News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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A rocking rendition of Queen’s “We are the Champions” by members of the Sisters graduating class of 2019 highlighted the commencement ceremony for Sisters High School on Friday, June 14, in the gymnasium packed with faculty, family, and friends. Prior to the rocking performance led by graduating senior Tyrell Beatty, Principal Joe Hosang briefly welcomed everyone before turning the attention to the jazz choir, directed by Rick Johnson, in a moving national anthem. All of th... Full story
Graduates from the Sisters High School class of 2019 were showered with scholarship money at the annual GRO Senior Celebration on Thursday, May 30. Sisters GRO (Graduate Resource Organization) has continued to expand local scholarship offerings each year, resulting in over $208,000 of locally generated awards, represented by 69 separate scholarships that included 140 individual awards. Sisters School employee Rick Kroytz is on the GRO board and operates the high school’s ASPIRE program, which is designed to help guide student... Full story
Five years ago this month, Brandon Pollard, then a senior at Sisters High School, stood atop the podium at Hayward Field, crowned the state champion in the 800 meters. Two hours earlier, he had engaged in an epic battle in the 1,500 meters, where he finished a very close second in 3:58.83, that left him so spent he was not certain at all about even making it to the starting line for the 800. He regrouped and won the title, going away in 1:57.69 Such is the courage, tenacity,... Full story
Golfers at the Outlaw Open, June 1, enjoyed great weather, delicious food, and fun times, according to organizer and Head Football Coach Neil Fendall. Nearly 90 golfers took part in the event, which included 18 holes of golf, a catered dinner, as well as raffles and other contests within the day, netting approximately $15,000 for the football program. Team members were on hand to help check in clubs, load carts, sell raffle tickets and bus tables. The volleyball team staged a... Full story
For Skyler Larson, a year of preparation paid off as he cleared 6 feet 2 inches in the high jump to win the state title at the OSAA 4A State Championships held at Mt. Hood Community College on May 17 and 18. Sophomore Brody Anderson reached the top of the podium as well with a stellar race in the 400 meters. Larson’s win in the high jump Saturday included a bit of drama. The State leader coming into the meet, Larson and Garrett Hagarty of Hidden Valley, who had cleared 6 f... Full story
Imagine choosing one out of every two people who currently reside in Bend, Oregon, outfitting them in running gear and sending them out on a 7.4-mile course around the city. Do this, and you have an idea of just how many people take part in the Bloomsday Run, which has taken place every year in Spokane, Washington, since 1977. At its peak the race, originally known as the Lilac Bloomsday, attracted 62,000 runners, while the 2019 edition included an estimated 41,000 finishers,... Full story
Sean Meissner’s first year as director of the Sisters “Better-Half” Marathon turned out to be a success as just under 100 runners took part in the 13.1- and 6.55-mile courses on Saturday, May 11. Starting and finishing at the Village Green, runners traversed a course around the outskirts of town on a sunny morning that turned quite warm, making Meissner’s decision to move the start to an hour earlier, 8 a.m., a wise one. The 24 finishers in the half-marathon made two loops of... Full story
Sisters High School will be well represented at this week’s OSAA 4A Track and Field Championships after some clutch performances at the Oregon West Conference District Meet held May 9 and 11 at Reed Stadium. Athletes qualify for state by placing in the top two, meeting a qualifying standard, or being selected as a wildcard. The OSAA added the wildcard qualification in all events this season so that one additional athlete in each event who owns the best third-place mark a... Full story
Sisters High School students from Rima Givot’s chemistry class took to the field on Thursday, May 2, for the now-annual science balloon launch. It was the fourth consecutive year Givot has led this effort with her chemistry class. Givot, along with her student teacher Samantha Petrie and a number of volunteers, worked with the students throughout the project from planning, to launch, and all the way to retrieval. The launch of the two balloons took place early Thursday morning... Full story
The annual Meet of Champions, held at Sweet Home High School on Saturday, April 27, featured an array of Outlaws standing high on the podium following season-best performances. The meet, which in recent years has been staged at Willamette University, took place at Sweet Home this year due to scheduling challenges. Due to the state meet being held a week earlier than normal, meet calendars for the 2019 season have been complicated for many schools since traditional dates for annual meets got jammed up, including the Sisters... Full story
The Summit Invitational attracted 30 teams from across Oregon, and even a few from Idaho. The meet included depth of talent rivaling the 4A state meet — which is what Coach Jeff Larson loves about the event. “Truly, each event was deeper than our state meet field will probably be in May,” he said. “It was an excellent mid-season test for our kids.” With so many schools involved, multiple heats were necessary to get everyone to the starting line, resulting in a meet that took about nine hours to complete. “It’s a... Full story
The track is finally clear of snow and the Outlaws boys track team got its first real taste of competition in meets last week. The Outlaws hosted Oregon West foes Sweet Home and Cascade, along with 2A Culver on Wednesday, April 10, under somewhat chilly conditions in the squad’s first true head-to-head competition of the season after only competing in the Crook County Relays to start the season before spring break. The team then traveled to La Pine for the annual La Pine I... Full story
The loss of some top performers to graduation last year has given the 2019 girls track team some big shoes to fill, and Coach Jeff Larson is pleased with the team’s spirit and performance now that the competitive season is getting into full swing. The team competed in two meets last week with a home meet April 10 and the La Pine Invitational April 13. “It’s hard to compare to last year since we lost two state-level sprinters and one state placer in the distances, but we’re... Full story
