expertly picked up and returned by the Bears.

Believe it or not, even with a 2-6 record, it's still possible for the Braves to make the Division IV playoffs.

Here's what has to happen this Friday: 1) Modoc beats Etna, 2) Williams beats Biggs, and 3) Esparto beats Los Molinos.

Wood said Williams is likely to beat Biggs, but Los Molinos will probably beat Esparto.

If the Braves did get into the playoffs, they would be the No. 6 seed and would probably play at East Nicholaus in the first round.

Do Modoc's playoff chances sound far-fetched? Yes. But wouldn't such a crazy finish be the crowning achievement to one of the weirdest seasons in recent memory?

Notes: As of last week, Cody Holloway was 9th in the North State Section in receiv ing despite the fact that QB Josh Conner missed the first three games of the season due to injury. Holloway has 24 catches for 356 yards this season ... Brian Massey had two kick-off re turns for a total of 35 yards and eight carries for 34 yards ... In the "Just wait until next year!" category, against Mt. Shasta the Braves had six ju niors starting on offense and five juniors and one sopho more on defense.

Modoc will play it's last game of the regular season tomorrow night at Etna at 7:30. Both teams are 1-3 and the winner will claim fourth place in the Shasta Cascade League.

 

Modoc v-ball waiting for playoff brackets

By Geoff Griffin

With a victory over Weed last week, the Modoc volley ball squad pretty much assured itself of a spot in the North Section CIF playoffs. They are now just waiting for Saturday to find out who and where they will play.

 

The Braves hosted Etna last night, with both teams shoot ing for a 5-1 record and second place in the Shasta Cascade League. Even if the Braves were to fall to 4-2, they would still claim third place, and very likely a playoff spot.

LATE NEWS: Wednesday night the Bravesfirst stumbled, then collapsed in a loss to Etna that drops the once mighty Braves to third place in the SCL.

Modoc had been hoping the match with Etna would be for the league title, but that possibility was negated by Burney beating Etna. The Raiders merely had to beat Trinity this week to claim the SCL Championship.

The North Section Division V playoffs take 16 teams out of six leagues. All six leagues generally get their top two teams in, and four other teams come in with at-large berths. The SCL has generally been able to get three teams in, which would mean Burney, Modoc and Etna would all get a chance to play on November 12.

Modoc coach Matt Dorgan said that volleyball referees who officiate in a variety of leagues, have been telling him that the SCL is the class of Division V and ought to have four teams (the fourth would be Mt. Shasta) in the playoffs.

Last Wednesday, the Braves beat Weed, 15-10, 15-6, 15-9.

In the first game, the Braves led 11-10 before run ning off the last four points. Lindsay Lieurance had five kills while Megan Orner was all over the place with two kills, two blocks, a dig and an ace.

In game two, Modoc bolted to a 9-1 lead using the serve of Stephanie Northrup, who had three aces. According to Dorgan, Northrup often seems to prove Darwin's theory.

"She's very adaptable," Dorgan said. "There were three different spots where we needed some help and she filled them all. She was our fireman."

Andrea Knox simply ruled the floor in game three with six kills and three blocks. After the Braves took a 7-0 lead, they let the Cougars come back within 12-9 before finishing the match off on a Lieurance kill.

For the match, setter Leah Siegel had 24 assists, two kills an ace and a block. The hitting distribution was again very even as Knox and Lieurance had nine each while Jessica Kern had eight.

Orner was tops in net defense with five blocks while Knox had four blocks along with three digs from the back row.

Northrup and Lindsey Delmas also contributed two as sists and a kill each.

 

Cards hope for playoff spot

 

After an incredible comeback win over McCloud on Tuesday night, Big Valley is looking for a spot in the North Section CIF Division V playoffs.

By beating the Loggers on Tuesday night, and hopefully beating Dunsmuir tonight, the Cardinals can finished tied for second in the Evergreen League with McCloud, with both teams having 9-3 records.

The two teams split their matches against each other this season, and both have two losses to league champ Surprise Valley. So who gets to claim second place and be assured of a playoff spot?

It's hard to say. By beating Dunsmuir, the Cards would have an overall record of 11-8, McCloud's overall is 9-7.

Big Valley coach Paula Silva feels that, either way, the Cards will probably end up with a 15 or 16 seed and play at Liberty Christian or Burney in the first round. The EAL could also be awarded three teams in the playoffs.

In their win over McCloud, the Cardinals had to come back from being down two sets and two potential match points for the Loggers to finally win in five games over two and one-half hours. The final tally read 7-15, 9-15, 15-10, 16-14, 15-8.

Silva said the fourth game was the most critical. The Cards held a 13-10 lead in that game before allowing the Loggers to come back and take a 14-13 lead.

Big Valley had to fight off two match points before the serve rotated to Cardinals senior Adonica McGarr. She served an ace to tie the game up, and then hit two more strong serves that the Loggers could only get over the net with free-balls. The Cards responded with two kills to win the game.

Silva praised the net play of junior Michelle Terry and the back row play of Amy Plemmons.

 

The Week

To Come

Thursday, Nov. 5

Volleyball

Dunsmuir at Big Valley

6:30 p.m.

Surprise Valley at Butte Valley 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 6

Football

Modoc at Etna

7:30 p.m.

Big Valley at Fall River

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 7

Cross Country

Modoc at Mt. Shasta Inv.

Thursday, Nov. 12

Volleyball

First round of NSCIF Sectional Playoffs

Cross Country

NSCIF Championship at West Valley High, Redding, 10 a.m.

All times varsity

 

Record sports for Nov, 12, 1998

• All three lcoal squads in volleyball playoffs
• Big Valley tops in football playoffs
• Modoc misses football playoff picture
• SV volleyball ends season with win
• Modoc volleyball drops final match of season
• Game of the week

 

All three local squads in playoffs

 

The Surprise Valley, Big Valley and Modoc volleyball teams went 3-for-3 grabbing spots in the North Section CIF volleyball champi onships that begin tonight.

Evergreen League cham pion Surprise Valley got the No. 4 seed and will get to stay home tonight against Williams. (See related arti cle.)

Should the Hornets win, they will also get to stay home for the second round. Second round matches will take place on Tuesday, November 17.

The semi-finals could even be in Cedarville if Maxwell or East Nicolaus were to knock off No. 1 seed Portola in the sec ond round.

A possible second round op ponent for SV would be EAL rival Big Valley (12-7). The Cardinals tied for sec ond in the league with McCloud and were given the No. 12 seed. They will play at No. 5 seed Rio Vista (17-5) tonight.

Modoc (16-14) is the No. 14 seed and will play at No. 3 seed Hayfork (31-5) tonight.

The Braves ended up third in the Shasta-Cascade League after a loss to Etna last week. (See related arti cle.)

The SCL got four teams into the tournament, but all four were put in the same lower bracket. The quarter-finals in that bracket could potentially end up being an all SCL affair. Modoc could also get a rematch with league champ Burney in the second round.

"There's no doubt that's a much tougher bracket," Surprise Valley coach John Christie said of Modoc's sec tion of the tournament. The SCL teams will also have to contend with Liberty Christian, the No. 2 seed.

The SCL seedings weren't too kind either. League champ Burney only got the No. 6 seed while the Braves and Mt. Shasta got two of the lowest three seeds.

 

Big valley wins football title, on top again

 

Big Valley captured the Evergreen League football crown for the second straight year with a thrilling 53-43 win over Fall River on Friday night.

The Cardinals and Bulldogs played a game of "Can you top this?" every time either team got the ball. It was the kind of game that the fans didn't want to see end. It was the kind of game where the two teams combined for over 800 yards of total offense, 14 touchdowns (five of them in the fourth quar ter), and eight lead changes.

It was the kind of game that caused Big Valley coach Matt Hunsaker to say after it was all over, "I think I'm more proud of this team right now than any other team I've ever coached."

Big Valley made the whole thing even more interesting by spotting the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. The Cardinals turned the ball over on fumbles on their first two possessions and Fall River's top-flight running back, James Taylor, (who we pre sume has seen both fire and rain) made Big Valley pay with touchdown runs of 47 and 13 yards.

So how were the Cardinals feeling at that point?

"We can either roll over or we can play the rest of the game," was what senior Renden Ellenberger said was going through his mind. Big Valley decided to play.

The Cards' offense finally got settled down on their third possession and scored with 1:11 left in the quarter on a six-yard run by Wes Breakfield.

After a Fall River field goal to open the second quar ter, Ellenberger scored on a 12 yard run to make it 17-12. The Cards took their first of many leads with 3:40 left in the half when Wes Breakfield shook loose for a 63 yard touchdown run to make the score 18-17.

However, 3:40 was still more than enough time for a hot Fall River offense to put another TD on the board, so the Cards found themselves trailing 25-18 at the half.

As much as the two squads had marched up and down the field in the first half, it would turn out that they were just barely getting started.

Big Valley QB Jason Oney took his team 65 yards down the field to open the second half and scored himself on a one yard run to tie the score at 25-all. Fall River came right back with another touchdown by Taylor. Then it was the Cardinals' turn to respond and they came up with a touch down run by Breakfield that could be measured in inches. Carlos Escalante hit the P.A.T. to give the Cards a 32-31 lead going into the fourth quarter.

At that point fans on the sidelines were joking that 32-31 would surely not be the fi nal score of the game, but they could have had no idea that they would still see the two teams put 33 more points on the scoreboard in the final 12 minutes.

Fall River got the first points of the quarter, and a 37-32 lead. Big Valley of course responded with yet another touch down, this time an eight yard run by Escalante. Ellenberger ran in a two-point conversion and Big Valley had the lead again at 40-37.

Fans were trying to figure out who would have the ball last to score the winning touchdown when something strange from out of the blue happened. The Big Valley de fense stopped Fall River.

The Cards forced the Bulldogs into a fourth and seven at the BV 44. Fall River went for it, but the Cardinals forced them into an incom plete pass.

BV therefore took over on downs with 5:18 left in the game with a chance to go up by more than eight points and force Fall River to have to score twice. The Cardinals took advan tage of the situa tion on a 50 yard run by Breakfield. As Breakfield broke through the Bulldog de fense, he got tripped up and had to spin around and run a couple of steps practi cally parallel to the ground before getting his balance and get ting pointed in the right direc tion.

That gave the Cards a 47-37 lead, but the defensive heroics by Big Valley still weren't done, particularly in the case of Colton Jeppson. On Fall River's first play, he sacked the QB. Two incomplete passes by the Bulldogs brought up fourth down, and Jeppson was huge again with another tackle in the Fall River back field.

That left BV time to score another TD. This one on a 24 yard run by Ellenberger with 1:30 left. It may have appeared at that point that the game would be over, but not in one like this.

Taylor ran Big Valley's kick-off back for a TD to make the score 53-43 and take just nine seconds off the clock. The Bulldogs also went for the two-point conversion, but Esclante stopped it. That was important because two more points would have put Fall River within a touch down and two-pointer of tying the game.

The Bulldogs made one last stab at it by trying an onside kick, but Jeppson recovered the ball for Big Valley and it was then merely a matter of running out the clock.

