By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

TURNER, Ore.–  Entering his ninth-year Tyler Tuner will have a new title while out coach football with the Cascade Football Team:

Head Varsity Coach.

Turner, who helped lead the eighth-grade team to an undefeated season five years ago and have been at the Varsity program the past four season coaching his way up, now it’s his turn to take over the program from the recently departed Brandon Bennett.

“There’s excitement, I’ve been with  Bennett for eight years now, kind of Junior High/Varsity (level), I was the JV coach for the last two-and-a-half-years and now getting the opportunity to take over the program…the expectations are high,” “The expectation is to keep things rolling.  There’s going to be no dip and we know what the expectation is.

“Losing talent isn’t a big thing when you got talent to replace it and that’s what I’m looking forward to.  Nerves are there, nerves are going to be there.  They’re not setting in there yet, but closer to Game 1…we’re getting ready for Baker, getting ready for Marshfield.  But we’re taking it one-day at a time from here.”

Despite losing some names like Blake Lewis and Jacob Hage, they return names like Jacob Bell and Teagan Allen as they wrapped up Spring Football practice Friday.  The line is something that Turner is excited to see when they open up the season against the Bulldogs on September 3.

But for now, it’s just a matter of blending everything together from Spring to Summer for those Game Day’s in the Fall.  And that familiarity of the kids he’s seen in the classroom or coaching prior will help as the Cascade program takes to this new chapter.

“The nice thing is that I’ve almost had every single one of these boys in my classroom.  I teach at the Junior High, I’ve coached them before, so I know all these boys,” Turner starts.  “They’re comfortable with me, they’re familiar with me and they know exactly my coaching style.  So I have the ability to push them without pushing buttons, but at the same time that’s important.

“The energy has been high.  The buy-in is there and now it’s just a matter of getting everything installed for the Spring, looking forward towards Summer because that’s where the growth happens.”

Photos By Jeremy McDonald