Home MWL/SWC Blog Practice? We're talking about practice?!
Practice? We're talking about practice?! PDF Print E-mail
Blogs - MWL/SWC Blog
Written by DRH   
Monday, 18 August 2008 09:26    Hits: 329
If you read my old MWL/SWC blog over at WordPress, you know that I love Top 5 lists. So on this most holy of days – the first day of OSAA-sanctioned practice – I’ve put together a few of them to honor the occasion. Equipment has been issued; doubles start sooner rather than later; and we’re under two weeks until Zero Week.

Top 5… Players

MWL

1. QB Tym Pearson, Senior – Thurston. A dual-threat QB who emerged as a team leader as a sophomore, helping to salvage a playoff appearance in 2006 for a team that was absolutely devastated by injury. Arm strength, accuracy, speed…

2. OL/DL Aaron Boehland, Senior – Springfield. The best linemen to come out of the MWL in quite some time. Dominant since his sophomore year. In for a huge senior season blocking for Dusty Jarvis.

3. RB/LB Michael Bibbee, Junior – North Eugene. 6’3, 220 pounds of speed, power, and athleticism. Tough to bring down, if you’re able to catch him. A hard-hitting linebacker on the defensive side of the ball.

4. HB/DB Eric Knapp, Senior – Churchill. A pure athlete who swarms the opponent’s best skill position player and is a big-play threat for the offense. A dynamic wideout, and showed he could run the ball last year, too.

5. RB Craig Loper, Senior – Willamette. All he does is produce, and is going to close in on some of the MWL’s all-time records before the season is over.

SWC

1. LB/RB Boseko Lokombo, Senior – South Eugene. The best defensive player in the state of Oregon. Quick and powerful, will be used more on offense this year as well.

2. TE/DE Curtis White, Junior – Sheldon. Probably the best all-around player in Oregon, a two-way standout who makes impact plays all over the field.

3. WR/DB EJ Singler, Senior – South Medford. He’s a legitimate high D-1 prospect at tight end, but his future looks to be in hoops. Still, he’s the biggest weapon on one of the state’s best offenses, and the best player on an underrated defense.

4. OL/DL Charles Siddoway, Senior – South Eugene. A powerful run blocker with a bevy of D-1 offers, Siddoway hasn’t reached his full potential yet.

5. RB Criss Bowen, Senior – Grants Pass. One of the state’s leading rushers despite missing a handful of games to injury. Poised for a huge 2008.

Top 5… Games

MWL

1. Thurston @ Springfield – October 10. The Springfield Civil War has new meaning this year, as it will likely decide the MWL crown. The only downside about the two most talented rosters in the MWL going head-to-head is that it’s not being played on the final week of the season, as true rivalry games should. Oh well. Small quarrel. These teams do not like one another.

2. Willamette @ Springfield – October 31. Willamette will be looking for revenge for last season’s 7-6 loss to Springfield in the MWL opener. The loss cost them the outright league crown, and this year’s edition will likely have second place riding on it.

3. Churchill @ Willamette – October 9. Likewise, if my predictions are to be believed, this game should decide the third and final playoff berth. Both teams are talented, and any game played in Bethel with postseason implications is special.

4. Thurston @ South Eugene – September 19. An old rivalry is renewed, and it’s the MWL’s best chance at making a statement against a strong SWC contender. Come for that, stay for the QB duel.

5. Willamette @ Thurston – October 3. The two co-champions in ’07 open up the league slate in ’08. Willamette won at Silke Field last year, but Thurston will try to hold off the Wolverines at their new stadium. Revenge games are always sweet, especially when they feature playoff-caliber opponents. Doesn’t hurt that the two best QBs in the MWL (Tym Pearson and Spencer Phillips) will be going head-to-head.

SWC

1. Sheldon @ South Medford – October 31. Not much explanation needed. Both teams will likely be in the Top 5 by this point. SWC supremacy will be established.

2. Skyline (WA) vs. Sheldon – September 6 (PGE Park). The best of Washington vs. the best of Oregon. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a huge statement game for Oregon prep football.

3. South Medford @ South Eugene – October 17. It’ll be interesting to see how South Medford’s trio of returning all-league linemen rotate off Charles Siddoway. It’ll also be interesting to see one of the state’s best offenses going against the state’s best individual defensive force.

4. Southridge @ Sheldon – September 19. Southridge is a strong contender out of the Metro, and both of these teams should go far come November. This early season showdown should tell us a lot about both schools.

5. South Eugene @ Sheldon – October 24. Nobody plays Sheldon as well as South Eugene does – nobody. This rivalry game should never be missed, but the talent on both sidelines could make it one for the ages.


