Brandon Bennett coached for seven years—six as head coach— at Cascade High School in Turner. The former Willamette University all-American (three times) and professional player in Europe and the Arena Football League was offensive coordinator for the Cougars when they won the 2015 4A football championship, and took over the head coaching duties from Steve Turner the next season.
Bennett coached Cascade successfully during those seasons, amassing a record of 36 wins and 19 losses. His team won five league titles, including their last three with an unbeaten record. The Cougars were never an easy out in the state playoffs. The team also endured during the spring pandemic season of 2021, going 3-3 against teams of various classifications from around the mid-Valley.
Brandon Bennett himself loved working in the Cascade community—a sports-rabid populace of working farms and small businesses in and around the picturesque hamlet of Turner.
“I had an older woman come up to me before one game telling me to beat (rival) Stayton,” recalls Bennett with a laugh.
“She told me she had a bet on the game and didn’t want to lose.”
Brandon—who had been a graduate coach at Willamette and spent a season at Stayton before moving to Turner as offensive coordinator—recalls the mentors who helped him become a better coach.
People like long-time Cascade Coach Karl Elliott, who had directed the Cougars to a state crown in 1980. Elliott provided direction to Brandon as he fine-tuned a deceptive run offense that is a Wing-T hybrid which incorporates elements of other systems like the power, veer and fly offenses. And there was Steve Turner, who hired Bennett and entrusted him with the Cougar offense that won the 2015 4A championship. Those two helped Bennett become a perfect fit for the team.
“That (Cascade) community matched my personality and (old school) background,” said Bennett.
“It has small school spirt and a country mentality. Kids there still proudly wear the mullet (haircut). It is a marriage like that (between coach and team) that leads to success. When you have kids willing to work hard, it makes it easier to be successful.”
But in June of 2021, Brandon Bennett quietly walked away from his job and from Oregon itself. It was far from an easy decision, but one precipitated by state policies dealing with the COVID pandemic among other things.
The pandemic school year of 2020 was one of frustration which began with online education only for all districts in the state. The practice was in place for the entire first semester.
Cascade and the rest of Oregon’s prep athletics programs were put in limbo for the entire year, as the governor and the State Health Authority kept school districts waiting while they determined from month-to-month whether conditions allowed for sports to take place at all. Almost all seasons were pushed back, and announcements okaying resumption of competition came with only about a week’s notice. Quite the exhausting process for all involved.
Districts were allowed to resume face-to-face schooling during second semester. Many waited until after spring break, but Cascade moved back to classrooms a bit earlier than that. Coaches and teachers remained hopeful that the pandemic rules would be a thing of the past.
But as Brandon and the rest of us witnessed, the optimism was short-lived.
“All summer (of 2021), my team had been practicing six feet apart outdoors, but wearing no masks,” says Bennett.
“Then the (governor’s) mandate for the fall was handed down—and it stated that masks must be worn in schools.”
“It was frustrating.”
2021 sports seasons themselves were held during their traditional time frames, with some masking restrictions still in place. But it still was far from “normal.”
It was at the end of the 2021 football season that Bennett and his family began exploring the idea of moving out of Oregon.
“In December of 2021, we began looking at Texas as an option. My family members had job opportunities in Texas, so we decided to make the jump,” recalls Bennett ruefully.
“Cascade did everything in their power to have our kids in school—which I strongly agree with. They did the best they could with the measures that were put in place by the state.”
Confesses Brandon: “The forced vaccination mandate made me think about going somewhere else.”
In June, Brandon resigned and asked Cascade officials not to announce his departure to the public.
“When you play or coach for this community, it isn’t about you alone. Cascade will go on without you or me—it is bigger any one person,” he says with decisiveness.
Brandon Bennett and his family moved more than two thousand miles from Turner to the suburban town of Sherman, Texas, located just north of Dallas.
But this isn’t where the story ends. In fact, it marks a dramatic reset for Brandon.
He applied for three or four high school coaching jobs in the area, but didn’t even get a “sniff.” There is something to be said about not being from Texas, but Bennett is philosophical.
“I am an outsider from Oregon (and California), so I have got to build a network in a state where it is ‘Faith, Family, and football,’ but not always in that order.”
“I have that challenge ahead of me, and hope to land a (high school) job in 3-5 years.”
For now, Bennett will be teaching and coaching football, track and soccer to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. But he is ok with that, considering the new sports culture he has entered.
“The middle school weight rooms and indoor training facilities here are better than those at the top high school schools in Oregon,” he confesses.
And Bennett says the Texas high school facilities are on-par with those at Oregon State University.
Even more of a shock to Bennett is how duties are assigned for the football coaches.
“Coaching football is a full-time job in Texas,” says Brandon. “Head coaches are the athletic directors; the assistant coaches teach weight training classes.”
Wow. Welcome to Texas.
Bennett does have a friend in Texas already. Former Cascade defensive coordinator Will Baldwin moved his own family to Texas last year, and finished coaching at Cascade last fall before moving to the Lone Star State himself. He lives just 15 minutes from Brandon.
“With the two of us down here, it doubles the odds of us landing a job.” says Bennett.
“I could get a job and he could be my defensive coordinator, or I could be his offensive coordinator. We will both build our network of contacts.”
Both men are hoping for a smaller school experience like they had at Cascade—the community feel that was so comfortable in Oregon.
This move to Texas by Bennett is a tall order for a man who has essentially set aside 15 years of coaching experience and reputation to work in a new and much larger state. Still, Brandon has no regrets, although he admits to missing his old team at times.
“I still have a love for Cascade, and have texted to check on summer workouts in Turner in the transition period.”
Bennett looks at his new Texas challenge as a great opportunity. And he says his departure—and the exit of hundreds/thousands of Oregonians to other states since the pandemic is a cautionary tale for government leaders who have seemingly forgotten about many of their citizens upset with COVID directives and/or other controversial issues like green energy and climate change policies.
“When you look at Oregon, it is easy to see that three counties (in the Portland area) and another near Eugene are dictating policy when it comes to COVID and non-metro area industries,” says Bennett bluntly.
“Rural Oregon has been neglected, and decisions about hunting, fishing, and agricultural issues are being controlled by those from the major cities. 90 to 95 percent of Oregon’s geography is being dictated to by the urban population.”
The Oregon Trail has been reversed for the moment. It is too bad that the state is losing some valuable talent elsewhere due to divisive politics.