Oregonlive.com 5A top 10 preseason football poll:
1 Sherwood
2 West Albany
3 Marist
4 Jefferson
5 Crescent Valley
6 Mountain View
7 Bend
8 Churchill
9 Hermiston
10 Corvallis

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!

Really interesting article on what the realignment means for Southern Oregon high schools.
Leftovers: Ashland, Eagle Point try to swallow raw deal
Being only 5A teams in Southern Oregon makes for winner-take-all ‘league’ – Medford Mailtribune

Crater moved up to Class 6A… that’s good news for the rest of 5A. Franklin moved down from 6A… that’s bad news for the rest of 5A.

Both Summit and Hermiston return a solid core of runners, while Franklin brings in two of the state’s fastest.

Franklin (6th in 6A)
Ian Burgess, 12, Franklin, 16:17
Jackson Baker, 11, Franklin, 16:33

Ashland (2nd in 5A)
Colin Haug, 12, Ashland, 17:03

Summit (3rd in 5A)
Travis Neuman, 10, Summit, 16:34
Cameron Clark, 12, Summit, 17:09

Hermiston (4th in 5A)
Javier Velasco, 11, Hermiston, 16:58
Andrew Valdez, 12, Hermiston, 17:06
Aduardo Juarez, 10, Hermiston, 17:06

Top Returners (based on time @ State)
1 Ian Burgess, 12, Franklin, 16:17
2 Jackson Baker, 11, Franklin, 16:33
3 Travis Neuman, 10, Summit, 16:34
4 Javier Velasco, 11, Hermiston, 16:58
5 Mark Sheridan, 12, Churchill, 17:01
6 Jordon Monroe, 12, West Albany, 17:02
7 Colin Haug, 12, Ashland, 17:03
8 Matt Auer, 12, Crescent Valley, 17:05
9 Andrew Valdez, 12, Hermiston, 17:06
11 Aduardo Juarez, 10, Hermiston, 17:06

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.

Don’t you think it’s time to start talking about high school football?!

Here’s all the games when Central Oregon football teams play each other.

September
10 – Madras @ La Pine
17 – Sisters @ Madras, Crook County @ La Pine
24 – Summit @ Redmond, Madras @ Crook County
October
1 – Redmond @ Bend
8 – Summit @ Bend, Redmond @ Mountain View
15 – Mountain View @ Summit
22 – Bend @ Mountain View, Summit @ Crook County, La Pine @ Sisters

Jesuit sits atop the pre-season poll done by OregonPreps.com.

OregonPreps.com a Rivals sports website has it’s top 40 2011 Oregon football prospect rankings up and Redmond’s Mitch Dahlen is the only Central Oregon athlete to crack the top 40. The 6-foot-4 quarterback is ranked 17th among all Oregon prep football players.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box. My friend Dan Munson, the director of athletics at Bend’s Summit high school recently shared with me an “outside of the box” idea for Oregon high school sports. Flipping the seasons!

This has been a brutal year for weather and prep sports in Oregon… as is every year. So what if you flipped Fall and Spring? Keep the winter sports the same but do a complete change to the Fall and Spring lineups.

CURRENT OSAA SPORTS LINEUP – and what it would mean for those sports.
Fall – Moved to spring.
• Football – This one may be tricky, or it may be awesome! Football has pretty standard dates throughout the USA. But what if this allowed Oregon prep football to become a featured sport? You can imagine a big Oregon HS football game being on ESPN when there isn’t any other football going on.
• Soccer – Can be played in either the spring or fall throughout the USA… no big deal.
• Volleyball – Played indoors, so bring on the bad weather.
• Cross County – Would make for some exciting, wet meets. Totally doable. Would effect the national championships, which are held in Oregon.
Winter – No changes.
• Basketball
• Wrestling
• Swimming
• Skiing
Spring – Moved to fall.
• Baseball – Way less rainouts! Doesn’t baseball season go all year anyway!? You’d have the excitement of the World Series during the high school season.
• Softball – So much warmer and nicer!
• Track – Much warmer track meets.
• Tennis – A no brainer! Oregon prep tennis would be much better in the fall.
• Golf – Another sport that would benefit big time!

It’s just an idea… what do you think?