Is it the Season of the Eagles - or is it Eagle season?

My first visit ever to Eagle Point for football was a great one. The temperature was 96 degrees when practice started at 4 PM. It was great baseball weather.

I'm assuming that a lot of the players are outdoorsman and do a little hunting. On the very first exercise, a short warm up jog, one of the assistant coaches yelled out "It's a GRRRRREAT day to be an Eagle!" One of the players yelled out in response, "Not if it's Eagle season." By the time I left at 7:30, I was thinking it just might be a great season to be an Eagle and it'll take a good team to be bag an Eagle.

GH is Gary Haliski
JS is coach Schauffler

GH: How many players have turned out?
JS: About 60 in the sophomore through senior level. About 30 frosh.

GH: Who are your returning starters and other key returning players?
JS: Tyrone Holmes, a two way all leaguer. He has an offer from Washington State. He’s friends with Marist’s Logan Mayes, who went to Washington State. Tyrone has the same physique as Mayes, which makes for a great high school defensive end. Garrett Snow returns as running back and will play linebacker. He’s not going to run away from people, but he’s really tough to bring down. Garrett is also a back up quarterback and one of our linebackers.
GH: Does he play baseball? You know, I"m a baseball guy.
JS: He used to play baseball, but he's been a top 6 javelin thrower in state.
GH: You're killing me. Sounds like a pitcher to me.
JS: Garrett didn't miss any summer workouts and has an offer from Southern Oregon. Zach Reed is a 6' 9" defensive back and will see time as a receiver. A really exciting sophomore is Jorge Quintero. He's really high in football smarts. Brian Strong is at guard. Strong is an interesting story. He was all league last year. He is in an early entry program for the military and won’t be able to join us for the first game. We have eight senior linemen who can play anywhere, and will. Each of them knows two positions. The guys will be fresh and having so many lineman who can play mulitiplie positions helps cover us in case of injuries. Senior Lorne Nesberg is leader of our wide receivers and should have a good year. Junior Kyle Zerger is a really good player. He’ll be playing free safety and wide receiver. It’s his first year starting. A few of other juniors who are looking good are - Johnny Wilkerson, he’s got the potential to start as a receiver - Brandon Wilson is another really good athlete at the defensive back and wide receiver positions - Jakob Combs is backing up Snow at running back.

GH: Who are your linebackers this year?
JS: Snow, Daniel Morgan and Caleb Ash. Ash is more of a strong safegy.

GH: Everyone in the league lost their starting quarterback. Have you settled on one yet?
JS : Daniel Morgan is our quarterback. He's been our backup for two years. Daniel is a great leader. He gets the linemen set up quickly. He’s got a lot of football smarts.

GH: Defense has to be an area of opportunity after last season. The Eagles were able to put up a lot of points on the board, but so were your opponents. Any personnel changes or changes in scheme that should help improve the team?
JS: Our scheme is the same. We were terrible tacklers last year. So we're doing tackling circuits every day. Concentrating on the form of a tackle. And tackling was what we worked on in the off season.

GH: You have a huge home opener with Mountain View. You follow that with home game against the always tough Lancers. Have the players been focusing on those games?
JS: Getting up for Mountain View is easy. They are right up there with Marist and Sherwood as one of the top programs in the state. Two years ago Mountain View scored on the first play of each half and they beat us by two touchdowns. Last year, we lost by two. We're getting closer. Getting up for Churchill is much the same. We know Churchill has good players, a good team, and a good scheme.

GH: How do you like being in the Midwestern League?
JS: We really like it. The down side last year was that seven of our ten games were three or more hours away. But we probably have the toughest league in the state from top to bottom, and that's good. Ashland ended up losing to eventual state champions Sherwood. We lost to state runner-up Marist, who was in our own league, and Churchill made it to the quarterfinals.

That ended the sit down portion of my interview. But as I wandered around the facilities I noticed some great enhancements to practice. The Eagles were videotaping practice, which they share with their players. Plus they had a giant electronic clock which counted down the seconds for each drill and then blasted a big horn for the next drill. I thought I was back in Coos Bay in the 1950’s when there were a million ships and tugs blasting their horns all day long. The ‘Segment Timer’ kept the practice hopping, and I’m sure glad my high school coach didn’t video tape practice – game replays could be quite brutal. Coach Schauffler was proud to point out that Eagle Point has one of the best real grass surfaces of any high school in the state, and it sure looked like it. The boosters were active as could be seen by the parents providing healthy snacks (including a big bowl of fruit!) during the break.  Add in TV on Channel 12 for their first game, and a full season on ESPN radio, the first time the Eagles have been on radio for a full season since 1996, and I felt that this program was really reaching for the stars. Here’s what coach Schauffler had to say about his goals for the program:

JS: We play Mountain View right out of the blocks. We really respect their program and think they are in an elite classification of teams with Marist and Sherwood. Our goal is to join that group. They have reached a superior level and they are superior year in and year out. Consistency doesn’t just happen overnight. Everything you’re seeing is to reach our goal.
      We have a special senior class. They’re not only good in football, but in all sports. I really feel if this group of seniors is successful throughout the year, they will have a positive impact on all sports at Eagle Point for several years. Their leadership and effort has really helped the younger players. We have a lot of good senior leaders, Garrett Snow, Tyrone Holmes and Zach Reed quickly come to mind. It’s good to have strong leadership in the senior class. Hopefully, they have modeled leadership enough that it won’t fall off.
GH: Tell me about the clock and horn on the practice field.
JS: We call that the segment timer.
GH: The what?
JS: The segment timer.
GH: You’ve got to come up with a better name than that. That’s not too flashy.
JS: I actually got that for myself. I just didn’t feel that I was being efficient with my time. The clock is tied into the schedule I gave you. The software lets you program segments for any amount of time. The system gives you an audible warning as it counts down to zero for a segment and then the horn blows and we’re off to the next drill.

Towards the end of my visit, I followed the varsity over to the game field and went into the home stands to take a final photo. What a site. Mt. McLoughin was in the background and as far as you could see – across the game field, across the huge practice field and onto the baseball field - there were Eagles and Eaglets (midget Eagles dressed in Eagle blue)

It really was a GRRRREAT day to be an Eagle.

PS: It was a long day that started in Ashland at 8:30 and the Eagles still had a lot of practice to go. I headed back to Eugene forgetting to do a pop quiz with any of the Eagles.