Gazette-Times reporter

Three-sport athletes are rare enough in this era of specialization, though more emerge at smaller schools such as Alsea High.

Taking part in three sports is one thing. Standing out in all three is something else.

Just to be named to an all-star team is an honor, to make three is a major achievement. To be selected to participate in three senior all-star contests is almost unheard of.

Alsea athletic director Lynn Cowdrey doesn’t recall it happening before in the history of the school, and people he has talked to can think of perhaps one athlete pulling off the feat a long, long time ago.

Now Dustin Webb, Alsea’s salutatorian, has trumped even that accomplishment.

Webb will play in the 3A-2A-1A all-star baseball series this weekend at Linfield College in McMinnville.

He will follow that with an appearance in the 1A 8-man football all-star game in La Grande on June 21 and he is to play in the 1A basketball all-star games June 27-28.

To cap it all, Webb will appear in the East-West Shrine Game played at Baker High in Baker City on Aug. 2.

“The only sport I haven’t played is soccer; we’ve never had it there at the school,” Webb said during a telephone interview while on his senior trip to Sun River.

“I’ve never seen him react to an official or a call,” Cowdrey said. “He’s a great kid.”

The Shrine Game features athletes from the state’s 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A football teams. The game generally is considered to feature the best-of-the-best players from the smaller schools scattered around the state.

However, it is a traditional 11-man game, which means an adjustment for Webb, who has played 8-man football throughout his high school career.

“I might get a little more easily confused, but no, I’m not really (worried about being with more players),” Webb said, indicating he will make the adjustment to the more cluttered field.

One of eight senior boys at Alsea, Webb is the one who has stood above all for his all-around athleticism. He was named either first- or second-team all-conference in football, basketball and baseball.

“I guess I was really liked in our league and in all the sports I got enough votes (for all-conference consideration),” he said.

He helped lead the Wolverines to their first state baseball playoff appearance this spring and was selected first-team all-state as a utility player.

The team’s success was particularly rewarding, as Alsea played a pure junior varsity schedule when Webb was a freshman and gradually improved throughout his career.

“My class, there’s eight of us (boys), and every year that we were the oldest class, we always did really good in baseball,” he said. “I started playing in second grade, playing third- and fourth-grade baseball.”

When he was in the sixth grade, Alsea finished second in the state. In the eighth grade the team finished eighth.

Webb won’t be the lone athlete from Benton County at the all-star baseball series at Linfield, nor at the Shrine Game. Santiam Christian pitcher Korey Alexander and infielder Grant Knowles were chosen for the baseball game, while SC’s Michael Norlander will play in the Shrine Game.

Playing in four all-star caliber games this summer will likely mark the end of Webb’s competitive career, unless he plays baseball at Linn-Benton Community College or some other school offers him financial aid to play football or baseball.

Webb wants to study forestry in college, a desire that falls close to his family history. The 18-year-old is a son-of-a-son-of-a-son-of-a logger.

Knowing the back-breaking efforts in the woods that his great-grandfather, grandfather and father put in, Webb intends to strive for an easier life.

“I don’t want to run up and down the hills, so I better get a degree and an easier job with better pay,” he said. “I’ll still be able to enjoy the forest and work in the outdoors.”