SHS PREVIEWS
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
11A
BOYS SOCCER
Gulls hopeful
for one more
Cowapa title
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside football head coach Chad Smith talks with his team in a huddle at Broadway Field.
Seagulls football under
new management now
Defending league cham-
pions, only three starters
lost to graduation, with six
returning all-league players
and the Coach of the Year?
The 2016 boys’ soccer sea-
son has “Seaside” written all
over it.
The Gulls are the favor-
ites to repeat as the Cow-
apa League champs, and
they’re hoping to make a bet-
ter post-season showing than
last year’s irst-round exit.
After winning nine of
its inal 10 regular season
games, Seaside lost a 2-1
overtime decision at home
to Junction City in the state
playoffs.
The loss left a bitter taste,
and provides a strong moti-
vation for the 2016 Gulls.
The Cowapa
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
A 46-23 win over Val-
ley Catholic on Sept. 25 of
last year had Seaside foot-
ball fans excited, as the
Gulls were looking to recap-
ture the magic of the 2013
season.
After the victory over the
Valiants, the Gulls were 3-1
overall, 1-0 in league, and
only had to win one of their
next four to secure a spot in
the playoffs.
Unfortunately, it didn’t
happen. Seaside suffered a
26-6 setback at Tillamook
the next week, then lost three
straight to Banks, Astoria
and Scappoose to inish the
season. Their 1-4 record left
the Gulls out in the cold for
the post-season, after two
straight winning seasons in
league play in 2013 and ’14.
A few months later, head
coach Jeff Roberts stepped
down to focus on his duties
as principal at Seaside High.
Former Roberts’ assistant
Chad Smith has taken the
reins, and hopes to lead Sea-
side back to glory in 2016.
SEASIDE
FOOTBALL
Coach: Chad Smith, 1st
year
2015: 3-5 (1-4 Cowapa)
All-League Losses: Alex
Barker, Austin Eagon, Zach
Marston, Jaxson Smith,
Nathanael Ward
All-League Returners:
Michael Bailey, Jr.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside freshman Gavin Rich warms up during practice.
The Cowapa
The 2016 version of Cow-
apa League football is up for
grabs, as the top three inish-
ers from a year ago — Scap-
poose, Banks and Astoria
— all lost a number of key
players to graduation.
Scappoose’s all-star quar-
terback-receiver combo —
Robert Lohman to Bren-
nen McNabb — is gone,
along with running back and
Co-Offensive Player of the
Year Braden Clark.
The Braves were certainly
hit hard, with the gradua-
tion of Co-Offensive Player
of the Year Donny McClean,
Defensive Player of the Year
Twister McComas, and irst-
team all-league receiver
Jaron Malcom.
Co-Coach of the Year Ben
Buchanan has stepped down,
and former Astoria assistant
Cole Linehan has taken over
as head coach.
The Fishermen lost their
all-star backield of Carter
Wallace and Clay Englund,
but return three all-leaguers.
“Banks will still be pretty
tough, and then Scappoose is
always tough,” Smith said.
“Valley Catholic hired a new
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s Otto Hoekstre completes a catch as the Seaside
Seagulls practice in August at Broadway Field in Seaside.
More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
coach, but he was in the pro-
gram as well.”
The Seagulls
Seaside lost ive all-
league players of its own to
graduation. The backield trio
of Alex Barker, Jaxson Smith
and Nathanael Ward (all three
made the all-league squad)
are gone, and both football
and basketball will deinitely
feel the loss of Austin Eagon
and Zach Marston.
On the plus side, the Gulls
had several young skill posi-
tion players on the roster
last season, including soph-
omore quarterback Payton
(named after Walter) Wester-
holm, junior running backs
Astor Landwehr and Duncan
Thompson, and junior tight
end Dawson Blanchard.
Quarterback Otto Hoek-
stre returns for his senior
season.
The Seaside line is in great
shape, with several returners.
Two-way lineman Michael
Bailey was all-league last
year as a sophomore.
Without giving away
too much, Smith said, “Our
offense will be different, but
a lot of the other things will
be the same.
“We’re learning a new
offense … we have more skill
guys than we do linemen,”
he said. “So on offense, we
will spread it out with a lot
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of open formations, we’ll
throw a lot of quick, sprint-
out passes, screen plays and
things like that, to move our
quarterback around so he’s
not sitting back there. We
want to get the ball to some
of our skill guys, who can
do well one-on-one with the
defensive players.”
And on defense, the Gulls
will be tested early.
“Our opener is with North
Marion, a bigger school with
well-coached kids,” he said.
“They run the Wing-T, so
it will be interesting for us
to go against that. Our kids
know the Wing-T, but you
still have to stop them.”
Personnel-wise, “We lost
12 or 13 seniors, and we’re
light on seniors this year,”
Smith said. “We have ive
total, two who didn’t play
last year, and one that moved
from Clatskanie (Phoe-
nix Johnson, who igures on
being a big part of the Sea-
side offense, judging from
last week’s jamboree).
“We have Otto Hoekstre
back, Michael Bailey, Astor
Landwehr … for the most
part we’ll be a real young
team, with mostly sopho-
mores and juniors and our
ive seniors.”
Some other names to
get familiar with: Duncan
Thompson, (“a great skill
player”); Westerholm (a
bright future for the three-
sport athlete, although he
suffered a broken ankle in
Seaside’s recent jamboree);
Johnson (“a great addition”);
“and another kid from Wyo-
ming, Garret Kiser, a pretty
athletic kid,” Smith said.
Junior Cameron King also
saw plenty of touches in Sea-
side’s jamboree.
And for the future, “We
have about 16 incoming fresh-
men, and that’s a pretty good
class for a school our size.”
Given all of Seaside’s
returners, there doesn’t
appear to be any serious
challengers standing in the
way of the Gulls and another
league title.
In their eight league
games in 2015, the Gulls
allowed just six goals and
inished 7-1. Their only loss
in league play came to Scap-
poose, which posted a 1-0
win at Broadway Field Oct.
1, a game in which the Indi-
ans had just one shot on goal.
The Gulls got even with
a 1-0 win at Scappoose Oct.
22, part of their ive-game
win streak to end the league
season.
“We open with Scappoose
at home this year,” coach
John Chapman said. “That
was our only loss last year, so
we need to break that neme-
sis. They seem to come here
and have our number.
“You never know what
you’re going to get with Val-
ley Catholic until the season
starts. I’m optimistic that we
can win the league again.”
And the targets are
squarely on the backs of the
Gulls.
“I would expect our
league to be coming at us,”
he said. “Which is OK. It’s
amazing — when you win
once, they all think you’re
the Dallas Cowboys.”
The Gulls
Seaside dominated the
Cowapa All-League selec-
tions in 2015, just as they
SEASIDE BOYS
SOCCER
Coach: John Chapman,
4th year
2015: 11-4 (7-1 Cowapa)
State Playoffs: Lost first
round to Junction City,
1-2
All-League Losses:
Taylor Barnes; Raiden
Bowles
All-League Returners:
Colton Carter, Jr. (Co-
MVP); Jackson Januik,
Sr.; Rafi Sibony, Jr.;
Hunter Thompson, Sr.;
Dylan Wallis, Sr.; Brent
Walsh, Sr.
dominated the action on the
ield.
Coach of the Year Chap-
man had eight players on
the all-leaguer squad, and
only two (Taylor Barnes
and Raiden Bowles) were
seniors. The other key loss
to graduation was goalkeeper
Jarrett Coughlin.
Among the returners,
seniors Jackson Januik,
Hunter Thompson and Brent
Walsh were all irst-team
selections as juniors, as was
Colton Carter — the Cowa-
pa’s Co-Player of the Year
and the only sophomore on
the 4A all-state team.
Dylan Wallis (Sr.)and
Rai Sibony (Jr.) were honor-
able mention.
Additional
returners
include Will Garvin and
Juneau Meyer — both senior
cross country runners, along
with Carter, Januik and
Thompson.
“We only lost two guys
off the ield, and we’ve
gained a couple more,”
Chapman said.
“In goal, we have Jesus
(“Chewy”) Perez. Behind
him we’ll have (sophomores)
Ashton Boyd and James
Petty. Chewy has been the
‘Steve Young’ waiting in the
wings. He gets his chance
now. This is his Super Bowl
as a senior.”
Other contributors this
season will include junior
Henry Chapman and sopho-
more Irving Contreras.
“Irving is more experi-
enced and playing at a higher
level; and Henry Chapman is
making some great strides,
moving up from a solid
JV player to a solid varsity
player,” said coach (and dad)
Chapman.
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Four-sport athlete Jackson Januik is ready to chase
down another successful year, starting with soccer
and cross country this fall.
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