Greater St. Helens League Football

Camas Papermaker WR/DB Jeremy Faulkner has a very nice highlight video on Youtube. I have embedded the videos below. Please note, this video was not produced by www.gshlfootball.com but by Jeremy Faulkner.

Union Titans TE/LB T.J. Boatright has a very nice highlight video on Youtube. I have embedded the videos below. Please note, this video was not produced by www.gshlfootball.com but by T.J. Boatright.

Former Mountain View Thunder football player Michael Roos was named to the NFL All-Fundamentals Team this week.

Roos who graduated from Mountain View in 2000, went on to play college football at Eastern Washington where he won several first-team All-American honors as an offensive lineman before getting drafted by Tennessee in the 2005 NFL Draft.

USA Football and the NFLPA selected 26 players for the All-Fundamentals Team for representing the fundamentals of the National Football League.

Along with a nice shiny helmet, Roos was awarded a $1,500 donation from USA Football to give to the high school of his choice. Roos has chosen to give the money to his alma mater, Mountain View.

Camas Papermakers LB/TE Ikaika Gunderson has a very nice highlight video on Youtube. I have embedded the videos below. Please note, this video was not produced by www.gshlfootball.com but by Ikaika Gunderson.

Zak Browning (#21 Sr. LB from Union) Odin Coe (#57 Sr. DL from Camas) and Ellis Henderson (#7 Sr. DB from Skyview) were all also voted as 1st team all-state by the Tacoma News Tribune

On December 3rd, Doug Pacey and the Tacoma News Tribune newspaper announced their 2010 TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE ALL-CLASSIFICATION ALL-STATE FOOTBALL TEAM which included 3 players from the Greater St. Helens League.

Zak Browning, Odin Coe And Ellis Henderson were all also selected by the Seattle Times for their All-State team for 2010.

Nate Becksted went 23-26 in 5 sesons at Heritage advancing to the post season 4 times, winning 1 league championship and being named the 4A GSHL Coach of the Year in 2007.

Despite taking Heritage to the post season the past 4 years, Heritage Head Coach Nate Becksted has decided to resign as the Timberwolves leader after 5 seasons at the helm.

Becksted took a Heritage program that had very little success in the school’s then 7 year history, and turned them into perennial contenders.

From 1999 when Heritage High School opened through 2005, the Timberwolves went 20-46 with 1 winning season and just 1 post season appearance under 2 head coaches.

Under Becksted, Heritage was 23-26 from 2006-2010, winning 1 league title and advancing to the post season each of the last 4 seasons. In 2007 Becksted was named the GSHL 4A Coach of the Year.

Prior to coming to Heritage, Becksted spent 8 years as a head coach at 2 different high schools in Northern California where his overall record was 69-16. While at St. Bernards and Willits High Schools, Becksted won 6 league championships and 2 Coach of the Year awards. Becksted also spent 2 years at Eureka as the Offensive Coordinator going 16-4 and winning 2 league championships.

“I am going to look for a job back toward my family,” said Becksted. “Both my wife’s family and my family live in far Northern California, so we are looking in Northern California, or Southern Oregon.”

Heritage Athletic Director Leta Meyer said that Nate had expressed to her his desire to move closer to his family and that “It was not a shock that he resigned.”

When asked what he will remember most about his time at Heriage, Becksted said, “The times I spent with the kids away from football, on our rafting trips, or team dinners, or our bowling Saturdays, that’s what I will miss the most.” He went on to say that, “spending time and building relationships with all the kids whose name never made it in the paper.”

In 2005 not many people thought Heritage could be successful in football.

Coming off  5 straight losing seasons, and only having 1 winning season in school history, a season which was sandwiched in between a pair of 0-9 campaigns, Becksted knew that something had to change.

“We just developed a type of program that kids wanted to be a part of,” he said. “We got lots of kids out and lots of multi-sport kids out. With more kids out than most programs with our demographics- we had more success.”

Meyer said she appreciates the dedication and commitment Becksted has put into the program the past 5 years.

“Nate has great passion for football and imparted that to his team,” she said. “He is a high energy person and an extremely hard worker. He worked to get more kids out for football and to improve the off season conditioning program. He changed our offense to accommodate our athletes and make playing football exciting for kids. He did a lot of great things at Heritage and I appreciate that.”

Becksted was also quick to point out that he had a lot of help from his coaching staff for the team’s success.

“Lots of time and energy have been given by several very good assistant coaches, guys like Kevin Peterson, Tim Fox, Dan Chase, Wayne Storer, Rob Lutz, Ben Matthias the guys that have been with me the whole time.”

He also wanted to think his players for their support and efforts.

“I have had a great six years here working with some great coaches, administration, AD, and mostly great kids,” he said “I hope I had as much of an impact on the kids here at Heritage as they did on me.”

Meyer said there is no time line for hiring a replacement for Becksted at the moment. The job will eventually be posted on the Evergreen School District web site, once they know what possible teaching positions they will be able to offer along with the coaching position.

Heritage head coaches and records by year.

Pat King (1999-2003, 15-32)

1999 0-9
2000 9-1 (4A GSHL League Champs, lost in qualifying round)
2001 0-9
2002 2-7
2003 4-6

Dan Novick (2004-2005, 5-14)

2004 3-7
2005 2-7

Nate Becksted (2006-2010, 23-26)

2006 4-5
2007 7-3 (lost in qualifying round)
2008 5-5 (4A GSHL Co-League Champs, lost in qualifying round)
2009 4-6 (lost in qualifying round)
2010 3-7 (lost in qualifying round)

Cal Szueber went 10-27 in 4 seasons as the head coach at Fort Vancouver High School. Szueber was the 2007 3A GSHL Coach of the Year.

After just 4 seasons as the Trappers head football coach, Fort Vancouver High School has decided to part ways with Cal Szueber.

Szueber said that Fort Vancouver is “going in a different direction.”

Fort Vancouver went 10-27 with Szueber at the helm, including 3 straight 2-7 seasons.

In 2007, Szueber’s first season at Fort, the Trappers went 4-6 and finished 3rd in the 3A GSHL. The 4 wins equaled the most wins any Trapper team had had since 1998 when Fort Vancouver went 7-3, losing in the preliminary round.

Prior to arriving at Fort Vancouver, Szueber went 65-43 in his first 12 years as a head coach at 4 different schools, all of which were in Oregon.

Szueber went 20-7 from 1995-1997 at Oakland, winning 1 league championship and making the playoffs twice.  Next Szueber coached at North Doughal from 1998-2000 going 18-9, winning a league championship. From 2001-2003 Szueber went 16-11 at Tillamook, qualifying for the playoffs twice. Finally Szueber went 11-16 at Roosevelt from 2004-2006, making the playoffs twice.

In 9 of his first 12 years as a head coach Szueber had a winning record and he took all 4 teams he coached to the playoffs at least once.

“I am happy the Fort program is much more competitive now than when we arrived in 2007,” said Szueber. “This year we lost 4 games by 8 points or less, and winning 3 of those would have put us in the playoffs. We didn’t have numbers to compete with the top programs, but our kids showed a lot of heart and determination. I will miss working with them! Unfortunately, this was the only school I have been at that we couldn’t get the program turned around in the win column.”

Winning at Fort Vancouver has not come easy for anyone who has led the Trappers for quite some time.

Prior to Szueber’s run at Fort, Greg Stoller led the Trappers from 2005-2006 going just 3-15 in 2 seasons.

Current Union assistant coach Gary McGarvie was the Fort Vancouver head coach from 2001-2004. McGarvie’s Trappers went 13-25 in 4 seasons, but did manage a pair of 4 win seasons and qualified for the preliminary round of the playoffs twice, despite never having a winning season.

Prior to that, legendary Fort Vancouver football coach  Gary Boggs struggled to find success in his final years. Boggs led the Trappers from 1967-2000. In Boggs final 11 seasons (1990-2000) the Trappers went 33-64 with just 2 winning seasons (5-4 in 1996 and 7-3 in 1998), qualifying for the preliminary round in 1998.

Despite that fact that Fort Vancouver started playing football in 1893, then the Vancouver High School, the Trappers have yet to win a WIAA State playoff game.

Since 1973 when the WIAA went to a playoff format to determine the states football champions, Fort Vancouver has only qualified for the playoffs 4 times. The Trappers lost first round games in 1973, 1978, 1979 and 1983 and have not been back to the playoffs now for the past 27 seasons.

Fort Vancouver athletic director John Griffin declined to comment on the situation.

Coach Cal Szueber’s Head Coaching Record (16 years):

* League’s Coach of the Year Award

Union Titans RB/LB Zak Browning has a very nice highlight video on Youtube. I have embedded the videos below. Please note, this video was not produced by www.gshlfootball.com but by Zak Browning.