Education

Reflections on the ‘lost season’

All-League first baseman Dawson Sharkey was one of seven returning varsity baseball players missing out on their senior season due to the mid-March school shutdown.

Before COVID-19 closures forced cancellation of spring sports, 2019-20 Bulldog athletes and coaches were riding a wave of fall/winter successes, with high hopes and anticipation for spring.

In Fall 2019, Creswell’s volleyball team finished second in 3A state, while the boys cross country team placed second at districts, clinching its first state appearance since 2016. Boys soccer lost the league playoff game that would have secured a playoff slot, and football finished one spot out of state playoffs.

In Winter 2019-20, the boys basketball team placed third in 3A state, while Brielle Brick placed fourth at 140 pounds during the girls 1A-6A state wrestling championships. Competition cheer also went to state but did not place.

Which brings us to Spring 2020: the “lost season” – not only for the Bulldogs, of course, but for athletes at every level.

TRACK & FIELD

Coached by Jonathan Ferguson, Creswell’s track and field team sought to repeat as boys district champions and – after qualifying eight in 2019 – were likely to send individual athletes to the 3A state championships.

Leading that elite group was senior Gauge Smith, who as a junior medaled in four events at state, placing second in the 400 meters, fourth in the 100m, fifth in the 200m and seventh in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. He was district champion in the 400m, placed second in the other three events and was Special District 4 Male Track Athlete of the Year.

Smith’s senior-season goals included the “redemption” of winning state titles in the 100m, 200m and 400m (dropping the 300m hurdles) and repeating as SD-4 Male Track Athlete of the Year. And after training hard in the offseason, he had a good shot at doing it.

After not doing “as well as I’d hoped” at state in 2019, Smith was counting on his senior season to be when all his “training and hard work (was) going to pay off.”

The loss of that opportunity for Smith and his fellow seniors “was a terrible thing to happen to these kids,” Ferguson said. “They will never get this season back, and that is sad. I wish there was something to be done about it, but it is completely out of our control.”

BASEBALL

This season would have been the baseball team’s first since losing rising star Gio Mediati, who drowned June 13, 2019. Last season, the freshman was second in varsity innings pitched and Second Team All-League as a pitcher and was expected to be an important offensive weapon for the Bulldogs in 2020.

It was also head coach CJ Johnson’s first year with the team, while seven seniors, including All-League Second Team infielder Dallton Dewey and Honorable Mention first baseman Dawson Sharkey, missed their final season on the diamond.

“We never really had a chance to set or create any goals for the season. We literally had one full week of practice, then everything shut down,” Johnson said. “I’m disappointed that these kids didn’t get the chance to compete and create memories that last the rest of their lives. The one thing you can’t ever get back is time, and that is what was stolen from these kids (by the pandemic).”

SOFTBALL

After advancing to 3A state playoffs in 2019, the softball team returned All-League Second Team utility player Gracelyn Ehrich (tapped to share pitching duties this season with Carter Kruger) and Second Team catcher Abbe Grubbs, and had their sights set high.

“I feel like we would have grinded and chipped away all season and by the end had a shot at the state playoffs,” said first-year head coach Scott Worsham. “The girls were already coming together as a team, and the culture around our program was really positive,” he added. 

Both offense and defense seemed solid.

“We looked like a strong hitting machine,” Worsham said. “If we could get some girls on base ahead of Ashley Miller and Hailey (Kirkpatrick), I had a lot of confidence that those two would be RBI machines.”

Working the plate, Grubbs “is able to block, frame, call a game, throw runners out and lead,” Worsham said, while a stable of outfielders are “able to catch fly balls and make strong, accurate throws.”

Seniors Jenessa Mallory and Miller “both worked extremely hard,” Worsham said. “I feel for them, and really wish we could have had the opportunity to see both lead and put together phenomenal senior seasons.”

Losing the 2020 season was hard on everybody: “The excitement of a new season, a new coaching staff and all the possibilities that could have been were lost,” Worsham said. “I know this group will come back hungry to play next year and battle for a state playoff opportunity.”

TENNIS

Losing this season stung. Relatively new at CHS, tennis has rapidly built momentum: “We finally had a full girls team (12 participants) to send to districts – five of which were seniors that were excited to compete and improve on last year’s experience; on the boys’ side we had eight participants – three of which won matches at districts last year and were looking to make big strides,” said coach Tyler Hollingsworth. “We had 20 participants come out for tennis who didn’t get to compete and have fun.”

Ethan Stephens, who went 2-for-3 at districts and was probably “just outside that four/five bubble” in 2019, Hollingsworth said, was poised to contend for one of four state tournament spots. Stephens had elected to forgo his senior soccer season to focus on training for tennis; with that season gone, he was denied any athletic opportunities as a senior.

“He had been working hard in the offseason and was really hoping to see it pay off,” Hollingsworth said.

“I’m bummed for all the seniors, because they had all been a part of building the program, and they deserved an opportunity and a Senior Night,” he added. “We look forward to next year and building on what these seniors left behind.”

GOLF

Abby Mercer, Creswell’s lone representative at the 2019 district tournament, placed eighth of 55 golfers to narrowly miss advancing to the 4A/3A/2A/1A state tournament. Fortunately, she has another year remaining.

Her dad and coach, Stan Mercer, said Abby “grew a lot” last year and expects those benefits will carry past her lost junior year and into her senior season in 2021. Competing so well at districts in 2019 “was really good for her to see how close she is to competing at the top level in the state,” he said.

EQUESTRIAN

With the sport straddling winter and spring, the CHS equestrian team lost its final district meet in early April, the opportunity to compete at state in May, and potentially also regionals in June.

“The seniors were disappointed in the rapid end to our season but recognize that so many people have been similarly affected,” said head coach Lauri Thomas.

One of those seniors, Jane Marquess has been a state qualifier the past two years “and has been with the program since seventh grade, as a fan and then as a competitor,” Thomas noted. In 2019, Marquess and drill teammates Ashley Anderson, Levi Bones and Grace Haga were district gold medalists, second at state and third at regionals.

This year’s drill team of Marquess, Lynnsie Ezell, Gracie Bones, Emily Scott and Chloe Green (alternate) “would have qualified for state, and Gracie Bones also qualified for state in Working Rancher,” Thomas said.

But instead, the South Valley District in which Creswell competes “is planning an end-of-season play day and senior recognition/awards event at the Cottage Grove Rodeo grounds when we can have large groups again,” Thomas said.

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