The XTERRA Trail Running National Championships are scheduled for Saturday September 18th in Bend, Oregon. Bend’s Max King won the event last year.

Central Catholic will be looking to become the first school to repeat as the big-school state volleyball champion in Oregon since Gresham did back in 2001-2002. Central Catholic won the 2009 Class 6A title, their first since they had won the then 4A title in 2000.

Since Oregon moved to six classifications in 2006, Crook County has won all four Class 5A state volleyball titles. The good news for the rest of 5A is that in 2010 Crook County is moving to Class 4A. This move means a lot for Central Oregon schools. Sisters is the reigning 4A champions and will have to now deal with the Cowgirls. The Crook County move is good news for the Bend schools. Crook County beat Summit in the state finals in 2009 and 2007. Crook County beat Mountain View in the finals in 2008 and 2006.

2009 State champions:
6A – Central Catholic
5A – Crook County
4A – Sisters
3A – Santiam Christian
2A – Blanchet Catholic
1A – Imbler

Changes in realignment, hybrid conferences and a new state tournament highlight the 2010 Oregon high school boys soccer season. Everything is going to be a little different as the OSAA made some major changes prior to the season. Here’s how things went last year and how they lineup this year.

The Salem-area schools (Central Valley Conference) were tough in Class 6A last year, with three of the eighth quarterfinal teams (West Salem, McNary and South Salem) with South Salem winning it all. Apart from losing Redmond not much changes in the CVC. South Medford beat Jesuit 1-0 in the semifinal before falling to South Salem 2-1.

In Class 5A, the Intermountain Conference is now just three teams (Bend, Mountain View and Summit). That’s a tough one considering that Summit was the IMC champion last year and Mountain View beat Bend in the state semifinals. 5A state-champion Corvallis is part of the eight-team Mid-Willamette Conference.

2009 State Champions
6A – South Salem
5A – Corvallis
4A – La Salle Prep
3A/2A/1A – Oregon Episcopal

Central Oregon Athlete is going to be doing some big things with Oregon high school cross country running this year! I can’t give all the details just yet, but let’s just say it’s going to be amazing! Here are some of the little things I’ve written so far:

• Jessica Wolfe profile
• Travis Neuman profile
• Can C.O. add another individual state XC title to its streak?
• State preview
• 5A Girls Preview
• 5A Boys Preview
• Jesuit Girls Story

Also, be looking for lots more XC athlete profiles to come!

2010 OregonLive.com high school football preview – Oregonlive.com

Several Interesting story lines for the 2010 Oregon prep XC season:

Jesuit girls are the overwhelming favorites to win the 6A state title, which would be their 9th in a row.

The Summit girls should be favored to win another state title in 5A.

Crater joins Jesuit and Central Catholic a top the 6A boys competition. Private schools Jesuit and CC have dominated the 6A boys ranks for years but 5A state champion Crater should be right in the mix after moving up a classification.

Franklin moves from 6A to 5A and should join the Summit boys atop the 5A ranks.

Reigning/returning State Champions
Girls
6A Jesuit
5A Summit
4A Marist (moved to 5A)
3A-2A-1A St. Mary’s

Annamarie Maag 12 Jesuit (2-time 6A champion)
Megan Fristoe 11 Summit (5A champion)
Kellie Foley 12 Crook County (2008 5A champion, now running in 4A)

Boys
6A Central Catholic
5A Crater (moved to 6A)
4A Henley
3A-2A-1A Nyssa

One thing is for sure, there will be four new individual state champions in Oregon high school boys cross country in 2010. All four champions were seniors last year.

OK, so I like to take a winter and pick a video game to play a full season of, but I only do this like every third year. So here is the tough decision I need to make: should it be Madden or NBA 2K? It’s a tough one because I’m either going to be the Cincinati Bengals or the Miami Heat. I’m leaning towards the Bengals, because they are my all-time favorite NFL team, but come on, how fun are the Heat going to be?!

We urgently need volunteers for Race for the River on August 7th!

– This is not a picture from the Cascade Cycling Classic, but it’s a good picture of Bruce winning a race.

Bruce Cole-Baker of Bend won the category 4 of the Cascade Cycling Classic.

Here are all the results from the 2010 Cascade Cycling Classic.