If you have not heard or were unfamiliar, Klamath Union cross country has made quite a roar in the Skyline Conference and beyond.
This past weekend, at the OSAA Class 4A State Championships hosted at Lane Community College, Klamath Union’s girls cross country team did the unthinkable to many people going into this season. KU girls cross country brought home a silver trophy after ending in second place at the state run.
If it was a secret it is not a secret anymore after the girls’ cross country team won its third state second-place trophy in school history.
“I'm Uber competitive. I am. If we're gonna put teams together, I want to put the best teams we can. So we're gonna go out and recruit kids, whether they've ever run or not. We have probably six or seven kids that had never run before this year,” Klamath Union cross country head coach Rob Coffman said. “I want people to know this is something these girls take serious; it's not a, you know, a club sport. It's something they're good at.”
The accomplishment, unprecedented, as the Pelicans had no seniors running for them this season. KU’s second-place finish had the team earn 89 points, just behind state champion Philomath, which finished with 76 points.
KU had three runners finish in the top 20, led by sophomore Hallie Pyfer’s sixth-place finish, who ended the 5,000-meter course in 19 minutes, 18.8 seconds. Pelican freshman, Olivia Mitchell and Allie Nelson, each crossed the finish line in 20:21.0 to finish 19th and 20th, respectively.
KU junior Leona Higgins was next in line for KU and placed in 26th place with her time of 20:35.9. Sophomore Ellie Baumann earned 38th with her mark of 21:43.2.
Juniors Hazel Squibb and Eleanor Rodriguez, also had strong finishes. Squibb took 53rd at 22:08.8 and Rodriguez came right behind her in 54th, with her time of 22:08.9.
Coffman, in his 23rd season as cross country head coach, through and through, has seen his share of stellar distance teams.
This year’s team, however, going into the season, was a coin flip as the team was unranked in the preseason state coaches’ poll, and rightfully so.
The team lost its top runner, Coffman’s daughter, Isabela, after she graduated last year, a year when she won the individual girls’ Skyline Conference title race, which helped her team to its third straight conference championship.
In a team of mostly underclassmen, the void of having an unquestionable leader clearly did not faze the group and found themselves in second in the midseason poll before eventually winning the conference for the fourth year in a row before earning its state title hardware.
“That's one of the reasons why this team is a lot better than last year's team. Last year, we had five girls that were really competitive; we had two that were kind of backaways. If one struggles, your team struggles,” Coffman said. “But here, since you have seven and five score, if one's off a little bit, somebody else is pushed right in. So the depth of this year's team was a big improvement.”
Finding a new home
After hearing of the culture Coffman had established in Klamath Union’s cross country program, Pyfer was all in.
Pyfer and her family were looking to relocate to Klamath Falls this past May after her father was offered a new job. Pyfer was torn between attending KU or Henley High School before she realized which school fit one of her biggest passions.
“We looked at KU a bit and we looked at Henley and didn’t really know what to do. We were leaning more towards KU since they have a really good distance program,” Pyfer said. “We went to church the next day and we happened to run into Coffman, and we talked to him and I was like, ‘hey, I wanna run for this guy, like this is like legit. This is something I wanna do.”
Finding a balance
Mitchell and Nelson had the pressure of juggling their passions of soccer and cross country this season. Mitchell was even wrapped around another sport and spent time on a local dance team as well.
The two freshmen dealt with minor injuries this fall after Nelson hurt her knee during basketball training in the summer.
While Pyfer and Nelson both ran in middle school, that was not the case for Mitchell, who coincidentally joined the team after it hosted its ugly sweater run.
Mitchell and Nelson expressed how they encouraged each other during the season, going all the way to the end of their season in the state race as they finished in the same tenth of a second.
Klamath Union’s girls cross country team held better scores than some of the top 5A and 6A teams in the state this season.
KU had better team scores this year than South Medford, Ashland, Grants Pass, North Medford and Roseburg. The only team the Pelicans did not beat this year was the eventual 5A state champion, Crater.
“We did not hear a lot about last year’s team as Allie and I are both freshmen but I think we knew we could compete this year,” Mitchell said. “It helped to have someone at the meets who you knew who was in front of you. That really helped push me this year.”
“I think all the girls are really close and to get second brought us together even more,” Nelson said. “There was always that healthy competition for us this year between all of us and it helped us get better.”
KFCS has been planning for the future of Ponderosa Middle School for several years now. It might be brand new information to some but in about three to five years, Ponderosa will need to be replaced with its location being on an active fault line.
The city school district is now doing what it can to let the public and community know about the planning and outlook regarding the future of Ponderosa.
KFCS held a facility tour at the middle school Thursday, Nov. 8, to show the current state the building is in and answer any questions anyone may have.
KFCS Superintendent, Keith A. Brown, Director of Operations, Daymond Monteith and Maintenance Director, Jared Thompson, were at hand in the effort to raise community awareness regarding Ponderosa.
