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Closing date set for NHS coaching vacancies
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Five Bucks, one more game |
A group of St. Paul football players compete in the
8-man all-star game Saturday at Linfield |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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Five former St. Paul High School
football players were a little sore Saturday afternoon.
After making up the majority of the West team in the 18th Annual
8-Man All-Star Football game at Linfield College, Derek Wolf, Cody
Kirk, Will Donaldson, Eliot Ramos and Matt Anderson were stretching
their legs and swinging their arms. They were making sure there
weren’t any significant injuries after a nearly eight-month layoff
since the last time they had strapped on a helmet and put on
shoulder pads for the Bucks.
“It
was difficult getting back into doing the same technique after not
playing for so long,” Ramos, the West’s center, said.
The sentiment rang true for the lineman, Donaldson. He had surgery
on his right rotator cuff three months ago and it was a little sore
after the game.
“It’s really hard,” he said. “It’s rough, especially since I had
surgery three months ago so it was really hard getting back into it.
Luckily everyone here was kind of out of shape, so it all evens
out.”
The game signaled the end of the careers of most of the players,
because it’s an event dedicated to the seniors of Class 1A football.
But before the players ran their last route, blocked a final tackler
and made one more catch, the teams spent a week together preparing
for the game. After practices, they saw a movie together, took a few
trips to the bowling alley and just generally had fun.
“There was a lot of goofing around,” Anderson, a running back,
said.
Not only were there five St. Paul players on the West squad that
fell to the East 44-12, but four players from nearby Perrydale
(Isaac Buhler, Steven Casalengo, Mitch McKee and Casey Rich) also
played in the game. St. Paul and Perrydale battle each other year in
and year out for the rights to the Casco League title and the two
have formed a friendly rivalry during the past seasons. With so many
familiar faces around during the week, Donaldson was pretty
comfortable.
“It felt just like we were at home,” he said. “Plus, we were with
the Perrydale guys, so there were nine of us who all knew each other
so we all got along pretty well.”
In the game, the West was forced to scramble for a quarterback because no
quarterback from a West team made the trip. So Kirk, who had moved
from quarterback to offensive end this year and allowed St. Paul
sophomore teammate Jeff Annen to take over the position, stepped
into his old role. He threw a 1-yard touchdown pass before his
41-yard touchdown pass to Camas Valley’s Kameron Wolfe gave the West
team a 12-0 lead with 58 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The touchdown by Wolf proved to be the last time the West would
score. The speedy East squad racked up 44 unanswered points and
cruised to the win.
“(Kirk) did a good job running the team and the offense,” St. Paul
and West coach Jay Phillips said. “(Anderson) ran hard and
(Donaldson) and (Ramos) blocked well. In the first quarter, we did
what we needed to do. We knew they were quicker than us and we
wanted to take the ball and run it up inside and they adjusted to
that as time went on. But overall, they just had better team speed
than us.”
After the game, Wolf, who played the role of cornerback on the West
team, won the West squad’s award for best defensive player.
“I thought all the kids played hard today and it was really nice to
see (Wolf) get the best defense award,” Phillips said. “He played as
well as anybody on our team.”
Now that the players have graduated, Ramos will attend Linn-Benton
Community College in Albany and study culinary arts and business.
Anderson, who will play his final high school football game later
this summer at the annual East-West Oregon Shriner’s Game in Baker
City, will head to Oregon State University in Corvallis to study
exercise and sports science. Donaldson, along with Ramos, will
continue his education at Linn-Benton to study engineering.
“More than anything, I just want to find something where I can be
able to design things,” Donaldson said. “I don’t really care what.
It’s just the aspect of designing is what’s important.”
Along with Anderson, Wolf will also head to Oregon State; Kirk will
attend Northwood University in West Palm Beach, Fla. Northwood is a
small, private college that competes at the National Association of
Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) level.
With all five players gone next season, it will start a new era in
St. Paul football — one without these five key players who helped
the Bucks to the playoff the past three seasons, where they guided
St. Paul to a 26-7 overall record.
“This group of seniors is just a great group of kids to coach,”
Phillips said. “They’ve been starters for St. Paul for three years
and they’ve been instrumental in the success that we’ve had the last
few years. They’re just as good as a group as we’ve ever had, as far
as coachability.” |
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From
June 20, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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