NORTH POWDER – 2009 was a rough year for the Badgers on the football field.

Coach Dan Townsend doesn’t sugar-coat Powder Valley’s 1-7 record a year ago.

But he wants to use it as a springboard for something better this fall in the tough Old Oregon League.

“We were really a young team and inexperienced (last year),” he said.

Now he has seven returnees on offense and seven returnees on defense and several three year starters that will be the base for his hopes for the Badgers’ success this season.

Townsend has 19 students out for the team which includes a group of seniors he hopes will form a strong bond for the Badgers. “A lot of them will be going both ways,” he said.

Trenton Dixon, a 6-foot-2-inch senior is slated to be used at running back and quarterback, while another senior, Brenton Reed, is also slated for backfield duty with sophomore Colton Eubanks.

Townsend also sees experience as a strength at wide receiver, with both Dakota Townsend and Chase Ficek coming in this season as

seniors with three years experience as starters for the Badgers.

On the offensive line, the Badgers will have junior Johnny Galvez at center sandwiched by sophomore Sam Smart and senior Jessy Brown guards. Smart and Galvez are both second-year starters. Brown is a three-year starter.

The strength of the Badger offense this year will be on the shoulders of Dixon and Eubanks, according to Townsend. Dixon is a four-year starter who wants to go out with a strong season, he added.

“We would like to have a balanced team this year,” he said. But, the wide open space of the eight-man football game is very compelling for him and his team. “We would like to really spread it out. There is a lot of room out there.”

Now, Townshend has to prepare his team for a tough non-league and league schedule with leadership being its biggest asset. “We have seven seniors who have played together for four years. Last year, five of the losses were to teams in the state playoffs of either Oregon or Washington.

“Last year’s schedule was brutal. But it doesn’t get easier. We just are a little more experienced and are looking forward to the challenge,” he added. “Our league is as tough as the state playoffs might be.”

Powder Valley will host Adrian in its first game of the season Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.

Adrian will be a dangerous foe, Townsend warned. “They are always tough in the High Desert League. So they’ll be a tough team. We hope that we will be ready for them,” he added.

Adrian had a tough year last season, finishing sixth in the eight-team league with a 2-4 mark and finished 2-7 overall. A mid-season forfeit by Burnt River (one of five by the Bulls) gave the Antelopes their first win of the season, but a 46-0 romp over Huntington closed out the season on a high note.

As tough as Townsend thinks the league may be, he knows his own league is much tougher. “Look at our league. In the last four or five years, there have always been a team (from the Old Oregon League) in the semi-finals or state championship game,” he said. This year, he sees Cove and Imbler being the league powerhouses. “There is not a weak team in our league. We’ll be in a dogfight no matter which team we’ll be playing.”

After opening with Adrian at home, the Badgers will be traveling to Idaho the following week to play the Council Lumberjacks Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. in Council. The Lumberjacks from the 1A Western Idaho League (eight-man) just missed making it into the Top Five 1A rankings in a preseason poll posted by Idahosports.com last week.

But the Lumberjacks opened their season with a 44-27 loss to league foe Tri-Valley just two days later and watched Titan running back Matt Ball sprint for 193 yards rushing and average almost nine yards a carry through their defense.

Now, Council will have two weeks to prepare for the Badgers – and patch up the holes left in their defense by Ball and the Titans.

Powder Valley hosts Crane, the league champions who ousted Wallowa from the playoffs last fall, Sept. 17 in a 2 p.m. contest.

The Mustangs finished the 2009 season in the second round of the state playoffs with a 43-40 loss to Mohawk. Crane opened the season with a 48-16 loss to the eventual state champions, St. Paul, in the Dufur Classic before rolling on to a 10-2 overall record and a perfect 8-0 league mark in Special District 6.

After visiting free-lance Union Sept. 24, the Badgers begin their league schedule Oct. 1in Halfwaywith a 2 p.m. game with Pine Eagle.

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