Ellenberger, who deserves some kind of award for losing more paint off his helmet than any other football player in the North State, said the vic tory over Fall River was a good way to atone for an ear lier league loss to Weed, when the Cards had a mental and emotional letdown.

"That was the marching point," Ellenberger said. "Against Weed we found out what could happen if we weren't ready to play. Tonight we showed how good a football team we are.

"Give all credit to Coach (Hunsaker). He turned us around."

The Cards are not just number one in the EAL, they are also the No. 1 seed in the Division VI CIF North Section playoffs, with home-field advantage all the way through.

Big Valley is off until November 20 when they will host the winner of No. 4 seed Maxwell and No. 5 seed Princeton in the semi-finals.

A win there would mean the Cardinals would host the championship game, possibly against No. 2 seed Westwood, on November 25, the night before Thanksgiving.

Notes: The Cardinals got a great show of support as they came out for the second half. About one hundred of their fans made two lines to form an alleyway for the team to run through as they came back onto the field ... The Cards ran an onside kick play that was fun to watch and almost worked. They huddled up about ten yards behind the ball then suddenly turned around and sprinted to the ball in one big mass. Ellenberger dribbled the ball straight up the mid dle with everybody running full force after it. Fall River made a great play to recover the ball ... Speaking of trick plays, Big Valley's fake punt worked again for about the 10th time in a row. This time Ellenberger hit Oney on a 12 yard pass for a first down ... Jeppson led the team in tack les with eight, while Luke Stevenson added seven.

 

Modoc football season ends on cold, wet Etna Lion field

Wood sees promise for 1999 season

 

The Modoc Braves 1998 football campaign ended on a cold and wet Etna field Friday night, with a 15-12 loss, punctu ated by a un sportsmanlike penalty when a Brave uttered "Jesus Loves You" following a Modoc pass interference call.

"That was a first," said Modoc coach Shaun Wood. "Our season has been a little odd, but that penalty just sort of sealed the whole thing."

Actually, the penalty did seal the Etna victory and the Lions went on to score once the ball was set inside the 10 after the un sportsmanlike call. The Braves' defense did an excel lent job all night long.

"The loss was pretty disappointing for us," said Wood. "Our defense held them to 15 points and we were in the red zone and couldn't get in done twice. I felt both team's de fenses played well, but we had our chances. Our offensive line just didn't get it done."

The Etna game started with Etna return ing the opening kickoff to Modoc 45. With a first and 10 at the Modoc 24, the Lions fum bled and Tony Willis recovered the ball for the Braves. Modoc moved the ball for a first down, but stalled.

When Modoc held Etna on a fake punt the next series, they took over at the Etna 45. Andy Nowak took the ball to a first down at the 30. A pass to Cody Holloway gave the Braves a first down at the Etna 19. Nowak took the ball to the 12, but on fourth and one, the Lions stopped a run and took over.

The Braves again held the Lions and they punted. Brian Massey caught the punt, was swarmed over by the Lions, but twisted and bounced his way free to the sideline, and took the ball 55 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. The point-after try failed and with 39 seconds left in the opening period, Modoc led 6-0.

The Braves moved the ball again into Etna territory on pass play to Holloway, but the drive stalled at the Etna 12.

The Lions moved down the field and with 2:50 remaining in the half, Clint Isabell hit Jesse McNames on a 13-yard touchdown pass. He then found a wide open Tom Gemaehich on a pass for the two-point conversion. The Lions took an 8-6 lead.

Modoc stalled on the next series, and the Lions started at the Etna 21. A long pass gave them a first down at the Etna 42 with 32 sec onds left in the half. Another pass completion moved the Lions to the Modoc 28 and then a pass interference call gave them a first down. That penalty was compounded by the questionable "Jesus Loves You" unsports manlike call that set up the Lions on a first-and-goal at the Modoc six. Isabell hit Collin Krueger on a six-yard pass for the TD and then kicked the point after to give the Lions a 15-6 lead at halftime.

On the Braves second possession of the second half, Josh Conner hit Holloway on a short out from the Modoc 23. Holloway broke past the first defender and was stopped at the Etna 32. On the next play, Conner found Holloway again on a short hitch route and Holloway broke free for the touch down. The point-after try failed and Modoc trailed 15-12 with 6:53 left in the third period.

The Braves defense played very tough in the second half and kept the Lions well away from the endzone. Modoc's of fense had spurts of good plays, but stalled throughout the third and into the fourth periods. With just over a minute left in the game, the Braves started at their 17 and on two pass plays, one to Holloway and another to C.J. Straub had moved to a first down at the 26. The Braves' final pass play was bro ken up.

Conner, who was under extreme pressure all night, com pleted 10 of 19 passes for 211 yards. Holloway grabbed six for 141 yards and one touchdown. Straub caught a pair for 29 yards, Massey caught one for 36 yards and Bradley Ray caught one for three. Nowak carried the ball 16 times for 113 yards and Massey packed it a dozen times for 18.

The Braves finished the year a disappoint ing 2-7 and 1-4 in Shasta Cascade League play. Wood said the team, realis tically should have had a .500 season, but some bad luck and injuries were deciding factors.

They started the season without Conner and when Conner returned they lost their top running back, Kaylon Benson. Then in the next to last game lost running back Anthony Silva. Key injuries to other players also kept the Braves in a changing mode throughout the season.

"It was difficult, but we had chances to beat at least four other teams and should have beat three other teams," said Wood. "The league was very strong this season and I'll look for us to be one of the favorites next year."

That optimism comes from the fact that he has seven of fensive starters and six defen sive starters who are juniors this year. Plus, he said, there are solid athletes coming up next season from the junior varsity team.

