We decided to undertake a significantly shorter expedition this week and drove through the unseasonably wet countryside to the city of Eugene. In 1950 the city had two high schools and a population of 35,000. Over the next 15 years that population almost doubled and North Eugene and Sheldon high schools had opened their doors. That still wasn’t enough to accommodate all of the students, so in 1966 Winston Churchill High School opened in the southwest corner of town, named

Vale High School has had a really good football team for a long time. The Vikings took to the gridiron for the first time in 1928. It took them a few decades to find their groove, but they’ve gone on to win 12 state championships, with another 5 runner-up awards, including one in 2024. One of the secrets to their success is that they schedule a home preseason game each year against a good team from the western part of the state as a tune-up for their regular season. They h

It may still be August, but it’s football season, so it was time for a road trip. And what better road to take a trip on than the longest road in the country? Highway 20 is 3265 miles long. 506 of those miles are in the state of Oregon, and our destination was only slightly less far away than that. If you take that highway to within a mile of the Snake River before heading south for another fifteen miles or so, you will come to the town of Adrian. The site of present-da

The early evening was dark and damp as we made our way through Yamhill County wine country on the first Friday after falling back the previous Sunday. It wasn’t raining, but looked like it could if it chose to. We came into Sherwood through the back door, so to speak, on the section of Highway 99 just south of Sherwood known inauspiciously as the Herbert Hoover Highway. After a short tour of the heights south of downtown that offer panoramic views of the surrounding countr

It was the final Friday of the regular season. Rivalry night. And how better to spend it than watching one of the biggest rivalries in the state: Dayton vs. Amity. Both of these teams have impressive football histories by any standard, even if I have reason to think they’re not quite as impressive as they’d like everyone to believe. The Pirates from Dayton have been playing football since 1928 and won a state B Division title in 1948. In 1965 Dewey Sullivan took over as

We did a little more driving this Friday night than we had originally planned on, but in the end everything turned out well for everyone except the South Umpqua Lancers. We had made plans to attend a game in Glide, but after arriving there only to find out their game had been rescheduled, we put Plan B into action and drove on south through the rain showers and gusting wind to Winston. We didn’t have time to do much exploring before the game, but when we turned west off of

When I heard that the students in Jewell were going to have their own football team this year, I knew I had to get to a game there while I had the chance. The Blue Jays have been playing football since 1981, and as recently as 2016 they played 11-man ball. But they didn’t have a team in 2015 or 2017, and even after dropping down to 6-man football in 2018 they had to team up with Vernonia in 2023 for their players to have a chance to play. They’re back with a team of their

Sometimes attending a football game takes a lot more courage than people think. It had crossed our minds to change our schedule and head south this week, or maybe take in a game on the coast, but in the end we decided to stick with our original plan of going back to the Portland metro area, specifically to the city of Milwaukie. With battles raging all over the war-ravaged city, with fires everywhere and bombs going off and armed mobs running wild, I didn’t want to be too c

We do things differently in the Ednold family, and things don’t always make sense at first glance. Let me give you just one example: Ma Ednold passed from this earthly world a few years back. I know lots of people say that they have, or had, the best mom in the world, but I really did, and nobody who ever knew her would argue that point with me. There has never been a more kind and loving soul, so for some reason the family has chosen to commemorate her birthday each year

Something I've noticed over the years is that, for some reason, it always seems like the first day of autumn is the best day of the year. The weather is always nice and everyone's always extra nice to me. I don't know what that's about, but that streak was fully intact as I headed south toward the town of Coquille. Mrs. Ednold still thinks it's more important to pay the bills than attend football games. Someday she'll see the light, but on this night I was on my own. Fo

This week was the second round of the playoffs, and we made our way to Canby to watch the Cougars host the defending state champion Thurston Colts in a matchup of the #4 and #5 ranked 5A teams in the state. Highway 99E runs through Canby in western Clackamas County just south of where the Molalla River enters the Willamette, and situated between Oregon City and Wilsonville and Woodburn and Molalla, the town is another one of those communities that are right in the middle of

After last week it was a piece of cake to follow the single remaining game this Saturday afternoon. The #4 Central Catholic Rams of Portland were meeting the #3 and defending champion Lake Oswego Lakers in the 6A championship game at Hillsboro Stadiium. The Rams would be playing for their fifth state championship and the Lakers were playing for their third. Both teams came in with 11-2 records. Hillsboro is Central Catholic’s home field so this would be the tenth game this s

What?? You thought the season was over? Even as I was savoring the late Newcastle goal that cost Manchester City a Premier League win on Saturday morning, there were still 12 teams in Oregon with their dreams of a state championship still intact. But, with the exception of Central Catholic who puzzlingly play their home games in Hillsboro, none of those teams will be playing another game on their home field, so we decided to leave The Bucket in the driveway this holiday wee

For our final game this season Mrs. Ednold and I headed to Lake Oswego to watch the defending state champion Lake Oswego Lakers host the Lakeridge Pacers in a state quarterfinal matchup between the two rivals. I have to admit I was worried that the conventional world of 6A football would be a little boring after where we had been the past few weeks. I needn’t have worried. We saw many things we had never seen before. These two schools are both from Lake Oswego and both compet

This week we exited the interstate and drove through Winston, which brought back memories of waking up in my parents’ house to the sounds of the roaring lions from the safari park just over the hill. That was pretty cool, but Winston wasn’t our destination this time. On a practically tropical 61 degree mid-November Saturday we were headed to Camas Valley, home of the six-time state champion Hornets, to watch a state quarterfinal game of 8-man football. The Hornets are the cha

With Mrs. Ednold finally back in her shotgun seat, we drove to Sheridan this week to watch the Spartans take on the Warrenton Warriors in the first round of the state 2A playoffs. In fairness to my father I have to say that I missed his navigating skills in that position. He’s like a living GPS, without the sexy voice directing you off a cliff. Mrs. Ednold might lead you off a cliff with a sexy voice, but navigation is only one responsibility of a good shotgun rider. As a DJ,

For our final game of the regular season before the playoffs start we headed to Hillsboro to watch the Century Jaguars host fellow 6A Special District 3 members the Sherwood Bowmen. Again, Mrs. Ednold would be staying home. I could say she wears many hats, but in reality she wears many shoes. Lots of different shoes. And this night she had been called on to wear something other than her football-watching shoes. But my mom and pop and big bro had volunteered to keep me company

Friday night in Coos Bay. All by myself. Except for the 15,000+ other people in the city. A few thousand of whom were right there in Pete Susick Stadium with me to watch the hometown Marshfield Pirates take on the Marist Spartans of Eugene. But as I crossed the mist-shrouded McCullough Memorial Bridge across the choppy waters of Coos Bay, through North Bend and into the city of Coos Bay, I was flying solo for the first time, with Mrs. Ednold and every other family member and

This week we arrived in La Pine late on a Friday afternoon to watch the Hawks take on the Harrisburg Eagles. We drove into La Pine on the main north-south highway that bisects the town. And if you aren’t a local you could be excused for not being able to give the name of that highway. It is technically US 97, which generally follows the old Huntington Wagon Road established in the 1860’s. At that time Superintendent for Indian Affairs for Oregon, J.W.P. Huntington, and his t

Before we arrive at this week’s game I feel it is necessary to address the comments of a few of my more loyal readers and their efforts to cast aspersions regarding my abilities as a cowboy. The record will show that few, if any, newborn calves ever got by me on their way to the chute. And when the day comes when cattle-shooing is finally recognized as the consummate test of cowboy skill that it so clearly is, I may yet end up with a plaque somewhere. To the rest of you, I a