THE GORGE — Nearly every year, the Dufur High Rangers are the cream of the crop in Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) Class 1A eight-man football.
The Rangers reached the state playoffs for the 14th time out of the past 15 years last season. Dufur won the Special District 3 championship with a 5-0 record (9-2 overall). The SD3 has new teams this fall in Cove, Echo, Elgin and Imbler. Former league members Perrydale and Country Christian moved to SD2.
The Rangers got off to a great start in their season opener with a, 50-34, nonleague win over the Lyle/Wishram/Klickitat High Cougars (0-1) Aug. 29 at Dufur High School.
The Rangers, guided by longtime (40 years) Coach Jack Henderson, had a spectacular 2024 season. They won nine consecutive games after losing their season opener to Crosspoint Christian.
“We lost seven seniors from last year, so we’ll have a little less experienced team this season,” said Henderson. “We return some really good kids though, including starters from last year in Kaylin Hammitt, Kyle Wilson and Austin Kuehnl. I think we can be a very good football team this year and we expect to be competitive in every game. I think we’ll win a lot of games and reach the state playoffs again.”
The Rangers will be led this year by junior quarterback Gavin Anderson and sophomore running back Chase Peterson.
In the opener against Lyle, the Rangers built on a 20-14 halftime lead, pulling pull away in the second half. “We scored a lot of points in what was a typical first game in which neither team was really in good shape physically,” said Henderson. “Our kids played hard, and we kept getting better throughout the game, so we were pleased with that.”
Lyle/Wishram/Klickitat
The Cougars had one of their most successful seasons a year ago, as they reached the OSAA state playoffs for the first time. The Cougars, guided by fourth-year Coach Dave Devoe, took third place in the SD3 standings behind the Sherman High Huskies (4-1 SD3, 6-5 overall in 2024) and the first place Rangers. The Cougars advanced to a first-round playoff contest, losing 74-20, to Union High to conclude the season.
“It would be really nice to reach the state playoffs again, but our league has some new teams, so it’s kind of hard to predict what we’ll be able to do,” said Devoe. “We have seven seniors and most of our starters return this year. We were pretty excited about going to the state playoffs last year and our guys were pretty happy about that impressive accomplishment. Dufur always has a very good team year after year, and Jack Henderson always has his guys ready to go.”
The Cougars lost four seniors from their 2024 state playoff team, and they’ll have 13 players returning from that successful squad. The trio of junior quarterback Mason Ramsay, senior running back Carson Ramsay, and senior receiver Jack Thiemann are expected to lead the Cougars this year.
Sherman County
The Huskies moved down to six-man football this year and they played their season opener Aug. 29 at Joseph High, losing 46-13 to the Eagles.
Former Sherman Coach Kyle Blagg resigned following last season, and the Huskies will be guided by Coach Paul Bish.
South Wasco County
The South Wasco County High Redsides (4-0 league, 8-4 overall in 2024) enjoyed another successful season last year as they reached the six-man football state semifinals. The Redsides, guided by Coach Mike Waine, lost 40-30 to the defending state champion Powers High Cruisers (12-0) at Cottage Grove High School on Nov. 23, 2024.
Waine guided the Redsides to six-man football state championships in 2019 and 2021. He decided to resign after 13 years as the Redsides coach, and assistant coach Michael Carter took over as the new head coach.
The Redsides opened the season Aug. 29 with a 2-0 forfeit win versus the Huntington High Locomotives (0-7 in 2024). The Redsides won, 63-0, over the Locomotives in their season opener last year.
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