By now, Calvin Griggs knows he must explain it. He’s the football coach at Jefferson. No, not that Jefferson, the other one.
“It never fails,” Griggs said with a laugh. “No, there’s this little school out in the middle of nowhere with some farm animals. It is totally opposite, culture-wise and everything.”
Jefferson, a 2A school about 20 miles south of Salem, has a considerably lower profile than its north Portland 6A namesake. The way the Lions are playing this season, though, they might just be putting the Marion County school back on the map.
A half-century has passed since Jefferson’s last playoff win in 1965 -- when it won its second B state title in three years -- and it’s been nine years since the Lions made the playoffs.
But after going winless in 3A last season, the team dropped to 2A this year and is off to its first 4-0 start since 2004. In Griggs’ third season, the Lions are ranked sixth in the OSAAtoday coaches poll and starting to look like contenders.
“We’re really loaded with a lot of skill players,” said Griggs, who played receiver at Washington State. “We can compete with anybody in the state. We have a legitimate chance to do some big things.”
Running Oregon’s spread zone offense, the Lions are averaging 33.0 points per game. They have a third-year starter at quarterback in senior Luke McGivney, an outstanding receiving corps in senior Cesar Sepulveda and juniors Xander Koslow and Diego Rodriguez and an emerging prospect at tight end in junior Jayden Eriksen (6-5, 220).
“He’s a big-time player. He’s definitely going to play on Saturdays,” Griggs said of Eriksen, who has 15 catches for 330 yards and six touchdowns.
McGivney has passed for 725 yards and 10 touchdowns and run for 227 yards and two scores. Junior running back Isaac Deleon has rushed for 240 yards in the last two games in place of injured senior Skyler Williams (knee), who is expected back next week. Senior linebacker Cody Adams leads the defense with 56 tackles.
Jefferson played much of last season with 17 players on its roster but “fought through the struggles and the pain and tears,” according to Griggs, to transform into a deeper, mentally tougher team this season.
“We’ve been blessed with numbers this year,” Griggs said. “We put in a lot of hard work in the summertime. We knew it was going to be a special year when we won a lot of our 7-on-7 tournaments. We knew we had the skill level and the talent, it was just having these kids believing in themselves.”
Jefferson, which successfully petitioned to play down in 2A for all sports for the four-year time block that began this year, has one of the highest enrollments in the classification.
“If we would’ve stayed at 3A, we would’ve been very competitive this year,” Griggs said. “I was pretty confident about what we had coming back.”
Jefferson gets its biggest test of the season Friday at home when it meets No. 3 Monroe (3-1), the reigning 2A champion, in the Special District 3 opener for both teams.
“Our kids are ready,” Griggs said. “We’re not a surprise anymore. I think people know we’re here for real. Our kids are hungry, and we’ll give them a really good fight.”
The Lions have come a long way from when they "got beat up" last season, according to Griggs.
“Some questioned what was going on, but for the most part, they all stuck with it and they all believed that our time would come," Griggs said.
