McMinnville, Oregon High School Wins $20,000 From G.I. Joe's.

19 Other Oregon High Schools Split $25,600

WILSONVILLE, Ore., Nov. 18 -- Norm Daniels, President and CEO of G.I. Joe's Sports & Auto Stores, and Steve Patterson, President of the Portland Trail Blazers, today announced the winners of the 2nd annual Support Our Sports (SOS) contest.

The contest is a way for schools to raise money for their sports programs. The winner of the $20,000 First Place prize is McMinnville High School. In Second Place is Aloha High, winner of $10,000. Gresham High is Third, claiming a $5,000 prize. Gladstone High wins $2,500 for Fourth Place. Rounding out the Top 5 is Rex Putnam High School, located in Milwaukie, winner of $1,300.

Schools competed to win the ten-week SOS contest by collecting their school-specific coupons from a weekly SOS newspaper ad sponsored by The Oregonian. The school that collected the most coupons won. Each competing school organized its students, parents, families, friends, alumni and faculty to collect the coupons.

Aloha High was last year's SOS contest champion. At last year's awards ceremony, several of the runners-up vowed there would be no repeat champion! McMinnville High, having finished second last year, was able to unseat Aloha as champion this year.

Shannon Burley, Advertising Manager at G.I. Joe's, said, "This contest is really about school spirit and determination. The school that wins will be the one that had the best organization, communication and follow-through over the entire ten weeks. It's amazing to see the inventiveness and ingenuity involved in collecting the coupons. The $20,000 first-prize certainly makes it worth their effort."

15 other high schools also won cash prizes in the 2004 Support Our Sports contest, sponsored by G.I. Joe's, The Oregonian, The Portland Trail Blazers, and 1080AM The Fan Sports Radio.

   6    Westview, Beaverton        $1000
   7    Milwaukie High School        900
   8    David Douglas, Portland      800
   9    Reynolds, Troutdale          700
   10   Century, Hillsboro           600
   11   Tualatin High School         500
   12   Franklin, Portland           400
   13   Centennial, Gresham          300
   14   Glencoe, Hillsboro           300
   15   Tigard High School           300
   16   Hillsboro, High School       200
   17   Roosevelt, Portland          200
   18   Battle Ground, WA            200
   19   Jefferson, Portland          200
   20   Washougal, WA                200

G.I. Joe's is a full-line sports and automotive retailer with 2003 sales of over $185 million. Sales for the current fiscal year are expected to exceed $200 million.