The Philomath High School gymnasium filled with laughter and competitive bidding Tuesday night as the boys basketball team held its annual pie auction fundraiser.
Twenty-one homemade pies and other types of desserts brought in $3,670, with each commanding at least $100. Senior Ace Gerding’s cheesecake topped the auction at $320, helped along by veteran auctioneer Rusty Jensen’s skill at coaxing bids from the crowd.
“I made it with my mom and sister,” Gerding said. “The last two years, we’ve made coconut cream pie but I felt like doing something different for my senior year.”
The cheesecake drew attention even from Gerding’s coach. “It looked good,” Blake Ecker said. “I was actually going to bid on it.”
Players worked the crowd during the event, taking pies donated by their families into the stands to drum up interest while Jensen started the bidding. The varsity and junior varsity squads scrimmaged during the evening, with timeouts called about halfway through each game to let Jensen work his magic.
The auction has become a tradition for the program, once bringing in around $7,000 in its most productive year. The funds help cover season expenses that aren’t covered otherwise. While the district provides a stipend for new uniforms every three years and the Philomath Booster Club offers some assistance, fundraisers like the pie auction remain essential to the program’s budget.
At least $100 more came in through straight donations Tuesday night, pushing the evening’s total close to $3,800.
Philomath High’s boys will participate in a jamboree Dec. 3 at Santiam Christian in Adair Village. The Warriors will scrimmage Corvallis at 5:25 p.m., followed by South Albany at 6:15 and the host school at 6:40. The season opens for real the next evening with a Dec. 4 home game against Crescent Valley.
Winter sports set to begin
Besides the boys basketball team, the other PHS winter sports programs will also begin their seasons in the coming days.
Ben Silva returns as head coach of the girls basketball program with a season opener that comes a bit later than the boys. The Warrior girls are scheduled to play their opener Dec. 9 at home against Marist Catholic.
Philomath will participate in a jamboree next week, however, to tune up for the season. The team’s Dec. 3 appearance in a multi-school event at Crescent Valley includes scrimmages against Churchill at 6 p.m., the host Raiders at 6:45 p.m., Santiam Christian at 7:15 p.m. and Corvallis at 7:45 p.m.
The swim team will get into the pool for its first competition on Dec. 3 against Sisters and Crosshill Christian, a small Turner school. The tri-meet is scheduled to begin races at 4:30 p.m. Iliana Kaiser is back as the program’s head coach.
In all, the Warrior boys and girls swim teams have five home appearances at Clemens Community Pool — the others being Dec. 10 vs. Cascade and Kennedy, Jan. 14 vs. Blanchet Catholic and Stayton, Jan. 21 vs. Kennedy, Salem Academy and Sisters, and Jan. 28 for a senior night meet vs. Junction City and Marist Catholic.
In boys wrestling, the Warriors will open their season Dec. 6 with the annual appearance in the Perry Burlison Invitational at Cascade High. There, Philomath’s grapplers will see competitors from at least 13 other schools.
Troy Woosley returns as the head coach for a program that had two underclassman individual state champions last season in Riley Barrett and Lake Mulberry. Another underclassman who performed well at state last year was runner-up Porter Compton.
Wrestling fans can get a look at this year’s team on the home mats at the Warrior Classic on Dec. 12. According to the posted schedule, the meet will also include Crescent Valley, Dayton, Junction City, Mohawk, Molalla, Springfield and Tillamook. The schedule shows a start time of 2:30 p.m. for the meet.
The girls wrestling team’s season opener is scheduled for Dec. 5 at the Battle for the Capital, a tournament hosted by McKay High. Twenty-seven schools are listed as participants in the early season event. Philomath’s girls will also compete at home Dec. 12 in the Warrior Classic.
Team previews on each of the winter sports programs will be published in the coming days.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).