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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday. Ud 200S COMMUNITY SPORTS, PEOPLE A TJ D OUTDOOR FUN Cavemen Jared Lloyd In a classic story, a frog falls into a vat of cream but survives tK-cause it keeps swimming until un-til it churns butter, allowing ft to escape. American Fork did its best frog impersonation March 1 against Bingham, struggling valiantly until the end but unfortunately un-fortunately running out of time 1 o climb back to the top. The Cavemen fell behind 17-4 to the Miners early in the second sec-ond quarter and never recovered recov-ered completely, losing 54-45 in the quarterfinal, of the 5A state tournament at the E-Center. BASEBALL PREVIEW Cavemen expect to contend for region crown Dean Von Memmott The American F ork baseball team is opening this season with a squad laden with veterans, according to Jarod Ingersoll, the head baseball coach for the past 4 1 -i seasons. "We have a good group of guys back this year," said Ingersoll. "They've been playing play-ing toget her since ninth grade. Experience shouldnl be a flaw for us this year. We have a big staff of experienced pitchers back. "The three most experienced pitchers we have are Hap Holmstead, Taylor Mangum and Gentry Bean," the coach continued. "Other guys we're looking at to have pitch for us are Jordan Devey and Aaron Baddley." The combined pitching of Holmstead, Mangum and Bean enabled the Cavemen to reach the championship final of the Utah Amateur Baseball Association's Associa-tion's varsity -level state tournament tourna-ment last July. American Fork lost the title game to Jordan, a strong contender con-tender for this spring's state 5A pennant. Ingersoll said three Caveman Cave-man infielders to keep an eye out for are Austin Haws, Steve Parker and Josh Jones. "Josh is presently recovering from a basketball injury, but we're hoping to use him a lot after he becomes healthy again," Ingersoll Inger-soll said. The coach said Cavemen expected ex-pected to see a lot of action in the outfield include Bean, Mangum, Man-gum, T.J. Spencer and Colby Zimmerman. "We have no idea yet who to put in the catcher spot. The job is going to stay open until we begin our season against Murray Mur-ray at Ken Price Field," Ingersoll Inger-soll said. He pointed out that during the recent faD season, "we got to see a lot of younger players. A couple of sophomores may play varsity." This spring marks American Fork's return to the ranks of 5A baseball after having spent the past eight years slugging it out with 4A opponents. The Cavemen's Region 4 opponents include Lone Peak, Mountain View, Timpanogos, Spanish Fork and Pleasant Grove. Together, these teams have won 13 state titles in the past 25 years, including six of the last eight in 4A. "We're in a super tough region." re-gion." Ingersoll said. "We've played all these teams before. At state last year, we played PG. and they beat us. Lone Peak has a good program every year, and Timpanogos is a two-time state champ. "The region championship may not be decided until the last week of the regular schedule. sched-ule. These kids on my team know the level of competition among the region's teams," he added. "Some good teams in our region are going to he staying stay-ing home." Ingersoll said his assistants this year include Jay Holm-stead, Holm-stead, Rick Lvman, Eric OLsen and Jeff Bidoff . The Cavemen open the season sea-son Tuesday at Murrey. 5A STATE can't overcome early deficit in loss "It forced us to have to press," American Fork head coach Doug Meacham said. "We played with more energy and hit some shots (in the second sec-ond half), but they were very good at going over the top of the press and attacking. But we were down and we had to create cre-ate turnovers." A jumper by senior guard David OLsen was the only field goal for the Cavemen in the first 10 minutes of the game. After the cold spell. American Fork finally started getting things going but by then had a big hill to climb. "You've got to give Bingham credit," Meacham said. "They Shoff shining in Beky Beaton NOfTH COUNTY Former Caveman Rick Shoff seems to have simply picked up where he left off as he has enjoyed en-joyed an outstanding freshman season at Dixie State College in St. George. Shoff started all 30 games for the team and was the leading lead-ing scorer in four of those contests. He averaged 25.8 minutes, 10.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per outing, and also made 38 assists and 25 steals. He made 49 percent of his field goal attempts and shot 75.3 percent at the foul line. He was second on the team in field goals attempted and made. In addition, he was third in points, scoring average and steals. "He's had an incredible year," said head coach Jon Judkins. "He's been a lot of fun to coach and he's just solid. He doesn't play like a freshman right out of high school. He's very strong and very aggressive," the coach continued. contin-ued. "He's also very coachable and understands the game well. He's done everything that we've asked of him. "What he brings to the team is number one, he plays hard ever' day, in practice, when he's sick, no matter what the situation is. We always know what we're going to get out of him and we can always count on him t o do his best . "As 1 said, he's aLso very, very coachable," Judkins went on. "He's had to learn to do some different things from high school here but he's done well. He was already a good defensive player, but we've had him guard different people, even post players at times. "He played a lot inside in See WHERE, Page 7 JEREMY HARMON 'North County Former American Fork star Rick Shoff pushes his way around two Payson defenders during a game in Dec. 2005. SOCCER American Fork returns 12 seniors for 2006 season Dean Von Memmott SPOUTS CORRESPONDENT The American Fork soccer season will open with a home game against Granger at 3;30 p.m. this Friday. For this year's varsity squad. American Fork coach Eric Hundley said, "We have 12 seniors on the team. They have been together for at least five years. The three seniors with the most varsity experiences experi-ences are our captains Jared Vogelsberg, Mike Meyers and Jeff Bean. "One junior with lots of varsity var-sity experience is Jordan Mc-Murtrey. Mc-Murtrey. He's one of our key players. He and the seniors on the team played together on a tnple-A team last fall," the coach continued. The seniors will need to BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT came out with a lot of intensity and we didnt match it in the first part of the game." AD of the Bingham points came either in the paint or at the foul Lne, with senior guard Brett SommerviDe doing a lot of the damage with his penetration. penetra-tion. He scored 20 points and dished out five assists to pace See BASKETBALL, Page 7 JEREMY HARKIONNorth County American Fork's Austin Haws tries to pass the ball against defensive pressure by Bingham in the 5A state playoffs on March I. WHERE ARE PREVIEW I v . ' t. , ' ; 'v tS,. v J y A fl I J M ) i r keep in mind that just because they're 12th-graders, they dont automatically have the right to be starters. It's whoever who-ever works the hardest in practice who gets the privilege to be a starter." The second-year head coach said most of American Fork's JV team members are juniors, and "we have three ninth-graders ninth-graders on the JV squad. All of them have a good chance for promotion to varsity." Hundley said he doesnt know anything about Granger. Grang-er. He did point out, "Next Friday's game will give us a chance to try out new things we've been practicing and figure fig-ure out what spots we need to improve in." The program is also going See SOCCER, Page 7 THEY MOW? TRACK Cavemen teams ready for move up into 5A classification Dean Von Memmott SPORTS CORRESPONDENT This month will mark American Amer-ican Fork's first spring back in the ranks of 5A track. The Cavemen will make the leap with veterans from last May's state 4A meet. One of them is Shaylee Pulley. American Fork track coach Art Taylor said, "She earned a lot of points for us at state. She was one of the top placers in the high jump." "Lindsay Voorheis is another an-other girl of ours who went to state last year," the coach continued. con-tinued. "She's one of our best sprinters. She does the 100 and 200. She's also on our girls 4X100 medley relay team." The Cavemen have a good pool of girls distance runners. The coach pointed out, "Leslie Dixie PREVIEW Rose and Sausha Sommers were our top two girl distance runners at region last year, and they raced at state. Other girl long distance runners back this year are Lisa Tubb, Lindsey Grimes and her sister, Lirmea Grimes". Taylor said he has one veteran vet-eran girl thrower back this year. The coach said, "Doing field events for us again this year is Kara Van Alf en. She'll be a thrower and a high jumper jump-er for us." The boys squad also has its share of state veterans. "We have back this year brothers Ben and Mike Felix, said Taylor. They run long distance. Mike placed in the 1.600 and 3200 at state last year." Mike Felix was also See TRACK, Page 7 LlsBaalor American Fork High Paronts: Nan and Sv Hnlor Yr Junior Ag:17 Sport Basketball Position: forward Bkthplaos: Salt Uks City Fsvorttt sports town: University of Kentucky Wildcats Favorite food: Ice cream Favorite restaurant: Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing Point Restaurant Favorite movie: Coach Carter Fsvorita book: Raise If floof Favorite class: Health science Heroes: "My basketball coaches." ment: flaying in a JV game against Lone Peak. Future plans: To go into the medical field. Coach Corey Clayton saM: "What was most impressive was she had a pretty bad compound dislocation of the left hand and she was back to the school before be-fore the varsity game was over. We appreciated her willingness to be supportive even though she wasn't in all the time. At the time of the injury she was really re-ally coming on and would have played more had that not happened hap-pened when it did. She definitely knows how to use her body to make space for us inside, iff she continues to work hard in the offseason, she could really be a force in the paint, not only for our team but in the entire region next year." CHEERLEADING little League tryouts on Saturday American Fork little League Caveman Cheerleader Cheerlead-er tryouts are set for 9 am cm Saturday at American Fork High School. To prepare for this, the American Fork High School cheerleaders have been conducting con-ducting a Cheer Clinic which concludes today from 330 to 5:30 pm for next year's eighth and ninth graders and from 4:15 to 6:15 p.m f or next year's sixth and seventh graders in the AFHS girls are reminded to bring a school picture. Parents will be allowed to tape routines for the last half hour this afternoon af-ternoon but are not permitted at tryouts. Incoming freshmen are required to have a 3.0 GPA Bring a copy of last term's grades for verification. For more information, cal one of the directors of the AF Little League Caveman Cheerleader Association at 372-7904 or 368-4801. RECRWT10N Spring sports sign-ups underway The American Fork Rec-reaton Rec-reaton office is temporarily located in the FireRescue Building at 96 North Center, American Fork. The phone number is 763-3080 and email is recreation'af city net. Office hours are 7.30 ajn. to 6 pm. See TOWN EYE, Page 7 SCOREBOARD Rcrslts Boys basketball Mi S'CH Softball Ml CinaMd Baseball fit 1:10 p.m. SofttbaB foe 8'DS 114 Me I:X) cm. IK1 p.m S:.m. p.m. e Cypna ra Mm Soccer 910 brinjr Track P brow Ft SXi p.m. i16 3.3U pM. POOR |