By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– The McNary Athletic Department and McNary High School hosted their annual ‘Blue Day’ on Saturday.
The community event started with a 5K before the Youth Sports Teams from the Mid-Valley Soccer Club and McNary Youth Football before the High School programs had their chances to introduce themselves.
The Celtics Cross Country team was first. A young program overall after graduating the bulk of their experience from last year’s senior heavy program, it’ll be a rebuilding year of sorts for the program. But the squad will return two crucial senior’s on the boys side in Jaxsen Herring and Garrett Clack that will help guide the ship this season and to help lead the young Celtic program into the future.
“(Herring) been an individual qualifier all three years, he’s a senior this year aiming to be an individual qualifier for the fourth year. That’s his goal, to be an individual qualifier all four years and to get his team there this year,” said Head Coach Lynn Piper. “He and Garrett Clack are those two seniors help pull those guys on and there’s a whole group of sophomores there with them.”
While the Cross Country team, who were doing a two-lap scrimmage around the track, were finishing up, the McNary Girls Soccer team were starting up their intrasquad scrimmage. The Girls Soccer team, entering year three of Bianca Andrade-Torres, reached the 6A State Playoffs after a year absence during Andrade-Torres first year at the helm.
The squad returns a lot of youth this season with two seniors on their roster who ended last season with a bittersweet ending to the season when they fell to Jesuit in the opening round of the playoffs. Returning this year, they are familiar of what it takes to get there and the caliber of teams they’ll face that they’ll have to raise their game in order to compete with them again this year.
“It’s always a really great experience for the girls to go through. Obviously Jesuit has always been amazing, so they weren’t too happy with their result. But I think for them to acknowledge the fact that there are high caliber teams that we go up against and being able to hold down in the back of their minds that when we ask for higher standards or we ask for bigger expectations, they can see them,” said Andrade-Torres.
McNary will head to Aloha for a jamboree before kicking off the season September 1 at home against Hillsboro.
The Celtic Boys Soccer team followed the Girls Soccer scrimmage with their intrasquad scrimmage.
The McNary Boys Soccer team are coming off their fourth-straight Central Valley Conference title, establishing the standard that they’re a program with the highest of standards as they pursuit their fifth-straight league title. But the league just got tougher.
McKay, who have been playing 5A the last few years in the tough Mid-Willamette Conference, have came back up to 6A, and toughening up an already tough CVC conference this Fall.
“Just going in with a high mentality. Trying to win every game. Just high mentality and high expectations from my coaches,” said Danny Garcia of the expectations.
“We like the challenge, it’s competitive. (McKay’s) a tough team. We have to go out there and win it from us and hope it’s given to us. It’s going to be a good challenge,” Garcia said of the pursuit of the fifth-straight Title.
The McNary Boys Soccer team will open the season on August 31 against Century.
Following the McNary Boys Soccer team was the McNary Football team, who wrapped up the outdoor portion of the Blue Day.
The Football team snapped their 30-game losing streak, defeating Centennial 19-15 to get back in the win column for the first time since 2021. McNary finished 2-7 in their lone year in 5A before making the move back up to 6A and joining the Central Valley Conference.
“It was great,” said Daniel Marines of breaking the losing streak. “We still worked every single day in practice and we gave 100-percent.”
“We’re excited, we’re ready for the competition. We’re ready for them,” Marines said about the move back up to 6A.”
The Football team will head to Liberty on August 28 for a jamboree before opening the season September 4 against Corvallis.
The McNary Volleyball team closed out the Blue Day events with their intrasquad scrimmage. The Celtic Volleyball team are coming off an 11-14 season and reached the 6A State Playoffs before falling to Central Catholic in the opening round of the 6A State Playoffs. Addie Seely (Second Team CVC) and Ashley West (Honorable Mention CVC) return to anchor the squad entering this year. The Celtics Volleyball team opens the season August 27 against Reynolds.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
