| Team
competes at Lewiston Tournament
The 14 and Under Softball team from Cottonwood played in the Hellsgate Rampage Softball tournament in Lewiston over the weekend. This was an ASA sanctioned tournament with 8 teams from Walla Walla, Pendleton, Lewiston, Clarkston, Waitsburg and Cottonwood. Prairie started pool play on Saturday playing a hard fought game against Pendleton ending with a loss of 6 to 2. The next game was against Walla Walla and ended with a 10 to 4 loss called after 1 hour 40 minutes which was the set time limit for each game. The last game of the day was against the Lewiston Rage with Prairie winning 5 to 3. The win placed Prairie # 3 in their pool and set up a match against the #2 seed in Pool A which was another team from Walla Walla. Sunday morning Prairie started their first playoff game with Walla Walla with 2 runs in the 1st inning. Walla Walla came back and scored 1 run each in the 2nd and 3rd inning. The game was tied 2 to 2 at the end of 7 innings and the tie breaker placed a runner on 2 second base with 3 outs to start the 8th inning. Walla Walla managed to score 1 run in the top of the inning. Prairie came back and had several opportunities to score but couldn’t get a run across the plate losing 3-2. Prairie was scheduled to play another game on Sunday against Waitsburg, but the team didn’t show up. The team was coached by Alan Holthaus, with Roger Holthaus and Lynn Guyer assisting. It was an excellent experience for the girls to play teams from larger schools. The coaches were very impressed with the improvement they saw in each player.  Prairie volleyball players receive extra instruction Prairie High School volleyball coach Danette Moea’i called in some favors and had her players go through a high-powered volleyball camp this week. 
Mari Burningham and Tasha Poduska from the University of Redlands in California were here for a coaches clinic and 2-day camp Monday through Wednesday, July 27-29. Burningham was a second team All-Mountain West volleyball player at BYU and prior to that was a 2-time All-American at the NJCAA level at Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho). She is currently head volleyball coach at Redlands. She is also the founder of Archer Sports, which puts on summer volleyball camps. Burningham is also the daughter of Moea’i’s high school volleyball coach. The pair held a coaching clinic on Monday with several area volleyball coaches in attendance and then on Tuesday and Wednesday had a 2-day intense volleyball camp for the Prairie team. 27 Prairie players were in attendance Wednesday morning. The drills used will give Prairie players a taste of what college level volleyball is like and hopefully improve them for their high school careers. The coaching clinics give coaches the latest techniques and drills used for winning programs. |
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