Scott Swanson
Sweet Home’s Dakotah Keys was honored as Oregon’s boys athlete of the year for 2010 in the 1A through 4A classifications Sunday night at the 59th annual Oregon Sports Awards show.
Keys, now competing as a freshman in track and field at the University of Oregon, received the Johnny Carpenter Award. He was nominated for the award last year as well. This year he was chosen over seven other finalists after winning the long jump, high jump, pole vault and 110 hurdles at the 4A state meet and leading the Huskies to their third straight boys state track and field championship.
“It’s kind of a nice ending to the chapter of high school,” Keys said after receiving the award. “It’s kind of cool to sit down and reflect on the past four seasons. A lot of it isn’t just individual – it was team stuff. Without the team, without the other people on the team, it’s hard to be recognized. You don’t have as much success.”
His mother and longtime coach, Lela Danforth, was also at the ceremony and said she appreciated the fact that “he has had a lot of opportunities and he has stayed humble through it all.
“It’s an honor that he got the award,” she said. “However, standing up there and giving God the glory for it was amazing. The boy has really worked hard. To be recognized for that is amazing.”
She said the field was deep and “anybody” could have won.
“They’re all winners in my opinion,” Danforth said. “I’m excited for what it does for our community.”
Comcast SportsNet NW will televise the live show on multiple occasions, beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2; 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6; 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13.
Awards were presented by Chicago Cubs shortstop Darwin Barney, ESPN broadcaster Neil Everett, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, sports journalist Dwight Jaynes and others.
The show is held and taped at the 770-seat Stanford Theatre at the Nike World Headquarters. It is a joint production of Nike and SportsOne, both located in the Beaverton area.
Keys competed Saturday in the decathlon at the indoor University of Washington Invitational, placing fourth in the heptathlon out of 22 competitors, scoring 5,332 points, short of the automatic qualifying score of 5,500 for the NCAA indoor national championships March 11-12.
Keys was first in his heat in the 60 hurdles (8.52), first in the shot put (42-10 3/4), second in the long jump (22-3 1/2) and high jump (6-6 1/4), fifth in the 60 (7.30) and 11th in the 1000 (3:03.48).
“The 1000 wasn’t so great but it was close,” he said. “I have another chance in about a month. Hopefully I’ll make it. I want to try to make the NCAAs in both the indoors (heptathlon) and the outdoors (decathlon).”
In addition to Keys, other Oregon Sports Awards winners included:
n Jesuit High School basketball and volleyball player Elizabeth Brenner, who was all-state in both sports and won the 6A state shot put title and was second in the javelin. (Johnny Carpenter Prep Athlete of the Year 6A/5A Girls)
n Jefferson High School basketball player Terrence Jones, now at Kentucky, who led Jefferson to three straight state 5A titles and was named 5A Player of the Year three times. (Johnny Carpenter Prep Athlete of the Year 6A/5A Boys)
n Tayla Woods of Santiam Christian High School, who was the state player of the year in basketball and volleyball. (Johnny Carpenter Prep Athlete of the Year 4A-1A Girls)
n Jesuit High School junior Annamarie Maag, the first Oregon girl from a large high school to win three cross-country championships. She led Jesuit to its ninth state title and also won the state 3000 title in track. (Nike Steve Prefontaine Award)
n University of Oregon Football Coach Chip Kelly, who led the Ducks to a 12-1 record and the BCS national championship game. (Slats Gill Sportsperson of the Year Award)
n Linfield College sophomore Staci Doucette, who was named a first-team All-American after leading her team to a 42-7 record, including a school-record 26 straight wins, and second in the NCAA Div. III national tournament. Doucette broke school records for batting average (.477), one-base percentage (.550), slugging percentage (.935), RBIs (66) and home runs (an NCAA-best 20). (Ad Rutschman Small-College Athlete of the Year-Female)
n Southern Oregon University sophomore wrestler Mitchell Lofstedt, who was named NAIA Wrestler of the Year after winning the 125-pound national championship. Lofstedt went 43-6, with 24 pins, to break the school records for wins and pins held by his late father, Brent. (Ad Rutschman Small-College Athlete of the Year-Male)
n Craig Ruecker, football coach at Tigard, who completed his 40th season as a high school football coach in Oregon, ranking 10th on the list of winningest coaches with a record of 226-136. Ruecker has also coached at Reynolds, Glencoe and Redmond. (Game Changer Award for lifetime dedication to prep sports)
n Harry A. Merlo, who, as chief executive officer of Louisiana-Pacific, brought world-class tennis to Portland in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Under his leadership, the company purchased and managed the North American Soccer League Portland Timbers from 1979-1982, earning the city the title “Soccer City USA.” The University of Portland soccer field is named Merlo Field. (Les Schwab Friend of Sports Award)
n Eric Thompson of Medford, a 24-year-old Rogue Community College student and Medford mail carrier, who completed his sixth marathon in less than four hours. (Lou Burge Special Olympics Athlete of the Year Award)
n Brian Parrott, a Seattle University Hall of Fame tennis player who ran the Louisiana-Pacific Invitational tennis tournament for 14 years, helping to bring Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Tracy Austin and other tennis stars to Portland. He helped organize other top-flight tennis exhibitions and events, including the 1981, 1984 and 2007 Davis Cup matches, a Dream Team appearance, and USA team matches in volleyball, wrestling and boxing. He also coached Oregon Episcopal School to three consecutive 4A state titles and helped coach more than 100 youths to state titles. He also coached Portland State University men’s and women’s tennis. (DNA Award for extraordinary dedication to sports)
n Wilson High School football and basketball star Emaan Behboodi, who is involved in school leadership and coaches a Special Olympics team. (Terry Porter Make it Better Award)
n Mauro Potestio, who attended his first University of Portland basketball game 62 years ago and hasn’t missed any of the nearly 900 that have been played since. He has also traveled to many away games. He was official scorer for the basketball team for 26 years and served as the school’s sports information director for eight years and served as the school’s golf coach for many years. (Ultimate Fan Award presented by the Portland Timbers)
n University of Oregon heptathlete Brianne Theisen, who won the Pac-10 and NCAA titles in the event last year, the latter with the fourth-highest score in NCAA history (4,396 points). (Bill Hayward Amateur Athlete of the Year, Female)
n University of Oregon decathlete Ashton Eaton, who won his third straight NCAA decathlon championship with 8,457, the second-best score in the world in 2010 and was runner-up for the U.S. national title last year. Eaton also broke the world indoor heptathlon record, set by Dan O’Brien in 1993, to win the NCAA title in that event. (Bill Hayward Amateur Athlete of the Year, Male)
n Fencer Mariel Zagunis of Beaverton, a world-class saber champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, who recently defended her world title in Paris by beating Olga Kharlan of Ukraine in the finals, 15-6. (Harry Glickman Professional Athlete of the Year, Female)
n Detroit Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, who played at Grant High School and the University of Nebraska before moving to the NFL, where he has been selected to the Pro Bowl as a rookie. (Harry Glickman Professional Athlete of the Year, Male)
George Pasero Teams of the Year Awards:
n The University of Oregon football team, which had the most successful season in school history in 2010, winning its second straight Pac-10 title and finishing second in the nation with a 12-1 record.
n The Southern Oregon University men’s cross country, which won the national NAIA championship.
n The Oregon NW Jrs. 18 Air Max volleyball team, which won the 2010 volleyball junior national championship in Reno, Nev. – the first from Oregon to do so.
n EastSide United Football Club-Liverpool soccer team, which won the U.S. Youth Soccer national championship, the second Oregon team to do so.