Sweet Home will play next fall in a football league that looks a bit different following some significant – for the Huskies, at least – redistricting finalized late last month by the Oregon School Activities Association.
At its Feb. 3 meeting the OSAA Executive Board voted to readjust special districts throughout the 4A Division, moving Stayton and Cascade north and adding Crescent Valley and Cottage Grove to Sweet Home’s Football Special District 3. Also remaining in the league will be Junction City, Marist and Philomath.
“The shuffling of the football leagues provides a lot of excitement,” said Sweet Home Coach Ryan Adams. “I’ll miss being able to compete against the greats, like Shane Hedrick and Randy Nyquist at Cascade and Stayton, but getting Cottage Grove and Crescent Valley in the mix will be a fun, new opportunity for us and our team.”
Cottage Grove, which moved down to the 3A Division in 2024 after going 1-8 in 2023, found success at the lower level, finishing 7-0 last fall in Special District 3 (with Sisters, Creswell, Elmira, Madras, Pleasant Hill, La Pine and Harrisburg) and 9-1 overall. The Lions were ousted by Burns 46-7 in the first round of the 3A playoffs, but now return to 4A competition.
Crescent Valley finished winless in the 5A Division Special District 3 last year, which is a pared-down version of the formerly gigantic Mid-Willamette Conference. The Raiders were 2-7 overall.
Staying put is Marist, which beat Henley last fall 30-6 in the 4A Championship game, avenging a loss to the Hornets in the previous year’s final. Marist moved to the 5A Division in 2010, after winning multiple state titles in the then-3A and 4A, but after several years of advancing deep into the 5A playoffs, missed the playoffs in 2015 and 2016, and lost in the first round in 2017. In 2018 Marist returned to the 4A. In 2020 it lost to Mazama, which also had dropped down from 5A, in a “first-place” culminating event, held in the spring during the COVID shutdown.
The Spartans did not make the playoffs in 2021 and 2022, but have been a finalist the past two years, winning last year.
Stayton and Cascade will move into Special District 2, a five-team league that includes Estacada, Molalla and Woodburn. Cascade and Marist have been the dominant teams in the league since the Spartans entered. Cascade has made the state playoffs every year since 2018 (there were no playoffs in 2020) and made the semifinals last year, losing 21-14 to Henley, which then lost 30-6 to Marist. The Cougars were quarterfinalists in 2023.
In 2022 Cascade, Stayton and Junction City were all state qualifiers.
“I think the reshuffling help even out competition throughout the state,” said Adams, who took the helm in 2021. “This last year, four of the final eight (Marist, Stayton, Philomath and Cascade) came from our league. That shows you how tough our league has been the last few years and how tough it has been to make the playoffs.
“I think this change helps a lot of different teams in their pursuit of post-season berths, and I’m glad we get to be part of that.”
Sweet Home’s last appearance in the state playoffs was in 2019, when the Huskies lost to Estacada in a play-in game. Since then Sweet Home has finished 2-4, 3-6, 3-6, 0-9 and 4-5.
“At the end of the day, we have to win in order to accomplish our goals, and I’m just looking forward to getting going this fall,” Adams said.
“I know our kids are excited about some fresh competition as well. Hopefully, it’ll make for an exciting and fun 2025 football season.”