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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2018)
Appeal Tribune ܂ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018܂ 1B Sports Silverton RB Dahl goes from stands to field Watch for these skilled prospects Several players already have Division I offers Pete Martini and Gary Horowitz Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK The 2018 high school football sea- son begins this Friday, and there are a number of college football prospects in the Mid-Valley. Some of these players already have NCAA Division I scholarship offers, while others are still trying to land that big offer to play at the next level. Here is a look at the top 10 football recruits in Mid-Valley (in alphabetical order) from both the 2019 and 2020 classes: 1. Ashton Adams, South Salem (OL, DL — 2019 class) The 6-foot-4, 300-pound senior is the 10th-highest rated prospect in the state of Oregon for 2019, according to 247Sports.com. He has offers from Ne- vada, Utah State, Air Force, George- town, Idaho and Portland State. 2. Erik Barker, McNary (QB, DB — 2020 class) The 6-foot-4, 210-pound junior is the 9th-rated prospect in the state of Oregon for the 2020 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.com. He cur- rently has no offers. 3. Andre Beall, North Salem (OL, DL — 2019 class) Silverton grad Noah Dahl is a walk-on running back for the Oregon Ducks football team. PHOTO COURTESY OF OREGON ATHLETICS Lifelong Ducks fan thrilled to don green, yellow uniform Pete Martini Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK EUGENE — Noah Dahl is living the ultimate college football fan’s dream. As a student at the University of Ore- gon, the former Silverton football standout enjoyed cheering on the Ducks from the stands at Autzen Stadi- um, unsure if he would ever again play the game he loves. But after two years of working out on his own, Dahl had an opportunity to try out for the Oregon football team, hoping to land a walk-on spot. “I walked on right before spring ball, at the end of March,” said Dahl, who graduated from Silverton in 2016. “At the walk-on tryouts, about 30 guys tried out, four guys made it. I’m just really grateful for the opportunity they’ve giv- en me. It’s been hard, but I suspected that.” Even after a few months in the pro- gram, Dahl can’t believe he gets to show up for practice every day at Oregon’s fa- cilities and wear the Ducks’ green and yellow. “It’s unreal. I mean, I grew up a Duck fan, so obviously this is my dream school,” Dahl said. “The fact that I’m ac- tually on the team is totally surreal. The facilities are amazing. I can’t even ex- plain how lucky we are to be at Oregon, of all schools.” Coming out of high school, Dahl had opportunities to play at the NCAA Divi- sion III level, but chose to go to Oregon instead. “I really wanted to go to a big school,” Dahl said. “And I really wanted to play D-I, and I finally got my opportunity.” Dahl, who is a sophomore athletical- ly and a junior academically, is one of seven running backs on Oregon’s roster, joining senior Tony Brooks-James, sen- ior Taj Griffin, sophomore Darrian Felix, freshman Travis Dye, freshman Cyrus Habibi-Likio and freshman C.J. Verdell. Dahl said that the Ducks’ players have been amazing teammates so far. “For the past couple years, I’ve been in the student section (during games at Autzen Stadium), and you look at these guys and say, ‘Man, they are awesome,’” he said. “And then you get on the field with them, and they’re just a bunch of regular guys who are just really good at what they do.” Dahl played running back and defen- sive back for John Mannion at Silverton during a strong stretch for the Foxes, in- cluding a 12-1 record and OSAA Class 5A state runner-up finish in 2014. “We had some really good players at Silverton, and he was certainly one of them, especially his junior year when we went to the state finals,” said Man- nion, who now coaches football at Mountainside in Beaverton. “He had an extra gear, and he had an ability to break a really big play.” Mannion said he’s proud of the effort Dahl made to work his way onto a Divi- sion I roster. “I was thrilled when he got the op- portunity to be on the squad,” said Mannion, whose son Sean was a quar- terback at Oregon State. “He’s an Ore- gon guy, and he’s always loved the Ducks. I think it’s a great story that a guy like that can live the dream and be at the highest level of college football. He’s earned everything he’s getting, so I’m really happy for him.” Oregon has its third head coach in three seasons, Mario Cristobal, after finishing a combined 11-14 the past two seasons under Mark Helfrich and Willie Taggart. At the running back position, the Ducks are replacing Royce Freeman, who finished last season as the pro- gram’s all-time leading rusher. See DAHL, Page 3B The 6-foot-5, 285-pound senior has interest from a number of college pro- grams. North Salem coach Jeff Flood said: “Andre has a great combination of size, strength, mobility and techni- cal skill. His work in the offseason has attracted the attention of a lot of foot- ball programs. Like most prospects, his ability to transfer those skills to the field on every play this season will de- termine which programs retain inter- est. I’m proud of him for putting him- self in this position and am anxious to see where it takes him.” 4. Diego Fuimaono, South Salem (TE, DL — 2019 class) The 6-foot-5, 245-pound senior is the 12th-highest rated prospect in the See PROSPECTS, Page 3B Ashton Adams practices with the South Salem football team inside as wildfire smoke lingers over the Willamette Valley at South Salem High School. Learn to be perpetual optimist when fishing Fishing Henry Miller Guest columnist I’m going to be spending my upcom- ing Alaska salmon fishing trip with a roomie from hell. Let me rephrase that. I’m going to be bunking at Leonard’s Landing Lodge in Yakutat with Spike Nasmyth, a guy who’s been through the sunny side of hell. The title of his Vietnam War biogra- phy is “2355 days: A POW’s story.” It’s an intense, graphic, entertaining, harrowing, occasionally humorous ac- count of the Air Force veteran’s six and a half years at the Hoa Lo Prison after his F4 Phantom fighter jet was shot down on Sept. 4, 1966, while on a mission north of Hanoi. To put it in perspective, the late John McCain spent 1,966 days at Hoa Lo Pris- on, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton. The shared accommodations are a do-over of sorts. Spike and I had been scheduled to share a room at the lodge during my first-ever trip to Alaska in 2017. But he came down with something that he said made him think that he was going to die. A topic about which he obviously is thoroughly well-versed. So we met for the first time at a recent get-together with the other members of the Alaska group, some of whom have made the annual pilgrimage for three decades. Spike is an affable, humorous guy with a ready smile. He still flies a lot for fun and profit, and spends a good chunk of his time in the South Pacific. I think that we’ll get along fine. My planned approach is going to be “shut up and fish.” My puny collection of service-con- nected stories about my time in the Na- vy aboard an aircraft carrier off Vietnam is stale beer compared to any single page in Spike’s autobiography. As I said, I’m really looking forward to the Alaska trip. In interviews with Spike that I’ve read, along with reading 2355 days and chatting him up at the get-together, he credits his survival as a POW in large measure to being a “perpetual optimist.” This is about the best description you can have for a POW survivor or an an- gler. Moving on … All your alerts in one place There is a one-stop outdoor-recrea- tion information site with links to alerts, closures and health advisories for ev- erything from toxic algae to shellfish. OK almost one stop, but more about that in a minute. Bookmark this site: https:// www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/NEWSADVI- SORIES/Pages/RecreationalAdviso- ries.aspx It’s the home page for the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Divi- sion. See OPTIMIST, Page 3B
