OCR Text |
Show Thursday, April 26, 2007 Page 10 OREM TIMES Sports Soccer fields come in one shape, many sizes Jared Lloyd 'I 'he spor t of high school soccer c;m he proud of Ms variety, with some being short and others long and lanky, some last and others rugged, rug-ged, some shaggy and others close cropped No. that doesn't refer to the play-eis, play-eis, it refers to the fields they play on. I he ! itah High School Activities Assik lation determined that soccer fields must ! roughly I'M) to 120 yards long and 55 to 75 yards wide. I hat means that the size of the field ( an vary hv up to .'i.(i(MI square feet. "A lot of it comes down to space," explained I .'USA A associate director direc-tor KohCutf "It varies statewide and some lields are a lot hetter than others Some schools take pride in treating all of their sports equally but others don't have the room to put a field " l.ach ol the lields at the 12 Utah Vallev high schools has its own ten-el ten-el its and di aw backs wide, narrow, patchv. tin I, etc. hut most of the teams are partial to their home turf. "My favor ite place to play is heie," said Orcm head coach Ed Louder "It's open so you have space ami I love to play on grass. It helps us to use spacing to our advantage " l nnpview assistant coach Adam Sanchez said his squad loves the smaller I ield'l ur f field at Thunderbird Stadium "You play at a higher speed," he explained "You get used to playing quick and when you have that speed ol play, you don't lose a whole lot when you play elsewhere. We like to play at a high seed. It kind of burns when you slide, but it's flat so it's a Ix'tter surface." The coaches were unanimous on I hate playing on football foot-ball fields. The crest on them makes it ridiculous. ri-diculous. It's just not a place to play soccer. Ed Louder ORf-M HIGH SOCCER COACH the affect of two different types of fields: They said a slight slope doesn't matter that much and they dislike playing on football fields due to the drainage "crown," the raised portion in the middle of the field meant to help water flow to the sides. "I hate playing on football fields," luder said. "The crest on them makes it ridiculous. It's just not a place to play soccer." Not only do fields have different sizes and are made up of different materials, but they also have different differ-ent levels of maintenance. Some of the them have large grassless areas that turn into bogs with any moisture, mois-ture, which can have an affect on the game. "The worse the conditions are, the greater the chance that a lesser team will beat you because you can't play your game," Sanchez said. The inability to play a normal game has been a complaint that Cuff has heard frequently with regards to state tournaments, since the semis and the finals of the 4A and 5A tour naments are held on the artificial turf at Juan Diego High School, where currently most teams play on grass. "Coaches have told us that the turf creates a different type of game," Cuff explained. "The ball rolls faster so it's faster paced." But Cuff and the coaches recognize that before too long, that might become be-come the norm instead of the exception. excep-tion. Timpview and Lehi have already chosen artificial turf and other schools are considering it. "I think it's the wave of the future," Cuff said. "More companies have driven the cost down and it's appealing appeal-ing because of the savings on maintenance." mainte-nance." The turf fields also have their benefits ben-efits and drawbacks, according to Louder. "You get nice bounces on the turf and it plays to possession, but I wouldn't want to slide on it," he said. "I'd rather play on a well-maintained grass field, but most schools don't have the time or the money to do that." Cuff hopes the state tournaments might eventually move to the grass field in the new Real Salt Lake stadium stadi-um but said that is still on the distant horizon. All of the experts agreed that going to uniform dimensions would probably prob-ably be good for the game but doubt it will happen. Since the international soccer governing gov-erning body, FIFA, still has flexible dimensions, it may never happen. But no matter whether the field is grass or turf, wide or narrow, one thing is certain for the Utah Valley fields: They're bound to see some very good soccer. I Jared Lloyd can be reached at 344-2552 344-2552 or jUoydheraldextra.com. wmmvmJ? m m X, V J " yr w . r h--. " , 'VrMflV f'i : - Y ASHLEY FRANSCELLNorth County A local high school player rests his foot on a soccer ball at Timpanogos High School. Soccer fields around the state vary in size. Tigers Con finned from I'ugv 9 alter that and held the Lions scoreless t he rest of the way