Phoenix coach Charlie Hall addresses his South Valley Wolfpack team during a practice this week. (Photo by Joe Zavala)

Sure, the cultural exchange with a Japanese all-star football team has been deeply rewarding for Ashland since it began playing in the Pacific Rim Bowl series in 1988.

But after losing three in a row to Japan to fall behind 9-8 in the series – including a 47-14 defeat in the last meeting in 2023 in Kobe, Japan – a victory would go a long way toward enhancing the experience.

So when the international competition resumes Friday at Walter A. Phillips Field in Ashland, the host team will include players from Phoenix for the first time. The Ashland/Phoenix squad will be known as the South Valley Wolfpack, reviving the name from when the towns combined their youth football teams prior to COVID.

Considering about a dozen of them are former youth teammates, it was a natural alliance.

“There was a little bit of a precedent based on the previous connection with these kids,” said Phoenix coach Charlie Hall, who is serving as the South Valley head coach.

Hall, who went 3-3 in the series during his tenure as Ashland's coach (2005-16), is eager to regain the upper hand against Japan. Hall said that former Ashland coach Jim Nagel, who started the series, also has relayed a sense of urgency to the players.

“He talked to the team last week, and one of his closing lines was, 'We've got to get a win here, boys,'” Hall said of Nagel. “It's going to be a highly competitive game. The Japanese kids, over the years, you can see their skill sets and their level of competitiveness has really increased.”

The series is played every two years at alternating sites, although it was interrupted in 2021 due to COVID. Friday will mark the first time the game is played in Oregon since 2019, when wildfire smoke forced organizers to move it to North Bend.

The Japanese team is composed of players from more than 40 high schools in the western region of the country. The players are staying with 20 host families in Ashland and two in Phoenix.

“It's one of the most enthusiastic groups of Japanese kids I've ever seen,” said Hall, who is half Japanese. “They have minimal inhibitions when it comes to having fun. They're just engaging and bonding with your players, and our kids are just eating it up.”

The Japanese players have practiced alongside the South Valley players since they arrived Sunday. They competed Tuesday in the Kitchell Games, featuring 7-on-7 games and a lineman challenge. The event schedule also includes a visit to Crater Lake and jet boat rides on the Rogue River.

Hall said the Ashland and Phoenix players easily bonded with the Japanese players – even better than they have with one another.

“We have our mindset about other communities, and our biases about different things, our stereotypes, and we have to get over those social barriers,” Hall said. “But when the Japanese came here, they really embraced them. The kids are having a great time.”

South Valley had to make some cuts to put together its 53-player roster. All of the seniors, and most of the juniors, made the team from both schools, as well as a handful of sophomores.

“Ashland's got a real talented sophomore class,” Hall said. “They've got some kids that can step in here and help us out.”

One of those Ashland sophomores is Colton Hernandez, who is slated to start at quarterback for South Valley. Hernandez, the son of Ashland assistant coach Tim Hernandez, saw varsity action at safety as a freshman.

The game will be played at Ashland for the first time since 2011, when Ashland won behind quarterback Daniel White. The scheduled home game in 2015 was moved to Southern Oregon University because Ashland was installing artificial turf, then the 2019 game moved to North Bend.

Hall is expecting an enthusiastic crowd.

“There's a lot of buzz right now. A lot of people are talking about it,” he said. “It'll be kind of cool to be in front of a full house and have this amazing international cultural competition.”