By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SILVERTON, Ore.–  After sustaining a gruesome ankle injury Week 3 of his junior season that knocked him out of Silverton’s magical 5A State Championship run last Fall, Foxes senior Jackson Pfeifer is back at 100-percent and ready to roll for his senior year with the Silverton Football Team.  Prospect Camps helped him find his footing again over the Summer, along with scrimmages and 7-on-7’s that the Foxes had in between has Pfeifer excited for the season that’s officially kicking off on Monday.

It’s nice to be back.  I had some camps over the Summer that helped too and got me motivated for the season.  It’s helped me get coached by college coaches and talking to college coaches,” Pfeifer said.”We got some good leaders on this team and we’re getting there.”

Despite being that defending 5A Champions, there’s a lot of turnover for the Foxes.  A lot more of a younger team will take to the field as they’ll look to fill the void left by the seniors who graduated and gave them such a high standard and a high-bar to fill through with as they now prepare for a new season with new faces.

Scrimmages and the 7-on-7’s along with this past week’s Team Camp all helped introduce the new playbook of first-year Head Coach Dan Lever.  But they’re slowly coming along with the next two weeks serving more of a helping hand in making sure they got everything pit-pat going into their jamboree on August 25 at Sheldon High School  Their first game of the year will be at Dallas on September 2 before going to El Dorado Hills, California to play Oak Ridge High School on September 9 as part of ‘The Honor Bowl’ Games.  The Trojans of California went 3-7 in 2021 after reaching the Division-1AA State Semi-Final Round in 2021 where they fell to eventual State Champions in Central that season.

“A lot of young guys have to step up and get ready to play, but I think we’re getting there though,” said Pfeifer of the Summer.

“I loved having those scrimmages because it’s good for me especially because I’m going to be a sophomore and my first year of Varsity, it was good to get those first few reps in.  Getting a feel for that Varsity level and getting the weights and 7-on-7’s, it was a really good way for us trying to hone our skills and get better,” adds Sawyer Teeney.

Teeney was one of three quarterbacks getting reps in during Thursday’s session with the program looking to address the spot of Quarterback after Jordan McCarty graduated following this past school year.

“This has been the biggest Summer I’ve had for football.  It was just really good to get used to that so by Week 1, it’s really easy to figure that stuff out and be used to that speed,” Teeney said.

Sure it’s easy to get wrapped up in talks of ‘repeat’ or ‘deep run’ again after how last season went, but that’s not the approach really.  They’re taking it one-day at a time and one-week-at-a-time and seeing where this season leads them as they begin final preparations for Week 1 and the long-haul that is the High School Football season.

“It’s going to be very important for us to…rather looking at it as ‘we’re going to the State Championship’, it’s more like ‘let’s take it week-by-week and day-by-day, rep-by-rep’ so we can really get better and take the mini-steps to get a lot better rather than looking at the big picture,” Teeney said.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald