Raiders are favorite among MWC girls

By Kevin Hampton
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Each sports season this year is going to present teams with a new conference.

For the teams in the Mid-Willamette Conference, that means getting ready for the schools they are familiar with and learning as much as possible about the others.

Crescent Valley High girls basketball coach Kodi Waite has scouted Silverton, Dallas, Woodburn and Lebanon with assistant Van Vanelli during the preseason games.

They had their players watch film of those teams to get an idea of what they face as conference play begins this week.

“It’s one of those situations where the league was kind of fun and exciting for everyone this year even though they were disappointed with losing some of our teams, when you get four new ones, that’s kind of fun,” Waite said. “So we spent a lot of preseason scouting the new teams and just trying to get a feel for them. That lends itself to a little bit of excitement for the players.”

The Raiders are expected to be the frontrunners for the MWC title, with West Albany right with them.

Waite said there should be a few others in the race.

“I honestly think that there’s going to be four or five (contenders),” she said. “I think Silverton gets to be up there as well. I went and watched Lebanon and was impressed with them as well and I think Corvallis High is going to jump up and surprise some people. Even though they’re young, I think they’re athletic.”

Corvallis High coach Scott Lasswell agreed that there will be about five teams in the mix.

The MWC is a big change from the Valley League for Lasswell and the Spartans, but he likes what it brings to the table.

“I felt we competed real well at the previous level,” Lasswell said. “I like having Lebanon back in our league. We’ve never had Dallas or Woodburn or Silverton, but I like it from the standpoint that for all the sports at school, I think it evens the competitive balance. I think football probably was the driving force, but I think it’s going to benefit all sports in the long run.”

Silverton coach Tom Steer had the Foxes play a tough nonleague schedule to prepare for MWC play.

“We were just like Crescent Valley and West Albany, we loaded up our preseason with as (many) good teams that would play us,” Steer said. “We played rough teams out of our league and played with them. So we’ll see what happens.”

Steer said he likes the fact that playing in 5A allows nearly all the teams a chance to compete for a league title.

“I think Crescent Valley has to be the favorite until someone knocks them off,” he said. “Then there’s West Albany, then us and Corvallis. It’s going to be tough. It’ll be good and that’s what you want.”

Crescent Valley

2005-06 record: 16-10, 13-5 in Valley League

Coach: Kodi Waite

The Raiders return several players and have good depth.

Emily Doran provides the bulk of the scoring and she is joined by Caty Reeves, Tasha Vanelli, Molly Doran, Mikayla Coyier and Janelle Batista, among others.

“We have a lot of experience and that’s one of the things that’s played to our advantage so far,” Reeves said. “We only lost two seniors from last year. We lost Bethany Ulman, the high-scorer for us, but with the seniors and the underclassmen stepping up this year we’ve been able to make up for that loss.”

Emily Doran, Vanelli, Reeves, Charlotte Strahl and Rose Holdorf are seniors and have the experience to handle tough situations.

“I think our leadership style helps,” Reeves said. “We have five seniors and we each lead in a different way. We can find ways to help other players to fit their personalities. We do have a diverse group of people, but we come together very well and I think we have a lot of team chemistry this year.”

At 5-11, Batista provides some much-needed height inside for the Raiders.

“She’s one of our starters and she’s really stepped up this year,” Reeves said. “She has such a great athletic ability and that’s really forced defenses to focus on her as well. We can put her down low and know if she gets the ball, she’s going to score a lot of the time. So she’s a good threat on offense.”

West Albany

2005-06 record: 20-7, 12-6 in the Valley League)

Coach: Craig Swanson

The West Albany Bulldogs transition to the 5A Mid-Willamette Conference this year after some late success in the 4A ranks in 2006.

The team has seniors Elizabeth Jablonski and point guard Mattea Williams to lead the front and backcourt, respectively, while Deijonae Slade has been a spark on both sides of the ball. Slade leads the team in scoring and steals as West goes into league play at 8-3.

Coach Craig Swanson realizes there is competition within his conference with the likes of the Raiders and other rivals, but he believes his girls are aware and up to the challenge.

“We went from the 4A level and a conference that a lot of people didn’t think was very strong to one I feel is going to be very tough,” said Swanson following Thursday’s practice. “Our league is good. Crescent Valley is ranked No. 1 and they always demand respect while Silverton and Corvallis and even out there in Lebanon have good teams.”

To keep those squads at bay, the Bulldogs may have to rely on some intangibles that they obtained from some key holdovers from last season.

