The Banks Braves Varsity Baseball team celebrating after a 4-3 win over Gladstone on Friday, May 24. Photo: Angela Scorcio.
By Jacob Pence, Banks High School Principal
I don’t want to take for granted all of the amazing achievements of our different programs at the high school has had this year. Several of our teams have had historic success this year.
We had Cowapa League championships in Football, Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball, Baseball, and Softball. Our Volleyball team finished 3rd, Girls Soccer 2nd, and Wrestling 2nd in league. We sent 19 athletes to the state track meet and had several state medalists. Our Dance and Drill team qualified for state for the first time in several years. Our Boys Golf team qualified for state as a team for the first time in program history. Our Percussion Ensemble qualified for state and competed well against the biggest schools in the state. Our drama program produced a Shakespeare play for the first time in over fifteen years.
The Girls Basketball team finished 6th in state, and the Softball team recently finished in the top 4 in state. The Football team earned the first state championship in any boy’s sport in the school’s 98 year history. Boy’s Basketball followed up with a state championship of their own. The Baseball team has followed suit and won three state playoff games to earn a spot in the state championship game this Saturday in Salem at the Keizer Volcano Stadium. The Braves will be playing the Henley Hornets, game starts at 10 AM.
To put this game in perspective, in the 100 year history of the Oregon School Activities Association, there have been hundreds of schools competing at different classifications for state championships. In all of these years, with all of these schools competing, only one school has been able to win the state championship in Football, Basketball, and Baseball in the same year. North Valley High School accomplished this in 1984-85. Banks High School has an opportunity to be the second school in Oregon sports history to accomplish this “trifecta”.
Good luck to the Baseball team this weekend, and thank you for supporting the Braves teams and programs! Go Braves!
