At 9:50 a.m. yesterday morning, OSAAtoday sent varsity head coaches links to vote in the 2021 pre-season Coaches Polls for football, volleyball, cross-country and soccer.
By 9:51 a.m., OSAAtoday had received its first response!
The excitement of the impending season extends beyond athlete and parents. Coaches also cannot wait for the fall campaign, especially after so much Covid uncertainty these past 18 months!
Eighty-three (83) more responses were submitted by day’s end Thursday across the fall sports and enrollment classifications, with 29 of the 30 polls populated by at least one response (we are looking at you 6A volleyball!). But the very first response came in 5A football and the first, first-place vote went to…
The West Albany Bulldogs!
Head coach Brian Mehl chuckled when he heard the news.
“I have no idea what kind of team we’re going to have given what last year was like,” he said. “I think we’ll have a solid team and play good ball. It feels good having someone respect you that much but it’s about the work we put in. I’m excited about our kids returning for sure.”
West Albany went 4-1 in last year’s truncated spring season. The Bulldogs lost their opener to 6A McNary before dominating four league opponents. Fifteen quality seniors graduated off of that squad, which was expected to be a title contender in a typical season.
West Albany returns a lot of talent, including “bigs” like senior Carson Benedict and swift athletes like junior Demarcus Houston, the state’s No. 2 prospect in the 2023 class according to Andrew Nemec.
Mehl said that he hopes his team can validate the faith that initial pollster had in placing West Albany ahead of other contenders like perennial 5A powers Thurston, Wilsonville and Silverton; and newcomer Canby, which is down from 6A.
“I think people have respect for West Albany football,” Mehl said. “There are 5-6 teams that should contend and we hope to be one of them.”
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High school varsity head coaches are encouraged to continue voting in the polls for the next 10 days to two weeks. If you are a varsity head coach and did not receive an email yesterday, kindly reach out at [email protected].
Look for pre-season polls to be released in volleyball, boys and girls soccer and boys and girls cross-country the week of Aug. 23, with football polls out starting Aug. 30.
The season is upon us. We’re excited. We know you are, too.
Play ball!
johnt@osaa.org
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