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Our best ever?

Article Excerpt
Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Jordan Kent is in his first weekend of training camp with the Seattle Seahawks, in what could be termed the latest experiment by a National Football League team to find out if an athlete can be turned into a professional football player.

Here's another idea: If Kent turns out to be what the Seahawks envision, does he then merit consideration as the best male athlete to ever come out of a high school in this area?

It's difficult to top the accomplishments of Danny Ainge, the 1977 North Eugene graduate who went on to play at the top levels of two sports, in major-league baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays and in basketball with four teams in the NBA, after he was the national college player of the year in 1981 at Brigham Young.

In an attempt by The Register-Guard to bestow a mythical honor on an athlete who graduated from a high school in the newspaper's circulation area, there appear to be two contenders to Ainge, based on their accomplishments beyond high school:

Football and baseball player Chris Miller, a professional in both who walked off the diamond before some thought he should, and Kent, who only began playing football in the fall of 2005 for Oregon after making notable contributions in basketball and track and field on the collegiate level.

Disagree? That input - or agreement - is being encouraged in a poll at www.registerguard.com. The accompanying chart (see right) of our area's best athletes in specific sports - those in which the Oregon School Activities Association conducts championships - is also open to discussion.

Remember these two qualifications used in compiling these selections: The athletes needed to attend a high school in the circulation area of The Register-Guard, and the primary factor in weighing...

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