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New heights

Crook County’s fourth straight state volleyball title is a boost for a school and a community that have been through tough times

By Beau Eastes / The Bulletin

Published: November 16. 2009 4:00AM PST

The people of Prineville needed this.

When Marissa Pope clinched Crook County’s fourth consecutive volleyball state title on Saturday with a match-ending ace against Summit, Central Oregon’s most resilient community was finally given something to cheer about.

The past 12 months have been trying times for Prineville and the surrounding area. Crook County’s unemployment rate rose to 19.7 percent in September, the highest mark for any county in the state for the sixth straight month. This summer, the Crook County School District, which faced an approximate $5 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year, cut funding for all extra-curricular activities, including athletics. More than 20 teachers in the district were laid off, and another 23 teaching positions were eliminated through attrition. And at the end of October, the district announced it was preparing to cut another $3 million from next year’s budget.

But on Saturday, at Liberty High School in Hills- boro, Prineville had a reason to celebrate. After every Casey Loper kill and every Braiden Johnston dig, after each Emily Gannon assist and Marissa Pope serve, the good folks of Prineville had a chance to let out all the emotion of the preceding months.

And they had plenty of opportunities. Loper led the Cowgirls in kills (27) and ferocious point-after screams. Gannon helped seal the fourth and final game of the match with a pair of aces. When Pope, a freshman, ended the match with an ace of her own, she was mobbed by her teammates and coaches as the Crook County crowd in Hillsboro went wild.

After the match Cowgirl coach Rosie Honl was emotional. Crook County was not supposed to win a fourth straight title, not with just two seniors (Loper and Gannon), not with two freshmen in the rotation (Pope and Makayla Lindburg) and certainly not with a lack of funding from the school.

Instead of devoting all their free time this summer to defending their back-to-back-to-back state championships, the Cowgirls were recycling cans — approximately 60,000 by Honl’s estimate — and putting on fundraising dances just so they could field a team. Honl and her husband Jerry, an assistant volleyball coach, became certified to drive vans so they would not have to hire bus drivers during the season.

But somehow it all came together. Crook County’s underclassmen improved throughout the year. Loper’s intensity and will to win guided the Cowgirls when they lost an early game or dropped a couple of points. After falling to Summit in three games on Oct. 15, the Cowgirls won 15 of their next 18 matches, with their only losses coming to Central Catholic, which won the Class 6A state title on Saturday. While it might be hard to call the three-time defending state champions underdogs, the Cowgirls defied the odds to win their fourth title in four years, becoming only the second team in Oregon to ever do so. (Gresham won four championships from 1988 to 1991.)

Thirty minutes following the match, after the trophies had been handed out, pictures had been taken and reporters had been talked to, Honl was still receiving hugs and kisses from friends and family. The 6A teams took the court to warm up for their match and the celebration continued on in the corner of the gym. Prineville was savoring this moment.

This title was special.

Here are some other prep playoff thoughts:

• For earning the Intermountain Conference’s No. 1 seed in the Class 5A state football playoffs, Bend High gets possibly the toughest No. 3 seed in recent memory.

The Lava Bears (8-2 overall) will host Glencoe of Hillsboro, 5A’s No. 6 ranked team in the final regular-season coaches poll, on either Friday or Saturday at Punk Hunnell Stadium. The Crimson Tide (9-2) defeated Lebanon last week 36-35 in the first round after finishing third in the Northwest Oregon Conference. Glencoe had the misfortune of playing in the same league as Hillsboro (9-1) and Sherwood (9-1) this season.

This weekend’s game will be the fifth game in three seasons between the Lava Bears and the Crimson Tide. Bend has played Glencoe twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs over that span, and has yet to beat the Crimson Tide.

• With a win over Madison (5-5) on Friday, Mountain View (8-1) would advance to the 5A state football quarterfinals for the fourth time in four years. The Cougars have been a model of consistency during that period, going a combined 35-8 while winning at least a share of the Intermountain Conference in each of the past four seasons. This year’s squad has been especially impressive, rolling off five consecutive victories after losing senior quarterback Zach Johnson to a broken collarbone in Mountain View’s lone loss of the season, a 28-21 defeat to Bend High. Sophomore signal caller Jacob Hollister has stepped in admirably for Johnson, completing 16 of 28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns against one interception since taking over the quarterback duties.

• Girls soccer fans around the state should give Bend coach Bob Welch a call to say thank you. For the previous three seasons, the girls state championship matches were played before their male counterparts. For Welch, that meant his Lava Bear teams were playing for 5A state titles at 10:30 a.m. while the 5A boys had the more attractive 1 p.m. game.

After three consecutive years of playing the early game, Welch brought it to the Oregon School Activities Association’s attention that scheduling the boys title matches at the more favorable time was not only unfair, but possibly illegal under Title IX. Following Welch’s suggestions, the OSAA awarded the girls championship matches the more desirable times for the 2009 season.

Beau Eastes can be reached at 541-383-0305 or at beastes@bendbulletin.com.

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