Putting In The Time, Putting In The Work

By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MILWAUKIE, Ore.– As the month of January draws to a close Sunday morning going into afternoon at La Salle Prep, seven teams battled it out for the Rose City Rumble Championship Title. Wrapping up four weekends of ball in a world of uncertainty.

“It’s fun, you get to be around the best-of-the-best up here, it just brings your game up higher and just the positivity of getting back out here and compete again,” said West Salem’s Zachary Dodson-Greene.

Dodson-Greene has been part of EForce’s top team called Breed this Winter, making the voyage up to Beaverton twice-a-week for 7am practices as well as training and working with his West Salem football teammates the past few weeks. All to get better.

“It’s really big because it gives us an opportunity to get film out there and show off our skills going into the season, so you can at least have coaches knowing of you,” Dodson-Greene. “So when they watch you they’ll be able to put a face to a name.”

“It’s been a while. We don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know if we’re going to play or not. But we’ve been competing every weekend, getting out here. Practicing during the week, just trying to get ready for a season in hopes that we have one,” adds Sprague’s Logan Smith.

Sprague’s Logan Smith looking on as Valley Capitals lost a tough game with the 15U All-Stars Sunday Morning at La Salle High School (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)

Smith was part of the Valley Capitals squad, coached by South Salem assistant coach Billy Musgraves, that found themselves looking for a berth in the semi-final round after a 2-2 day Saturday. The squad was looking to end their four-week session off strongly Sunday. Smith was one of three quarterbacks with the Titans Brooks Ferguson and Canby’s Mikey Gibson getting thrown in during the month of January.

The Olympians Colton Herring has been showing out for the Capitals during the 12-game 7-on-7 season, making plays at receiver and cornerback for the Valley-squad. Building for the hopes of a Junior season in 2021.

“It’s been great, I’m glad to be out here. It’s a great opportunity to play, playing with my brother Logan, all the kids from Sprague and kids from other schools,” Herring said. “It’s been amazing. I’m glad to be out here and doing something instead of sitting at home.

“I’ve been training in the offseason, working every week for it. Just working.”

It was a tough way to end it for the Caps however. Consistency hurt them as they fell to the 15U All-Stars 21-7 in the quarterfinal round.

“We played to half of our potential today. We were looking forward to competing today and tried to get a Championship, but we fell way short than we should have. We know we’re better than that, we just got to keep getting better and keep getting more consistent like Billy said,” Smith said. “We don’t have that consistency that we need right now, we have a chance though. If we get to play with this team again, I think we have a chance of being really good.”

Dodson-Greene’s ‘Breed’ squad reached the Championship bout, but the game was called about midway through when a gruesome injury caused the game to be called prematurely, ending the game with ‘Breed’ ahead in the game.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald