Defoe

Former Summit High standout and Oregon State University record holder Becky Defoe will participate in the USA Volleyball Women’s National Team open tryouts this weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo.

It will be the third such tryout for Defoe, who was a three-sport athlete at Summit before graduating in 2010. The tryouts, which begin today and conclude on Sunday, are for spots on the U.S. Women’s National Team and the U.S. Collegiate National Teams program.

Defoe ended her volleyball career at Oregon State this past season as the program’s career leader in digs with 2,029. She recorded a school-record 591 digs as a junior and owns the top three single-season digs totals in OSU history.

A total of 248 players from 106 colleges are expected for the three-day tryout. Selected athletes will be notified by early March, and USA Volleyball will announce the selections by the end of March once all roster spots are accepted and confirmed.

Lava Bear following father’s footsteps: Bend High senior guard Connor Scott has announced his intention to join the Oregon Institute of Technology men’s basketball team, becoming the Owls’ first signing for the 2014-15 season. The two-time all-Intermountain Hybrid selection will head to Klamath Falls to play for veteran head coach Danny Miles — more than 20 years after his father, Chris Scott, did the same. (Earlier this month, Miles became just the second men’s basketball coach at a four-year college to eclipse 1,000 career wins.) In a release announcing Connor Scott’s decision, Miles said: “His dad, Chris, is the only walk-on ever to start for us as a freshman.” Chris Scott was a two-year letterman at OIT, selected as the team’s most improved player in 1991 and the squad’s top defensive player in 1992.

Local football players selected to Les Schwab Bowl: Summit’s Tyler Mullen and Mountain View’s Austin Phillips have been chosen to play in the 67th Les Schwab Bowl at Hillsboro Stadium on June 21. The annual game pits Class 6A and 5A football players in a North vs. South matchup featuring the state’s top graduating seniors. Mullen was the 5A Intermountain Conference co-offensive player of the year as a wide receiver for the Storm, and he was named a second-team all-state defensive back. Phillips was named IMC defensive player of the year as a defensive tackle and was named to the all-state second team on the defensive line.

Tichenor one of 10 Section 8 coaches of the year: Mark Tichenor, former boys golf coach at Summit High who stepped down last spring, has been selected as a Section 8 coach of the year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association, one of 10 coaches from Oregon to receive the honor. The distinction is a step above state coach of the year and includes coaches from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Winners of NFHS awards were active coaches during the 2012-13 school year, and they were selected by the NFHS Coaches Association advisory board, which selects the best candidates for the sectional award in each sport category. Winners will be ranked by a point system and a national coach of the year for each sport will be determined at a later date. All of Oregon’s NFHS coaches of the year will be honored May 24 at the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association awards banquet.

Cougar invited to national tourney: Mountain View junior Chris Adamo, a wide receiver and defensive back for the Cougar football team this past fall, has been invited by the Barton Football Academy to represent a team composed of Washington and Oregon players at the Pylon Football Elite 7v7 tournament. The tourney, to be staged March 14-16 in Las Vegas, is a series of 7-on-7 football games featuring some of the top high school players in the nation while offering a platform for prep athletes to sharpen their skills and showcase their talents for recruiting media.

Mountain View grad named head soccer coach at Linfield: Cole McCool, a 2003 graduate of Mountain View High, has been named head coach of the women’s soccer team at Linfield College in McMinnville. The former four-year Cougars starter and three-time all-Intermountain Conference midfielder was promoted from an assistant coaching role to replace Dominic Doty, who resigned as the program’s all-time winningest coach at 70-28-8. McCool becomes Linfield’s 16th women’s soccer coach after spending the past four seasons as an assistant, during which Linfield amassed a 58-15-7 record.