The Dalles High School Fall Sports Roundup
By Cole Goodwin
The Dalles High School has ended yet another action packed fall sports season. TDHS Athletic Director Billy Brost gave an update on athletics at the School Board meeting on November 17th, 2022.
Monday, November 14th, 2022 marked the first day of practice for winter sports at The Dalles High School. TDHS students are now hard at work training to compete in basketball, swimming, and wrestling this winter.
Sports have suffered in recent years due to the constantly shifting covid-19 regulations. Meaning it may take some time to build teams back up to what they once were. However, things are looking up for sports at TDHS since the relaxing of covid regulations.
Billy Brost, The Dalles High School Athletic Director told CCCNews that student enrollment in sports is beginning to rise again and nearly one third of students at TDHS are currently enrolled in sports.
According to Brost the athletics programs have seen a 1.2% increase in student participation in Sports since pre-Covid.
129 students participated in three sports at TDMS this fall which is 29 up from 102 last fall. At TDHS 273 students have participated in athletics this year compared to 203 last year.
“Numbers are increasing,” said Brost.
Get the highlights of TDHS’s fall season below.
Cheer
Cheer competed in two competitions this season. Placing 3rd at game day and having three cheerleaders named for the 4A finalists for the OCCA All State Team.
Cross Country
Both the girls and boys cross country teams qualified for the Oregon State finals this year.
The boys cross country team qualified by winning the 4A-2 Tri-Valley Conference and becoming conference champions for the second year in a row. The team has managed to pull two consecutive championship trophies as both a 5A and a 4A team. Juan Diego placed first overall.
The boys team also managed to win the 4A State Championship. Juan Diego Contreras came in 2nd at state. Leo Lemann finished in 4th place. Vincent and Egan Ziegenhagen finished in 18th and 19th place.
The girls team qualified for state by receiving a wild card bid. The girls team finished 8th at state. Alaina Casady finished 7th overall at state.
Football
TDHS Football ended its season ranked #29 in the 4A league with one win and seven losses.
The team had to end its season early this year.
“That was due to a combination of injuries and academic eligibility issues that did not allow us to safely field a team at either level,” said Brost.
“We were losing guys in very key spots and Coach (Marc) Schilling and I did not feel it was in the best interest of the kids or the program to risk injury and young guys who aren’t ready to play varsity getting hurt just to finish the season so we shut it down the week of October 21st. And we forfeit the last two games, one to Madras and one to La Grande.”
“It’s just a matter of getting numbers up,” said Brost.
“We didn’t have a lot of kids out for football this year and you know Coach Schilling is doing a great job changing the culture of the football program not only at the Varsity and JV level but also at the Middle School and in the youth programs. We’re seeing large numbers in the youth programs, and if those kids keep playing we feel that we’re going to have enough numbers to safely field a varsity and JV teach someday. One of my goals is to field three teams again.”
Three players did receive All Confrence Honors.
Soccer
The TDHS Boys soccer team finished fourth at Conferences, and qualified for a 4A play-in game and lost that game 4-3 on penalty kicks. The boys team finished the season with an OSAA 4A ranking of 15.
The Girls soccer team hosted a playoff game in Baker and won that game 1 to 0, qualifying them for the state tournament. The girls team then traveled to La Grande for the tournament but lost in the quarter final round, ending their season with an OSAA 4A ranking of 10, 2 ties, 8 wins, and four losses.
“It was nice to get a soccer team to state as well,” said Brost. “Colby Tonn has done a really good job of growing the program and recruiting kids. We feel like we are on the verge of fielding a JV2 team in each program. So the program is continuing to grow.”
“The girls Soccer team completed the season with the seventh highest team GPA in the state,” said Brost.
Volleyball
TDHS Volleyball team won their first outright conference title since 2003 qualifying them for the state championships.
At the conference TDHS’s own Kennedy Abbas was named conference player of the year and Julie Summers was named Tri-Valley Conference Coach of the year.
“We had six girls selected between first team and honorable mention in Volleyball this year,” said Brost. “So, good things are happening with Volleyball. I’m very proud of the girls and coach Summers and her staff. She’s got a really good staff.”
“We also hosted our first ever home playoff game since 2003,” said Brost. “We hosted Scappoose on October 29th. And then we lost in the quarter final round to Mazama down in Springfield. We lost three sets to two in the tiebreaker. And then we lost the 4th and sixth place game to Henely in five sets 3-2.”
The TDHS Volleyball team ranked third overall at state and ended their season with 21 wins and 4 losses.
“We’re really excited and really proud of our kids,” said Brost.
