A10
WEDNESDAY
August 29, 2018
A LOOK AT FOOTBALL
Wallowa opens against powerhouse St. Paul
Brockamp in his
fifth year at the
Cougar helm
By Paul Wahl
Wallowa County Chieftain
It’s not often that your
opening game for the season
could be the same matchup for
the state championship honor
at the end of the season.
Matt Brockamp, head coach
for the Wallowa High School
Cougar football team, believes
that will be the case. And he’s
looking forward to it.
He has a gaggle of seniors
who are expected to carry the
team to a successful season.
The Cougars will play St.
Paul High School in St. Paul
Friday night at 7 p.m.
“They’ve been a perennial
powerhouse,” said Brockamp,
who is in his fifth year coach-
ing the team. “They’ve won
more state champions than
anyone. This is a game I’ve
been trying to put together for
a couple years.”
Tony Smith has coached
St. Paul for years. Three gen-
erations of Smiths have played
quarterback for the school.
The Bucks’ last season
ended in a heartbreaking loss to
Santiam in the state semifinals.
The Cougar offense will be
led by returning quarterback
Gus Ramsden, a senior. Rams-
ABOVE Wallowa senior
Austin Brockamp breaks
through three opponents for
daylight in Friday’s tradition
opening season jamboree
at the Wallowa High School
football field.
LEFT Wallowa High
School’s football team has
a bit of an international flair
this year. Senior Corsin Risi
is from Switzerland. Jesse
Duncan is on the right.
Photos by Paul Wahl/Chieftain
Wallowa seniors Zane Hermens, Austin Brockamp and Gus Ramsden, all seniors, rush in to
stop a Cove ball-carrier during Friday’s opening season Jamboree at Wallowa High.
den had a slow start last year
due to an injury, but came back
for a strong finish.
Wallowa’s top receiver,
Austin Brockamp, also a
senior, is expected to repeat his
standout performance.
Other seniors on the team
include Wyatt Prince, Joe
Robb, Zane Hermens, Mike
Diggins, Richardo Palma,
Zane Mallory and C.J. Horn.
Four juniors –– Quinten Til-
lery, Ricky Prince, Logan Wal-
dron and Kenyon Davidson
–– are also among the elder
statesmen.
The remaining crop of
freshmen and sophomores
includes Gus Ramsden’s
younger brother, Zeb and Her-
mens’ younger brother Zeb.
Twenty-seven players are
on the preseason roster. Coach
Brockamp will produce a final
roster this week.
Wallowa opened its sea-
son with the traditional jambo-
ree event Aug. 24 with Crane,
Adrian, Pine Valley, Pine Eagle
and Cove.
For Coach Brockamp, the
goal is simple.
“To be 1-0 every week we
play,” he said. “We try to get
our kids to compete at a higher
level and win every play. If we
don’t, we forget about it and
move on to the next play.”
Wallowa’s offense was
heavily weighted toward run-
ning plays last year. This year,
quarterback Ramsden will
be encouraged to do more
throwing.
“Gus has been throwing the
ball real well,” he said. “It’s
something that we know we
Joseph Eagles ready to compete in
newly formed six-man football play
New rules, new coach and
new assistant coach
By Paul Wahl
Wallowa County Chieftain
Joseph High School is starting the year with
a new sport –– sort of –– and a new head coach.
Duncan Christman will coach the Eagle six-
man football squad.
Oregon School Activities Association
approved a trial period for the sport, which
was regularly played in small towns across the
state 1947-59. It was replaced with eight-man
games.
It is widely viewed as a method of smaller
schools to keep football programs alive.
Six-man football was offered as an alterna-
tive for schools with an adjusted enrollment of
89 students as part of a two-year pilot program.
This will be Christman’s first year as a head
coach. He has previously coached at the mid-
dle-school level in Joseph and was an assistant
coach on the varsity track team.
Christman was a multi-sport athlete for
Enterprise High School, graduating in 2012.
He was also active in dramatics and had a num-
ber of roles in play productions produced at the
school.
He earned his degree at Lewis-Clark State
College in Lewiston and headed back to Wal-
lowa County. He will be substituting in all three
school districts in the county this school year.
Christman has been learning the six-man
rules and teaching them to the 15 who have
already joined the team.
“It’s a lot quicker than eight-man football,”
Christman said. Oregon chose a 40x100-yard
playing field.
“That five yards missing off each sideline
come at you pretty quickly,” he added.
Like any member of his age group, Christ-
man turned to YouTube to learn about the sport.
He also spent one-on-one time with a coach
from Missoula, Mont., who has been coaching
four years.
Contribute photo
Duncan Christman, a 2012 multi-sport grad-
uate of Enterprise High School, will coach
the Joseph Eagle football team this fall.
The sport has its roots in Texas, but has
become increasingly popular throughout the
northern tier of states.
His assistant, John DeWitt, attended a clinic
on six-man football in Hermiston. DeWitt, a
recent arrival in Wallowa County, has a back-
ground is rugby and will be teaching math
classes at Joseph.
Christman described the team’s practices
thus far as a “fun learning experience.”
“We’re learning new types of offenses and
getting used to everyone on the line being eligi-
ble receivers,” he noted.
A broad crop of seniors also bodes well for
the coming season.
Tyler Homan, Kade Kilgore, Trey Wand-
schneider, TJ Grote and Steven Beckman will
do yeoman’s work for the squad. Beckman will
be the center.
Five juniors and four freshmen round out the
team.
Christman said he doesn’t have too many
expectations since it’s never been done before.
“I’d like to say we’re going to have a win-
ning season,” Christman said.
The change to six-man also means Joseph
will be playing a number of teams from schools
heretofore unknown.
South Wasco County in Maupin, Ore., is
the furthest destination, a 600-mile round trip.
Relatively nearby opponents include Hunting-
ton, Burnt River, Monument and Echo. Other
need to get better at.
“We will be a hard team to
defend against again this year,”
he added.
Defensively, Wallowa has
three players topping 200
pounds –– Robb, Horn and
Diggins are seniors, Quinten
Tillery is a junior and Ruben
Hunt is a freshman.
Coach Brockamp is assisted
by Jeremy McCulloch.
High school
football continues
drop in popularity
SIX-MAN FOOTBALL AT
A GLANCE
Remains most popular
sport in the state
• Most teams use an onside kick;
the ball is rarely kicked into the end
zone.
• Offense must advance 15 yards in
four downs.
• Unless the ball is kicked or forward
passed, it may not be advanced
across the line of scrimmage. No
quarter-back keepers.
• Pass from snap receiver to snapper
must travel at least one yard in
flight.
• Quarters are 10 minutes in length.
• At least three players must be on
the line of scrimmage at the snap.
• All players are eligible pass
receivers.
• A field goal scored by kicking is
worth two points, a pass or run field
goal is one point.
Participation in high school sports was
down in Oregon last season, with the num-
ber dipping below 100,000 for the first time
since 2012-13.
The National Federation of State High
School Athletic Associations released its
annual nationwide athletics participation
report showed that there were 99,907 total
participants in Oregon athletics last year —
55,572 boys and 44,335 girls. All three num-
bers are down from the previous year.
It is a continued trend of fewer boys and
more girls participating in athletics; how-
ever, as girl participation has risen six per-
cent since the 2009-10 season, boys partici-
pation has dropped 7.5 percent.
The most popular sport in the state
was football yet again with 12,419 play-
ers between the 11-man and 8-man ranks;
however, that total is down 17 percent from
15,009 players in 2008. Rounding out the top
five for most popular boys sports were track
and field (9,526), basketball (7,620), soccer
(6,397) and baseball (5,596).
While football’s decline grabs the headlines,
baseball and boys golf continued its drop-offs.
In baseball, participation has dropped each of
the past four seasons, from 6,071 in 2015 to
5,596 this season, and it has dropped 17 per-
cent from 2008 when 6,766 kids played.
Meanwhile, golf’s 2017-18 participation
number of 1,464 is down 32 percent from
2008 when 2,162 kids teed off.
Track and field keeps its spot as the most
popular girls sport with 7,289 players, which
is an 11 percent increase over the past 10
years. Following track is volleyball (7,086),
basketball (5,824), soccer (5,398) and soft-
ball (4,568).
Soccer was the biggest gainer nationally
for boys, with 6,128 more participants last
season.
teams Joseph will face in the 1A Special District
2 are Harper, Prairie City and Spray/Mitchell/
Wheeler.
Christman said Huntington was a six-man
dynasty in the sport’s previous iteration.
Games have a faster pace than other foot-
ball layouts and scores often appear more like
basektball numbers than football.
Christman said he hopes the community will
come out and support the Eagles, which will
have five home games.
“For anyone who says it’s not ‘real’ foot-
all, I’l like to have them come out and see the
amount of work this team is putting in,” Christ-
man said.
In addition to the five seniors, Ethan Pitman,
Carlson Littlepage, Guylan Snyder, Juston Rod-
gers, Hayden Hite, Chase Homan, Trace Collier
and Brad Wilcox are also on the team.
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