A correction was made at 9:13 a.m. March 14: An earlier version of this article included an incorrect reference to a Cascade basketball coach. A second correction was made at 9:05 a.m. March 15 for the date of the East-West Shrine Game. The Shrine Game's Facebook page reports that the game takes place on the first Saturday in August but Kaden Muir received an email that shows the game will be played on July 27.
The Oregon School Activities Association acknowledged that a scoring error occurred in Saturday’s Philomath-Cascade girls basketball game at the 4A tournament in Forest Grove. Each team scored 33 points in the contest but the Cougars were declared winners, 35-33, with a two-point scorebook error that had not immediately been discovered.
Peter Weber, OSAA executive director, said Tuesday that although it’s unfortunate for all involved, the game is official.
“The way that the NFHS rulebook and then the OSAA handbook are set, the score is going to stand at 35-33,” Weber said.
The NFHS, an abbreviation for the National Federation of State High School Associations, keeps rulebooks for most high school sports around the country. Weber said its rules state that the game is considered final once the officials leave the floor.
“We don’t have a video review or any type of appeal or protest process in our OSAA handbook,” Weber added. “There’s actually a policy about there is no protest or appeal of officials’ calls or miscalculation of rules, etc. — the game is the game.”
The Philomath News reported the scoring error in its coverage of the game after comparing video with the OSAA’s online statistics, which includes play-by-play. With 4:47 left in the second quarter, Cascade’s Rozalynn Schmunk grabbed a rebound but in the play-by-play at that moment in the game, she is listed as scoring a basket.
However, the stats reported online by the OSAA are unofficial, Weber said. Only the scorebook kept courtside at the scorer’s table is official. PHS coach Ben Silva said he believes the error occurred when Philomath’s Zoee Howard, who wears No. 11, scored a basket and the official keeping the book wrote it down as a basket for Cascade’s Schmunk, who also wears No. 11.
“That’s what happened — it was Zoee’s basket that the official book put down for No. 11 for Cascade,” Silva said.
Athletic Director Mike Hood was at the game and said he looked at the PHS book and team statistician Shelly Brown had the correct score. The PHS book was apparently shared with the official scorekeeper.
“But the policy is they’re (OSAA) not even going to look at our book and Cascade was upset about that,” Hood said.
Silva also said Brown had the correct score but that she did end up adding a basket for No. 11 (Schmunk) so it would match the official book.
“I talked to our director who was on site, Kelly (Foster), and we thought and believed that had been addressed at halftime,” Weber said. “With the two points, I think if I’m not mistaken, it made it 17-14 in our book and on the scoreboard. We believe that had addressed the issue.”
In other words, two PHS points that had been taken off the board on a Howard basket went back up. But the two points were not taken away from Cascade’s No. 11 even after the halftime conversation (the actual score was 15-14 in favor of CHS). With a couple of minutes left in halftime, the game officials came out and Foster explained the scoring error to them. Cascade’s coach was also informed of the situation.
“According to Kelly, I believe the coach from Cascade said, ‘hey, we have them at 14 so that makes sense to us,’” Weber said. “We thought all of that had been addressed and the second half goes and plays out.”
Although Cascade admitted that they had 14 for Philomath, Weber said they reportedly weren’t keeping a scorebook.
“They don’t have a book because the (official) book at state is the OSAA book,” Weber said. “I think a lot of schools still keep one.”
Cascade Athletic Director James Rise and girls basketball coach Nick Randall did not respond to emails asking for their perspective on the matter or whether or not they kept a book.
“Nobody’s going to feel good about that,” Weber said. “Obviously, Philomath’s not going to feel good about it, Cascade’s not going to feel good about it, our people don’t feel good about it. It’s an unfortunate situation that occasionally — thankfully not that often — but occasionally does happen.”
What about the play-by-play reported online?
“It’s a computer program that we’ve used for a number of years,” Weber said, adding that the OSAA hires operators to run the program. “There’s codes and signals when shots are made and all these things, they type that in and then it generates the play-by-play and stats and everything else.”
Again, Weber said the online stats are not official, only the book.
“At most tournaments, those two are sitting pretty close to each other because there is a lot of communication at the table between the clock and the book and the PA announcer and the stats that goes on during the game,” Weber said.
Silva said there was probably communication between those at the table.
“They will probably never admit to this but I wonder if she just completely missed it and asked the unofficial stats guy (running the play-by-play for the OSAA website) what he had and he gave them (Cascade) that basket that he had,” Silva said. “Or, she just straight up marked No. 11 on Cascade rather than on our side.”
