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Prep Notebook McCracken is back doing what he loves He's coaching the girls team at Eagle Point By GREG STILES Tom McCracken has gone full circle. More than a quarter of a century after his last stint as a female basketball coach, McCracken is again with the girls -- this time at Eagle Point High School. Back in his undergraduate days at Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, McCracken coached a fledgling women's basketball team. He went on to coach high school boys teams in Iowa and Colorado before coaching at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. He took over the Southern Oregon men's program in 1990. McCracken was fired as the Raiders' coach after the 1995-1996 season and spent last season coaching a professional team in Korea. But that wasn't going to last forever and he wanted to return to Southern Oregon, where his wife was an elementary school teacher in Ashland. "You're rather limited when you want to stay in this area," McCracken says. "When the girls basketball job opened up, a friend asked if I'd apply. Then the teaching job opened up. "I'm an educator and a basketball coach, and that's what I wanted to do. It didn't make a difference if it was high school." Or girls, for that matter. In the 26 years between his stints at Graceland and Eagle Point, female basketball has picked up the pace and intensity -- a couple of areas in which McCracken excels. Nonetheless, you would think working with former All-Americans at the professional level is a whole lot different than teenage girls. But he looks at it in more utilitarian terms. "I'm teaching fundamentals whether professional, college or to these girls," McCracken says. "They're not as skilled as the pros I worked with in Korea. But you have to adapt your coaching to the level of play. I like their attitude and their strong work ethics." PLAYOFF UPDATE -- Randy Heath was a football assistant at Jesuit and Tualatin (a combined 19-1 this season) before taking over the Crater program this year. Tualatin earned a second-round home game against Westview, which knocked North Medford out of the playoffs, 34-28, last week. "I think the name of the game when you're playing Tualatin is stopping Luke Staley and Ryan McKee (who combined for 456 yards in a 35-6 win over Barlow)," Heath says. "They're two pretty good running backs." Elsewhere, if Sunset beats Tigard and Churchill wins at Ashland, Sunset coach Floyd Halverson Jr., would get a shot at his alma mater. Floyd Halverson Sr. is athletic director at Churchill and coached the Lancers to 15 playoff appearances. "Sunset was really down when Westview opened (giving the Beaverton School District four schools)," Heath says. "Floyd worked hard to get it back up." Sunset defeated Redmond, 27-8, last week. Crater beat the Panthers, 47-26, the second week of the season. Not surprisingly, Heath got a phone call from his old Linfield College roommate. "He told me how they were planning to attack Redmond," Heath says. "I told him a little bit about what we tried to do against them." Crater was one of two teams to play both Ashland and Churchill; the other was Thurston. "It's a pick 'em type of game," Heath says. "Churchill is so big and strong. But it will be interesting to see Seth Lacey (who scored five TDs in a 50-20 win over Central Catholic) on the Ashland field. It was all chewed up after our JV game two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see what he does in mud." WINNERS AND LOSERS -- Had North Medford averted a last-minute loss to Westview, the Southern Oregon Conference would've been the only league to weather the first round of the Class 4A football playoffs without a setback. The Metro League and Pacific-8 were 3-1, while the Midwestern League and SOC were 2-1. The Portland Interscholastic League is 2-13 the past four years and was outscored 194-50. Four unbeatens are among the 16 remaining teams -- No. 1 Marshfield, No. 2 Jesuit, No. 4 Ashland and No. 5 West Linn are all 10-0. A pair of 6-4 teams -- Sprague and Sunset -- are still alive. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,