Sisters High School wins Oregonian Cup

Sisters High School received one of the highest honors bequeathed upon Oregon schools last week when the Oregon School Activities Association announced the winners of the annual Oregonian Cup, which included Sisters as the top 4A school.

The Oregonian Cup, established in 1999, honors overall excellence for academics, activities, and athletics using a point system that includes categories for state qualification and the OSAA Academic All-State Program, sponsored by the Oregon Dairy Farmer's Association.

Sisters took the lead in the fall with playoff appearances by all of the teams other than football, picked up enough points in the winter to stay near the lead, and finished with a flurry by having state-level appearances in a number of sports. In addition, many of the teams finished among the top ten in the Dairy Farmer's academic contest, including the girls' track team, which placed first this spring.

Many of the teams this year placed among the top 10 academically, according to Pinky Pagano, who serves as the athletic secretary and monitored the Outlaws' progress all year long. Pagano sent out a district-wide email to let staff know early Friday morning, eliciting an immediate response from Superintendent Jim Golden.

"I am incredibly proud of our students in the way that they do a great job of balancing their academic focus with participation in co-curricular activities," said Golden. "It's a great day to be an Outlaw!"

The Oregonian, Oregon's largest newspaper, based in Portland, ran an ad Friday announcing the top 10 in all six OSAA classifications. The other winners included Jesuit (6A), Summit (5A), Valley Catholic (3A), East Linn Christian (2A) and Triad Christian (1A).

Summit and Sisters were the only non-private schools to win their respective classifications.

Longtime coaches Isolde Hedemark and Rand Runco understand how meaningful it is for a school to win this award.

"What an honor this is for our high school, our community, and our parents, who tirelessly support our students to help them excel in the sporting activities of their choice," said Hedemark.

Rand Runco concurred, saying, "This is just amazing to win this for the first time in school history amid the worst budget cuts we have ever faced, which shows what great kids and programs we have. We need to find ways to keep supporting these programs and keep our students in multiple activities."

The Oregonian Cup actually goes beyond athletics, since the OSAA also offers competition in activities including band, choir, solo music, speech, and cheerleading.

Sisters tallied 2,797.5 points to top Henley (2,527.5), Molalla (2,500), Scappoose (2,347.5) and North Bend (2,272.5) among the 43 schools in the 4A classification.

A presentation of the 2012 trophy will be made at Sisters High School in the fall as the Outlaws will begin defense of the title.