Ken Roberts
Sports Writer
Football coaches throughout the state showed their respect for this year’s Husky squad in its balloting for all-state recognition.
Sweet Home athletes filled one-fourth of all the positions honored for first through third team, offense and defense. Twelve different individuals received recognition for 18 spots, including four on the first team: quarterback and kicker Donny Cliver, offensive and defensive lineman Rob Martin, tight end Tyler Emmert, and defensive back Tim Matuszak.
To put the number of awards in perspective, consider that state champion Marist had only six players honored for eleven positions. Wilsonville, their opponent in the state finals, garnered nine spots with eight different players.
No juniors were recognized as first team performers. But of the three juniors honored on second team, two were Huskies, Brandon Martin at guard (also third team linebacker) and Jesse Aitken as the center.
Also recognized on second team was Ricky Howe, Brandon Miner, and Matt Zollman on defense and Seth Graves on offense. Howe, despite his season-ending injury, also was honored as third team wide receiver while Mac Reynolds, Tomas Rosa, and Emmert merited third team defense with Cliver as the third team punter.
Although coach Rob Younger said that his team does not emphasize individual awards, he was still pleased for the players and the respect shown for them by other coaches.
“It shows the depth and quality of athletes we had,” said Younger.
Both Younger and the honorees believe the awards have more meaning because of the type of brotherhood they developed as a team.
“The things they will look back on is the hard work and sacrifices they made together,” stated Younger.
Many of these players have been long time residents of Sweet Home and long time participants in the football program since their youth. They realize that their own accomplishments have been a product of their development together.
“Being on a great team helped me learn and grow as a player,” said Rob Martin. “I just kept going to work against those guys, practicing and getting better.”
For Matuszak, it was a nice finish to a senior year, one in which he set the Husky career record for interceptions. For him, the best thing was that so made of his teammates were recognized.
“I was surprised that so many made it because we didn’t go as far in the playoffs as we expected,” said Matuszak. “We didn’t just work to improve ourselves, but it shows what kind of team we are.”
For Emmert, there were mixed feelings. It felt good to be honored, but some others may have been left out.
“I was excited because I didn’t have a clue,” said Emmert. “I thought that everybody that got recognition deserved it, but there were some other people that deserved it too.”
To receive all-state recognition, a player must have been on the first team in their league.
Then the Oregonian sends out ballots to all 3-A coaches and then tabulates them. Of course, this comes out more than a month after the season, which may have brought back some lingering thoughts in the players’ minds, ones with which they had already dealt.
Cliver had set personal goals to earn this kind of recognition, especially because he wants to continue to play at the college level both as a quarterback and kicker. But there is one thing that would make him give it all up.
“I’d trade it all in for our team to play full-strength against Marist,” said Cliver. “After that, we would probably even have more guys recognized.”
That is the sentiment of all the players. After all, they are still a team first rather than a first team.