I (Wayne) decided to turn out for football in 7th grade in the Longview School District in the Fall of 1968. My 7th grade Cascade Junior High team only played one game, which was against Cascade's 8th grade (2nd string). We didn’t get to play other schools until the 8th grade. Mr. Glenn De Gallier was our 8th grade coach. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of our players' (Jerry, #25) Dad brought a camera with a telephoto lens to at least one game and took some nice black & white photographs. He also took an informal photograph (after a game) of the 1st string offense and defense. The 8th grade team played 4 games.
My 9th grade Cascade Junior High team played 5 games in the Fall of 1970. Reference 1 was written just after our first game of the season.
During my sophomore year at Mark Morris (MM) High School I played on the JV team. I calculated our "last 12 games” [spanned multiple years] winning percentage and found that it got up to .79 [decimal] during this time. Although I suited up for the varsity games that year (1971), I did not get to play very much on the varsity team. I suited up with the varsity on their first game of the season, which was against Chehalis (aka W. F. West High School); watching that game from the sideline, I was very impressed with the varsity team’s performance (see Reference 2). Although the aforementioned article did not mention it, this was Del Talley’s first game coaching the MM varsity team. In the 3rd game of the season, MM got a substantial lead, and I finally got to see some action. I was fortunate and was credited with a 2 point safety on my first play on the MM varsity team (see Reference 3).
At the end of my sophomore year, the MM varsity team ended the season with a [decimal] .61 winning percentage (5-3-1) (see Reference 4). The experience I gained during the past few years got me thinking about how we would do during my Senior year in High School...
References:
1. “Cavaliers rate good chance to win it all", The Longview Daily News, printing Fall of 1970
2. “Costly Bearcat Miscues Allow Monarch Victory", The Centralia Daily Chronicle, Sep. 18, 1971
3. “MM Beats Battle Ground 48-12", The Mark [Morris HS] Times", printing October 22, 1971
4. “S.W.W. 'AAA’ League Standings", The Centralia Daily Chronicle, Nov. 18, 1971
Note 1: The “Sport of Football" web page can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->Sport of Football from menu bar at top.
Note 2: The “My Junior/Senior High Football Photos (Part 2)" web page can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->Sport of Football->My Junior/Senior High Football Photos (Part 2) from menu bar at top.
