Ken Roberts
For The New Era
The football season started early for both ex-Husky Brian Seward and the Husky coach, Rob “Bubba” Younger, as they both represented the victorious east squad in the annual East-West Shrine Game in Baker City last Saturday.
The East defeated the West in a closely fought game, 14-0. Caleb Dysert of Elmira led the team in rushing with 18 carries for 148 yards, including an 80 yard down the left sideline with a wall of downfield blocks two minutes into the second quarter. Moments before that, the East had intercepted a pass in the end zone, closing down a promising 14 play West drive that started from their own one yard line due to an interception of their own.
The East sewed up the victory after recovering a fumble on the West’s 29 yard line. Dysert ran four consecutive times followed by LaGrande quarterback Kyle Bomberger’s 10 yard run to the half-inch line. For the second time, a Vale lineman, Stefen Maupin, carried the ball, giving the
East the two touchdown edge at 9:15 of the fourth quarter. Matt Starley of Mazama converted both extra points.
Seward split his time by quarters as did all of the players. In the first and third quarters,
Seward led his defensive unit as both strong and free safety, using the 4-3 defensive scheme of 2-A assistant coach Monte Nash of Grant Union. In the second and fourth quarter, he played as a wide receiver, a position he did not play for Sweet Home. His lone pass reception was the longest pass play of the day and the most spectacular. On a play designed for him to flare to the sideline and then turn upfield, Bomberger’s pass was well underthrown. Seward came back and outdueled the defensive back with a leaping catch for 30 yards.
During the week of practice, Seward had taken snaps as quarterback and helped the other quarterbacks and even coaches learn the nuances of the Sweet Home offense. Because of a lack of true receivers, Seward accepted the role of a new position and was one of the top two receivers in the practices, according to Coach Younger.
Seward also played on special teams, leading the punt team unit much as he did for the Huskies last season and making a big hit on kickoff coverage. His versatility, in fact, was one of the reasons he was selected as Sweet Home’s representative for the Shrine tilt.
Younger noted that there were several seniors who would have been worthy choices to play.
“Brian’s strength is not only that he’s a very gifted athlete, but he understands the game of football extremely well and is able to communicate that to other players,” said Younger. “He could take our system and be a coach on the field.”
Younger mentioned that he received a lot of comments from the other coaches about how intelligent a football player Seward was. Younger said that Seward was able to accept making a sacrifice by not playing quarterback without it affecting his attitude.
“I told him before the game and reemphasized it after the game that I was very proud of how he represented not only himself and his family but Sweet Home High School and our football program in general,” said Younger.
For Seward, who started practices at Western Oregon University Monday, the whole experience was rewarding.
“Just winning was good,” said Seward. “But it was fun to meet people you play against and make good friends.”
In his case, he roomed with Andrew Rietmann from Ione, a school of 60 students, where he competed also as a track star and was the 3-time 1-A 100 yard dash champion in the state.
Seward made many friends from these different types of situations, something he enjoyed.
Like all the players, he was impressed with the visit to the Shrine hospital August 1.
“We’re just playing a game and having fun,” said Seward, “but it’s nice to know it goes to help a good cause.”
In their winning effort, the East, using the Sweet Home offense, ran for 253 yards on 48 attempts. Led by Trevor Simmons of Grant Union, they also passed for 107 yards, completing 10 of 19 passes spread around to seven different receivers. The East was held to 94 yards rushing and 54 yards passing.
“Sometimes you have an outstanding athlete on one of the teams that makes the difference,” said Younger, “but these two teams were evenly matched.”
The West had the bigger players but the East appeared to have the speed and made more big hits. The game hinged on some big plays: an interception in the endzone, Dysert’s long run, key third and fourth down stops, and a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter.
“We executed a little better throughout the ball game and made big plays when we had to make big plays,” Younger reflected.
For Younger, it continues a family winning streak of four games. In 1991, he coached the East team to a 29-7 victory. Both his sons, Matt Makin and David Younger, also had their personal triumphs. Makin was on the 1995 team that won 28-12 and Younger followed one year later with a team that added a 21-9 victory.
Add those to defensive coordinator Dustin Nichol’s victory and the Shrine game becomes a badge of honor for Sweet Home, which has sent 24 players in 21 years to this contest.
There was no trophy to take home for either Seward or Younger, but the relationships and memories they built in just eight days will last a lifetime.
While many of the East players left the field quickly at the game’s end to celebrate the victory with their teammates on the sideline, Seward was the last one off the field shaking hands with the opposing players. Then he came to the sideline and joined in the dousing of Coach Younger with the water bucket.
The victory was incidental; the relationships were the shrine.