"I have a rule of communication on things like this that if you guys will tell 10 people what we talked about then we are going to get the word out pretty well; if they tell 10 people then it works," Brown said. "When I arrived (as KFCS Superintendent ) in July of 2021, one of the notes on my desk was there is monitoring of the condition of Ponderosa and it being on a fault line; it has been moving for sometime."
Brown shared the district's efforts in planning for a new middle school.
In 2021, an architect was already under contract
Created a physical feasibility study
School board work session, October 3, 2022, to begin talking more about the future of Ponderosa
KFCS has met several times with PIVOT Architecture since 2021
Held another school board work session, July 24th, 2023 and completed hardwood training, teaching people how to gain civic trust
KFCS submitted a long range facility plan to the Oregon Department of Education, December 1, 2023.
In attendance were several KFCS parents and several Ponderosa teachers, Ponderosa Principal, Brett Lemieux and Assistant Principal, Liza Butler, as well as staff from MyBasin.com and Herald and News.
Thompson led the tour, which showed cracks in the interior walls and floors at Ponderosa due to the fault line shifting.
"Here in the girls bathroom upstairs, through the cracks on the walls and the floor, I can see a little bit of daylight and the sun come through during certain times of the day," Thompson said.
Thompson and his maintenance staff also highlighted how several doors of classrooms are misaligned, having to temporarily fix the doors on multiple occasions and do so in the summer time.
Continue reading below for a note from Superintendent Brown regarding community awareness information about Ponderosa.
Community Awareness Information From Superintendent Brown concerning Ponderosa Middle School
As we look towards the future of our community, I want to bring to your attention a critical need that we must address to ensure the success and readiness of our students: the replacement of Ponderosa Middle School.
Klamath Falls is on the cusp of growth, and we need to be prepared to meet the educational demands of our expanding population. Last year, during our community conversations, we received a clear message: our community wants our youth to be life and career-ready. Specifically, there is a strong desire for more hands-on, applied learning opportunities, such as Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.
Effective career-ready programs must begin with robust middle school initiatives. During the Board’s visit to California last year, we saw firsthand the exceptional programs at Mad Tech Middle, which serve as an inspiring model for what we can achieve here. These programs are essential for setting our students on a successful path through high school and beyond.
Our district is diligently working to build these programs at the high school level and forge strong connections to postgraduate destinations like the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) and Klamath Community College (KCC). However, to truly accelerate our students along this track, we need a middle school that supports and enhances these efforts. Unfortunately, the current Ponderosa Middle School is outdated and does not meet the needs of our evolving educational goals.
The urgency of this need cannot be overstated. While the current middle school building is safe, our engineers have indicated that it could become unusable at any time because it is located on an active fault line. Our trusted advisors and the Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee have unanimously agreed that the time to act is now.
We estimate the budget for replacing Ponderosa Middle School to be around $120 million. This number may fluctuate slightly up or down as we consider incorporating other essential items, such as security upgrades and early learning facility support, into the overall bond. We may also determine that we can build at a lower cost depending on what year we decide to call a bond election to support the possible project in the future.
Replacing Ponderosa Middle School is not just about updating a building; it is about investing in the future of our community and ensuring that our youth have the tools and opportunities they need to succeed in life and their careers.
We appreciate your continued support and engagement as we take these crucial steps forward. Together, we can create an educational environment that prepares our students for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.
Over the next year, we will engage more with our stakeholders about Ponderosa. We will also schedule tours of the building for the community to see the current facility.
We do want to be very clear that we have not set any date for a potential Bond election. We just want to make sure our community is aware that we are working on a solution to replace Ponderosa on a different site that does not have an active fault line on it.
For anyone who has any questions about his message please e-mail Keith A. Brown atbrownk@kfalls.k12.or.us.
What a wonderful week for KU’s Intro to Health Occupations class!
On Tuesday, students got to visit the Sky Lakes Wellness Center downtown and learned about how to practice mindfulness, learned to cook some healthy treats and learned about the importance of keeping hemselves healthy.
Yesterday students had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Stewart Decker and talk about his career, how he got into the field and to connect with students.
And today students got to visit Klamath Community College (KCC) and check out their medical and science programs to get a hands on look at what a potential career can be like. Way to go Pels!
Cold And Flu season is here.. Please help us prevent the spread of viruses by doing these things at home, school, and work.
Steps you can take
Individuals can
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw used tissues in the trash. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow, not your hands.
La temporada de gripe y resfriados ya está aquí. Ayúdenos a prevenir la propagación del virus haciendo estas cosas en casa, en la escuela y en el trabajo.
Las personas pueden:
Cubrirse la boca y la nariz con un pañuelo desechable al toser o estornudar; botar los pañuelos desechables usados a la basura; y si no tienen un pañuelo de este tipo, toser o estornudar cubriéndose con el ángulo interno del codo, no con las manos.
Congratulations To The KU Boys Soccer Team For Its First Appearance In The Quarterfinals Since 2011
Native American Heritage Month
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