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CHAMPIONSHIP NOTEBOOK Hotel was too noisy for Grizz to return By DON HUNT One of the reasons football coaches don't particularly like their teams staying overnight in other cities is all of the distractions that can occur. Put 50 teenaged boys into a couple dozen motel rooms and it can be a haven for pillow fights, food wars, middle-of-the-night conversations and other mischievous behavior. But Ashland coach Jim Nagel got more than he bargained for when the Grizzlies stayed at a Eugene hotel last weekend before their game against Jesuit. The Grizzlies stayed on the sixth floor only to learn -- the loud way -- that a wedding reception was being held on the seventh floor. "They partied until 2 a.m. and then took half of it into the parking lot," Nagel says. "The people in the parking lot were shouting things to the people above. We could hear every word." Nagel finally dropped off to sleep a short time later, only to be awakened by rumbling outside of his room at 5 a.m. It seems that the Canby High wrestling team was getting in a morning workout by running up and down the hallways. "Some of their kids were doing push-ups and sit-ups in front of the elevators," Nagel says. "I hope they made weight." Shortly after their arrival the previous day, some of the Grizzly players ventured to the pool area and encountered a party that featured half-dressed female swimmers. While the players might not mind a return trip to the hotel, Nagel has the team staying at a different location this weekend. LIKE MANY COACHES , Ashland defensive coordinator Dave Kitchell shows a lot of emotion the moment his team puts another victory in the books. So it wasn't surprising that Kitchell vigorously began jumping up and down seconds after Nick Bakke fell on a fumble, cementing the Grizzlies' dramatic 21-14 overtime win over Jesuit last Saturday. But Kitchell's celebration took an abrupt U-turn when he became tangled up in the phone cord he'd been using to communicate with other Grizzly coaches in the Autzen Stadium press box. Kitchell went head over headset. Worse yet, he suffered a severely sprained ankle when his foot landed on the earpiece. "I was so happy one second and in tremendous pain the next," says Kitchell, who had to be carried off the field by his fellow assistant coaches. Kitchell was fitted with a protective boot and has been limping around the practice field this week. The Indiana native isn't the only Grizzly coach with a hitch in his get-along. Wide receivers/defensive backs coach Todd Contreras underwent back surgery earlier this year and head coach Jim Nagel has a bum knee that occasionally causes him to limp. "Better us than the kids," Kitchell says. THE ASHLAND-ROSEBURG football rivalry is one of the most fierce in the state, but the players on each team were rooting for one another during last week's semifinal games. Several Grizzly players could be seen encouraging their Southern Oregon Conference rival as the Indians took the field for their game against Tualatin. Ashland had just secured an overtime victory over Jesuit, while Roseburg would earn a 38-20 triumph over Tualatin a couple of hours later, setting up Saturday's Class 4A state championship showdown between the two. "Several of their kids went out of their way to encourage us," Roseburg coach Thurman Bell says, "and that was a very classy thing to do." ASHLAND DODGED A HUGE bullet during last week's win over Jesuit when the Crusaders were called for an illegal procedure penalty midway through the third quarter. The penalty occurred during a Jesuit punt that saw Ashland's Kris Pavilions fumble the ball away at the Grizzly 8-yard line. At the time, the Grizzlies were clinging to a 7-6 lead. Had the play stood, Jesuit would have had optimum field position to take the lead. The officials ruled that Jesuit had only six players on the line of scrimmage; a team needs a minimum of seven. The infraction infuriated Jesuit coach Ken Potter, who called a timeout for the sole purpose of coming out on the field to protest. "They had warned us earlier about it and we said, `Hey, we've got seven guys up there already,"' Jesuit assistant coach Ken Johnson said after the game. "You don't know what would have happened (had the penalty not been called). You can't assume we would have scored. But it was definitely a momentum-killer for us." After watching the video, the Grizzlies detected that one of the Jesuit wide receivers was indeed a yard or so off the line of scrimmage. Still, the Grizzlies know they sidestepped trouble. "That was a God-loves-the-Grizzlies penalty," Ashland fullback Joel Smith said. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,