Bits & Pieces—Early May Edition
Pro football in Hillsboro? South Salem’s big baseball win, and a new soccer coach at McNary
Small items of interest for readers about sports in our region. Take a look at the briefs that follow.
Professional football for Portland-Metro Area? Maybe.
Portland has had its share of small professional football franchises. The biggest was the Portland Breakers of the original USFL in the 1980s. There have also been a long list of arena football teams at the Moda Center—including the Steel and Forest Dragons in decades past.
But announced this week in Hillsboro was a new franchise from an organization known as Major League Football. Unlike the XFL and the current USFL, they will play in the fall, head-to-head against the NFL schedule.
MLF Commissioner Adam McLean explained his league’s plans during an impromptu press conference at Hillsboro Stadium, where the as-of-yet un named Hillsboro team will play its games.
McLean insists this will not be a fly-by-night operation, but real professional football.
“We are a professional football league in great markets that just don’t happen to have an NFL team,” explained McLean.
The plan is to try and put America’s most popular pro sport in places like Portland, Sacramento, Oakland (without the Raiders), and three other locations to make up the Northern Division of the Western Conference.
Other MLF locations are scattered across the country, including the Dakotas, Kentucky, and Iowa. And even in towns with NFL teams like Dallas and Houston. Tryouts will be scheduled in and around the cities where the franchises will be located. McLean points out that less than 2 percent of college players actually go pro, so there are what he describes as “amazing athletes” out there just waiting to play.
It is an ambitious plan, and McLean told the reporters on hand that they want to offer Sunday football for markets lacking that component to go along with their prep Friday games, and Saturday college contests. Prices for tickets will be relatively cheap—in the range of 50 to 125 dollars. But those sales will be key to keeping the league afloat.
The MLF season is slated to begin on September 10th. The league website is located at majorleaguefootball.pro.
Note: this story was first shared by the Forest Grove News-Times newspaper.
South Salem baseball moves up
A lonely journey down Interstate Five to Medford reaped big rewards for the upstart South Salem baseball team, which dropped into North Medford High Wednesday, and beat the fifth-ranked Black Tornado 2-1 in an exciting early afternoon contest.
South came in rated tenth in the state, riding a three-game winning streak that included a pair of wins over Central Valley Conference rival Sprague, and a “home” win over Franklin of Portland in a contest played at Pacific University in Forest Grove. South’s baseball field was vandalized this winter and the Saxons have played most of their contests on the road.
South’s Cole Weiland earned Coach Max Price’s coveted dugout card by pitching a complete game victory at North Medford, yielding four hits while striking out five. The senior also helped his own cause with two hits, including a triple and an RBI.
The win boosted South’s record to 17-3 on the year, and allowed them to leapfrog Sprague in the power rankings—moving from tenth to sixth in the OSAA’s power rankings. Sprague remains at eighth, while North Medford dropped to #11.
South is off until next Tuesday, when they play a three game series against West Salem—which is winless in the CVC at 0-5. That will be followed by a series of non conference contests with Central of Independence (at Willamette’s John Lewis Field), South Eugene, and Barlow of Gresham.
#8 Sprague plays Thursday at #16 McMinnville, and concludes its conference season next week with three games (Tues, Wed, Fri) against McNary.
The 6A baseball playoffs begin on May 22nd.
McNary selects new girls soccer coach
McNary High School Scott Gragg announced on Monday the school has hired Josh Rios Noonkester as the new head coach for their girls soccer program.
The 31-year old Noonkester was an assistant for the Celtics during the 2022 season, and won a state championship at South Salem in 2009 as a player. Noonkester also played for the Portland Timbers U23 squad, now known as Capital FC Atletico U23.
The McNary Girls Soccer team went 3-9-1 overall and 3-4-1 in Central Valley Conference play.
Have a great week everyone!