By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

North Salem’s Demari Thompson (Track), McNary’s Heather Ebner (softball), Sprague’s Summer Melena (Softball) and Blanchet’s Addison Bennett were honored by the Salem Sports and Breakfast Club for May 27.

Here’s the Press Release:

The Salem Sports and Breakfast Club Les Schwab Athlete of the Week, from North Salem Track and Field, is DeMari Thompson.

To say DeMari has a bright future is an understatement. As a sophomore, DeMari won the 5A state championship in the 100 meters a week ago at Hayward Field in Eugene breaking the state meet record with a time of 10.75 seconds. He then came back a day later and won his second state championship in the 200 meters.

Salem Sports and Breakfast Club congratulates DeMari Thompson. 

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The Salem Sports and Breakfast Club Les Schwab Athlete of the Week from McNary Softball is Heather Ebner.

Heather, a junior, started the season at 3rd base for the Celtics before moving to catcher. She is an outstanding defensive catcher, shutting down the running games of most teams. Offensively she is a powerhouse. She fills the stat sheet. An imposing left-handed hitter, Heather had 100 plate appearances and ended the regular season batting .512 with a 1.452 OPS. She had 44 hits, including 16 doubles and 5 homeruns, 37 RBI, and scored 34 runs. Heather was 11 for 12 in stolen bases and had a fielding percentage of .981. She leads McNary in: Plate Appearances, At Bats, Average, OBP, OPS, SLG, Hits (leads by 14), Doubles, Homeruns, and RBI (leads by 10), and Runs.

Heather helped lead the Celtics to a conference record of 12-2 and a final #4 state ranking. At this posting McNary has now won their first three playoff games and will play at #1 Tigard this coming Tuesday in a semi-final contest.

Congratulations Heather, from the Salem Sports and Breakfast Club. 

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The Salem Sports and Breakfast Club Les Schwab Athlete of the Week from Sprague Softball is Summer Melena.

Summer played 2nd base for the Olys this past season and was a second-team all-Mountain Valley Conference infielder. According to Coach Madi Oliver, “This season [Summer] has spent countless hours in the batting cages and it has shown in the last half of the season. In Mel’s last 3 games and 13 plate appearances she has batted .667 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 4 walks and 6 RBIs. In addition, her drive and leadership has also grown this last half of the season. She has turned into one of our key players … In addition, as a sophomore, she has turned into a great leader for us and has helped ‘rally up’ the girls to get us ready for playoffs. With her hard work, dedication, and leadership she will be a player to watch for next season.”

Sprague finished the season ranked #17 with an 18-9 record and 8-6 in conference play, qualifying for the playoffs.

Congratulations Summer from the Salem Sports and Breakfast Club.

​High school sports matter.

The Salem Sports and Breakfast Club Les Schwab Athlete of the Week, from Blanchet Catholic, is Addison Bennett.

Addison, a 9th grader, had her first and second pitching start last week with 2 wins over Dayton and Amity. Addison threw a complete game against Dayton with 2 strikeouts and only allowed 4 runs. (Dayton subsequently qualified for the playoffs.) The next day she threw another 7 inning complete game against Amity with 7 strikeouts and only allowing 2 earned runs. At the plate Addi went 3 for 5 with an RBI.

After she is done with high school Addison would like to attend Grand Canyon University in Arizona to become a pharmacist and would also like to play college softball for GCU.

Blanchet qualified for the playoffs and won their round one contest 10-6 over Pleasant Hill before falling to Burns. Burns is now in the semi-finals.

Congratulations to Addison from Salem Sports and Breakfast Club.