Offensive returners will include Conner, Holloway, Benson, Silva, Straub, Brett Hamilton and Aaron Ford. On the defensive side of the ball, coming back next year are Bert Austin, Tony Willis, Straub, Silva, Jon Wellemeyer Benson and Robert Cox.

Several JV players, including Lucas Tramontanas, Blake Wilson, Brett Spicer, Ramon Molina, Kris Server, Miguel Sanchez, Ross Lundgren and Glenn Christensen will be add some serious depth to the 1999 Braves' roster. Wood also expects some other junior varsity players and this year's varsity players to step up.

"I'm looking forward to next season," he said. "We'll have some of the best skilled players we've ever had and I think our line play will be strengthened. The juniors on this team have gotten a lot of experience and they all improved."

Most of the juniors who started this season also started as freshmen and sophomores and in their sophomore year were in the race for the SCL title.

"What I hear from them is they are moti vated and are go ing to be working hard to prepare for next year," said Wood. "We should be a very well-balanced offensive team and very strong on defense."

Holloway finished the season with 30 catches for 497 yards, a 16.5 yard average, and seven touchdowns, ranked fourth of all receivers in north section.

Conner, who missed two and a half games because of in jury, was 48 of 113 for 660 yards and seven touchdowns. He ranked 16th in north state quarterbacks. Matt Ray of Quincy broke the section record by completing 113 of 179 passes for 2,181 yards and 26 TDs.

Nowak carried the call 130 times for 735 yards and had three touchdowns.

Benson, who was hurt in the third game and didn't play the rest of the season, carried the ball 65 times for 485 yards and three TDs.

Silva, who was hurt and didn't play the final game, had 376 yards on 63 carries and one TD.

 

SV ends regular season with win

 

The Surprise Valley volleyball team stayed unbeaten in the Evergreen League by winning their last match of the regular season.

The Hornets beat Butte Valley 15-13, 15-6, 15-12 to end the regular season at 12-0 in league, and 17-7 overall.

Cara Pearce had five kills and four blocks at the net. From the service-line she was a perfect 15-15 with two aces.

Tammy Small and Erin Hawn also did well serving. Small was 14-15 with three aces while Hawn was 9-10.

 

Braves drop 5-gamer to Etna

 

The Modoc and Etna volleyball teams put on a great show last Wednesday in a five game roller-coaster match to end the regular season. The Lions had a great hitting game but the Braves had an equally strong defense which all made for some long rallies.

In the end, it was the Lions who came out on top by scores of 6-15, 15-10, 5-15, 15-11, 15-10. Etna had 36 kills for the match while the Modoc defense responded with 47 digs and 18 blocks.

Modoc got off to a great start in the first game by taking an 11-1 lead. Megan Orner and sophomore Jessica Kern were the key players as they rotated across the back row. The two combined for six digs and five aces in game one as Modoc cruised to the easy win.

Game two was just the opposite. The Braves fell behind 8-0. They gradually chipped away at the Etna lead, but in the end didn't have enough despite getting three kills and two digs from Orner.

Modoc returned to form in game three, again with great back-row defense. Leah Siegel, Lindsay Lieurance, Stepahnie Northrup and Orner combined for 11 digs, while at the net, Andrea Knox was getting three kills and a block.

Game four saw the momentum swing back to Etna as the Lions registered 10 kills, two blocks and an ace. It was more than enough to offset Knox's four kills, two blocks and two digs.

Knox was great in the fifth game as well with one game totals of five blocks, four kills and four digs.

In the final frame, the two teams stayed close, with tie-scores at 5-5, 6-6 and 9-9. At that point, the Lions ran off five points in a row, mostly on hitting errors by the Braves, who had nine in the final game.

Modoc held off Etna for three match points before the Lions got the final point of the match on a block.

With five games and plenty of rallies, several Modoc players racked up big stats on the evening.

For the match, Knox had 15 kills, 11 blocks and eight digs. Siegel had 26 assists, four digs, three kills, three blocks and two aces. Lieurance had 12 kills and eight digs.

Orner had eight digs, five kills, four aces and three blocks. Northrup had eight digs, two blocks and two aces. Kern had three aces and three digs.

Allison Ferry, Christy Cartner and Lindsey Delmas came off the bench to combine for 10 digs.

 

Game of the Week:

 

Williams at Surprise Valley

First round NSCIF playoffs

What: Volleyball

When: Thursday, November 12, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Surprise Valley High School, Cedarville

History: The Hornets are the No. Game of the weekoing 12-0 in league and 17-7 overall. This is their first playoff appearance since 1995. This is the highest playoff seeding a Surprise Valley team has ever received in any sport.

Williams is the No. 13 seed after going 14-7 overall and taking second place in the Mid-Valley League. First place in that league went to Liberty Christian, the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

Scouting Report: These two teams are very similar.

Both have a strong middle blocker - Cara Pearce for Surprise Valley, and 6-1 Sarah Smith for Williams.

Both teams have a talented setter - Heather Tufts for SV and Jenna Jaurigui for the visitors.

Both of those setters like to get the ball to athletic outside hitters - Jeanne Bunyard for the Hornets and Carmen Remos for Williams.

So what's the difference between these squads? It might well be the five-hour bus ride from Williams to Cedarville accord ing to Williams coach Sally Pehrson.

"That's going to be a major factor," she said of the long haul. "And if it snows, it might take us two days to get there."

Best guesses: Rick Holloway (6-3) Well, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage since I have to rely on Geoff's opinion for the Hornets. He's probably trying to get even for the year. If his tory is any indication, valley teams that have to travel to Modoc suffer severe bus lag. The Hornets will advance in three straight.

