Elite Oregon Girls Exposed

Brady Rust page editor

On December 5, 2022, Eric Watkins stepped down from his position with Elite Oregon Girls, an organization founded on highlighting and publicizing teenage girls’ sports within the state of Oregon. The company he founded and worked for up until then, EOG, uses three words to describe their purpose: “Inspire, Motivate, Support.” Despite this promise, they permitted Watkins, a man in his late 20’s, to utilize his connections with the company to engage in inappropriate conversations with teenage girls. Watkins was banned from a school district in Salem in May of 2022 for making parents and students uncomfortable, but other schools in Oregon took no action. By allowing Watkins access to schools and encouraging communication between him and minors after concerns were brought forward, the EOG and various Oregon schools seem to be “inspiring, motivating, and supporting” child predators, rather than the young women they pledged themselves to.

Although Watkins said he was inspired to cover high school sports for girls due to the little representation they get in media, his motives were sadly fueled by his unprofessional interest in teenagers. Within his farewell article, Watkins wrote, “It seems that many have forgotten it is a lone person holding up the forefront for girls sports coverage.” This lack of coverage on women’s sports created an opportunity for Watkins to gain a following and, unfortunately, use his position to make connections with young girls. In response to this excerpt from Watkins’ article, junior Sheah Yi, who has played for the Sheldon girls lacrosse team in the past, believes that, “It is incredibly disappointing that there will be a rare chance of someone covering Oregon women’s high school sports because they genuinely care about our representation.” The result of Watkins’ actions lead Yi to think that Watkins has caused far more harm than good in our community, and that all we can do is hope he receives the punishment he deserves, or any punishment at all.

Watkins made many controversial media posts prior to the creation of EOG, and these posts should’ve prevented his platform from even gaining traction in the first place. Watkins said his mission was to help young women in sports, but he is against women’s rights regarding abortion. These posts made by Watkins do not support girls or give them a voice, which contrasts the whole purpose of the EOG. Noting Watkins’ background, junior Alexa Burger, a member of the Sheldon Colleens, said, “ I think school districts should direct more safety measures towards female sports in high schools. Having background checks for anyone who wants to photograph or record women’s sports could make the players feel more comfortable.” It is evident that the school districts of Oregon could have done more to protect their high school athletes, a simple social media search could’ve prevented the disaster that EOG has become.

The aftermath of Watkins’ actions has left many female athletes scared for their safety within their sports. Junior Olivia Gilhuber said, “This situation alone would not deter me from playing high school sports, but it would make me more wary of who is attending these games and events.” Watkins’ use of his power and voice to manipulate young athletes tarnished the reputation of Oregon media publicity surrounding high school girls sports and negatively affected the many young athletes he came into contact with. Watkins still has his media credentials and could continue his ‘work’ in another state where his past actions would be unknown. The safety of young athletes around the country is at risk as long as Watkins is able to continue his work regarding high school sports.

Students Who Make Music

Kamani Melton-Winger staff writer

A lot of people dream of being an artist, but most people don’t ever get the chance to make music. That is different for junior Tyler Minson, who has been making music since the summer of 2020. Artists that inspire Minson are J. Cole and Baby Keem because they are legends to him. Minson just does music for fun as well as to relax and be creative. “My music is a mix of real and not; I won’t say what’s what,” said Minson about his lyrics being real.

Minson’s style of music is Rap/R&B and he first started making music when he was fourteen. Minson’s favorite song that he has made is “YouKnowMyBody.” “It is so iconic,” said Minson. A concert is something Minson would love to do in the future when he gets better and releases more music. He has no music videos but he would like to make some. Minson records from his friends’ houses using a setup he and his team carry around.

Some advice Minson has for anyone trying to make music is to “start messing around on GarageBand and see what you can come up with, and to have patience because it takes time to get right.” Minson has thought about expanding genres, but still staying with Rap/R&B. He chose his rap name “Lil TyTy” because when someone first called him that he knew it represented him very well. Minson only releases music on Soundcloud, but is working on expanding to more mainstream services in the future.