to keep his team in front. "From Nate's prospective, he struggled a little bit early, but he came back and kept us in the hall game and that was huge," Miner said. "He hasn't thrown for over a week because be-cause of spring break and he was a little rusty with his location, lo-cation, which is his strength." With their pitcher doing his part, the Tiger bats also came through Orem (H-H, 5-4 Region Re-gion 7) scored two in the bottom bot-tom half of the third and got four more runs in the fourth inning. In the fourth. Harrison singled, Kallunki drew a walk and Brent ly Peterson laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance ad-vance the runners, bringing up Hansen. Hansen drove the ball over the right -field fence, giving Orem a 9-5 lead. "We scored enough to wins to give Nate a chance," Miner said. The Lions (4-12, 2-7) threatened threat-ened in fifth inning, as they loaded the bases with two out. Hut Adamson got Wes QB3BCE3B zSEl.tSrlJiSZ -rrJJS: Haskell to ground out to end the threat. Orem's defense was solid all afternoon behind Adam-son. Adam-son. "Any time you can play basic defense, that tends to shut down big innings. When we had those situations situa-tions we got routine ground balls," Miner said. Adamson struck out seven in the winning win-ning effort. Payson 203 000 0 5 8 4 Orem 402 401 1 11 81 Adamson and Harrison Gordon and Button WP-Mamson. WP-Mamson. LP fiordan 2B Atkinson P), Button (P) 3B- Hansen 10 HR Button (PI, Kallunki I0, Hansen (0) Soccer I Orem 6, Lehi 0: At Orem, the Tigers scored four times in the first half, then added two more in the second half and Brad Howard and Cameron Clark combined for the shutout in goal. Sonny Chandara had two goals, the first opening the scoring when he sent a ball toward the goal that was deflected de-flected in by a Pioneer player, the second closing the scoring in the game. Jason Bodine, McKay Cor-bett, Cor-bett, Eric Sacket and Ryan Reese also had goals. Juan Diaz deLeon came off the bench and gave the Tigers a lift from the wing, assisting on Corbett's goal. Orem out -shot Lehi 31-6. Softball I Timpview 13, Orem 5: At Orem, the T'Birds banged out 15 hits, including four for extra bases, to improved to 4-10, 24 in Region 7. Orem fell to 5-10, 24 in league play. Alisha Talk picked up the win on the mound, throwing a complete game. nmpvtew 221 071 2 13 15 5 Orem 102 002 0 510 3 Talk and laFolletle Mullen. Woodis (5) and Clegg WP-Talk WP-Talk IP Mullen 2B Ctark (T), Fillmore (Ti, Vogtman (T). LaWlette (Ti Clegs 10), Salioy (0). Cam (0) Peace of Mind with LLii Let Us Insure tour Boat, Trailer & ATVs New Address: 85 S. 1350 E. Lehi, Ut. WE HAVE MOVEDI Just One Block East From Old Location Quicker Service Immediate Will Calls Quick Crane Loading 9c Unloading Greater Resolve To Serve YOU. Our Customer. i Main 9L Many teams still in running for titles Russ Lyman NORTH COUNTY Several region soccer and baseball races had teams firing on all cylinders coming out of the gates, and it appeared various vari-ous region champions would be determined before the last games of the season. That no longer seems to be the case. In Region 7 soccer, Orem and Timpview established themselves as early favorites, but since then Provo has put together several impressive wins to join the Tigers atop the region with Timpview wait- forvvarci ing in the wings should either team falter. In Region 4 soccer, hone Peak looked invinceable. However How-ever on Tuesday, Timpanogos and Mountain View received a big boost to their championship champion-ship aspirations when American Fork handed the Knights their first loss of the season. Region 4 baseball saw American Fork come out with a 4-0 record, but Spanish Span-ish Fork handed the Cavemen their first loss to bring them back down to earth. However, Timpanogos couldn't capitalize capital-ize due to a loss of its own to Pleasant Grove. Although this past week saw several new storylines develop, even more could be decided in the upcoming week, highlighted by a pair of huge games today. Here's a look at the two biggest games of the week ahead. Thursday, April 26 BASEBALL Pleasant Grove at Timpanogos, 4 p.m. In Region 4, it's imperative to get a least a split in every series to have a chance at a region title. A win for the T'Wolves would help them maintain a position on top of the region while a loss could potentially put them in a tie for the final playoff spot. Look for the Timpanogos bats to rebound after an off day against Pleasant Grove ace Egan Smith. The pitching matchup will likely feature Gentry Croft going up against the Vikings' Riley White. BOYS SOCCER Orem at Timpview, 4 p.m. This game is a rematch of an exciting overtime win for