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Owls get funds for Branson
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| H&N photos by Todd E. Swenson Children shoot hoops near an Oregon Tech blimp that was scheduled to take flight at Danny Miles Court during halftime of an intra-squad scrimmage Saturday. Unfortunately, no one was able to figure out how to get it to fly. |
March 4, 2007
Barb Eyre does not come to all of Oregon Tech's men's basketball games.
Saturday night, she and several hundred other fans made their way to Danny Miles Court for what has become OIT's annual fundraiser to send its men's basketball team to the national tournament.
“While I don't get to all the games, I do support youth maximizing their potential, and I do support (OIT coach) Danny (Miles),” Eyre said. “My kids played with his kids and I support his style of teaching.”
She was not alone.
“We're OIT basketball fans,” Michael Slinker said. “We love basketball, and we love OIT basketball. I've seen NAIA basketball since 1965 when I was at Eastern New Mexico University.”
Obviously, Klamath Falls fans love OIT too.
Those who came donated a record $10,595 to the Hustlin' Owls' travel fund. Pacific Power also donated $25 for each three-point shot made by each OIT player during a halftime shoot.
Each player had three shots, and the combined 27 threes brought in another $675.
The loudest roar in the contest came when senior Souleymane Traore, after an airball, notched a three. Only Cole Lathrop nailed all three of his attempts.
Goal easily exceeded
The travel-fund goal was $30,000.
With money that had come in during the week, including money raised in a corporate effort, almost $34,000 came in overall. Any money not needed this year will be saved for next season.
The previous scrimmage record for money raised was $8,500.
“This is a pretty amazing community, isn't it?” OIT's Miles said. “It's just an amazing community every time we need something like this.”
A new toy
Out for the first time is a new blue blimp that will be used in the future at OIT's home games.
“It started out as a student project and was going to be used to drop T-shirts,” OIT athletic director Mike Schell said. “Then they discovered, because of weight, that when it dropped T-shirts, the blimp would go up to the rafters with no way to get it down.”
Schell said he and some others were able to get the blimp working Friday.
“The problem now is that we don't know how to fly it at the moment,” Schell said of the balloon that has been at the school for two years.
An exciting game
The blue team, with the five OIT seniors, won the scrimmage, 104-86, in what likely was the best of the five fundraising scrimmages that have been played.
“I thought it was pretty good,” Miles said. “We had several kids who played well. Our redshirts did some nice things. We needed this game. It was really good for our young kids who don't get to play much.”
While no official statistics were kept, Joshua Garrett led the blue team with 43 points. Ryan Fiegi had 37 points for the gold team.
OIT leaves for Portland to begin the first leg of the trip to Branson, Mo., for the national tournament at 2 p.m. today. The team will spend the night in Portland and flies to Kansas City at 6:30 a.m. Monday.
OIT plays its first game at 10 a.m. (PST) Thursday against Northwood of Florida. All OIT tournament games will be aired live on KLAD (92.5 AM).
- Steve Matthies
Barb Eyre does not come to all of Oregon Tech's men's basketball games.
Saturday night, she and several hundred other fans made their way to Danny Miles Court for what has become OIT's annual fundraiser to send its men's basketball team to the national tournament.
“While I don't get to all the games, I do support youth maximizing their potential, and I do support (OIT coach) Danny (Miles),” Eyre said. “My kids played with his kids and I support his style of teaching.”
She was not alone.
“We're OIT basketball fans,” Michael Slinker said. “We love basketball, and we love OIT basketball. I've seen NAIA basketball since 1965 when I was at Eastern New Mexico University.”
Obviously, Klamath Falls fans love OIT too.
Those who came donated a record $10,595 to the Hustlin' Owls' travel fund. Pacific Power also donated $25 for each three-point shot made by each OIT player during a halftime shoot.
Each player had three shots, and the combined 27 threes brought in another $675.
The loudest roar in the contest came when senior Souleymane Traore, after an airball, notched a three. Only Cole Lathrop nailed all three of his attempts.
Goal easily exceeded
The travel-fund goal was $30,000.
With money that had come in during the week, including money raised in a corporate effort, almost $34,000 came in overall. Any money not needed this year will be saved for next season.
The previous scrimmage record for money raised was $8,500.
“This is a pretty amazing community, isn't it?” OIT's Miles said. “It's just an amazing community every time we need something like this.”
A new toy
Out for the first time is a new blue blimp that will be used in the future at OIT's home games.
“It started out as a student project and was going to be used to drop T-shirts,” OIT athletic director Mike Schell said. “Then they discovered, because of weight, that when it dropped T-shirts, the blimp would go up to the rafters with no way to get it down.”
Schell said he and some others were able to get the blimp working Friday.
“The problem now is that we don't know how to fly it at the moment,” Schell said of the balloon that has been at the school for two years.
An exciting game
The blue team, with the five OIT seniors, won the scrimmage, 104-86, in what likely was the best of the five fundraising scrimmages that have been played.
“I thought it was pretty good,” Miles said. “We had several kids who played well. Our redshirts did some nice things. We needed this game. It was really good for our young kids who don't get to play much.”
While no official statistics were kept, Joshua Garrett led the blue team with 43 points. Ryan Fiegi had 37 points for the gold team.
OIT leaves for Portland to begin the first leg of the trip to Branson, Mo., for the national tournament at 2 p.m. today. The team will spend the night in Portland and flies to Kansas City at 6:30 a.m. Monday.
OIT plays its first game at 10 a.m. (PST) Thursday against Northwood of Florida. All OIT tournament games will be aired live on KLAD (92.5 AM).
- Steve Matthies
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Bill Hoffman wrote on Apr 10, 2008 10:07 AM:
" Long live Matt Miles! He was the "Billy Kilmer" of Semi Pro Football: tough, gritty, fiery leader, winning mentality. I will never forget this "young gunslinger", he made this league better for being in it.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Hoffman
CO Stampede, #45 "
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Hoffman
CO Stampede, #45 "
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Ken Karnes wrote on Oct 3, 2008 4:23 PM: