Greater St. Helens League Football

Camas DL Odin Coe 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 Odin Coe.

Skyview WR Karl Graves turned down Central Washington for Southern Oregon - Photo by Dave Scott

National Letter of Intent day has come and gone. But colleges around the country are still working hard to fill in their rosters. When plan A does not work out in early February, it’s time to hunt down plan B and C in late February.

The weekend prior to NLI, Graves took a visit to Ellensburg where he was hoping to receive a scholarship offer from Central Washington.

“The trip to Central was awesome,” said Graves earlier this month ”until the very end when they told me they did not have any money.”

But just one week later, he told us that his plan was to walk on at Central anyways. They offer a degree in teaching that he wants and his former Skyview QB, Austin Dodge, will be a Redshirt Freshman next season. Graves was excited about bringing back the old magic.

Coming into the 2010 season, Graves had high hopes of having multiple scholarship offers to chose from come NLI day.

After his Junior season, Graves was a 4A GSHL Coaches All-Leageu First Team WR, First Team Columbian All-Region WR, and GSHLFootball.com All Level All-Star First Team WR. Entering the 2010 season Graves was also a preseason GSHLFootball.com 4A GSHL All-League WR, as well as preseason GSHLFootball.com All Level All-Star First Team WR.

Graves was in the middle of a solid season before he suffered a high ankle sprain in the first quarter of week 7. His 412 receiving yards were 2nd in the 4A GSHL at the time and his 4 receiving touchdowns and 17.17 yards per catch both led the league prior to his injury.

Despite working his but off to get back on the field, Graves was limited to long snapping for the remainder of the season, and in turn, fell off the radar of most colleges.

The walk on offer at Central started to look like the best possible fit for Graves all things considered.

However, not every school was content to just let Karl Graves walk on at Central Washington.

Enter Southern Oregon University.

New Raiders head coach Craig Howard invited Graves down to Ashland Oregon with the hopes of changing his mind.

He did!

Graves fell in love with the campus and the area. He also was very excited about coach Howard, who was born and raised in Grants Pass, but has spent the past 10 years coaching high school football in Florida, most notably at Nease High School where he was the coach of Denver Bronco QB Tim Tebow.

“Southern was awesome,” said Graves. “Coach Howard is one of the best.”

It also helped that Southern Oregon threw in a scholarship for Graves, although when asked he said that even if Central wold counter with a scholarship now, he is set on moving to Ashland.

The good news is that even though he won’t be paired up again with ex-teammate Dodge, he will still have a Greater St. Helens League QB passing him the ball.  Former Woodland QB Trevor Hurn and WR Shane Brady are both currently Freshman at SOU. As for Dodge, the loss of Graves does not mean he won’t have a fellow GSHL alum running routs at Central, not only will Heritage Senior Andy Bemis be possibly playing TE next year, Heritage WR Doug Van Aalst (class of 2010) is expected to enroll at Central Washington in time for the Wildcats Spring practice.

Camas WR Miguel Salamanca (right in black), seen wrestling Josh Romero of Sunnyside, won the 3A State Championship in the 145lb bracket.

This past weekend the best high school wrestlers in the state descended on the Tacoma Dome for Mat Classic XXIII.

Wrestling, like many of the club sports, has a lot of athletes who specialise in the sport. They wrestle year round in clubs and travel all over the country competing to hone their skills.

However plenty of this years top wrestlers also spent time playing football in the Greater St. Helens League.

Two of which won state championships.

Miguel Salamanca of Camas and Riley Miller from Kelso each took home 3A individual state championships at the Tacoma Dome last weekend.

Salamanca, a 2010 First Team GSHLFootball.com All Level All-Star WR, won the 145lb weight bracket. On Friday Salamanca pinned David Jason of Franklin in the second period then defeated Blake Johnson of Mercer Island 6-4 to advance to Saturday’s Semifinals. On Saturday he just edged out Josh Romero of Sunnyside 8-7 setting up the title match with Matt Owens of Hanford. Salamanca defeated Owens 9-6 to win his first wrestling state championship.

Miller, a 2010 3A GSHL Coaches Second Team All-League RB, won the 119lb weight bracket. On Friday Miller defeated Isaac Robinson of Ferndale 13-5 then beat Nathan Gonzalez of Sunnyside 9-7 to advance to Saturday’s Semifinals. On Saturday he rolled up Brandon Leach of Shorewood 12-6 setting up a finals match with Brandon Matlock of University. Miller won the match 7-2, also taking home his first wrestling state championship.

7 other GSHL football players were among the top 8 wrestlers in their respective weight classes.

At the 4A level, Heritage WR Austin Fraizer finished 4th at 125lb, Evergreen OL/DL Micha Bagley finished 7th at 285lb, and Battle Ground OL/DL Miguel Simon took home 8th in the 189lb weight class.

At the 3A level, Columbia River LB Terrence Joshua finished 3rd at 189lb, Hudson’s Bay DB Emilio Alcantar finished 4th at 140lb, and Hudson’s Bay OL/DL Tyler Rangel took home 8th at 285lb.

Only 1 2A GSHL football player cam home with a metal, R.A. Long TE/LB Jared LaFrance finished 8th in the 152lb weight class.

14 other football players advanced out of regionals to qualify for state, but did not finish in the top 8 of their weight class. In the 4A, Heritage OL/DL Ian Overton and Union OL Max Proudfit at 285lb. Heritage WR Joey Cooper at 171lb. Union WR Jo Jo Reynolds at 152lb. In the 3A, Hudosn’s Bay OL/DL Jason Cline and Kelso OL/DL Eric McDaniel at 215lb. In the 2A, R.A. Long OL/DL Evan Earnest and fellow Lumberjack OL/DL Julio Barrera along with Washougal OL/DL Trevor Johnson at 285lb. R.A. Long LB D.J. Smith and fellow Lumberjack OL/DL Koreem Roundtree at 215lb. Woodland WR William Davis at 171lb. R.A. Long RB Christian Hudek at 135lb.

Great job representing GSHL Football in the Tacoma Dome!

Kaben Humphrey-Butler was 12 of 20 passing for 204 yards and had a rushing TD in the Titans 42-21 loss at Bothell in last years preliminary round of the WIAA 4A State Playoffs

For the second year in a row, the Union Titans will open their regular season against the team who ended their post season the previous year.

Union will open the 2011 season up at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell Washington where they will take on the Bothell Cougars.

In 2009 Union lost to Bellevue 19-13 at the Tacoma Dome in the WIAA 3A State Semifinals. They then opened the 2010 season at Qwest Field in the Emerald City Kickoff Classic vs Bellevue where they lost 20-6.

Last year, in the Titans first year playing at the 4A level, Union traveled up to Bothell for the preliminary round of the WIAA 4A State Playoffs. Union trailed 28-21 in the 4th quarter before the Cougars pulled away at home for the 42-21 win.

Bothell also played in last years Emerald City Kickoff Classic. They were the showcase game of the 5 game event as they took on national power Mission Viejo from California. The Cougars fell 49-13 to the talented and deep Diablos team that finished 13-1 losing in the California Southern Section Semifinals.

Since Bellevue opted to travel to Southern California and take on Oaks Christian in week 1, that left both Union and Bothell in need of a game in the middle of a 2 year schedule cycle.

Coach Piland told us that he was hoping to schedule a home game since the Titans now play 3 of their first 4 games on the road, but that he was excited to put his team to the test early and see just which players are ready to play varsity football at a playoff level.

2011 Union Titans Football Schedule

Week 1 – at Bothell
Week 2 – at Enumclaw
Week 3 – Westview OR
Week 4 – at Kelso
Week 5 – Mountain View
Week 6 – Heritage*
Week 7 – at Battle Ground*
Week 8 – Evergreen*
Week 9 – at Skyview*

Skyview QB Kieran McDonagh 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 Kieran McDonagh.

Medford TV station KDRV Chanel 12, the ABC Affiliate in Medford Oregon posted a video interview with former Heritage head football coach Nate Becksted who was hired as the new head coach at North Medford High School.

