Steve Gress: A tribute to the Crescent Valley seniors Comments
As the Crescent Valley High football team gathered one last time this season after a game, Scott Sanders had everyone but the seniors take a knee.
He then asked those kneeling to carry the seniors off the field.
The No. 7 Raiders had just suffered a tough 40-27 loss to No. 3 Sherwood in the OSAA 5A playoffs.
“That’s a good football team,” Sanders said of Sherwood. “That’s a team we’re striving to be. Their coach has been there 25 years and has got a program. That’s what we’re building here and that’s what I told our seniors.
“You love every senior class but this one I cut my teeth on as far as starting to mold them and get them to believe in what we’re doing here,” Sanders said. “I’m proud as heck of these guys.”
The gesture was not lost of the seniors, or those in the other three classes.
“It felt cool,” senior Colby Eason said. “It was all about raising your head, keeping your head up high and it was a tough game.
“For us as seniors, you don’t want this to be your last game but we know coach cares about us and to have us carried off the field is pretty cool I guess.”
Junior Kyle Gardner had no doubt who he wanted to carry off the field.
“I just wanted to go to Colby,” Gardner said outside the locker room about 20 minutes later. “He showed so much heart out there and the last couple of minutes when we were down and most of us knew there wasn’t a chance, he was in the huddle (saying) let’s go, we’re fighting for this we’re going to finish strong.
“I have all the respect in the world for the guy. I just wanted to carry him off.”
Eason was glad it was Gardner carrying him.
“Well when I looked down and I saw Gardner carrying me I knew I was in good hands, he’s kind of a beast,” he said with Gardner standing next to him. “He’s a very strong young man.”
All joking aside, the move was a symbol of what this senior class has meant to Sanders, in his third year, as well as the program.
They went from a team that won just one game before Sanders arrived, to a team that lost to the current No. 2-, No. 3- and No. 6-ranked teams — by a combined 21 points — and had a chance to win the Mid-Willamette Conference title on the last week of the regular season.
“Each year we kept getting better,” senior Colton Kelsey said. “For Scott to come in here and change this around for our senior class and to change it around, it’s a big deal.”
Kelsey said he will look back fondly on his time in the program.
“This was my last game for high school football, definitely I have nothing but good memories,” he said. “All the Raider runs, all my guys I’ve been playing with. I mean like you’re not going to remember all the game but you will remember all the guys sitting next to you and working (their butt) off like you.”
For those returning, the focus is about getting bigger, faster and stronger to make another run next season.
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