COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL OCTOBER 10, 2018
SUCCESS
from B1
T
he last time the Elkton seniors found a high
level of success on the football field was
during their eighth-grade year. Nearly the same
group that is on today’s high school team compet-
ed on that middle school team.
The year started with a coaching change. Mike
Hughes, an education administrator and former
football and wrestling coach who prides himself
on conditioning his teams, took charge. Having
never coached eight-man, he had to overcome a
steep learning curve in addition to finding a way
to reach his team.
“They had got to the point where, in my opin-
ion, they thought they couldn’t win. You know,
they had just got to that point. It had nothing to do
with the previous coach or anything like that, it’s
just, they had just got stuck in this rut,” Hughes,
now 69, reflected.
After getting this middle school team into the
weight room and in shape, they were ready for the
upcoming season. They were ready for their first
game. Their first test.
Ready until the day of the game came and
proved otherwise.
“Our first game was against North Douglas and
we just got hammered. And I thought I had them
mentally and physically prepared. I didn’t. So I
apologized to them. And I said, ‘I promise you
this is never going to happen to you on my watch
again,’” said Hughes.
While the Elkton team complained, both then
and now, about a North Douglas player being over
the weight limit in the game, it was the team from
down the road in Drain getting the best of them.
Hughes stayed true to his word and the team
turned the season around and didn’t lose another
game the rest of the way. They beat teams that had
previously walked over them by over 40 points
and for the first time on the field, they were win-
ning.
“Their confidence was there, they started be-
lieving in themselves and they believed in the sys-
tem,” said Hughes.
Hughes became a believer in this group. So
much so that when the team asked him to coach
them at the high school, he agreed and ended up
switching with a high school coach who was look-
ing to coach middle school.
In those first years at Elkton High School for
both the group of once successful eighth grad-
ers and Hughes, the group took their collective
knocks. Two wins their freshmen season was
paired with three wins their sophomore year. In
the second season, they lowered the amount of
40-point losses to three games.
“It was exciting because we had a young group
that was all in and wanted to get better. It was frus-
trating because opposed to playing a JV schedule
where you knew they would have some success we
were going to play a schedule where we were play-
ing seniors and that wasn’t going to bring us a lot
of success," said Elkton head coach Bill Shaw.
Under the surface and through the pool of loss-
es, there was a genuine feeling that this group, this
resilient group, still could be something special.
“Obviously, we weren’t that great but we still
knew that if we worked on playing together and
sticking with each other that later on as we be-
came seniors and juniors that we would be pretty
good,” said senior Jaydn Woody.
o know about this current Elkton football
team, and the eight seniors who are at the
core of the roster, is to know about that they gen-
uinely care about each other. Having been around
each other their entire lives, they have created
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bonds deeper than football.
“If it wasn’t for these guys, I wouldn’t be here.
I grew up with them. Born and raised with them
from kindergarten all the way up,” said senior
Russell about what kept him coming back each
season.
In any time spent around this group, it is easy to
see this is the case. In interviews all of the seniors
talked about the familial nature of this team. They
laugh with each other and then they laugh at each
other. They make inappropriate jokes, they swear
and they drive their coaches crazy.
“This group of kids is a pretty wild group of
kids. They’ve been wild since they were in elemen-
tary school,” said Shaw. “They are a handful.”
There is a feeling that with this team, even if
they were not all at football practice with each
other, they would most certainly be hanging out
in some other capacity.
“We all have fun on the weekends fishing and
stuff,” said senior Austin Luzier. “We’re all best
friends you know and we fight and then next min-
ute we’re best friends but we all work really good
as a team.”
For the coaches, they see this togetherness
manifest on the field in the form of accountabili-
ty. After a blown coverage in practice, the defense
turned not to the coaches or to push blame on one
another but to have a conversation about what
went wrong and how to fix it. On the offensive side
of the ball, they know that the team feels comfort-
able changing the play-call on the field if they see
something that they think will work better. And
they trust them to do it.
The coaches also like to give them a hard time.
“I tease the seniors about next year’s team is go-
ing to be a more cerebral group. I gave them that
the other day and they couldn’t decide if I was
talking about breakfast cereal or I was making fun
of them,” said Shaw.
“There was this blank look and I’m going, ‘Dear
god, how are we winning?’” added Hughes.
But despite blank looks and barbs traded be-
tween one another, it is clear that this group of
players have developed deep bonds.
“They’re the kind of kids that they don’t have
all the money in the world. They have not had all
the privileges a lot of people have. They’ve been
questioned about their ability to succeed and… on
the football field there have been two adults that
have been telling them constantly that we love ya.
Sometimes we would like to smack the living snot
out of you,” said Hughes. “They’re these kids that
they come along once every now and then. And
it’s like they’re overachieving now. Not just on the
field but in the classroom, outside the classroom,
they are overachieving.”
ast year, the Elkton football team went 7-2.
In their wins, they ran away with games and
were now on the other end of blowouts. Three
times they won by at least 60 points. They had
their first winning season since 2013, finished the
season ranked #8 in 1A and hosted a playoff game
L
3B
for the first time since the early '90s.
But they hit some bumps in the road along the
way. Both losses were blowouts (52-6 and 44-6)
that saw the other team dominate in the first half.
While the Elks became deer in headlights in their
losses, the coaches still saw positives to take away
in those contests. With a bad taste in their mouth
from a playoff loss to Wallowa, Elkton came in to
this year wanting another chance at success and
the playoffs.
“A light flipped on for them. And that was their
first winning season in high school,” said Hughes.
“So this year, we’ve been preaching, this is your
time, this is your year.”
To start the season, the team was a force that
could not be reckoned with. The Elks won their
first three games by a combined score of 186-8.
But then their first real test came in the form of
a familiar foe: North Douglas. With the Warriors
and Elks now in the same league, the teams met
for the first time since the 72-0 loss in the seniors’
freshmen year.
“I remember losing to them… that’s always
been in the back of my head. So I’ve always want-
ed to play them again since eighth grade year to
get our revenge,” said Russell. “Being out there out
on that same field where we lost eighth grade year
just brought back so many memories. And with
the same guys, too. It was awesome. That energy
on that field is just amazing.”
In a dramatic come from behind fourth quarter
victory, Elkton got their revenge and pulled out a
16-12 victory. The lowest scoring 1A game of the
year.
“It’s just something we always wanted to do be-
fore we graduate. My class in general, we always
wanted to beat Drain before we graduated. That’s
just on the bucket list and we pulled it off in our
last year,” said Billman.
The following week the Elks stumbled at home
against Lowell 38-28 before rebounding last Fri-
day with a 48-22 win over Oakridge. With the loss,
the team dropped from their lofty ranking of #2
and have fallen to #13 according to OSAA and sit
at #7 in the coaches’ poll. But regardless of what
any ranking system, this team has tasted a dose
of winning and don’t want to stop anytime soon.
“I think that all of us seniors have had a beating.
And we know that if we put our hard work in like
we have over the last four years and we know we
can take it all. We just need to work together,” said
Moore.
But for the coaches, and especially Hughes, they
believe that this team has already done something
special.
“I’ve told the kids this…‘I want you to set your
standards so high that even if you don’t achieve
that, whatever you do achieve is going to be out-
standing.’ So we set the state title, if we get it, god
bless us,” said Hughes. “If we don’t, whatever we
do get is great. Because right now, it’s a hell of a
year. A hell of a ride.”
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