By Randy Parks
Burns Times-Herald

Burns High School (BHS) capped off another successful athletic year with the spring sports and year-end awards presentations on Thursday, June 5.

BHS activities director Paula Toney opened the ceremonies by telling the crowd that BHS had 10 different teams qualify for the state playoffs and three of them brought home state titles.

She then announced that this year’s Hilander baseball team not only won the state title on the field, but also won the overall award in the Dairy Farmers of Oregon Academic Awards with a team grade point average (GPA) of 3.71. “They had the highest GPA of all classifications,” Toney said. “And that counts a lot in points toward the Oregonian Cup.” She added that the final Oregonian Cup standings would be announced Tuesday, June 10.

For winning the Dairy Farmers award, team members were presented with “got milk?” sweatshirts.

Each coach then introduced their teams and presented the athletes with their certificates and awards.

Special award-winners are as follows:

Softball

Most Improved Player — Shelby Root; Most Inspirational Player —Tory Bull and Katee Withee; Most Valuable Player — Courtney Toney.

Track and Field

Coaches’ Award — Jamie Higle and Louisa Van Batavia; Freshman of the Year — Jennifer Higle; High Point Athletes — Jaela Dinsmore and Carraig Colahan; Most Improved — Brea Ribeiro and Anthony Frail; Most Outstanding Athletes — Dinsmore and Lucas Schaefer.

Tennis

Most Outstanding Athletes — Kelsee Morefield and Tyler Fenton; Most Inspirational — Olivia Palmer and Jess Tate.

Golf

Most Improved — McKiah Aamodt and Ian Revak; Most Outstanding — Sarah Fitzpatrick and Andy Hammon.

Baseball

Most Improved Player — Matt Ogata; Lynn Brinkley Memorial Award — Caleb Feist; Most Valuable Player — Tommy Ghost Dog; Lew Herrera Award — the entire 2008 baseball team.

Special Year-end Awards

Most Inspirational — Van Batavia and Ogata. Outstanding Female Athlete — Dinsmore. Outstanding Male Athlete — Ghost Dog and Drew Heinz.