Geoff Griffin (5-5) Williams sounds like a good squad, but the Hornets are playing together very well right now. I also think the marathon bus-ride and a packed home gym is worth a few points for SV. (Pray for snow Hornet fans!) Surprise Valley in four games.

Record sports for Nov. 19, 1998

• Game of week: Big Valley takes on Maxwell
• Modoc cross-country heads to state
• Modoc volleyball still in race
• Hornets, Cardinal girls out in round one
• Modoc boys move to basketball
• Big shoes to fill for Modoc girls hoop team

Game of the Week:

Maxwell at Big Valley

NSCIF Division VI Semi-finals

What: Football

When: Friday, November 20, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Big Valley High School, Bieber

History: The Cardinals are looking for their third straight trip to the finals. In 1996 they lost to Westwood in the Championship game, in 1997 they beat Happy Camp for the title. Happy Camp is playing at Westwood in the other semi-final.

Maxwell got the honor of traveling to Big Valley by beating Princeton 28-12 last Friday.

Scouting Report: Big Valley coach Matt Hunsaker said Maxwell runs a wide-open pass ing offense that spreads the ball around to a variety of receivers, so look for cornerbacks Wes Breakfield and Carlos Escalante to get plenty of work. When Maxwell runs, it is usu ally out of a pro-set backfield.

The Maxwell defense is of the aggressive pursuit style, so look for the Cardinals to keep them honest by running counters and play-action passes.

Hunsaker said he thinks that having this past week off will be good for his team.

"We needed a week not to be too emotional," he said. "The way this season has gone, it seems like every week has been emotional."

Best guesses: Rick Holloway (6-4) I expect Big Valley to handle Maxwell fairly easily and the week off should have done them some good. Look for the Cardinals to win 35-6.

Geoff Griffin (5-6) Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know that after the "Weed debacle" back in Oc tober, the Cards wouldn't even look past a game with Warnerview at this point in the season. Still this game with the Maxwell Smarts should be a romp for Big Valley. If they can just avoid being fooled by the old "Agent 99" and "Shoe Phone" trick plays they will win 42-0.

 

Modoc cross-country heads to state meet

 

The Modoc boys cross country team took a second straight Sectional Title at West Valley High in Redding this past week.

The Braves were the top team in their division thanks to the speed and endurance of Justin Semenko, Luke Hughes, Travis Dunn, Dan Hoover and Jonathan Richert.

In a three-mile race with 172 runners, Semenko was first across the line for the Braves, and 36th overall with a time of 17:52, an average of 5:57 per mile.

Hughes, a freshman, was moved up to the varsity level for the sectional meet and came through with a time of 18:41.

Dunn clocked a time of 19:06 while Hoover and freshman Richert came in at 20:59 and 30:03 respectively.

The entire squad will now get to go to the State Champi onship Meet held in Fresno on Saturday, November 28.

Accompanying them on the trip will be freshman Stacie Wells, who qualified as an individual runner by finish ing 39th out of 123 runners in the girls varsity race at the sectional meet.

Wells covered the three-mile course in 22:16.

Other racers for the Modoc girls team were Billie Geldre ich (23:43), Missy Lieurance (24:30), Amanda Moriarty (24:42), April Dorton (28:57), Rebekah Richert (29:36) and Josanna Clark (30:11).

 

Modoc into volleyball semis: Play at Liberty Christian tonight

 

On Tuesday night, the Modoc volleyball team got a chance to live out the old say ing, "revenge is a dish best served cold."

The Braves had to wait 47 days (that's really cold) to get their revenge over Burney, but the long wait only made the victory all the sweeter.

Way back in September, (you know, those ancient times when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House and we thought there might be an NBA season) Burney came to Alturas for the first match of the Shasta Cascade League season, and escaped with a win where two of the games went to 16-14.

Ever since then, the Braves have been wanting another shot at the Raiders, and Tues day night they got it in the quarterfinals of the NSCIF playoffs. Modoc went to Bur ney and came away with a 15-11, 15-13, 15-13 win.

Junior Andrea Knox was huge for the Braves with 20 kills and five blocks.

Knowing that Burney is a scrappy team that gets every thing back, Modoc coach Matt Dorgan gave his team a piece of advice often used by cheap diners, "No tips."

Modoc won this match us ing power rather than decep tion.

"We knew we just had to be aggressive and keep hitting away at them even if it meant we had more hitting errors," Dorgan said.

Modoc also got six kills each from Jessica Kern and Megan Orner. Dorgan said Orner's serving was also a key to Modoc's win. Orner got 95 percent of her serves in and staked the Braves to 3-0 leads in the first two games.

"She kept them out of their offense," Dorgan said of Orner. "They were always scrambling to get their second hit."

In the third game, Modoc failed to score on nine straight rotations, and fell be hind 10-4 before coming back to close out the match.

The win over Burney puts the Braves, who started this tournament as a lowly No. 14 seed, in the semi-finals tonight. They will play at No. 2 seed Liberty Christian at 7:00 p.m.

Modoc lost to the Patriots twice in tournaments earlier this season, but as Dorgan noted, "I knew we'd have to do it the hard way in this tour nament."

A win over Liberty would put Modoc in the finals on Saturday against the winner of No. 1 seed Portola vs. No. 5 seed Rio Vista. The finals will be held at Shasta College at 1:00 p.m.

Getting to the finals would also assure Modoc of a fourth straight trip to the volleyball State Tournament.

Last Thursday the Braves knocked off No. 3 seed Hay fork in the first round by scores of 15-12, 15-2, 15-13.

The Braves used a quick of fense that Hayfork wasn't used to that resulted in 16 kills for Knox, eight for Lindsey Lieurance and seven for Orner. Together the three had a .400 hitting percentage.

On the other side of the net, Hayfork tried to go with a power-hitting game, but couldn't get through the block ing wall of Orner and Knox.

 

Hornets and Cards out in first round of playoffs

 

The Surprise Valley and Big Valley volleyball teams both ended their seasons in the first round of the Sectional playoffs last Thursday, but not before showing that they will be powers to be reckoned with next year.

In the battle between the SV Hornets and the Williams Yellow Jackets in Cedarville, the visitors ended up having the stronger sting.

Williams won 16-14, 15-1, 15-8 to push the fourth seeded Hornets out of the playoffs.

Despite the unfortunate ap pearance created by their brown polyester shorts, the Yellow Jackets were a very good team.

They had a 6-1 middle blocker in Sadie Smith who registered six blocks, four kills, four digs and three aces. The kills of outside hit ter Carmen Ramos would have registered higher num bers on a radar gun than any one who has come to Modoc County this season.

However, as good as Williams was, it must also be said that Surprise Valley did not have its best match of the season.

Williams took an early 7-2 lead in game one, but the Hornets battled back behind the terrific play of Cara Pearce. In just one game, Pearce put together six kills, six blocks and two digs.

Game one alone took over 40 minutes to play as there were plenty of sideouts and rallies. For example, after Surprise Valley tied the game at 9-9, the two squads traded the serve back and forth on eight consecutive sideouts be fore the Yellow Jackets fi nally scored.

With the score knotted at 11-all, the Hornets went on a 3-0 run with a kill by Pearce, an ace by Tammy Small, and a Williams hitting error. That made it 14-11 and SV had the serve for game point. However, the Jackets got the sideout and came back to score five consecutive points (the final three on Hornet hit ting errors) to take game one 16-14.

That momentum swing continued on into game two. Between four aces by Williams setter Jenna Jaire qui and SV hitting balls into the net, the score was 10-0 be fore the Hornets got one back over the net. The Yellow Jackets cruised from there to a 15-1 win.

Surprise Valley setter Heather Tufts tried to bring the Hornets back in game three by starting off with three aces that eventually led to a 6-0 Hornet lead. Meanwhile, Jeanne Bunyard was having a great game three with four kills, three blocks and two aces.

However, after the Hornets took an 8-5 lead, Williams again came up with a run at just the right time to get the last 10 points of the match.

For the match, Pearce had seven kills, six blocks and three digs. Bunyard had six kills, six blocks, three aces and two digs. Tufts had 10 as sists, four aces and two digs.

Erin Hawn had a kill and three digs, Tammy Small had a kill, an ace and a dig, Jen nifer Reeves had three digs and an assist and Julie Bord well had a kill.

The match ended a success ful season that showed the Hornets could easily be in the playoffs for the next two or three years.

SV coach John Christie said the Williams loss taught him that, "We need to do some dif ferent things offensively if we're going to win playoff games."

Indeed, the first round of the entire tournament fea tured several games where lower seeded teams from leagues where quick and multiple sets are the norm, beat higher seeded teams where high-outside sets are the rule.

Therefore, Christie is planning to make the Hor nets' offensive formula more complex next year. The team will likely have the ability to do that since some players are planning on playing on club teams in Susanville and Lakeview in the off-season.

Of course, it would also help to prepare for the playoffs by playing teams that run those types of offenses. However, there is a "Catch-22" in that, playing teams that get you ready for the playoffs, may end up keeping you out of the playoffs.

When it comes to the for mula used for deciding who makes the North Section play offs, Christie points out, "You get rewarded for playing teams in your division that you can beat.

"Playing Liberty Christian and Modoc in the pre-season would help us playing wise, but it could knock us out of the playoffs because of our overall record."

Big Valley: The Cardinals (12-8 for the season) lost to Rio Vista in the first round 15-0, 15-6, 14-16, 15-9, but showed they have plenty of potential for coming years.

The Rio Vista match was a coming out party for six-foot freshman Jamie Hawkins, who was brought up to the var sity for the playoffs.

"She had five blocks and threw them off their attack," BV coach Paula Silva said of Hawkins. "It really made a difference."

As for the playoff match it self, Silva said, "I was very happy with how we played. Everyone saw we have a lot of potential. All in all, I'm happy with it."

 

Modoc boys basketball gets ready for season

 

The Modoc boys basketball team began practices last week and will scrimmage against several other teams this Satur day at the High Sierra Shootout at Lassen College.

The Braves are the defending champs of the Shasta-Cas cade League, but lost four of their top six players to gradua tion.

Returning from last year's squad are juniors Brett Hamilton and Cody Holloway, who both started for the varsity as sophomores. Seniors Brandon Roberts and Travis Dunn also saw significant action off the bench last year.

Modoc coach Lane Bates said the returners will be the key to helping a young team to find it's way in the 1998-99 sea son.

"I'm looking for some leadership from those kids until the younger kids get their feet wet," Bates said. "I had real strong senior leadership last season ... Those kids made our practices intense and it carried over into the games. I'm looking for people to step up and take that same role."

New members of the squad are: senior Danny Rosales; juniors Chris Lauppe, Aaron Wishart, Kaylon Benson and C.J. Straub; and sophomore Glenn Christensen.

Benson will be out until at least early December due to a football injury.

How will Modoc fair in the SCL season this year? Bates said that right now when he looks around the league, "It's just a hair ball. You're going to have to play every night."

The SCL appears to be just as balanced as it was last year, so expect plenty of close games and don't hold your breath for anybody going 12-0 or 11-1.

As for the North Section, Division V, Bates predicts that Liberty Christian and Chester, as usual, will have strong teams. Mercy beat Modoc in the NSCIF quarterfinals in Alturas last season, and then went on to win the Section. Bates predicts they will be strong again this year.

 

Modoc girls basketball: Big shoes to fill

 

Modoc High School's varsity girls basketball team of 1997-98 won the state championship for Division 5. How does a coach improve on that record?

It's difficult to understand the grueling effort that goes into winning a state championship. It's a pressure cooker ready to go off from the first game of the season until the final whistle of the final game.

For some of last year's team, the state title win allowed the release of that pressure valve. For Kayte Christensen, Jennifer Kern, Wendy Stafford and Ginny Greene grad uation came and they had that intensity relieved.

Remaining are some very good players and a solid coach in Mike Martin. Anyone counting this version of the Braves out will be in for a speedy surprise.

The dream team of last year had two strengths: size and speed. This year's team has better overall speed and better shooting. They are not tall.

"Are we going to be as dominate as last year?" asked Martin this week. "I would say probably not, but we have a real good group of returners and our strength this year is speed and quickness. We will be fun to watch."

Coming back from last year's title team are starters Leah Siegel and Andrea Knox, joined by Lynda Lake, Angie Dennis, Megan Orner and Lindsay Delmas. A Big Valley transfer, Ileah Jackson, brings great speed to the team.

Juniors out this year are Knox, Sara Howell and Rebekah Richert. Sophomores on this year's squad in clude Tatum Dunn and Jessica Kern.

"We are very deep this year, deeper than last year," said Martin. "I suspect we'll have closer games, and we will be a running team. We will play a full court game of fensively and defensively. As long as the game is in question, we will play a pressure game."

Martin said he has several goals for the team this year: running, rebounding, ball handling, and being able to go to multiple sets on offense and defense each time down the court.

He figures his team's outside shooting is better than last year, with Knox, Siegel and Dunn being the most consistent. What was often an inside game last year will change to meet the Braves' talent this time around.

Martin said Etna, who brings back five starters, will be tough and Mt. Shasta will also be strong. He also expects Burney to make a run at Modoc's dominance. But the Braves will not go quietly into the night. While Martin is pretty cautious at this point, he has an underlying confi dence that the Braves will be the favorite in the SCL.

"I think it's going to be a tough year, but I also believe we're going to be ready," said Martin. "We have good strengths this season."

The Braves opened practice this week.

Record sports for Nov. 26, 1998

• Modoc advances in first round of state
• Braves win volleyball section title
• Big Valley football nips Maxwell
• Game of the week: Big Valley vs Westwood
• Hornet basketball gets started
• Braves open Block F against Mt. Shasta
• Wrestling loop features Modoc, Trinity

 

Modoc advances with win over Denair

 

Modoc won its first round match of the State Playoffs last night by beating Denair 15-5, 15-5, 15-12. The Braves (21-14 overall) are now in the NORCAL semi-finals, and are one of just eight teams left in all of California still play ing for the Division V title.

The Braves beating the De nair Coyotes was just the lat est triumph in an incredible five-match string that began on November 12.

Prior to that, senior setter Leah Siegel admitted, "I wasn't even sure if we'd get in the playoffs. Anything we get from here on out is just icing on the cake."

Siegel had plenty of icing on Tuesday night with a ter rific all-around perfor mance.

In game one, she consis tently set Jessica Kern on the left side. Kern had four kills early in the game to allow the Braves to keep pace with the Coyotes as the two teams played to a 5-5 tie.

At that point, the serve ro tated to Siegel, and the lights went out for the Coyotes. Siegel's serve took them out of their of fense and suddenly the score was 13-5.

At that point, Christy Cart ner delivered a kill from the back row that actually was traveling down when it hit the ground on the Denair side, thus violating the Newtonian laws of physics. On game point, Siegel set Lindsay Lieu rance for a kill that closed out game one.

Game two saw Siegel doing lots of quick sets down the middle to Andrea Knox and Megan Orner. The incredible timing between teammates on those plays would have been unimaginable just three weeks ago, but as Siegel pointed out, "We're definitely meshing together better as we go along."

The Braves grabbed a quick 6-1 lead before Denair, with seven kills in game two, got their hitting game going and came back to 8-5. Once again the serve rotated to Siegel, and once again she served out the game.

By game three, the Coyotes, from the Sacramento - San Joaquin Section, seemed to be getting used to the cold thin air of Modoc County. They fought to within 13-12, but they ulti mately didn't have enough to counteract Siegel's 12 assists in game three, and a game three stat line from Knox that read - five kills, three blocks and two digs.

For the match, Siegel had 22 assists, three kills, three blocks, two digs and an ace. Middle blockers Knox and Orner combined for 13 kills and nine blocks while Kern was tops in kills with nine.

Lieurance added three digs, two kills and an ace while Stephanie Northrup was a wall in the back row with six digs. Cartner had two kills and Lindsey Delmas had one.

"We just felt we needed to go for it," Siegel said after the match. "We don't have the re spect that we had last year.

"We needed to prove to our selves and the people of Al turas that even though we're not the same team as last year, we're still a good team. We just have a different phi losophy of how we play."

Modoc will next play on Saturday against the winner of Sacred Heart vs. Tomales. If Sacred Heart wins, the Braves must go on the road to play them. A win by the hot Tomales team would mean the Braves can stay home this weekend.

 

Modoc wins Section four years in a row

 

Modoc won it's fourth straight North Section Title in volleyball on Saturday with a 15-8, 15-3, 16-14 win over Por tola. It wasn't just Modoc's latest Championship, it was their most improbable.

