An Independent Newspaper Serving the Athletes of the

Springville Schools and Area Community

Wednesday, January 8, 2014, Volume 4>>Issue 19>> An Independent newspaper serving Springville, Iowa

ORIOLE PRIDE “We Are In The Business Of Kicking Butt—And Business

Is Very Good” ~ Charles Barkley

GIRLS CRACK THE TOP 15 THEN DROP 3 STRAIGHT

BOYS HIT THE RANKINGS AND LOOK GOOD DOING IT

The Lady O’s headed into the holiday break with recognition from IGHSAU. Ranked #13, they played hostess to the Alburnett Pirates on December 19th. Falling behind early, Sarah Matus led a 2nd quarter come back that made the half time score 28-24 in favor of Alburnett. The visitor’s continued their hot shooting into the 4th quarter when Coach Sanderson had the Lady O’s play man to man defense. That’s right—man to man! And the girls matched up well, forcing 3 straight turnovers and they scored on each to go on a 6-0 run. With just under 2 minutes to play Matus (pictured left, who finished with 17 points) hit a 3 to put the girls up 49-48 but it would be the last score of the game as Alburnett scored the next 6 points to hold on for a 54-49 win, handing the girls their second loss of the young season. The girls had one more game before their break on the road at Durant and dropped a heart breaking, overtime loss, 46-43. The girls had a 28-26 half time lead and the game was close throughout and tied at 42 with 1:17 to go. Springville had a chance to win it in regulation when Senior Tracy Kilburg was sent to the line. She couldn’t convert however and the O’s went to overtime. Durant scored on an Oriole turnover and then held on to win it, 46-43. Sophomore Megan Wagaman had a good look at a 3 pointer at the buzzer, but it was off the back of the rim, moving the girls record to 4-2. Junior Madison Wittenburg led the O’s with 14 points. Last Friday the girls re-opened the season with a home game against Easton Valley. The Lady O’s looked sluggish from the start, allowing Easton to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Springville rallied back and headed into the locker room tied at the half, 16-16. Coach Sanderson had the girls pumped up as they opened the 3rd quarter with a 5-0 run. Then they hit a dry spell and let Easton back into it as they pulled ahead, 27-22, heading into the 4th quarter. The Lady O’s went to their man to man defense and force Easton to turn it over, they just couldn’t convert. Easton however continued to

score, eventually icing it at the line, handing Springville their 3rd straight loss, 47-35. “From the field, we endured our worst shooting game of the season making only 25% of our shots” said Coach Sanderson. Matus led her team mates in scoring with 14 points and Wagaman added 10. And so, with a 3 game slide fresh in their memories, the Lady O’s traveled East to Calamus-Wheatland last Saturday for an afternoon match up with a 1-7 Warrior team. The girls bounced back with a convincing 51-35 road win, Coach Sanderson summed it up best, “From the start, we played with more energy and aggressiveness at both ends of the floor than we did during last night's debacle against Easton Valley”. Matus again led the O’s with 16 points and right behind were Tracy Kilburg with 14 and Wagaman with 12. The girls return home on Friday for a tough match up with North Linn and then play Lisbon on Saturday at the US Cellular Center in “Rivalry Saturday. Your calendar is full Oriole fans—see you court-side.

The Oriole basketball squad tapped into the boys state rankings, listed at number 10 among 1A programs and rightly so—they were undefeated and beating their opponents by an average of 26 points. And then Easton came to town and the O’s didn’t. The visitors jumped out to a 19-11 lead

and while the O’s made their runs and cut it to as close as 3, they never gained the lead. “I thought we did a nice job of fighting back to cut it to three points at the half, but again were outdone by Easton Valley’s energy to start the third quarter”, said Coach Merritt. The loss came on the heels of Alburnett and Durant wins and while it was a setback—it certainly wasn’t the season. Like the girls, they headed to take on Calamus-Wheatland and showed their power as they trounced the Warriors, 87-60. Big man Elias Nissen (showing emotion on the left) had an amazing night, scoring 32, pulling down 12 boards AND blocking 3 shots. The senior also becomes just the 3rd Oriole basketball player in the history of the program to score 1000 points in his career. Congratulations Elias—and keep it going. Also on Saturday, Junior guard Greg Pauly (dishing one out to the right) was all over the court and finished all over the stat book, scoring 30 points, hauling in 13 boards, dishing out 4 assists and tallying 2 steals. He was unstoppable and a real treat to watch. The win gets the O’s mojo back in full swing as the grind is set to start up again. North Linn comes to town on Friday and then they head to Lisbon (the new dirty word in the conference) on Saturday. Things are about to heat up so leave the long undies at home—Merritt and the guys will have you sweating it out at the gym.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014, Oriole Pride 2

Find us online at http://issuu.com/oriolepride E-mail; oriolepride@gmail.com

SANDERSON REACHES MILESTONE—100 CAREER WINS!

Lady Oriole head coach Nate Sanderson earned his 100th win back in December when Springville beat Prince of Peace, 41-25. And how fitting that Coach Sanderson is also a history teacher, because we are about to have a lesson, please have pens and paper handy. Coach Sanderson is in his 11th season of coaching high school girls basketball and it all began with Louisa-Muscatine. After graduating from UNI he started his career with the Falcons in the 2002-03 season as their JV coach, but soon took over the reins mid-season at the varsity level. Coach inherited a team that went on to go without a win that season and he laughingly says, “despite that, the administration decided to give me the position the following year”. In his first full season, the girls won only 1 game, but broke a 33 game losing streak. “So after my first 1.5 seasons my record was 1-29. At that point, it looked like winning 100 games would take 200 years!”… he says. Once Coach set to work on the culture at L-M, the wins began to come and he left there with a total of 69 and with the 41 (so far here at Springville) he has obtained his first milestone. But the history lesson doesn’t end here—first year assistant coach Bailie Bonnichsen was a player for Coach Sanderson at Louisa-Muscatine. “Bailie's class was very athletic, and was the first group of core athletes that really committed to open gyms, off-season games, etc. As a result, we started a stretch of five years where we continued to win more games each season. We won 5 games during Bailie's freshman season, 9 her sophomore year, 12 her junior season (a school record for wins in a season), 16 her senior year, and 18 during my final year at L-M (the year after Bailie graduated)”. And to learn more about the teacher, we talked with the student, a 2009 L-M graduate Coach Bonnichsen, and asked her about making the transition from a player to a coach, and doing it under the guidance of a previous coach—how has that been? To which she said, “In simple terms, it's been awesome. I have learned so much from Coach Sanderson. Even though we are only half way through the year, I have gained an incredible amount of experience. It's also interesting to see things from the other side--the coach's point of view--because now I get to see and experience how much time and dedication is required to have a successful program”. As Coach Sanderson went on to say, “Donita has also been incredibly patient over the years. She's endured a lot of nights after tough losses, and has been there for the best of times and the worst of times. The commitment we have to the program and our players would not be possible without her unwavering support along the way”. And he adds, “It was special to have Bailie on the bench for #100 since she has been part of almost half of them (45) as a player, and now as a coach. She was there during the lean years early in my career, and can appreciate as much as anyone how far we have come, how much we have learned, and how difficult it can be to win. It's a fun milestone for the basketball family, and one that could not have been possible without the efforts made by so many former players and coaches from both schools”. And he is right, just one more example of the great things going on in small schools, led by the likes of

Springville. Congratulations Coach Sanderson, keep up the hard work and please know we appreciate all you do. You make for History in the making—in the class room and on the court. Go O’s!

WEEKLY PICKS CONTEST… We return with the following, varsity Tri-River’s Match ups:

Lady Orioles at Lisbon Oriole boys at Lisbon Lady Orioles vs Bellevue Marquette Oriole boys vs Bellevue Marquette Tie-Breaker question, In the Bellevue Marquette games, who will have more team fouls? The Lady O’s? Or the Oriole boys? Make your picks and email them to us at oriolepride@gmail.com.

THE SANDERSON RESUME… Undergraduate Degree: UNI Social Science/Education Graduate Degree: Gonzaga Organizational Leadership Career Wins: 102 and counting