Sisters ultra-runner, Ashley Nordell, 38, put another feather in her cap with a big-time win at her favorite event, the Three Days of Syllamo, a three-day ultra-marathon stage race challenge held in northern Arkansas. Counting this year, Nordell has taken part in the Syllamo race nine times and the event remains her favorite among ultra marathon competitions, due in large part to the camaraderie that has developed among runners over the years. “It’s a very low-key sort of eve... Full story
After three-plus weeks of training, largely indoors, one canceled meet, and other challenges, the Sisters High School track and field team got its first taste of competition at the Crook County Relays held in Prineville on Thursday, March 21. A total of nine teams competed, including La Grande, Mountain View, North Lake, Redmond, Ridgeview, Paisley, Madras, and Sisters, along with the host Cowboys. Relay meets are common at the start of the season as a way to give athletes more of a “soft” entry into the season as vir... Full story
The 400 meter oval at Reed Stadium still lies a couple of feet beneath the snow from the massive storm two weeks ago, but the track team led by head coach Jeff Larson and his crew of assistants has not missed a beat as they train for the competitive season. “Of course we would much rather be out on the field,” said Larson, “but part of preparing athletes is teaching them to overcome adversity. The biggest challenge is taking a sport intended for outdoors and making it an indoor sport. Add to that limited gym space, large... Full story
Hundreds of young readers descended on Sisters Middle School for the annual Battle of the Books regional competition on Saturday, March 10. According to co-director Deb Riehle, a total of 43 teams from all grade divisions attended this year's event, which serves as a qualifier for the state competition, which is set for April 6. Teams came from throughout Central and Eastern Oregon, from as far away as Fossil and Burns. Preparation for Battle of the Books begins months ahead... Full story
Behind a second- and third-place finish in two events by Lydia Bartlett, the Sisters High School girls swim team wrapped up the season with an eighth-place team finish at the OSAA 4A/3A/2A/1A State Championships held February 15 and 16 at the Tualatin Valley Swim Center in Beaverton. Friday's preliminaries included 12 entrants in each event with the top six advancing to Saturday's finals. Bartlett came through as the top finisher in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle prelims but knew she would face her competitors' very... Full story
Governor Kate Brown paid a visit to Central Oregon on Friday, February 1, and made her first stop of the day in Redmond where she met with a group of 18 teachers and school counselors representing school districts in Madras, Prineville, Redmond, Bend, and Sisters. Among the group were Sisters Elementary teacher Clay Warburton and Sisters Middle School teacher Deborah Riehle. The Central Oregon office of Oregon Education Association helped organize the visit which was intended... Full story
Inspired by experiments planned in Rima Givot's chemistry class, four Sisters High School students submitted a proposal to the Asgard: Scientific Balloons for Space Education program. And for the second year in a row, a team from Sisters is one of 12 groups to be chosen from international submissions. Amy Hills traveled last year with 2018 graduate Ethan Ferwalt, so this is her second foray in this project. Her partners this year include junior Emma Farley, as well as fellow... Full story
After years of seeing cigarette smoking rates decline, a new nicotine phenomenon has taken hold in the United States through a clever marketing and manufacturing strategy by companies like Juul, resulting in a wave of teenage users who may not have any real comprehension of the health dangers involved. Welcome to the world of vaping, the common term for using e-cigarettes. Vaping devices are also common for ingesting marijuana products, but this article is focused primarily on nicotine use. Young people of Sisters have... Full story
I have often expounded on the mental-health benefits of running, and when I heard the term "mindfulness" for the 10,000th time in the last two years I thought it might be time to find out what the term means and how it might apply to my own life and those of the runners I know. The webzine Mindful defines mindfulness this way: "Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we're doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around us." That sounds good, but how i... Full story
The Sisters Outlaws swim team members continued their assault on personal and season records at a dual meet versus Madras on January 12 at the Madras Aquatic Center. Official meet results were not published in a timely manner, but Head Coach Bryn Singleton reported notable highlights from the meet and shared what the team's focus has been as the squad moves beyond mid-season. "We have been working on more technical aspects of everyone's strokes this past week, and everyone really did a great job putting those things into... Full story
The Sisters High School swim teams broke into 2019 with solid performances at the Clemens Invitational, hosted by Philomath High School on Saturday, January 5. The girls team was slightly short-handed during the Christmas break and competed only in individual events. Laura Clem got things started for the team in the first individual event of the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 2:36.01, followed by Meredith Mandal's second-place finish in the 200 individual medley (2:28.03). Brooke Robilla... Full story
The Sisters High School swimming team plunged into the season with back-to-back meets last weekend. Friday, December 7 at the Newport Quad meet, the Outlaws faced league rivals Newport and Sweet Home, along with 2A Kennedy High School. As the first competition of the season, the meet served as a conditioning check for the swimmers and gave Head Coach Bryn Singleton her first real look at how her veterans and newcomers look as a team. On the girls' side, Sweet Home flexed its muscles, winning all but one event for the day,... Full story
