Consider the torch of Hermiston athletics carried proudly and passed on.

After a banner year for the Bulldogs in 2006-2007 a year that saw two team and seven individuals state champions and by the measure of state success surpassed anything Hermiston had seen before the Hermiston athletes came out and did it again.

From the boys’ cross country team going silver at the state meet in the fall to Michelle Coombs capturing a state title and meet record in the javelin Friday, it was a trio of seasons packed with new high marks and monumental victories.

It was also a year of farewells, with football’s David Lewis, girls’ basketball’s Mike Royer and baseball’s Greg Kaatz all resigning from their coaching posts. While Lewis and Kaatz will move on to other things, Royer will stay at Hermiston High School and continue working as a counselor.

Along with the coaches, a bevy of senior athletes will say farewell Saturday at graduation. Several will carry the Hermiston tradition into college programs around the country, but many will hang up the uniforms forever, retiring as Bulldogs.

At final count of OSAA medals and trophies, the Bulldogs matched their previous mark, bringing two team and seven individual titles back to Hermiston.

The wrestling team won its third state title in seven years and the girls’ tennis team repeated as champs, tying West Albany for the top spot.

Of the seven inidividual state gold medalists, four will turn in their purple and gold Saturday, including wrestlers Frankie Perez and Randy Larson, three-sport star Coombs and tennis champ Alison Hawman. All four go out as first-time state titlists, and Larson and Coombs have both taken scholarship offers to compete at the college level.

The other three junior wrestler Ben Jorgensen, sophomore swimmer Taylor Goodwin and junior tennis player Richole Berger will be back with the rest of the underclass in the fall to pick up where they left off.

Along with matching record gold medal counts, both Hermiston basketball teams broke school records with the girls taking second at the state tournament and the boys finishing fourth. No school in the state can brag three combined winter finishes as high as the Bulldogs, with Goodwin’s 100-yard breast stroke title thrown in for good measure.

So with the bar raised a notch higher, the eyes of Bulldog fans turn to new coaches football’s Mark Hodges, basketball’s Steve Hoffert and baseball’s Brent Mattson and the new crop of young athletes who will lead on after the summer months.

Daniel Wattenburger is the sports editor for the Hermiston Herald. E-mail him at dwattenburger@hermistonherald.com or call him at 564-4534.