“Williams is one of the better on-ball defenders and she also gets us going on the offensive end at point while Jablonski does a good job of controlling the paint. They played in some big games last year so those are two players our girls can look up to and that will help our bench. I think our bench is going to be a good thing for us. It will keep us fresh and running.”

The x-factor of the MWC may just be who sacrifices the most sweat. Don’t expect the Bulldogs to finish second in that category.

“Our kids like to play hard and that’s a really good thing. With our schedule, there’s not going to be many off days.”

Corvallis High

2005-06 record: 7-17, 6-12 in the Valley League)

Coach: Scott Lasswell

The Spartans are one of the youngest teams around.

They have two seniors and three juniors on the roster and the rest are sophomores and freshmen. They start two sophomores in point guard Gabe Johnson and guard McKenzie Redberg and freshman Elaina Adams.

“I think the key for us, we bring back Gabe Johnson, who started probably I’m guessing 20 or 22 games as a point guard for us last year as a freshman and McKenzie Redberg,” Lasswell said. “So we start those two sophomores and we start Elaina Adams as a freshman.”

Freshman Katie Schrock gets a fair amount of playing time.

“It’s a great group to work with,” Lasswell said. “They come with a lot of energy every day, they’re getting used to the varsity level and you can’t quite do that in the summer time.

“We’re changing some things. As young as they are, this group is. They’re just ready to get after it. Last year’s group was 7-17, long season, and some people think we overachieved. The kids are working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Silverton

2005-06 record: 15-10, 10-6 in the Pac-9)

Coach: Tom Steers

Longtime Silverton coach Steers returns after a stint at Willamette and inherits a team loaded with retuning players.

Silverton has four starters and 11 letterwinners back from last year’s team that lost at Hermiston in the second round of the playoffs.

Wings Megan Delapt, Haley Roth and Bryanna St. Paul, point guard Juli Bazzi and post Kelsey Palmer are the starters this season.

Posts Brittany Morgan and Justine Mosher and wing Mindy Cox are key players, though Morgan is recovering from a knee injury.

Steers said the Foxes rely on strong defense and can spread the ball to any position for scoring on offense.

“We don’t have any one player that is always lighting it up. We have a group of players capable (of scoring),” Steers said. “It means teams can’t game plan to take any one kid out of the game. With the motion offense, we don’t run set plays that you can camp on either. We run our motion and take what we can get out of it.”

Dallas

2005-06 record: 7-17, 4-12 in the Pac-9)

Coach: David Brautigam

First-year coach David Brautigam takes over a program coming off a tough year, but the Dragons have already won as many games in the preseason (7-2) as they did last year (7-17).

The Dragons have a strong group of upperclassmen, with five juniors and six seniors on the roster.

Posts Nikita Vesper, Wynter Yancey and Sarah Burr; wings Ashley Peterson and Vanessa Kutzer and guard Shannon Dawson make up the senior group.

Junior players are guards CJ Vallez and Brittany Brostrom, wings Chelsea Rutkowski and Kalynn McMullin and post Erica Krieley.

Lebanon

2005-06 record: 10-14, 4-12 in Midwestern League)

Coaches: Mardy Benedict and Joe Williamson

Lebanon is 5-5 going into MWC play and has won three straight after a slow start.

The Warriors’ roster is a mix of experience and inexperience.

The team has battled trying to get the younger players more time on the floor against a tough nonleague schedule while also boosting their confidence.

“We’re a work in progress,” Benedict said.

Said Williamson: “When our confidence goes down, our energy goes down. We’re young, and every game we’ve got to get better.”

Woodburn

2005-06 record: 3-21, 0-16 in the Pac-9)

Coach: Dan Boyd

Depth will key Woodburn’s girls basketball team this season as the Bulldogs enter play in the new Mid-Willamette Conference.

Eight players return for Woodburn and all have at least three years of varsity experience behind them.

Leading the way will be senior guard Erika Martinez, who was an Honorable Mention all-conference player in the Pac-9 last seaason. She has been the leader in the nonconference contests so far.

Seniors Amanda Garza, Alba Orozco and Alyssa Veliz add even more experience and coach Dan Boyd is counting on his veterans to provide a competitive edge.

Size will be a problem for Woodburn as the Bulldogs tallest player is 5-7 but quickness should be a plus.

“I think we can get up and down the floor with most teams and the new league should be a little more balanced for us,” said Boyd.

Coming off a 3-21 season, Woodburn has struggled again in the early going, coming into conference play at 2-8.