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Duo opens door for South Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Ryan Heil, left, a 6-foot-1 guard, and Eric Fiegi, a 6-9 post, will provide a lethal inside-outside combo for the South Medford boys basketball team this season. They are both returning first-team all-conference performers. Ryan Heil and Eric Fiegi, two of the best players in the SOC, have the Panthers looking for a conference crown By Tim Pyle Mail Tribune When turning the Southern Oregon Conference inside out, a potent inside-outside combination makes the South Medford boys basketball team impossible to ignore. The Panthers' Eric Fiegi and Ryan Heil are among the SOC's best players, and conference coaches expect the pair to lead South up against Roseburg and returning SOC player-of-the-year Joe Newton in a tug-of-war for the league crown. The Panthers and Indians are co-favorites to win the SOC this season, with each squad receiving four first-place votes in the preseason coaches' poll. Fiegi, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound senior post, and Heil, a 6-1, 165-pound senior point guard, are the kind of dynamic duo that could push South to the top of the SOC landscape for the first time since 1997-98. Still, the Panthers will have their hands full knocking the Indians off the conference pedestal and getting past Grants Pass, Klamath Union, North Medford, Crater, Ashland and Eagle Point in what promises to be a competitive winter in the SOC. "It's gonna be maybe better than it has been the last five or six years," says sixth-year Grants Pass head coach Bill Cowell of the conference, which tips off intra-league play on Jan. 2. "The top five or six (teams) are playoff-caliber, I think." SOC coaches predict Cowell's Cavemen, who advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals last season, and an experienced KU squad will join South and Roseburg at the top of the standings. North, Crater, Ashland and Eagle Point are tabbed to take spots 5 through 8. After back-to-back third-place finishes, the Panthers are primed to earn 14th-year head coach Dennis Murphy his first SOC crown of the decade. Fiegi and Heil get a little help from friends Boomer Marshall (a 6-4 junior post), Alan Johnson (6-3 senior wing) and Pat Lower (6-0 senior wing) in the starting lineup. "We all know that Fiegi and Heil are our best two players," says Murphy, whose teams won five conference championships during the 1990s. "We need other people to step up and help out. "Our questions are: One, can we become better defensively than we have been? And two, can we shoot the ball on the perimeter, other than Heil?" Fiegi earned first-team all-SOC accolades last winter by averaging 18.6 points per game in conference play. Since then, he has added an inch of height and some 35-40 pounds of weight to his sizable frame. And that's not all. "He's gotten himself physically stronger, gotten quicker," Murphy says. "He's shot the ball so much in the off-season that he's improved his offensive skills. His 15-foot shot has improved dramatically." Heil was also a first-team all-SOC performer at 14.9 points per conference outing, and Murphy knows it all starts with his third-year starter. "There's nothing like having an experienced point guard, and one that handles the ball as well as he does," Murphy says. "His confidence level has improved so much, and he's shooting the ball more often." Despite the glow emitted from his two stars, Murphy believes Roseburg, 13-1 in conference action last season, has to be the SOC favorite. Newton and fellow 6-7 senior post Brennan Garrelts, a second-team all-SOC pick last season, are two big reasons why Murphy just might be right. Sophomore point guard Kerry Hall and senior wings Kellen Walker (currently sidelined by a broken hand) and Garrett Stembridge are the Indians' primary perimeter threats. "Every team in the league presents problems for us in terms of quickness, I think," says ninth-year Roseburg head coach Mike Pardon, who was the SOC coach of the year in 2000-2001. "At the same time, we create problems with our size." Newton averaged 18.8 points per game in SOC action last year, and he also received votes for conference player of the year as a sophomore in 1999-2000. "The thing that I like that he's doing is that he's really tried to improve all aspects of his game," says Pardon of his 240-pound star. "And I think he's doing that. "The area that he's really improved is his outside shooting." In recent years, Grants Pass has been the third SOC heavyweight, and the Cavemen boast the arsenal to again join the Panthers and Indians on top this season. Talented post Ian Elseth, a two-time first-team all-SOC standout, is now at Oregon State, but senior guards Tyler York and Brant Minor (currently sidelined by a broken hand) are back. "We wanna run," says Cowell, whose team fell to eventual champion Churchill, 64-62 in overtime, in the state semifinals last year. "We've got a pretty good half-court offense, and it will have to be even better this year. "The concern is on the boards. We're not very big. We have to make up for that by competing and boxing out." Klamath Union is another team stocked with swift athletes, at least four of whom were key members of the Pelicans' state runner-up soccer squad. Fourth-year head coach Bret Crawford surprised his colleagues by guiding the 2000-2001 KU team to a 6-8 SOC mark and tie for fourth place. The Pelicans are shooting for more this winter. "I don't think people will pick us, but I think we're right in there with (South, Roseburg and Grants Pass)," Crawford says. "We've just got to beat those big guys up and down the floor." At North Medford, first-year head coach Tim Sam inherits a program that won the fourth-place tiebreaker over KU, then bowed out in the first round of the subtournament last year. Gabe Burchfiel (6-4 senior post) and Travis Poulton (6-3 senior forward currently out with lingering shoulder and groin injuries) comprise the Black Tornado's physical presence inside. Senior point guard Aaron Barlow, senior wing Zach Rettman and senior wing Zach Taylor are among North's outside threats. "They're a hard-working group of kids," says Sam, who was a longtime Tornado assistant. "We're kind of starting from scratch after back-to-back seasons that were among the worst in North Medford's history. "We're learning how to win." With a bevy of seniors and junior forward Andrew Norum leading the way, Crater figures to be improved under fifth-year head coach Matt Meunier. "We'll be a little quicker and a little more confident," Meunier says. "We've played good defense the past couple years. The problem has been offensively. We just wanna continue our defense and improve our offense." Fifth-year Ashland head coach John Skinner has his work cut out for him after an 0-14 SOC campaign last season. Returning starters Bryan Clevenger (shooting guard) and Lance Streng (point guard) are two of the Grizzlies' building blocks. "We've kind of stripped the whole program down and restarted," Skinner says. "We're young, eager and enthusiastic but very inexperienced." Rob Boye is the first-year head coach at Eagle Point after spending six years at Class 2A Warrenton, the last four as head coach. Senior forward Rocky Johnston and junior wing Tim Martinen are the Eagles' two returning lettermen. "We may take our lumps, but I can't see us doing anything but improving," Boye says. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.