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Lower and Baldoni on prestigious soccer unit Commentary By GREG STILES South Medford High sophomore Pat Lower ran up against some pretty good soccer players last fall in the Class 4A state playoffs. But the caliber of talent pales compared to what Lower and fellow South sophomore Justin Baldoni will run into this weekend. Baldoni and Lower earned spots on the state's Olympic Development Program U-16 boys soccer team last summer and they'll be part of an 18-player contingent representing Oregon in a regional tournament at Phoenix, Ariz. "The level of play is really high," says Lower, who is still 15. "I'll be seeing some of the best players born in 1984 -- the year I was born." Lower has played on the ODP U-14 and U-15 teams. Baldoni missed a chance to try out for the U-14 team when his registration was lost in the mail, but made the grade for last year's U-15 team. They're the only players from south of Eugene on a team pitted against 13 teams from 12 states. The Oregon team is grouped with Colorado, California-South, California-North and New Mexico. That's a murderer's row for age-group soccer. "Colorado is traditionally big, fast and strong," says Oregon coach Paul Gouldsbrough, an assistant coach at the University of Portland. It only gets tougher after that. The Southern California team is purported to have nine of its members on the national U-16 team. The good news is that the last time this Oregon team played Southern California, it played well in a 1-0 setback. Should Oregon emerge victorious it would advance to the five-team national tournament Feb. 19-20, also in Phoenix. Lower is a midfielder and Baldoni a forward for the squad that has practiced "a half-dozen times" in the past month. "For what we're trying to do," says Gouldsbrough, "that's not enough practice." After going through the winnowing process, players have to pay $2,000 to be part of the program. Lower was a regular for South Medford's varsity team that advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals. Baldoni missed the season with a knee injury he sustained while working out as a kicker for the JV football team. "They're both athletic," Gouldsbrough says. "Pat's strength is getting from one end of the field to the other as often as you need him. He's got a strong left foot." Lower, like former South star Bryn Ritchie who was a member of the ODP squad and now plays for the Washington Huskies, is a multiple-sport athlete. He plays JV basketball and in track has high jumped, long jumped and run the 400 meters. But soccer may soon squeeze out his other interests. "Last year, it was really hard to go to track and then go to club soccer practice," Lower admits. "Then there were games and track meets on weekends, and you have to worry about state (competition), too." Lower asserts time -- as brief as it may be during the school year -- spent in the program is most valuable. "You get a lot of knowledge from the coaches," says Lower, who has is settling in as a right-side midfielder. In the meantime, Baldoni, who is making a comeback from his meniscus injury, hopes to make up for lost time during the fall. "Basically, this is the biggest opportunity to get looked at by college coaches," says Baldoni, whose family moved to the Rogue Valley from Southern California following the 1995 Northridge earthquake. "Justin asks a lot of questions, which is good," Gouldsbrough says. "He hasn't been exposed to as much structured coaching as others have. We're trying to find the delicate balance of getting him used to playing at this level without taking him out of his comfort zone." LOOKING FOR A HOME -- Wanted: A home court for two teams needing a place to play league playoff games. After playing most of their home basketball games at Grace Christian School since 1981, the Cascade Christian Challengers moved their home contests to Scenic Middle School in Central Point this winter. It's worked out well for Cascade because the Challengers can play varsity and junior varsity games for boys and girls in succession at one site. The gym at the school's Jacksonville campus has little room outside the inbounds and the linoleum floor isn't considered adequate for varsity practices or games. In the past, JV games were on campus, but the Southern Cascade League requires Saturday games to uniformly start at noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the same site. "We could've played half at Grace and half at Scenic, or all at Scenic," says Cascade boys coach Brian Morse. "It's worked out a lot better this way." But if Cascade's teams make the SCL playoffs, as anticipated, Scenic's gyms won't be available. So the Challengers are looking for places to play possible boys games on Wednesday and Friday and girls games on Tuesday and Thursday the final week of February. Cascade's teams have practiced everywhere from Grace, to South Medford, to the new Superior Courts facility as well as Scenic. "That takes away from the home-court edge," Morse says. "But we'll find a place." (Greg Stiles is a Mail Tribune sports writer. He can be reached at 776-4483 or at [email protected] ) Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA