Siuslaw athletic director Chris Johnson likes where the Vikings may be heading after the coming next school year, the school's last in the Far West League.

The Oregon School Activities Association's classification and districting committee released its 18th draft model Thursday, placing Siuslaw in an 8-school Mountain Valley Conference.

"I think (draft) No. 18 is great for Siuslaw," Johnson said via email to Exploding Whale Sports. "I testified at the last classification meeting that I felt the smaller Class 4As needed to go down (a class) or the bigger 4As needed to go up.

"I was happy that the committee seemed to agree."

Siuslaw is the largest of the 8 schools in the proposed Class 3A Mountain Valley Conference, based on the adjusted 2015-16 average daily membership (ADM) as reported by Oregon school districts.

Revised figures are expected to be available this fall before the committee makes its final recommendation for the 2018-22 time block in mid-October.

Other schools in the Mountain Valley Conference include Creswell, Elmira, Harrisburg, La Pine, Pleasant Hill, Santiam Christian and Scio.

La Pine replaces Brookings-Harbor as the longest league trip for the Vikings, at more than 3 hours.

"We've made the La Pine trip before, when we were in the Sky-Em League," Johnson noted.

Johnson has some immediate issues to resolve as he heads into his second year as athletic director for the Vikings.

At the top of the list is filling the position of head baseball coach.

"The baseball job is our top priority," Johnson said. "We hope to have it all wrapped up shortly after the 4th (of July)."

Another project is the upgrade of the shot-put pit at Hans Petersen Field.

"Sometime after the 4th, thanks to a generous donation from the Siuslaw Athletic Booster Club," he said.

Then there are two car washes at 1 p.m. each of the next two Saturdays (July 1 and July 8) at Oregon Pacific Bank.

Proceeds will benefit the Vikings' cross country team.

"It helps send kids to Steens," Johnson said.


The Steens Mountain High Altitude Running Camp in southeastern Oregon has two week-long sessions in July.

NOTES

Siuslaw has been paired with 22 different schools in nearly a dozen configurations during the classification and districting process for the 2018-22 time block ... There are two more committee meetings, Aug. 28 and Sept. 25, with open public testimony. ...

The first day of practice for fall sports is Monday, Aug. 14, which is a short six weeks from this coming Monday, July 3. ...