With the holidays season in full swing, high school winter sports are on the horizon, but that also means that the fall season has concluded. So, we’re going to recap final results, records and highlights for Tigard High School’s fall 2021 sports teams.
Football
To kick things off, we have the Tigers football team. A team that was struck by a dangerous word – potential. When the season had yet to begin, coaches from across the state ranked Tigard eighth in the pre-season coaches’ poll. But how did they turn out?
The Tigers shortly fell off the coaches’ polls and rankings as other Three Rivers League (TRL) contenders took up arms. Tigard was walking through the toughest league in the state and went 1-4 through league play and 3-7 overall to earn the 22nd seed in the playoff bracket.
But the appearance was short-lived after falling to ninth-seed Roseburg High School in the first round.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Their first win of the season came against Mountainside in a 30-13 victory; the first against the Mavericks since they took the Tigers out of the playoffs in 2019. They even managed to keep quarterfinalist Lakeridge on their toes in a close 21-19 loss, and Jesuit in the pre-season in a 17-7 defeat.
Boys’ Cross Country
Running distances a bit farther than a football field were Tigard’s cross country teams. The boys’ team had three sub-18-minute 5000m times in the TRL district meet on Oct. 27, with senior Sam Fitzgerald running 17:50.19 to round out the top 20 competitors. Fitzgerald had his personal best earlier in the year at the Champoeg Invitational in Saint Paul on Oct. 8 with a 16:48 time.
Coming just behind Fitzgerald at districts in 21st place was Zachary Benedetti, with a 17:55.07 personal best, and Tigard’s third place finisher, Eli Chesler, came in at 23rd with 17:58.91. But with Tigard scoring 6th place at districts, and only the top three teams able to advance into the championships in Eugene, they were out of the running.
Girls’ Cross Country
Girls’ cross country, however, was a different story.
They took third place at districts on Oct. 27, just ahead of rival Tualatin. They were led by sophomore Sabine Kim and Lillian Herman with times of 19:18.34 and 19:41.73 for 4th and 5th place, respectively. To break through the top 20 and join Kim and Herman, Chloe Thompson finished with a time of 20:43.44.
With a 3rd-place TRL district placement, the Tigers advanced to the Nov. 6 state championships at Lane Community College in Eugene where they finished in 16th out of the 21 teams in attendance. Tigard’s top finisher was Kim, who placed 42nd out of 153 runners with a 5000m time of 19:42.50.
Volleyball
Moving onto Tigard’s indoor court, volleyball finished 3-17 on the season and 2-12 in the TRL to rank 43rd in class 6A.
They took their first win against Hillsboro in the Westview tournament on Saturday, Sept. 25, where they won 2-1 in a best of three match after a 15-5 concluding set. The second came a few days later against St. Mary’s Academy at home on Sept. 28 where they won in four sets. And their final win, they delivered against Canby where it came down to a first-to-15 fifth set, and Tigard edged ahead 15-9.
The volleyball team graduated eight seniors after their final game at St. Mary’s Academy in downtown Portland. Tigers volleyball is a team that historically exchanges its roster heavily year after year, and this now includes their head coach position, as assistant coach Jesse Abell will be swapping roles with head coach Megan Norris for the 2022 season.
Girls’ Soccer
Speaking of new head coaches, Scott Eggleston, of the Tigard girls’ soccer team, saw his first full season running the program after joining in last year’s shortened spring term.
Working through the growing pains, the Tigers went 2-17-1 on the season (0-6-1 TRL) to rank 41st in state. Their first win came against the 5A division’s tenth-seeded team, Scappoose High School, in a 3-0 knockout on Sept. 14. A second victory came Sept. 22 against the similarly ranked Newberg Tigers in a 5-1 win, and their sole scoreless tie against the visiting Canby Cougars on Sept. 20.
Boys’ Soccer
The boys’ soccer team, on the other hand, finished the 2021 season 5-5-4 overall and 5-4-3 in league to rank 33rd – one place short of a first-round playoff appearance.
Through the season, they took a 7-1 defeat against sixth-seed West Linn but struck back the following week to defeat Canby 7-3. The team started the season with a 3-1 loss to rival Tualatin Sept. 9, and nearly a month later played the Wolves to a 2-2 tie on Oct. 4.
Water Polo
Finally, the boys’ water polo team ranked 25th in Oregon and had a 3-14 overall record (2-8 TRL) with an initial 17-4 tournament win against Redmond. The other two wins came in the form of league matches with Forest Grove, 14-8 on Sept. 29 and a 13-0 shutout on Oct. 18.
