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Tornado fools �em with top girls team Few people who fancy themselves as soccer experts pictured North Medford playing for the Southern Oregon Conference girls soccer title this afternoon More than one SOC coach pronounced the Black Tornado was too young to compete for a championship that it had won or shared the previous four years. Graduation hit North hard last year, and with nearly half the roster filled by freshmen, calling the Tornado a contender was a tough sell. "This is not going to be a typical year where North and South dominate," said one SOC coach, who picked the Tornado to finish sixth out of eight teams. Pending today�s outcomes, when Grants Pass visits North Medford and Klamath Union plays South Medford at Fichtner-Mainwaring Park, it may wind up just another one of those years. "Every year I think we can win it," says fifth-year coach Dick Darcy. "The biggest surprise was that the freshmen have blended so well with the upperclassmen." North�s 5-4-3 overall record doesn�t suggest this is a team that will dominate playoff opponents. But overlook the Tornado at this point and your season might get blown away. Darcy says Klamath Union, which would�ve clinched at least a tie for first place by beating North, was one opponent to learn the hard way. "We read in the Klamath Falls paper that they considered ours a nothing contest as far as they were concerned," Darcy says. The Tornado jumped out to a 3-0 lead en route to a 3-2 victory. Now all North has to do is to hold serve against Grants Pass and the Tornado can book a home match against the Valley League�s No. 4 team on Nov.4 in the state playoffs. "The team has had great unity from the get-go," Darcy says. "The juniors and seniors have respected them (the younger players) because they knew about their talent. McKenzie Weiler and Tiffany Blodget � our captains � have done a tremendous job of blending the kids in. "These kids have played a lot of competitive soccer and they are used to pressure. They�ve blossomed, and it�s exciting to know that I�m going to have them for three more years." THE OREGON SCHOOL Activities Association executive board voted last week to allow each Class 3A and Class 2A/1A wrestling district to send three qualifiers to state That�s been on the coaches association�s wish list for more than a decade. "This has been so long overdue hat it just about knocked my socks off when I heard about it," said Harry Mondale, who�ll be entering his 31st year as Phoenix High�s coach next month "I just told my AD (athletic director Pat Halpin) the other day that �This is going to cost you some money.� It�s one of those years when it is going to benefit us." If a Skyline wrestler was upset prior to the finals of the district meet, it meant he didn�t go to state. "We used to have a lot of tough kids in the Skyline," says Rogue River coach Dan Coulter. "The third-place kid in the Skyline might have been the third best in the state if (that kid) had a good tournament." The OSAA�s ad hoc state championship committee recommended adding a third qualifier from 3A districts last year, but the proposal was voted down by the executive board. But after additional research and expansion to include the four 2A/1A districts, the board voted 9-1 last week to add third qualifiers. Tom Welter, an assistant executive director at the OSAA, says the move will add 336 matches to the state�s three-ring wrestling tournament for a total of 1,666 bouts in three days. "With 12 mats, there was some time when we had dead mats," Welter says. "Now people will notice the mats are busy from the first to last rounds. We�ll have to start our Thursday and Friday sessions earlier." THE SOUTHERN OREGON Conference is revamping its football schedule so that all non-conference games will be played prior to the start of SOC play next fall. From 1986, when Medford split into two schools, until Hidden Valley dropped into the Skyline Conference in 1989, there were no non-conference games. After Hidden Valley left, one SOC school had a bye each week. When Mazama dropped into the Skyline Conference in 1998, that meant two byes were woven into each SOC team�s schedule. Next fall, the SOC will play conference games the third through ninth weeks. Ashland opens its season prior to Labor Day in Japan and might not schedule a game for Sept. 7, the opening day here. That would leave the Grizzlies with just eight games that count against the OSAA limit. "We�ve talked on a couple other occasions," Ashland coach and athletic director Jim Nagel says. "It would really be nice to have a break when we come back from Japan and give us some time to catch up. The trip takes a lot out of the kids. You come back and school starts. That first week sometimes has been a little shaky. "One season, we had 15 games, counting Japan and we all said that�s a long, long season. A bye week would not kill us." What would be a killer, Nagel says, is traveling to Japan, going on the road the first week of school and then venturing to Gresham for their Sept. 14 game. Eagle Point athletic director Bob Bergen says most of the state�s other 4A districts run on a two-year cycle opposite the SOC so that home-and-home agreements aren�t easily found. The Eagles play Benson Sept. 14. "Our Benson game is .just a one-year shot," Bergen says. "The following year it�s going to be hard to find a game." TWO SUSPENSIONS AND a death in the family of another player left Prospect with just seven players and forced the Cougars to forfeit their Skyline A League, 8-man football game to Days Creek. Prospect superintendent Don Alexander said the team�s status for Friday�s game against top-ranked Powers is up in the air. "We�re thin in numbers because we�ve got several boys (in the school) ineligible," Alexander says. Boys make up just under half of the school�s 70 students, Alexander says. The school�s enrollment is up from a couple of years ago, but several of the boys are interdistrict transfers and have to sit out a year athletically by Oregon School Activities Association rule. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.