the Tigers at Orem. In that game Tyler Boulter scored a goal in stoppage time of the second overtime. The Tigers need a win to keep pace with red-hot Provo, while Timpview needs to win to keep its region title hopes alive. The determining factor of this game will be how Orem reacts to playing on the fast field turf surface at Timpview. NBDLteam gets new name, GM Neil K. Warner NORTH COUNTY Help wanted. Qualifications needed: Must have an extensive basketball background. Someone who knows the Utah Jazz and has NBA experience. Someone who thinks outside the box. Innovative. Someone who bleeds basketball. A scout, a coach. Someone with NBA management experience. For a D-League team? This isn't your ordinary D-League team. Now introducing ... Dave Fredman. Score. It was a big day for the Orem NBA D-League franchise on April 17 when the team announced the hiring of Fredman as the team's new general manager at a press conference at the Zion's Bank Practice Prac-tice facility in Salt Lake City. "We tried to hire someone who knows basketball and knows the (Utah) Jazz. Dave Fredman is someone some-one who truly knows basketball. He's someone who for over 20 years worked for the Utah Jazz," said team owner Brandt Andersen. "He's someone who Elgin Baylor gave an nickname to. They call him Bumps Bumps Fredman. Anybody Any-body who gets their nickname from Elgin Baylor knows basketball." Fredman was recommended by the Utah Jazz, who will be the team's affiliate. The Jazz were well represented at the press conference. con-ference. Jazz president Dennis Haslam, former Jazz coach Frank Layden, current Jazz V.P. of Bas ketball Operations Kevin O'Connor, and former Jazz player Thurl Bailey Bai-ley were all in attendance. Fredman had been working with the Denver Nuggets as an assistant general manager until just after Labor Day when the team made a management change. He was promptly hired by the Jazz as a scout and by the NBA as a consultant, but the chance to return re-turn home to Utah (his family is still living in Colorado) was something Fredman couldn't pass up. "It's a return, a return to a place where I called home for 22 years," Fredman said. "To this point all of the good things that have happened to me personally and professionally profession-ally have happened in Utah and it's a privilege and a pleasure to come back. Brandt convinced me that we might be a D-League team, a minor league team, or whatever you want to call it, but we were going to operate oper-ate like a Major League team. "Basically the vision I have for the franchise is this: We are the affiliate af-filiate of the Utah Jazz," Fredman said. "We are going to run our business and our basketball like the Utah Jazz because that is the best example that I have seen." Fredman said the team has permission per-mission from the Jazz to practice in the Zion's Bank facility in addition to securing practice time at the Pinnacle Pinna-cle Securities facility in Utah County. Andersen also announced the name of the new team will be called the Utah Flash. The colors will be black, red and silver. Timp rally falls short rewind Russ Lyman NORTH COUNTY Going into the final inning trailing by six runs, the Timpanogos Softball team finally showed signs of life. However, it was too little too late as the T'Wolves' comeback effort came up one run short in a 10-9 loss to Lone Peak. The big hit of Timpanogos' big inning was Angie Larsen's two-RBI double to left -center that made the score 10-8. Shiri Stevens then grounded out to score Larsen, but the T'Wolves wouldn't get any closer. Early on, Timpanogos committed several costly errors which allowed the Knights to build a lead. "We just weren't consistent," said Timpanogos coach Frank Brammall. "We hit well at times but didn't play like we could. I was proud of them fighting to come back in the end." Lone Peak was led solid pitching from Kelsey Johnson who pitched the first five innings before being relieved by Raven King. The Knight offense was led by Jeni Keller who went 4-for4 with a triple. Bailie Hicken went 2-for-3 with a double. Soccer I Timpanogos 3, Pleasant Grove 0: At Pleasant Grove, Riley Hunsaker scored twice, then sophomore sopho-more Trevor Henderson took a feed from his brother, Kyle, who is a senior, to score the final goal as Timpanogos blanked Pleasant Grove in Region 4. All of the scoring for the Timberwolves came in the first half. Christian Ledik got the shutout on goal for the Timberwolves. , .,,.1 j4 Jreat mom to a one-day vacation frnm I U VTTk- "IUIUMII I VnillS IllIll WANTED WATER, WELL RIGHTS & IRRIGATION. Buy online at gardnervillage.com Call Ross at 642-0119 METALffiai 768-3332 HITAL AND o.i Online Metalmattbb |