PHS Principal Mark Henderson was at the game.
“We certainly had our chances to win that game so I can’t blame our loss on this but it does have an effect on our girls’ mindset and attitude,” Henderson said. “It’s also a really bad look for OSAA that they can’t even keep a correct score or have a process to ensure the score is correct.”
Weber said the situation provided an opportunity for the OSAA to try and figure out how to put additional pieces in place to prevent such scenarios in the future.
“I don’t think you can ever 100% prevent those things from happening but how do you get as close to 100% as possible?” he said. “Because you want that to be — win, lose or whatever — you want that to be a great experience for the kids all the way around on both teams in both communities and certainly having the correct score the entire game is a part of that.”
Hood said the OSAA acknowledged the error and that they’re working on ways to correct it.
“When those things happen, you have to have some safety parameters in place for it to not happen again,” Hood said. “That shouldn’t be a thing.”
Silva said it’s disappointing but not much can be done.
“I hope they actually do change their policy because in every other (regular-season) game, there’s three books at the table and they seem to always work things out,” he said. “If a mistake is made, they seem to fix it and fix it correctly, whereas on the state tournament stage, it seems absurd that they don’t have a second process to fix a very simple mistake like that.”
Asked if he had seen anything similar to what happened in the Philomath-Cascade game, Weber recalled a situation that occurred about nine years ago with an error that wasn’t caught until after the game had ended.
“It’s pretty rare but obviously, everybody’s human that we’re using at these events and sometimes things happen,” he said.
Silva said he had never seen anything like it.
“Like I said, there will be an occasional mistake when the scoreboard doesn’t match what happened on the court and in a gym filled with fans, they let the clock operator know,” Silva said. “So that fact that nobody had reacted until they changed the score to try to match the book made it obvious that the book was incorrect. Everybody in the gym knew the book was incorrect.”
The scoring error came up during a PHS girls basketball team chat earlier this week.
“We met with all the girls yesterday (Monday) and there was some frustration over it,” Silva said. “But like I told them, we knew the mistake was made in the first half and we needed to score two extra points in the second half. It shouldn’t be that way but it is.”
When Philomath went into the locker room at halftime, the score was still showing 17-12 on the scoreboard.
“We went into halftime thinking there was a four-point swing so that changed our discussion at halftime and our approach we took going out,” Silva said.
Hood had a phone conversation with Weber about the situation.
“My hope was that the OSAA would acknowledge their error and hey, this is what we’re doing so this doesn’t happen again,” Hood said. “It sounds like he met with his staff and went over things that came up from the tournament and adjustments to make.”
Muir to play in all-star football game
Philomath High’s Kaden Muir accepted an invitation to play in this summer’s Oregon East-West Shrine All-Star Football Game.
Muir, a 5-foot-8 senior who played running back and linebacker this past season, helped Philomath to a 5-4 record while playing for coach Alex Firth. He is listed on the West squad.
“Firth recommended me and I got an email and was on the list,” Muir said. “We’ll give it one more go-around.”
The game for graduated seniors in the 1A to 5A classifications is scheduled for July 27 at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.
Also on the West roster from other teams in Philomath’s league (4A’s Special District 3) are Cascade’s Teagen Allen (lineman) and Karsten Sande (receiver-defensive back), Marist Catholic’s Dennis Jackson Jr. (running back-defensive back) and James Harvey (running back-linebacker) and Junction City’s Tylen Franks (running back-linebacker).
The last Philomath football player to appear in the Shrine game was Kane Rust in 2019. Colby Roe was selected to play in the 2020 game but it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Joseph Choi was an alternate in 2022.
PHS Shining Stars headed to state
Philomath High’s Shining Stars will compete Saturday at the Dance Drill State Championships at the Salem Pavilion.
The state meet features a multi-classification division that includes 1A through 5A schools. Philomath will compete in the hip-hop and traditional categories. Saturday’s performances begin at 3 p.m. and according to the published schedule, the Shining Stars will go at 5:38 p.m. for their hip-hop routine and 7:19 p.m. in traditional dance.
Coached by Stefanie Larson and assisted by Michelle Park, the PHS roster includes seniors Kaylie Blake, Alexa Eckhold, Jadyn McMullen and Abigail Workman, junior Elizabeth Burriel, sophomores Astrid Cropp, Ginnah Hopper and Adriana Nanoski, and freshman Katherine Burriel.
The session will also feature all-state performances, drill down, the “grand finale” and the championship awards. McMullen and Blake earned spots on the Dance Drill Coaches Association of Oregon all-state team.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