Nate Becksted was hired Monday as the new head football coach at North Medford High School in Southern Oregon.

In mid-December Nate Becksted stepped down as Heritage’s head football coach so he could pursue a job in either Northern California or Southern Oregon.

On Monday, North Medford High School hired Becksted as their new head football coach, and yesterday Becksted was publicly introduced at a press conference with several TV stations and local media outlets on hand.

Becksted is still down in Southern Oregon this weekend talking with his new coaching staff and administration. He told us that his plan is to return to Vancouver and finish out the school year teaching at Heritage before moving down to Medford as soon as school gets out.

North Medford athletic director Tim Sam told the Mail Tribune Newspaper in Medford Oregon that the kids are excited to play for Becksted. The Mail Tribune also reported that earlier in the week Becksted got a group of 20 North Medford football players together and went down to the football field where he briefly went over the offense, handed out his wrist bands then ran plays for half an hour to simulate the pace at which they will run their offense.

We know this as “NASCAR” an offense that put up 30+ points 17 times while Becksted was at Heritage. 10 of those games the Timberwolves scored over 42 points and even 3 times hung 60+ on their opponents.

This job will be a lot different then when Becksted took over at Heritage in 2006.

Heritage had only won 20 games in school history, all be it a brief 7 year history. North Medford on the other hand is among the winningest high schools in the country with over 680 football wins. Prior to 2006 Heritage had only 1 winning season (9-1 in 2000) and had only won 4 games once since then. The Black Tornado on the other hand have been “down” over the past 5 years and still went 21-27, winning at least 4 games in 4 of the 5 seasons.

“There’s defiantly no lack of support down here,” said Becksted in a phone interview with GSHL Football today. “They have a lighted turf practice field and had over 11,000 fans at the Black and Blue Bowl two years ago.”

The “Black and Blue Bowl” is the annual game between North Medford and South Medford High School.

After Hudson's Bay seniors painted the varsity locker room, Hayden Smith a non-football playing Senior and his father painted their logo onto the floor.

If you have ever been inside the Hudson’s Bay boys varsity locker room then you know it was kind of creepy.

The 50+ year old locker room is big with lots of turns and sectioned off rooms, and it was green.

That’s right, the Hudson’s Bay Eagles, had seafoam green painted brick walls.

Following their game with Prairie back in mid-October, then Interim Head Football Coach Will Ephraim decided it was time for a change.

“I thought the old paint job was boring and didn’t really represent Bay,” said Ingo Arrozal a Hudson’s Bay Senior WR.

Ephraim felt the same way.

With their 27-21 loss to Prairie dropping the Eagles to 1-6 on the season and 0-4 in 3A Greater St. Helens League play, Ephraim wanted to do something that the Senior class could be proud of.

“I did it so every senior had an opportunity to leave a part of themselves in a place where they put a lot of sweat and hard work in to,” said Ephraim.

Arrozal agreed with his coach on the importance of leaving something behind.

“I think its a great way to give back to Hudson’s Bay being able to play for them all four years,” he said. “It’s great being able to see the locker room before we leave to play football or basketball or know kids are seeing it everyday.”

While Ephraim, who served as an assistant coach under Steve Stebbins prior to the 2010 season, was only the interim head coach for 1 season, he was trying hard to change the culture at Hudson’s Bay and to instill pride in the program to all of his players.

He said he wanted the senior class, “to be remembered by others, leaving them something positive that they can send on. Creating tradition and pride.”

That positive attitude is already felt by the Bay players.

“Knowing everyday people will see something that I had a part off is a great feeling,” Arrazol went on to say. “I hope to put a positive attitude in years to come for Hudson’s Bay athletics.”

The involvement was not limited to the Hudson’s Bay football players either.

Hayden Smith, a senior at Hudson’s Bay, who does not play football, along with his father painted the Eagles helmet logo on the floor of the locker room to add even more school and team spirit.

Before/After Hudson’s Bay Locker Room Photos

Evergreen DB Quwontae Wallace 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 Marvin Thomas.