On Sunday, the Emerald sports staff sat down to reflect on the countless memorable moments – and there are plenty – produced by all of Oregon’s teams during the 2005-06 athletic season, which helped us settle on our annual end-of-the-year awards.
Much quarreling and two-and-a-half hours later, we had made our decisions, which included Oregon’s best interview, most valuable players, most improved athletes of the year, individual performances of the year, newcomers of the year, the most entertaining athletes of the year, the biggest disappointment of the year, the best play of the year, best players you’ve never heard of, best game and toughest athlete.
You likely hold your own favorite memory (and we’d like to hear them) – be it from a 10-2 football season that included the Holiday Bowl or the Pacific-10 Conference Track and Field Championships in our own backyard of Hayward Field.
Sorry, but I am sworn to secrecy on our conclusions and am forced to keep you waiting in anticipation for the results printed in the final sports pages of the year.
What I can tell you is there were many great candidates from this past year, and the decisions proved very difficult. And I can offer you some of our worthy candidates that didn’t collect one of the prestigious and coveted Emerald Awards.
Think of this column as the honorable mention section, if you will.
There were some no-brainers, but the areas we had the most difficulty deciding were: the individual performance of the year, best interview, best play and best game of the year.
Many individual performances immediately stuck out to me. There’s Brady Leaf against California in overtime. There’s Alicia Cook’s perfect game against fifth-ranked Stanford and Chamberlain Oguchi’s 22 points, including six three pointers, in less than 15 minutes against Washington in the Pac-10 Conference Tournament.
As impressive as those were, there was also Chelsea Wagner’s school-record-tying eight three-pointers in a win against Arizona. And don’t forget kicker Paul Martinez’ school-record six field goals against Montana.
For best interview, it seemed everyone had favorites including Cicely Oaks, Thomas Bieri, Markus Schiller and Eric Mitchum.
My personal favorite is former Oregon cornerback Aaron Gipson, who always offered up interesting material – a rarity today for most athletes – that fit his cocky-but-not-too-arrogant personality. Following the Civil War, Gipson slyly proclaimed that he scored more touchdowns than Mike Hass, Oregon State’s sensational wide receiver, in Oregon’s 56-14 victory.
Worth mentioning for play of the year included Brent Haberly’s fumble return for the go-ahead touchdown against Arizona, and, for game of the year, Oregon’s 31-17 victory on the road against 17th-ranked Arizona State, which provided the turning point in the Ducks’ football season.
Check out next Monday’s edition to see the games and players that made the cut.