Golden Age of Salem-Keizer High School Football
McNary, Sprague dominated in an era where the Valley League was flat out impressive
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the music world was dominated by the likes of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, the Backstreet Boys, Shakira, Linkin Park, Alicia Keys, Beyonce’, and Usher among others. On television, Friends and the X Files were at the top of the ratings. And in 2001, the first iPods came on the market, filling the ears of teens everywhere with their own music playlists. This introduction is only to provide some historical context.
For Oregon’s Valley League high school football, this time frame marked what could be called a golden age for the gridiron. A number of schools made their football marks from 1995 to 2006, but the key teams belonged to McNary’s Tom Smythe and Sprague’s Robin Hill. McNary and Sprague together made four Oregon state championship game appearances in those dozen years, and turned Friday night football into an event to look forward to.
To be very clear here, Sprague and McNary were not invincible. Teams like Jay Minyard’s South Albany Rebels and Scott Dufault’s McKay Royal Scots were also perennial playoff contenders. Later, Dufault moved to South Salem, and Minyard to North Salem and then McKay. So the coaching prowess remained high in the conference. It was fun to watch Valley League football.
When Tom Smythe arrived at McNary in 1995, Robin Hill had been long established at Sprague—and had guided the Olys to a couple of playoff appearances since arriving in 1987. But the stakes went up upon Smythe’s arrival from Lakeridge of the Three Rivers League.
Early in the rivalry, Sprague had the advantage, winning two in a row in 1995 and 96.
“Smythe wasn’t used to losing, and we beat ‘em the first few years pretty good,” recalled Hill.
“He was really irritated at the fact that there was a program out there that could whoop ‘em.”
Smythe’s memories of the early years were not quite that specific, but he recalls that playing Sprague was rarely a walk in the park.
“The thing about (playing) Sprague under Robin was they played hard, but clean,” remembered Smythe.
“They were obviously well coached.”
Smythe’s Celtics finally turned the tables on the Olys by winning three-straight in their series. That first win came in McNary’s state title run in 1997, a decisive 48-6 victory. The third of the three came in 1999, when Sprague advanced to the State Championship game, where they lost 20-0 to Beaverton. McNary pounded Sprague that season, 28-10.
There was never any indication as to whether Sprague or McNary would beat the other in a given season. Records didn’t mean anything much of the time. For McNary, the objective was straight forward.
“Their run game was their bread and butter,” said Smythe, stating the obvious about Hill’s wing-T set.
“We had to figure out how to slow down the 10 more yards deal....and get the ball back.”
Different objectives, same dilemma for Robin Hill in slowing down Smythe’s no-huddle spread offense.
“He (Smythe) knew how to take advantage of every weakness you had,” reflected Hill.
“I was lucky that I had a defensive coach in Art Lushenko who knew how to make adjustments and knew how to take away the other team’s best plays. It was always an on-going battle to make adjustments during the game.”
Over their twelve years of scuffling, Hill and Smythe played to a virtual draw, each picking up six wins. Former Statesman-Journal sports reporter Gary Horowitz found that stalemate fitting, as both schools seemed to “circle the game” on the schedule year after year as a symbol of supremacy in the Valley League. Frequently, the two teams met in the season opener.
“There was definitely mutual respect between Smythe and Hill,” said Horowitz. “And that carried over to the staffs and players… if you wanted to compete in the Valley League, you had to raise your game.”
In 1997, McNary had the upper hand offensively with the development of junior quarterback Stephen Copeland, the dynamic running of Nick Calaycay, and the acrobatic pass catching of Sean Kintner and Justin Kent. The aforementioned 48-6 victory over Sprague that year was proof enough. The Celtics went on to win the highest scoring, and arguably the most dramatic Oregon football title game—a 51-48 thriller over Beaverton at Portland’s Civic Stadium. Calaycay, who also was McNary’s place kicker, nailed a 22 yard field goal in the closing seconds to secure the win and Smythe’s first championship in Keizer.
In 1999, despite losing to McNary that season, the Olympians rose to the top of the league in the post season, advancing to the championship game before being shut out 20-0 by a Beaverton team playing for the memory of a fallen teammate. That Sprague team included two-way starter Bill Swancutt, who was named Oregon Defensive Player of the Year his senior season in 2000, and later was Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year at Oregon State.
In 2001, McNary rose above the rest of the Valley League, after finishing second to South Salem as a result of a 26-19 loss at South. Celtics running back/linebacker JD Groves—who later played at UCLA—was injured and unable to play that night. In the playoffs, South Salem lost on the road in Pendleton, while McNary stunned perennial power Roseburg in the second playoff game. Smythe’s troops parlayed that success into another championship game appearance---a decisive 35-14 win over Sheldon at Reser Stadium in Corvallis. Celtic players told reporters after the game that losing to South Salem was a catalyst for them, and perhaps the reason they had the determination to run the table in the post season.
In 2004, it was Sprague’s turn again. The Olympians hard-nosed run game, anchored by a huge offensive line, the athleticism of quarterback Joey Wong and strength of running back John Breza, powered the team to hard fought wins over four straight opponents, including highly favored Jesuit. That set up one final showdown at Eugene’s Autzen Stadium. There, Sprague stood its ground to gain a 30-27 win over Three Rivers League Champion Lake Oswego in yet another exciting Valley League-featured state title contest. By the way, Sprague also won the Oregon 4A baseball title in the spring of that same school year.
And between all of those statewide proclamations of success were the McNary-Sprague league games that attracted hundreds of people on Friday nights and brought Portland television crews to the stadiums for video coverage of the action.
And at the end of every game, Tom Smythe and Robin Hill would smile, shake hands and walk away—satisfied that their team had produced its best effort against their designated league rival.
“We went back and forth,” remembers Hill. “I think that rivalry was really special.”
“I really get along well with Tom… he was really good for our league, and I will always remember those McNary-Sprague games. They were pretty awesome.”
And Smythe concurs with Robin Hill’s assessment of the rivalry.
“I felt good about football versus Sprague… it was competitive and hard hitting but had a respect for the opponents. We had some real battles.”
Yes, yes, they did.