Consider the mountain the Braves had to climb.

They were the third place team in their league and the 14th seed in a 16-team tour nament. They had to beat the 1, 2, 3 and 6 seeds on the road or at a neutral site even though they had gone 0-3 against two of those teams during the reg ular season.

However, every time the clock was about to strike mid night on the Cinderella Braves, Andrea Knox deliv ered a 90 mph kill that smashed the timepiece to bits.

Or as coach Matt Dorgran put it, "We couldn't have waited any longer to get things going."

Who says you can't be No. 1 in the North State without old Kayte whats-er-name and that Kern girl, you know, Jes sica's sister?

Winning the Section also put Modoc into the State Play offs for the fourth year in a row. The Braves hosted De nair in the first round last night. (See related article and playoff bracket.)

In the finals against Por tola, Knox was again huge for Modoc. She came up with 12 kills in the match, to run her Sectional Tournament total to 64, an average of 16 kills per match.

Jessica Kern added six kills, while Leah Siegel had four and Lindsay Lieurance had three.

Megan Orner and Stephanie Northrup had two kills each.

Modoc cruised in the first two games against Portola, but then fell behind 10-4 in game three. Dorgan said that was where the experience of going to the State Finals last year took over.

"You could just see the look in their faces," he said. "They were saying, 'Let's stop mess ing around.' They just turned things around."

Dorgan said the experience factor played a role throughout the tournament.

"They've all been through it before," he noted. "You could see it just in our general preparation for the tourna ment. Being calm when we got to the other team's gym and being able to not get rat tled when the momentum wasn't going our way."

Modoc's toughest match in the tourney came in the semi-finals last Thursday when the Braves had to play Liberty Christian at the Patriots' very own home gym.

Modoc had lost to the Patri ots twice during pre-season tournaments, but when it re ally counted, the Braves came away with a 12-15, 15-11, 15-8, 15-8 win.

Knox had 16 kills followed by Orner with seven, Kern with six and Lieurance with five.

From the service line, Siegel was a perfect 18-18 and Lieurance was 16-16.

According to Dorgan, the difference between playing Liberty in September vs. November was that the Braves just gradually built up a much stronger hitting attack as the days grew shorter.

"We were just more ag gressive on offense," he said. "We knew our tips would be picked up by a team as strong as Liberty.

"Even though we were try ing to hit harder, we had very few errors on our attack."

 

Maxwell almost comes back to beat Big Valley

 

In his first ever varsity game, Big Valley sophomore David House made "the tip that saved a season" as the Cards barely got by Maxwell 13-8 in the Sectional semi-fi nals last Friday.

In the closing moments of the game, Maxwell had the ball fourth and goal at the Cardinal six and a chance to take the lead. However, House's hand got in the way of the TD pass attempt and the Cards were able to hang on for the win.

The victory put Big Valley in their third straight Sec tional Championship game tonight against Westwood. (See related article.)

Against Maxwell, Big Val ley dominated the game until the last five minutes. Wes Breakfield and Renden El lenberger had touchdown runs of 25 and 50 yards to stake the Cards to a 13-0 lead at the end of three quarters.

The Cardinals were trying to extend the lead to 20-0 late in the fourth quarter when they fumbled deep in Maxwell territory.

Maxwell took advantage of the miscue and completed a 70 yard pass to set up a touch down to make it 13-8.

The Maxwell defense then stopped the Big Valley offense and forced a botched punt play to get the ball at the Cards' 40.

They drove down to the six before failing on fourth down.

"A win's a win, we're not going to take it away," BV coach Matt Hunsaker said after the less than perfect per formance.

Ellenberger had 103 yards on 22 carries while Break field had 89 on 13 carries and Carlos Escalante had 67 on 12 carries.

 

Game of the Week:

Westwood at

Big Valley

NSCIF Division VI Championship Game

What: Football

When: Wednesday, November 25, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Big Valley High School, Bieber

History: Westwood won the 1996 Championship by beat ing Big Valley. The Cardinals came back and won the whole enchilada last year by beating Happy Camp in the finals.

This past weekend the Cards barely scraped by Maxwell 13-8. Westwood had to come from behind to beat Happy Camp 21-16.

Scouting Report: Big Valley coach Matt Hunsaker said Westwood runs a wishbone, but doesn't do option plays out of it very often. They mainly just try to go up the middle.

That may be to their advantage if the Big Valley field is wet and sloppy tonight. In the mud, it's easier to just churn away between the tackles than to try to run counters and pitches the way the Cards do. (Anybody want to donate a truck-load of sand?)

Despite the rain factor, the Cardinals do have the home-field advantage, which is, "going to mean a lot, I hope," Hunsaker said.

Hunsaker's final analysis is, "If we step it up and play like we should, we'll be O.K."

Best guesses: Rick Holloway (7-4) Having seen Modoc play both Big Valley and Chester, I believe the Cardinals will whip Westwood, 24-6. How does that relate? It's my best guess.

Geoff Griffin (6-6) Hopefully the Maxwell game was another wake-up call for the Cardinals, just like the Weed game. With the home field advantage, I give Big Valley the nod at 14-8.

 

Hornets start Hoops season on December 1

 

The Surprise Valley boys and girls basketball teams will open the 1998-99 season this coming Tuesday with a trip to Paisley.

The boys team returns All-Evergreen League selection Tom Harris who averaged 17.5 points per game last year. Hornets coach John Christie said Harris, a 6-2 senior, can do more than just score.

"I think he's going to do well on the boards, and he's do ing a pretty good job on defense," Christie said of Harris.

The Hornets will also have a good No. 2 scorer in senior John Minto, who missed most of last s