Top 5… Storylines (combined)

1. Sheldon’s Streak. It’s 56 games and counting. Two whole years after the naysayers said it would end (upon the move to the SWC), it’s still chugging along. If Sheldon can get past some landmines (@ Grants Pass, home against South Eugene), it’ll be put to its biggest test yet on the road against South Medford on 10/31. Can it reach 61 games?

2. Springfield’s Civil War. For the first time… ever (?), the two best teams in the MWL look to be from Springfield. Both teams return a ton of talent, and to make matters even more interesting, the venue will actually matter when the two teams meet – after decades of sharing Springfield’s Silke Field, Thurston now has it’s own on-campus football stadium. Who was the designated home/away school never mattered in the past – now it does. This year, Springfield hosts the Civil War at Silke. Home field advantage and a possible MWL trophy has this rivalry as pumped up as it’s ever been. Thurston’s won 17 straight, a feat almost as improbable as Sheldon’s league win streak. Is this the year it snaps?

3. South Eugene’s Resurrection. A year after making it all the way to the 6A Quarterfinals, SE’s 2007 season never got going, and the Axemen went 0-5 in SWC play. Returning the SWC’s top trio of talent – LB Boseko Lokombo, OL/DL Charles Siddoway, QB Dustin Haines – South is primed to jump back into the thick of the league race and make their return to the postseason. But there’s drama – Siddoway will be ineligible the moment he participates in his first official practice (today), and it will take a trio of SWC principals to grant him eligibility. Siddoway has offers to play at five Pac-10 schools, and Alabama. Siddoway’s situation will go a long way towards whether or not the Axemen can get back on track.

4. The MWL Playoff Hunt. Really, no one’s out of it – which is the first time in a long time you can say that in the preseason. The teams I have outside looking in – Churchill, North Eugene, Marshfield – are all either very talented, or will have plenty of seniors to depend on. Churchill returns the best defensive player in the MWL and plenty of skill position talent – North Eugene returns the MWL’s best running back, and one of the top wide receivers. Both are quarterbacks away from becoming players in the title hunt. Marshfield is big on senior leadership, has a dynamic junior quarterback, and has by far the most prestigious MWL football history – you can never count them out. The depth in this league is as strong as it’s been since 2005.

5. Who Is The Better League? Okay, okay. This might be a bit of stretch. Reclassification was based on football disparities, if anything at all, and separating schools based on enrollment effects football more than any other sport. The MWL has been the better league in basketball both years’s of the 5A/6A split, and was vastly superior last year in baseball, but hasn’t even come close to touching the SWC in football. Not only has a MWL school never beaten a SWC school since reclassification, Marshfield’s ten point loss at Grants Pass in 2006 is the closest the MWL has come to beating the SWC. But there’s several opportunities for that to change this year – Grants Pass @ Marshfield, North Medford @ Willamette, Sheldon @ Churchill, Thurston @ South Eugene, and South Eugene @ Willamette could go a long way towards reestablishing the MWL as a legitimate threat to SWC authority.

Top 5… Things to Keep in Mind

1. Everybody has Sheldon @ South Medford circled on his or her calendar, but Sheldon can’t afford to overlook archrival South Eugene the week before. Four reasons: 2004 (Sheldon 34, South 28), 2005 (Sheldon 10, South 7 – overtime), 2006 (Sheldon 27, South 21 -- overtime), and 2007 (Sheldon 22, South 14). Four straight meetings, all decided by a touchdown or less.

2. North Eugene will probably start the season out 5-1, but don’t crown them just yet. The Highlander’s non-league schedule is anything but strong, and will get a big upgrade in competition once MWL gets into full swing. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t celebrate the wins, but we’ve heard in each of the last two years that North Eugene would be a legitimate contender after they started 3-1 both seasons, only to watch NE come crashing back to Earth. 

3. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Thurston has started the last three September’s a combined 5-7, only to rebound in October and November (regular season) by going 11-4. Don’t write off a league title for the Colts if they start slow. It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.

4. Several schools are going to be looking to restore legitimacy this year – Grants Pass is trying to make amends for last season’s 1-4 flop down the stretch, Roseburg is trying prove it still belongs among the SWC power schools, Churchill continues to have unfulfilled dreams of being the elite school in the rebuilt MWL, and Marshfield will try to avoid it’s first two-year postseason drought since 1984 and 1985.

5. While those schools are all traditional power schools trying to hold onto the glory, there’s a trio of Eugene/Springfield schools who don’t have an illustrious football history trying to break the mold and join the elite. Before Chris Miller became the head coach at South Eugene in 2002 and the Axemen made four straight playoff appearances from 2003-06, South had missed the postseason in 14 of the previous 15 years. Springfield hasn’t made the playoffs since 1996, and North Eugene hasn’t been since 1993. The Millers, in particular, haven’t won a playoff game since 1957. All three will make strong playoff pushes this year.

Here’s to a great season.