Philomath Basketball vs. Yamhill-Carlton (01-30-2015)

Senior Forward Brodie Marchant sinks a Field Goal for the Philomath Warriors in their game against Yamhill-Carlton on January 30. The reigning 4A State Champs are currently 16-2 and ranked #3 in the state.

6' 4" Sophomore Forward Cal Stueve hits a slam dunk in Philomath's 80-29 win over Yamhill-Carlton. It's the most points Philomath has scored in a single game since February 25, 2014 when they defeated Stayton 104-62.

6' 1" Freshman Post Haidyn Ecker fights to get her shot in the basket after a double rebound in Philomath's game against Yamhill-Carlton. The Warrior Girls, who placed 6th in state last year, are currently 10-7 and ranked 14th in the state at the 4A level.

Philomath's Senior Post Breanna Davis intercepts a Field Goal attempt by Yamhill-Carlton's Katie Sauers. The Warriors defeated Yamhill-Carlton 64-10, the most points scored against a conference opponent since January 18, 2013 when they defeated Taft 73-28.

The award winning Philomath HS band shows their spirit and plays fight songs for the crowd during every home game. The girls and boys basketball teams both play back-to-back which means the dedicated band plays for more than 4 hours straight on game nights.

2014 Philomath Christmas Tree Lighting (December 2)

The Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath rises through the darkness, on the first Tuesday of December. Less than an hour prior to the 8th annual Christmas Tree Lighting.

The Tree Lighting is sponsored in part by the College United Methodist Church, next door to the museum. They provided cookies and hot chocolate for the crowd of about 300 who showed up to watch the tree lighting.

When Santa Claus arrived he and Mack the Knight, the mascot of the Corvallis Knights, walked through the crowd handing out candy canes to all the children.

The nearly 40-foot Evergreen tree stands tall on the lawn of the Benton County Museum on Main Street in Philomath, decorated with Christmas lights. The Christmas lights were put on by members of the Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce.

After the tree lighting the stars of the show depart in Philomath’s first ever fire engine. Philomath Fire Chief Tom Phelps, Mack the Knight, 2015 Philomath Frolic and Rodeo Queen Darian Anderton-Seim, and Santa Claus.

Philomath HS Playoff Game vs. South Umpqua (11-07-2014)

Center Cayleb Newton prepares to snap the ball to South Umpqua QB Erik Johnson during one of their drives. South Umpqua and Philomath played each other in the 1st round of the 2014 OSAA 4A Football Playoffs. South Umpqua defeated Philomath handily, 57-14. They will advance to play North Bend on Friday in the Quarterfinals.

Philomath’s game against South Umpqua was played at Corvallis High School. It wasn’t a sellout, but a lot of students and fans made the 5 mile drive over from Philomath, this game was a nail biter only until the end of the 1st when the score was 12-7.

The Philomath Offense prepares to make a play during their first scoring drive. This was the third straight year that Philomath had made it to the playoffs. They have only won one state title in school history (1988, 28-21 over Dallas) and have appeared in the playoffs 15 times since then.

The Philomath Cheerleading Team perform a stunt during the playoff game. There were three seniors on the cheer squad that were recognized during halftime, they cheered in their last high school football game.

Fans were treated to some halftime entertainment as the Philomath Shining Stars Dance Team performed a routine.

2014 Oregon State Homecoming Parade

The OSU Marching band seen marching in the 2014 Oregon State Homecoming Parade on Thursday, October 30.

OSU’s College of Education marching with their school bus float in the OSU Homecoming Parade. The Parade took place on campus, followed by a block party outside Reser Stadium.

The Oregon State Women’s Basketball Team up on the stage doing chants with Benny the Beaver and Kathy Bickle, Executive Director of the OSU Alumni Association, in the first ever Homecoming Block Party. The OSU Women’s Basketball Team will kick-off their season in Corvallis against Western Oregon on Sunday and will start out ranked 20th in the nation.

Oregon State Head Football coach Mike Riley speaks to the crowd during the block party. He received a few boo’s when he came on stage but quickly calmed the crowd down and reassured them that the Beavers will win their Homecoming game against California two days later. Oregon State ended up losing to California 45-31. Oregon State is now 4-4, 1-4 and they are 1-9 in their last 10 conference games.

The Oregon State Cheer & Dance Team performing a stunt during the Block Party at OSU in front of a crowd of about 300 who braved the rain to show their spirit.

Guitarist Pope McHenry performs a song on stage for Beaver Nation during the OSU Homecoming Block Party.

Rapper Gabriel Fleck raps out a few lyrics on stage for Beaver Nation during the OSU Homecoming Block Party.

During the Homecoming Block Party there was a pie eating contest between the ASOSU (Associated Students of OSU) and the MUPC (Memorial Union Program Council) judged by Melissa Blanchard, Executive Director of promotion and outreach for ASOSU. The team from ASOSU won the contest in front of Beaver Nation.

Philomath High School Homecoming 2014

Junior Offensive Lineman Caleb Henderer prepares to snap the ball to Senior Quarterback and Kicker Trey Ecker in the 2nd quarter of Philomath High Schools Homecoming Game on Friday, October 3.

The football stadium at Philomath High School was packed with fans and students Friday as they await not only the outcome of the game, but also the arrival of the five homecoming princesses.

The homecoming princesses consisted of one girl from each grade, except for the senior class which had two. They arrived on golf carts driven by their escorts, they then stood in a line in front of the crowd. Senior princess Rachel Seagren was crowned queen.

Newly crowned Homecoming queen Rachel Seagren stands with her father, Pastor Bill Seagren, and mother, Jenny Seagren, shortly after being crowned. Rachel was born on August 19, 1997 in Silverton, Oregon she has two older siblings that currently attend Corban University in Salem.

The PHS Cheerleaders performing a cheer formation as their team was rallying to overcome a 4th quarter 14-point deficit. Senior Kicker and Quarterback Trey Ecker kicked a game winning field goal with only 4 seconds left. Philomath defeated North Marion 23-20.

Ellen at OSU

Comedian and Talk Show Host Ellen DeGeneres created a lot of ruckus in the Corvallis area on the afternoon of Saturday, May 17 after sending out a tweet that read “I hear Oregon is beautiful this time of year. I also hear something fun is gonna happen at @OregonStateUniv on Wed. Now you heard it too.” That tweet lit up Twitter and eventually made its way to Facebook.

There was speculation all weekend and into Monday that she was going to be in Corvallis promoting Coldplay’s new album. She confirmed late Monday that she will not be at OSU on Monday but will be in her studio interacting with OSU students via satellite.

On Wednesday, she finally disclosed everything. It turned out that she really sent her correspondent, Jeannie Klisiewicz, to Oregon State University in Corvallis to give away money to five lucky people in the crowd. The theme for the show was “Worst Dressed Dad” in honor of Father’s Day which is on June 15. By 2 p.m. Wednesday nearly 2,000 people, mostly students, flocked to the shows set which was located on the Memorial Union Quad on campus. Before taping started at about 3:30 p.m. Ellen’s correspondent went through the crowd looking for five people that were the worst dressed. Once she selected them she brought them inside the barricades and spoke to them. There were two segments the OSU was included in on the show. In the first segment the five selected people were told by Ellen to search for the JC Penney boxes which inside had cash, there was five boxes total, the five chosen people had seven minutes to find the boxes. In the second segment the five lucky people, who each got a box, opened them to see how much money the won. Ellen DeGeneres, with the help of JC Penney, gave away $17,000 total. One box had $10,000, one had $5,000, one had $1,000 and the two others each had $500.

Last weeks Ellen DeGeneres Show taping was the first time in 3½ years that a national TV show has come to Corvallis, Oregon. On Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010 ESPN College Gameday set up shop in the Memorial Union Quad to broadcast their three hour college football pre-game show live from OSU’s campus. Roughly 6,000 people showed up for that event, ESPN was there to cover the annual Civil War game between the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers. Oregon won the Civil War that year topping Oregon State 37-20.

The OSU episode of the Ellen DeGeneres show will air on Wednesday, May 28 on NBC. If you receive Portland stations the show runs at 3 p.m. on KGW. If you are in the Eugene viewing area then the show will run at 4 p.m. on KMTR.

Mr. Morella Profile

With grease covered hair and tinted glasses the driver's education teacher at Philomath High School is hard to miss. Mr. Morella, who is mainly referred to as just "Morella", has been teaching drivers education at PHS for 22 years for the first 14 of those years he taught at both LBCC and PHS.

The New Jersey native attended Rutgers University before moving to Oregon in 1990. He then attended Western Oregon University and Oregon State University, he has a degree from each college. One Master's and two Bachelor's. He began his career driving commercial vehicles along with teaching others how to drive commercial vehicles back in New Jersey. He then heard of a job opening in Philomath, near where he went to college, and decided to apply.

Morella, who will be retiring at the end of next year, enjoys teaching driver's education because he feels that he can create more of a relationship with the students and get to know them better where that isn't the case in other classes. He says that there isn't much that can surprise him, one thing he doesn't like is driving with students at night or in the rain. There are close calls from time to time but Morella tries not to react because often times the driver wont even notice. He tries to stay calm and doesn't raise his voice because that may spook the driver and cause more harm than good.

While on the ride-along an incident occurred right at the get go. As the student drove out of the high school parking lot he forgot to stop at the stop sign, as he passed the stop sign Mr. Morella said "Stop! What are you doing?" The student responded, "I'm doing a safety stop." Mr. Morella replied, "No, you don't need a safety stop! There is nothing blocking your view. Even if there was you need to stop at the sign first then creep out." The student apologized and Mr. Morella replied, "Don't be sorry just don't do it. Your also forgetting something else right now too. Where's your blinker?" The student replied, "I was just going to turn it on." Morella replied in disbelief by saying "No you weren't!" There were also several lies by the student. There was an instance going over Wren Hill just outside Philomath that the student changed lanes but failed to check his blind spot. When asked by Morella if he checked his blind spot the student said that he did and Morella said "I didn't see you."

One thing interesting about Morella is that he is a huge baseball fan, as most New Englanders are. Philomath happened to be playing a baseball game at Newport on the same day that Morella planned to do a drive with two students from Philomath to Newport and back. When we arrived at Newport and prepared to switch drivers Morella had the driver go to the baseball park to watch 10-15 minutes of the baseball game and then head back. The 10-15 minutes turned into 30 minutes, not because of a student but because of the teacher wanting to watch the game. It got to the point where one of the students finally said to the teacher "Mr. Morella, I think we should probably go." Philomath ended up routing Newport 18-5.