Philomath High School will add three sports programs to its lineup of student activities this coming spring with boys volleyball and boys and girls golf teams now being organized, Athletic Director Mike Hood said.
The Warriors have sports programs in 18 of the 20 currently sanctioned by the Oregon School Activities Association but that changes this spring with boys and girls golf coming on board. Boys volleyball is not yet sanctioned but categorized as an “emerging activity.”
PHS has been advertising the coaching vacancies and Hood said he expects the interviewing process to wrap up next week.
“We’ll have coaches hired and we’ll go from there with scheduling practices and games,” he said.
There will be separate coaches for boys and girls golf.
“We have about six kids for boys golf and six for girls golf that have expressed 100% interest,” Hood said. “So there’ll be full teams it seems like and we’ll probably pick up some more (student athletes) after that.”
For boys volleyball, Hood said 12 students have shown interest in playing.
A question that comes to mind is can Philomath High with its student enrollment support these new programs? A second question is will the addition of golf and boys volleyball take athletes away from the other spring sports and threaten those numbers?
“Yeah, there was a concern going in about what’s the impact on the current sports we’re offering but ultimately we’re looking at how many opportunities can we offer kids if they’re interested in them,” Hood said. “It’s a positive thing overall and I don’t think it’ll impact our current sports too much, if any, because students are able to do dual sports.”
Philomath’s other spring sports are baseball, softball, boys and girls track and field, and boys and girls tennis. With the additions, there will be six options in athletics for boys and five for girls.
Golf season for boys and girls begins March 3 with the first practice date leading up to the state championships May 19-20 at Emerald Valley Golf and Resort in Creswell for the boys and Tokatee Golf Club in McKenzie Bridge for the girls.
Hood said PHS hasn’t yet finalized a home course for practice. The school has been in conversations with both Trysting Tree Golf Club and Corvallis Club.
“That’s essentially the only sport that we don’t offer that the OSAA has that’s not an emerging sport,” Hood said about golf. “So we looked at that and saw, ‘OK, it’d be cool to have these — is there any interest?”
Last spring, the school distributed a survey to gauge interest among students. The survey came back as a positive to move forward with adding golf as a spring sports option.
In boys golf, there are currently 30 Class 4A schools competing in three special districts. It appears likely that Philomath would be added to Special District 2, which includes Cascade, Cottage Grove, Junction City, Marist Catholic, Newport, North Marion, Stayton and Sweet Home.
Girls golf includes 87 schools competing together in a 4A/3A/2A/1A combined classification. Philomath could go into either Special District 3, a 17-school contingent that includes Cascade, Newport, Stayton, Sweet Home and several others, or Special District 4, which currently has a dozen schools, such as Cottage Grove, Junction City, Marist Catholic.
Boys volleyball’s season runs from March into late May with its championships at the Olympus Sports Center in Hillsboro. It appears that the rules will mirror those of girls volleyball with five-set matches.
“Boys volleyball has just been a thing — it’s an emerging sport and so there was interest,” Hood said, mentioning that there was good turnout for the sport during open gym opportunities. “So we decided to open it up.”
An emerging sport or activity is a term used by the OSAA for those that have the potential to meet the required number of schools participating to be considered for official sanctioning. Boys volleyball was approved as an emerging activity in October 2023. And just this month, girls flag football received the same designation.
Hood said girls flag football is not currently under consideration. If it is added in the future, the seasons also run in the spring.
2. Tree Lighting set for Nov. 22
The Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting will illuminate the front lawn of Philomath Museum on Friday, Nov. 22, organizers announced. The date of the special community event is earlier than ever and falls during the week prior to Thanksgiving.
According to Chelle Krantz, the chamber’s executive director, the timing of the Christmas Tree Lighting will be permanent.
Krantz said the event “will be going forward on the Friday before Thanksgiving. The board made the decision to have it on the same ‘day’ every year.”
This year’s event will include many of the same activities, such as a visit from Santa and the Corvallis Knights mascots, the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo queen, free cookies and cocoa. Of course, the big moment of the evening is the countdown to the tree lighting.
Krantz indicated that there will be more to come.
“The event itself will have a few new things this year but we aren’t ready to share those yet,” Krantz said.
In case you missed it, the chamber’s annual Trunk or Treat event is coming up on Halloween from 3-5 p.m. in the downtown vicinity.
3. More ribbon cuttings coming
Earlier this month, I covered ribbon-cutting events at Clemens Primary School for the completion of its new covered play area and also a Pioneer Connect gathering at Beazell Memorial Forest to announce its plans to bring broadband to Kings Valley and other rural areas. If you are enticed to events with oversized scissors and positive, excited groups of people, there will be two more such events coming up in the near future and both involve the city of Philomath.
First, the city will be hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 in the downtown area to celebrate the completion of the Philomath Downtown Safety and Streetscape Project. This project had been considered for many, many years and then once it was approved, funded and got started, it seemed like it would never be completed with the work done on Main and Applegate streets.
Now we have bright downtown sidewalks, cool new lampposts, bulb-outs, a unique bike lane and much more thanks to the work that has been completed. The city invites everyone from the community to celebrate this milestone. The ceremony will take place at Main Street and 13th Street.
Second, there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9 at the new Paul J. Cochran Veterans Memorial Park, which is located on the corner of College Street and North 16th Street. The public is invited, of course, but also comes with a special invitation to Vietnam Era military personnel or family members.
Those individuals will be presented with the Bronze Eagle Medal by the Northwest Scots Honor Guard, an organization that operates under the direction of the Oval Office. Anyone that has not yet received this medal is welcome to apply. If interested, shoot an email to cityhall@philomathoregon.gov by Nov. 7 so you can be added to the list of individuals to be presented with the medal.
Cochran, a Philomath High alum, was killed in Vietnam in 1968.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
