CatlinSpeak

For many soccer enthusiasts the renovation of Jeld-Wen Field and Portland’s first Major League Soccer team, the Timbers, have been great things. Promise to the city of Portland by owner Meritt Paulson included job creation, economic growth, and a strong fan base that would bring the city together. Although the Timbers popularity in the city is undeniable, is the fiscal effect truly beneficial?

As specified by the Turner Construction Company, which managed the field’s $40 million renovation and expansion, the project incorporated many new attributes. These included the addition of a new playing field, covers over most of the new seating, club seating with a full-service restaurant, new grandstands with concessions, new restrooms, a new training facility as well as renovated and upgraded locker rooms. Public funds covered $31 million that was to be paid back to the city through parking and ticket sales.

Mike Golub, chief operations officer of the Timbers Major League Soccer franchise, shared his opinion about how the Timbers have affected the Portland economy. He says that originally he believed that with “Portland being such a passionate soccer city, we knew that if we did things right it would be enormously successful.”

Jeld-Wen Field initially opened for the Timbers’ first appearance as a Major League Soccer team in 2011. Since then, the team and the new stadium, in Golub’s opinion, have had a positive financial impact throughout Portland. “The stadium and team have created many jobs. Visitors from all over the country and throughout the region have come to watch Timbers games. While here, they are spending money on hotels, restaurants, and shops.”

Field view of a Timbers game in the Jeld-Wen Field (Photo: Kate Ellis)

Including ticket sales, the franchise uses several other financial targets to help measure success.“We continue to be among the leading in ticket sales and sponsorship in the league. We are also considered to be one of the most successful franchises in the league. We have sold out every regular season game that we have played and have a waiting list for tickets of more than 7,000 people,” says Golub.

Golub explains, “We measure success in many ways. In addition to ticket sales, sponsorship, and merchandise sales, we look at web traffic, television ratings, and social media followers. We are among the league leaders in all of these metrics.  But perhaps more importantly, we judge our success on how much a part of the fabric of the community we are and how much we are doing to give back to the community.”

According to Golub not only are the Timbers bringing economic growth but also advertising Portland through their success on television. “Several hundred thousand more people are coming to our stadium each year. Also, we are bringing well-known stars from other cities. All of our games are on television, and we have eleven games on national television, which helps shine a light on the team and on Portland.”

Golub also commented on the positive aspects that the team has created throughout the local community. “It’s been an incredibly fun and successful first few years for the Timbers in Major League Soccer. We are very proud of what we have been able to accomplish and proud that the team and the experience are resonating so well with the city and our fans.  Sports has a unique way of bringing people together for a shared experience, and I think the Timbers have been a great example of that. We will continue to do everything we can to make being a fan of the Timbers a fun and rewarding [experience] and we will continue to do everything possible to give back to our community.”

Although many believe that the Timbers are having a positive economic impact on Portland, there was criticism when the team started as to whether using public money for the renovation of Jeld-Wen Field was appropriate.

In a city council meeting, Amanda Fritz, the only city commissioner to vote against the final proposal stated, “I am not making my decision today whether soccer is a great sport or not. I am making it whether it’s the best economic use of our city space and our city dollars … I am being asked to vote on the dedication of millions of dollars of taxpayer money.”

Portland Development Commission’s deputy director and Catlin Gabel alum, Keith Witcosky, says, “Portland has rarely been a city which spends on sports as an economic development or job strategy. The city owns PGE Park, so the initial investment in the late 1990s was about leveraging more use and income at the stadium.”

Right before kickoff the Timbers Army holds umbrellas symbolic of Portland (Photo: Peter Koe)

One argument against establishing sports stadiums claims that most people have a limited entertainment budget, and spending money on a soccer game would detract from spending that goes towards other entertainment, like cinemas. Witcosky addresses this complaint by responding, “In some situations, the money spent, at say a Timbers games, would usually have been spent by people in the local economy for other entertainment choices if soccer did not exist. Although the Timbers are an anomaly, I think they generate more discretionary spending. As a season ticket holder, I know myself and my friends spend more in the local economy during Timbers home games than we would on other entertainment choices.”

He also argues that the Timbers not only help nearby pubs, food carts, and restaurants but also businesses across the city because many people flock to them to watch games on television. He has found that at these places sales have increased. Witcosky adds that the nonprofit Timbers Army help fund parks and fields throughout the community.

Although little research has been conducted about the actual economic effect of the Timbers, it appears that they have given Portland financial growth as well as a popular source of entertainment, city pride, and national attention. According to former mayor Sam Adams, “Portland must build its international profile, and the language that the world speaks most, is the language of futbol.”

Despite two failed women’s soccer leagues in the past decade, the new NWSL, or National Women’s Soccer League, seems to have a solid foot in the door with eight teams across the country, all with US National Soccer Team stars. Portland’s team, the Thorns, have played two games so far, tying Kansas City and defeating the Seattle Reign.

The Thorns home opener was on Sunday, April 21 at Jeld-Wen Field. The match was played against their early rivals, the Seattle Reign. Over the span of the current season, Portland will face the Reign a total of four times. Seattle was missing two of their key players on Sunday, Hope Solo, star US keeper, and Megan Rapinoe, feisty US midfielder, who will both be away from the NWSL until June, due to a wrist injury and playing in a European league, respectively.

Portland soccer fans definitely seem to feel good about the roster the Thorns have acquired. Heading up the front line are world class forwards, Christine Sinclair and Alex Morgan. Sinclair has played on the Canadian national team for thirteen years and currently holds the title of the third most goals for women on the international level of all time, behind retired Mia Hamm and Western NY Flash player Abby Wambach. Christine Sinclair attended University of Portland and made a very prestigious name for herself, breaking records and winning championships. Sinclair’s uncle, Brian Gant, coached soccer at Catlin Gabel for many years. Alex Morgan (nicknamed “baby horse” on the US national team) helped lead the United States team to gold in the 2012 Olympics and silver in the 2011 World Cup.

Thorns coach, Cindy Parlow Cone, is new to coaching, but has a vast amount of soccer experience. She played at the professional level, earning two gold medals and one silver medal, for eleven years until 2006, when she retired due to injuries. She seems very excited about coaching in Portland and during interviews on April 20 spoke of the “amazing atmosphere” and “tremendous reception from all of the Portland area.”

The Portland Thorns (Photo: Ian Fyfield)

So far, the Thorns seem to be a team that excels in the second half. During their game against the Reign, after halftime, they seemed to find their groove and be in the correct field positioning to get a few balls up to Morgan for goal scoring opportunities in the box. Morgan finally got her first goal for the franchise and the second for the Thorns in the game in the 51st minute. Thorns defender, Marin Dougherty, off of a corner kick, scored the first. Aside from what has so far looked like a stellar offense, the Thorns have a solid defensive base in Rachel Buehler (US National team defender) and Karina LeBlanc (Canadian National team keeper).

Although Sinclair usually plays forward, Parlow placed her in midfield. Sinclair spoke of this adjustment after the game and seemed enthusiastic about taking on the role. In the postgame press conference, Parlow said this of the decision and Sinclair: “[She is] one of the best passers of the ball in the game and I wanted her on the ball more for that reason, so we dropped her more into the midfield so we could get her the ball more and you saw it tonight with her feed onto Alex.” Along with utilizing Sinclair’s strong talent for feeding balls down the field to attacking players, Parlow also talked of the chemistry between Sinclair and Morgan. They played on a team together during the last women’s league and have already built a degree of trust between each other.

CatlinSpeak got a chance to talk to Morgan after practice on Saturday the 20th. Most people, in an interview with Morgan, would talk about soccer. When CatlinSpeak spoke with her, it concerned pulled pork and the great pulled pork french fries at Potato Champion.

When talking with the Thorns assistant coach John Galas, the question came up about how the new US women’s soccer league would overcome the difficulties past failed leagues struggled with. Galas said support from league officials as well as the Canadian, Mexican and American soccer federations was key, and that this league was built from a different model. He also commented about the great turnout, saying “the support that we’ve seen around the league, attendance wise, in the opening weekends was a very positive sign”. Galas hopes the league continues to strive, not just for his sake, but for these talented players that deserve it.

Sunday’s game against the Seattle Reign was definitely an important event for this league’s future. A record was set for the NWSL, with 16,479 people attending the Portland game. This comes as no surprise, seeing as the men’s professional soccer team in Portland, the Timbers, has a large fan base. Like the Timbers games, fans sang and chanted in an exuberant manner. Rachel Buehler, Portland Thorns defender, described the Portland fans turnout to be “World Cup-type style.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Blazer fan who saw this season as a success. A historically inept bench, a record-tying losing streak, and inefficient scoring from top players all culminated in an ultimately disappointing result.

However, even if it ended on a low note, there were a few positives that came out of the year. Damian Lillard should take home the Rookie of the Year trophy by a healthy margin, joining Brandon Roy as the only two Blazers to win the award since Sidney Wicks in 1971-72, which, coincidentally, is the only other time Portland lost 13 games in a row.

Though some may condemn the current losing streak as it is the result of “tanking,” the process in which a team does everything within its power to strategically lose, the end result was actually a positive for Portland.

Due to a trade with the Bobcats for Gerald Wallace in the 2010-11 season, the Blazers owed Charlotte their first-round pick for this upcoming draft. However, a provision in the trade made the pick top-12 protected, i.e. Portland would retain the pick if it were 12th or lower.

As soon as it became clear that the Blazers were headed for the draft lottery, their record got worse and worse, and their draft prospects got better and better. On the last day of the season, Portland was tied with Philadelphia and Toronto in both the wins and losses column, but two wins for the Eastern Conference teams and a Blazers defeat at the hands of the Warriors left Portland in sole possession of the tenth worst record in the NBA.

Basically, between the All-Star Break and the end of the season, the Blazers gave up, started waving a white flag, and began praying that Nerlens Noel’s ACL would heal well.

Nicolas Batum (88), an integral part of the leadership in Portland. (Photo: New York Times)

This year’s draft class has largely been panned by most scouts for lacking in star power, but for a team like Portland, with three or four locker room leaders already a part of the program, it may be the perfect class to help bolster its weak bench and add the player that will help catapult Portland into the 2014 playoffs. Here are some possible routes for the Blazers to take:

PG/SG C.J. McCollum, Lehigh

A small-school senior point guard with unlimited range and the ability to play off the ball, McCollum’s game bears a striking resemblance to Lillard’s, but for the fact that McCollum has an impressive tourney record to back up his stats. You may recognize the name Lehigh from last year’s NCAA tournament, in which the Mountain Hawks joined the exclusive club of 15 seeds to win in the round of 64, beating Duke 75-70. McCollum had 30 points and six assists in that game, and was ready to follow it up with another strong season before breaking his foot in January. Through the first couple months of the season, however, he played well, averaging 23.9 points with strong 50/52/85 (Fg%/3PTFG%/FT%) shooting splits. He could immediately step in and provide bench scoring and three-point shooting to a team that desperately needs it, although scouts question his size and lack of a true position.

C Alex Len, Maryland

Although the Blazers drafted a center, Meyers Leonard, with the 11th pick in last year’s draft, Len would provide a much different presence down low. While Leonard’s game focuses on athleticism, energy, and hustle, Len offers a more skilled and offensively advanced approach to the inside game. In one of the most surprising and dominant performances of the college basketball season, Len came out and demolished vaunted Kentucky center Nerlens Noel in the season opener, racking up 23 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks while holding Noel to just four points. With a solid post-up game, good passing skills, and a solid jump shot, Len is the Blazers’ best bet if they’re looking for size in the mid-lottery.

SF Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA

Although Muhammad is projected by most experts to be off the board by the time the Blazers’ pick comes around, he, out of all the top picks, seems to be most primed for a draft-day drop. There’s just the right combination of on-the-court attitude and off-the-court issues for NBA teams to want to back off. It happened to Andre Drummond last year, and it looks like it might happen again here. Shabazz started off the year with an impermissible benefits suspension that the NCAA, in a manner only too familiar to college sports fans, mishandled and eventually rescinded. Then the strange news came out recently that Muhammad is, in fact, 20 years old, not 19 as he led everyone to believe. That, combined with UCLA’s relative ineffectiveness in the tournament, spells a long, heartwrenching drop for a player who many believed could be the top pick in the draft at the beginning of the year. He would provide the Blazers with a sweet-shooting backup to Nicolas Batum, who, despite being tenth in the league in three point attempts, is a slightly above-average shooter at best.

SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia

An early candidate for highest-riser in the draft, Caldwell-Pope is a dead-eye shooting guard who also plays great defense, à la Brandon Rush of the Golden State Warriors. He has only slightly above average shooting statistics from the shorter college three-point line, but scouts believe his form is strong and that the stats are a result of the large scoring burden he held for the Bulldogs. He is also the only player of ESPN’s top 30 players in the draft without a single game with single-digit points. He needs to work on his ability to create his own shot to be anything more than a role player in the NBA, but his current skill set as an off-ball shooter and lockdown defender could provide the Blazers with a valuable player off the bench.

Of course, on the off chance (1.1 percent, to be exact) that Portland winds up with the top pick after the draft lottery, the choice will come down to either Noel or Kansas shooting guard Ben McClemore. Noel would immediately become the Blazers’ future at center and the low-post defensive stalwart it so desperately desires, while McClemore could step in as the franchise wing and leave open the possibility of trading Wesley Matthews to bolster the bench. Ultimately, Noel would be the better choice, rounding out the team and helping Portland’s starting five become one of the strongest in the NBA. Tune in to the draft lottery on May 21 to see the unveiling of the Blazers’ draft position and the experts’ predictions on the next Blazers’ rookie.

Catlin Gabel soccer has a rich and storied history, and has boasted one of the most successful 3A programs over the years. In 2013, a new chapter will unfold as two new coaches take over the boys’ and girls’ varsity soccer teams.

The past two years marked the separate departures of two long-tenured coaches: boys’ varsity coach and former athletic director Mike Davis, and girls’ varsity coach and former Upper School math teacher Mark Lawton.

Davis left in 2011, following a 2010 state championship win for his boys. Alumnus Roger Gantz ’89 took over for the 2011 season, coming into a very young team that had just lost eleven seniors from the previous year. He had tremendous success with the boys, coaching the team to the semi-final round of the state playoffs.

An April 3 email from athletic director Sandy Luu announced that Gantz would be stepping down from his position as head coach, and would be replaced by longtime boys’ varsity assistant coach and Upper School history teacher Peter Shulman.

Shulman has coached at Catlin Gabel for ten years, and will begin his second decade in the head coaching position. He’s played soccer since age six, including four years on the varsity squad at Haverford College, and he’s been coaching since 8th grade, when he helped with a team of five- and six year-olds. In fact, Shulman has spent all but two years of his 21-year teaching career coaching soccer.

In his time at Catlin Gabel, Shulman has helped coach some, “wicked good” teams. When he arrived, the boys scored 86 goals and allowed only three his first season. They went on to beat the 4A (at the time, 4A was the largest OSAA classification) state champions, and lost only one game in his first two years with the Eagles.

While the 2013 team may not quite reach that bar, Shulman has high expectations and big goals for this seasons team. He says his primary goal is to focus on possession, but he’ll also focus on transitions, set plays, and experimenting with formations that deviate from the team’s typical 4-4-2 lineup. “I think we’ll have a few tricks up our sleeves,” he says.

Shulman, who describes his coaching style as “positive but demanding,” also plans to put emphasis on fitness, and isn’t ruling out sending the boys over to Mike Davis (who will return as the boys’ JV coach) for some conditioning.

In general, Shulman looks forward to next season. “The skill level I think is going to be pretty high,” he comments. “We’re not going to be Barcelona, but you don’t have to be very big if you’ve got skill, speed, and a good team concept. It should be fun. We’re young, but I like where I think we’re headed.”

On the girls’ side, Chris Dorough ’03 will take over from Lisa Unsworth, who took the reins from Lawton for the 2012 season after four years as assistant coach. Luu announced Dorough as Unsworth’s replacement in an email to the Catlin community on April 3rd.

Dorough was a lifer at Catlin, and played under Davis, who coached the team to three state championships––including one win––during Dorough’s time on varsity.

He makes the return to Catlin after years coaching for Tualatin Hills United Soccer Club (a club soccer team) and the Scappoose High School girls’ varsity team. He joins a program that reached the state finals every year––winning once––in the last three years of Lawton’s tenure, and fell just short of the semi-finals this year in an overtime loss to St. Mary’s of Medford.

In an email, Dorough said he wanted to coach at Catlin Gabel because it “feels like home to me. I grew up on the campus and had countless amazing teachers,” including Art Leo, Dale Rawls, and Tom Tucker. “Once I started coaching I always had the Catlin Gabel girls’ job in the back of my mind, and at this point in my coaching career I believe I’m ready.”

Now that he’s back, Dorough plans to, like Shulman, focus on possession and looking to make offensive plays in the game. He also says his main goal for the girls is to “work hard to return the program to its once [dominant] state, but enjoy and approach the game with passion.”

His own passion for the game is clear, too. Says Dorough, “I’m most looking forward to the fall and working with the team each day in practice to get better. I believe everytime you touch the ball you have a chance to get better.  I can’t wait to return [to] the school and field that shaped me and give back.”

Both teams have much to look forward to in the coming season with coaches who have such long-standing relationships with Catlin Gabel’s soccer program at the helm.

Says Shulman, “we will try to play some beautiful soccer.”

With nice weather and ambitious newcomers, the Catlin Gabel girl’s golf team is faring well. They beat the Oregon Episcopal School in a short nine-hole tournament and continue to improve with each coming day. Freshmen Lizzie Wilson, Abby Hungate, and Calissa Spooner have shown great promise in their game, and are great additions to the team. Tuesday, April 16, the team scored over thirty strokes better than their previous tournament at Langdon Farms. Eve Lowenstein, ’13, a newcomer who hopes to break 130 by the end of the season, played in her first eighteen-hole tournament Tuesday and shot an amazing 147. “I think the season’s going well,” says Layla Entrikin, a senior and team captain. “The weather has been nice so it’s good. I think we could go to state but we’d have to work really hard.” With four more tournaments until districts, there is hope for improvement and hopefully a place at state.

Layla prepares to putt at Catlin Gabel's home course, Quail Valley. (Photo: Kathleen McCarron)

In an April 7, 2013, interview with Charlie Rose on CBS’s “60 Minutes”, NBA star Jeremy Lin explained that race was a barrier to his success in the NBA. When asked why he thought he never received a Division I basketball scholarship, Lin stated, “I think the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian American. I think that was a barrier.”

Lin’s statements generated a wide spectrum of responses. NBA commissioner David Stern agreed with Lin’s view, saying that race may have been a factor in Lin not having been selected in the NBA draft. Stern, on the same “60 Minutes” broadcast, explained “I don’t know whether he was discriminated against because he was at Harvard or because he was Asian.”

However, at the same time, many commentators associated with the NBA criticized Lin’s statements. Stephen A. Smith, a commentator on ESPN’s “Sportscenter”, explained that he believed Lin’s race also allowed him to obtain a three-year, $25 million contract. Smith echoed the sentiments of some NBA players, such as Lin’s former Knicks teammate, Carmelo Anthony. Anthony made news when he called Lin’s contract “ridiculous.” J.R. Smith, who also played with Lin on the Knicks, said that there were many “personal,” i.e. negative, feelings toward Lin in the locker room because of the high-paying contract.

From the outside, it may seem that Lin’s situation was highly desirable. The average salary for a rookie NBA player is less than $1 million, so it is unheard of for a third-year player to have an $8 million salary. However, Lin was also extremely fortunate and faced many roadblocks in the path to his contract.

Lin was first-team All-State and the Northern California Division II Player of the Year as a senior, and had the academic qualifications to pass NCAA regulations. However, he did not receive any scholarship offers while he was a high school basketball player. His high school basketball coach, Peter Diepenbrock, explained that race was a factor in the recruiting process. Diepenbrock witnessed several Division I coaches scouting an African American player who he thought “could have been a nice junior college player” but saw that the same coaches ignored Lin entirely. Diepenbrock stated, “If [Lin] was African American or Caucasian, it might have been a different deal.”

 Lin’s challenges did not end after the college recruitment process, as he also faced adversity in his path onto an NBA team. In addition to his race being a possible source of discrimination, the fact that Lin played at Harvard University didn’t help him since Harvard had not produced an NBA player since 1954. This meant that most professional scouts ignored the school entirely

Lin received many favorable reviews from experts on the draft. ESPN’s Andy Katz stated that Lin was “easily one of the nation’s best-kept secrets” and “one of the top point guards in the country.” University of Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun, who has coached numerous NBA stars such as Ray Allen, simply said that Lin was “really, really good” and testified that Lin would be able to play at the next level. However, despite a sterling college career, Lin went undrafted.

Jeremy Lin during his tenure with the New York Knicks. (Photo: New York Times)

Fortunately, Lin was invited to the Summer League and played under the Dallas Mavericks. After witnessing a game where Lin outplayed then-number one draft pick John Wall, the Golden State Warriors signed Lin to a two-year deal. Lin played sparse minutes and did not see much serious action on the court. He was regularly sent down to the NBA’s developmental league, and was eventually waived in December of 2011. The Houston Rockets claimed Lin off waivers but waived him just two weeks later.

Lin found his way onto another NBA team when the New York Knicks signed him off waivers on December 27, 2011. After a string of injuries to point guards on their roster, the Knicks were desperately searching for an answer to their void at point guard. Lin was sent down to the Erie Bayhawks of the D-League, where he scored 28 points and notched a triple double. He was recalled back up to the Knicks, but experienced a tumultuous next few weeks, hitting a low point when he was nearly released in early February.

The Knicks, at that point, had lost 11 of their last 13 games. Coach Mike D’Antoni, sensing that his job was in danger, decided to play Lin in a desperation move. Fortunately, Lin played exceptionally well in his first game with major minutes, scoring 25 points against all-star point guard Deron Williams on February 4th. Lin dominated the league over the next month, leading his team to a 9-3 record before the all-star break and kick-starting the phenomenon known as Linsanity.

Because Lin was undrafted, he was not bound to the traditional rookie scale salary and was able to sign a large contract early in his career. While other players may feel envious of Lin’s situation, it is inarguable that Lin took an unconventional path to his contract. Not only did he miss out on a scholarship, but he was undrafted, waived, and also sent down to the developmental league. No other players in recent history have managed to sign a large contract despite these setbacks.

Lin was extremely fortunate to be able to even have the opportunity to play major minutes. He happened to be claimed off waivers by a desperate team that also happened to suffer injuries to other players of his position. Had Lin remained on waivers or been claimed by any other team, it is unlikely that he would have ever had the opportunity to start for an NBA team.

Other talented players follow the conventional professional route of obtaining scholarships to attend powerhouse college basketball programs. Next, they are drafted in the lottery. Teams value high lottery picks, and will spend considerable resources and playing time developing these players. In the end, most of these stars end up earning amounts similar to Lin, if not more.

It would be unwise for any player to willingly choose Lin’s route. There are thousands and thousands of basketball stars who never pan out after being undrafted, and thousands more who never even had the opportunity to even attend college.

While Stephen A. Smith is likely correct that Lin’s race did indeed help him obtain a contract, he ignores the fact that Lin’s race also hurt him considerably in getting to a situation where he could conceivably obtain any NBA contract. Lin was extremely fortunate; for every Jeremy Lin, there are thousands of other players like him whose names we will never know.

The current draft proposal for the OSAA Classification and Districting meeting on April 8th may have dramatic impacts on Catlin Gabel athletics. The meeting was one of the few remaining before the committee issues a proposal to the OSAA executive board for the 2015-2019 classifications and districts.

After hearing testimony from representatives from various OSAA member schools, the committee elected to schedule an additional closed-door meeting on April 30 to conduct a more complete review of the testimony and revise the current proposal draft.

The committee recently adopted a new model of adjusting school enrollment sizes based on free and reduced price lunch numbers. According to an OSAA statement, “The OSAA Delegate Assembly passed an amendment on April 8 to use Adjusted Average Daily Membership  (ADM) figures to include an SES factor (25 percent adjustment based on free and reduced lunch figures provided by the Oregon Department of Education) for schools and the addition of home school, private school, and associate member school students who participate at their resident public or private school.”

Catlin’s collection of state championship awards. (Photo: Cody Hoyt)

The change is designed to adjust for the schools with high enrollments, but with lower-income populations. Enrollment figures used to determine classification levels will now more accurately reflect the disparity between high- and low-income student athletes.

The school year began with talks regarding possible contraction to five classifications instead of the current six. “We’re not sure [what’s going to happen], because we haven’t seen any proposals yet,” OSAA assistant executive director Peter Weber told CatlinSpeak last November. “We’re looking at five, we’re still looking at six.”

The committee recently agreed to remain at six classifications for the next four years.

The current districting model could have relatively significant implications for Catlin Gabel. While the current proposal draft still lists the Eagles as a 3A school, Catlin would find itself in the newly created “North Valley League,” which would include Blanchet Catholic, Horizon Christian, Salem Academy, and Westside Christian in addition to current league rivals OES and Valley Catholic.

“They have us in a private school league,” Catlin Gabel athletic director Sandy Luu said. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen. It’s not a viable league.”

Luu, along with Upper School head Dan Griffiths, recently testified before the Classification and Districting committee. Luu testified about the lack of initiative for the public versus private issue from the Boundary Committee. Griffiths spoke of the social implications of private school athletes only competing against athletes from other private schools.

“[We asked the committee] how’re they going to address the issues if they put us into a private school league [and] what [would] happen to the other schools,” Luu recalled. “How are they going to answer that question?”

A similar situation exists in the 6A metro league. The current proposal draft includes two options for 6A districting. The Metro League in Option B includes private schools Jesuit, Central Catholic, and St. Mary’s Academy in addition to prominent public schools like Aloha, Beaverton, Southridge, Sunset, and Westview.

Catlin Gabel should still be pleased with remaining a 3A school. Since the OSAA moved to six classifications in 2006, the Eagles have finished in the top two at the state level 28 times across nine sports, compared to just 21 times in six sports in the previous six years. Reclassification would have likely meant current 4A schools shifting down into Catlin Gabel’s classification, making athletic matchups more competitive.

“Our league, [the Lewis and Clark League] is actually proposing a letter that we all stay together,” Luu explained. “I believe that [the OSAA] is going to listen to it, and the same thing happened in 5A with the Northwest Oregon Conference … That’s kind of where we’re at, that’s what I hope is going to happen.”

The final proposal will be made to the OSAA executive board in October.

Rutgers University fired men’s basketball coach Mike Rice, Jr. one day after ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” published a video that showed Rice using gay slurs and physically abusing players. The video drew widespread condemnation, ranging from New Jersey governor Chris Christie to NBA superstar LeBron James.

In December of 2012, Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti first received a copy of the videotape from a disgruntled employee. Pernetti fined Rice $50,000 and suspended him for three games. ESPN user Cam Lied and Tebow Cried expressed a widely held view on the situation, commenting on an article, “[Pernetti] knew about the video and did not fire him until public backlash, [he] should go too.” Pernetti has since resigned from his position amid public criticism of his handling of the situation.

Mike Rice Jr. is the son of the Portland Trail Blazers’ color commentator Mike Rice, Sr., who commented on the situation through his Twitter account, saying: “It’s a difficult day, but I appreciate everyone’s support and concern. I will not be discussing this further at this time. Thank you.”

Portland was abuzz last December with the news of a new professional women’s soccer league and a team in our city. Named the Portland Thorns, it would be part of an eight-team league that features U.S. national team members and other foreign players.

Although I was excited about the news and the prospect of another successful team in the city, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed at the name choice. I fully understood the connection to Portland as the “City of Roses,” but at the same time it felt unimpressive.

In fact, the name continues a trend in sports that I find disturbing. While men’s team names are usually aggressive and are meant to invoke fear in opponents, women’s team names are usually docile, meaning both conform to common gender stereotypes.

The easiest way to see the difference between the two is by comparing the names of NBA and WNBA teams in their respective cities. In Chicago, the men’s team is the Bulls, an inherently aggressive animal, while their female counterpart is the Chicago Sky. Seriously.

Baylor center Brittney Griner is at the center of the sex-based discussion in sports.

The trend continues. There is the Atlanta Hawks on the men’s side, and the Atlanta Dream for the women. There are the San Antonio Spurs, relating to cowboys in the Old West, and the San Antonio Silver Stars (who actually relocated from Utah, where they were known as the Starzz).

 The trend isn’t absolutely constant, as one could make an argument for the Minnesota Lynx to break the mold, and there isn’t anything especially aggressive about the Orlando Magic or Los Angeles Lakers, but the issue is a prime example of where sexual bias can permeate our society.

 The WNBA, and women’s basketball in general, has struggled with its image. In order to gain popularity, it has to attract as many basketball fans as possible. That demographic is predominantly male, and therein lies the problem. Men don’t want to see women be aggressive and rough, and so the WNBA must advertise itself as graceful and  almost trivial basketball with names like the Mystics and the Liberty.

 The struggle with overcoming the gender bias in sports has a poster girl, and her name is Brittney Griner. Griner is the most dominant player in college basketball. Period. Not Victor Oladipo, not Ben McLemore, not Marcus Smart. Her size (6’8”, 207 lbs), athleticism, and yes, aggressiveness have helped her lead Baylor to a 133-14 record in her career. Yet she has faced more public scrutiny than any player not named Lebron James.

 Here’s a sample, from the comment section of an ESPNW article about Griner’s adversity: “No disrespect or malice intended but if you listen to her talk and watch her you have to wonder about her genetic make-up.”

 Faced with constant assertions that her deep voice and atypical demeanor mean she must be male, she has continued to focus on basketball and ignore the talk.

 Eccentric Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has openly discussed the possibility of spending a draft pick on Brittney Griner and giving her a shot in the NBA. However, I think the discussion of women playing in the NBA is a disservice to the women’s game, as it proposes that playing in the men’s league is the highest achievement a female player can attain – not to mention that Griner may not even be the best option for the NBA game. Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne’s size and outside shooting ability (46.8% from 3) fits the mold of a Mike Miller-esque role player that most NBA teams have a need for.[2]

 Griner demonstrates the method that society must follow if women’s basketball, and women’s sports in general, must follow if they are to succeed: focus on the sport itself. The WNBA can’t be marketed in the same manner as the NBA, for the simple reason that they are completely different sports.

 Highlights of Griner’s play shouldn’t include her dunks, as it only leads to derision from people who claim, “Every NBA player can dunk, that’s not impressive.” Women’s soccer has enjoyed a lot of recent success, including the 2011 World Cup Final drawing nearly 14 million viewers nationwide, mostly because it markets itself separately from the men’s game.

While men’s soccer includes faster and typically more aggressive players, women’s soccer is often more enjoyable simply because it is played in a different manner than the men’s game. Strategies and style of play are different, and some people enjoy the women’s version more. This isn’t only true in soccer; basketball is also a different game when played by women than it is when men play.

To bring this back to my original idea, team names in sports serve to illustrate the larger gender issue in sports. We pigeonhole women’s sports as unaggressive in comparison to men’s, and then name our teams according to this comparison. In order for this bias to be overcome, women’s sports should make an effort to market itself as a different type of the same game. Only then can the public begin to appreciate women’s sports and help them grow.

Although March Madness doesn’t officially begin until March 19, the tournament has been in the works for months. The official selection committee has been poring over rankings and statistics over the entire season, and the members are beginning the process of creating their first bracket.

As with any other year, there will be the inevitable snubs. Major conference teams with middling records, mid-major teams with unimpressive résumés, and the rest will all have fans screaming for the blood of the selection committee members when their teams are left out.

Let me introduce you to the man who will be receiving the hate mail.

Jamie Zaninovich, brother of Catlin history teacher George Zaninovich, has been a part of college athletics since he graduated from Stanford in 1993.

Five years ago, after serving both the Stanford athletic department and the Princeton athletic department in various faculties, Zaninovich emerged as the best candidate for the opening to be commissioner of the West Coast Conference (WCC). He was subsequently hired, and has since led this conference that includes storied programs such as Gonzaga––which has had 14 straight tournament berths––and the University of San Francisco––which won two national titles under Bill Russell in the 1950s.

In his third year as commissioner of the WCC, Zaninovich was chosen to be a part of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, a collection of ten athletic directors and conference commissioners whose duties range from overseeing the bidding process for sites like the final four or regional rounds, to selecting, seeding, and bracketing the 68 teams in the tournament every year.

The team selection process itself is complicated, as one would expect given the pressure to get it all right. The committee meets five times a year, beginning with a summer meeting where the group discusses strategy and what needs changing.

They’ll meet again in November, where they receive “conference monitoring assignments,” as Zaninovich calls them. This means that each committee member is assigned seven conferences––four primary and three secondary––that they are meant to keep track of.

As Zaninovich explains it, “We basically watch those conferences very closely and report out the strengths of the different teams in that conference, and where they might line up in terms of selection and seeding.” Each of the conferences is also allowed to give input on where they believe they stand.

The committee then meets in January, when they report on the non-conference seasons of each of the teams they represent, and the group discusses the relevant teams around the country. The committee members meet again in February, when they report on their conferences and submit a preliminary ballot.

The meetings culminate in mid-March––this year on March 13––at which point the committee begins to select, seed, and bracket the tournament.

One way for a team to get into the tourney is by winning its conference championship; this accounts for 31 berths.

For the remaining 37 spots, according to Zaninovich, the committee votes on teams “that we think are either in, or under consideration for the tournament. We’ll actually put together a box bracket, so we can see a sample at that point.”

The balloting begins with each member submitting teams they believe are “in” the tournament based on what they saw during conference play. In other words, if one of the “in” teams lost every remaining game––usually during its conference tournament––it would still be selected. Each of the ten committee members has a ballot, and almost any team that receives at least eight votes in the first round will make it into the tournament, usually between 20 and 27 teams from the 68-team field.

The next step is to determine teams that are “under consideration,” meaning they are not yet a lock to be selected, but warrant further discussion. These are the teams that could ride a good conference tournament to a possible berth. This category is comprised of teams that receive somewhere between three and eight votes, and the committee immediately begins selecting from this pool.

Over the next few days, the committee discusses and votes on the rest of the 68 teams, taking breaks to seed the teams that have already been selected and making sure they get the list right.

On that Saturday, the last full day before the official bracket comes out, they’ll give the list one last look before beginning to make the brackets, which Zaninovich calls “a pretty automated process,” that spits out their final product.

When asked about the fallout from snubs and incorrect seeding, Zaninovich sighs. “Listen, there’s always going to be fallout, there’s always going to be a team that was the last team out, or teams that were the last few out, so I don’t think we really think about that much….if there are 37 at-larges [teams selected without winning their conference], we probably spend 20 percent of our time on the first 27-30, and 80 percent of our time on the last seven to ten, because those are the ones that are the hard calls.”

In terms of voting style, Zaninovich backs a more data-driven approach, as do, he believes, many of the members of the committee. Perhaps influenced by his mid-major background, he regards the AP and coaches’ polls as “a sort of public popularity contest,” and appreciates the value of things like RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) and the Sagarin and KenPom rankings.

Still, he understands that a diversity of opinion is important: “We have access to all the polls, everybody chooses a little bit differently, and that’s how it should be. It’s ten individuals, you know, we’re not ten robots. We’re not supposed to all look at this the same way, not automated.”

Although all of the upsets make his job harder, Zaninovich is ultimately just a college basketball die-hard who received a golden ticket. He hopes that this year’s rollercoaster season “makes the tournament even more exciting, which is a high bar, because it’s a pretty exciting event. It’s one of those events that on an annual basis never disappoints.”

Tune in to CBS on Sunday, March 17, to see the official bracket, and get ready for a wild college basketball postseason. Madness, indeed.

(Graphic: Simon McMurchie)