Rocco De La Rosa didn’t need long to find his way onto the field at Reser Stadium. Correction — onto the field anywhere for Oregon State.
A true freshman and Class of 2026 Philomath High graduate, De La Rosa worked his way from the scout team into a starting spot on the Beavers’ kickoff return team. He saw his first college game action Sept. 19 against Montana and has since played on the road at Texas-El Paso on Sept. 26 and at Colorado State on Oct. 3.
It was that trip to Fort Collins last weekend where he made his first big play.
Late in the first quarter with Oregon State leading 14-7, the Rams tried a line-drive kick down the middle. De La Rosa, lined up on the front row of the return unit, was in the right spot to knock down and fall on the ball. Teammates congratulated him on the sideline, and the play gave the Beavers great field position in what became a 56-26 rout.
Oregon State named him its Special Teams Player of the Game.
Back home, the moment didn’t go unnoticed. When Mike Parker brought “The Joe Beaver Show” to Evenflo Plumbing in Philomath on Thursday, De La Rosa was a topic of conversation, and Warriors coach Alex Firth was among the guests.
“I thought the moment was outstanding … it was just amazing to see Rocco recover that,” Firth said.
De La Rosa was a four-year starter for the Warriors and seemingly played everywhere.
“When you have a kid that’s that athletically talented, he’s on the field every play,” Firth told Parker. “I think he played almost everything but offensive and defensive line for us, and if we had asked him, he probably would have done that too. He’s one of those kids.”
Firth, in his sixth season at Philomath and 27th overall as a coach, puts De La Rosa in elite company.
“He ranks probably in the top six athletes that I’ve ever coached,” Firth said. “So you kind of knew it was going to happen with him. He’s a hard worker, and he couples that with natural talent. So I was really glad to see him have his opportunity.”
De La Rosa drew plenty of recruiting interest, including from several Ivy League programs. He and teammate CD Nuño, now at Boise State, were both on college radars. Oregon State offered De La Rosa a walk-on spot under its previous coaching staff, and when the program changed coaches, the new staff honored the commitment.
“If you ask him, he wanted to stay home and play for the Beavers, which was kind of his team growing up,” Firth said. “So I think serendipity and everything worked out in his favor.”
The jump to college football hasn’t been easy, Firth said, but De La Rosa is embracing it.
“For any kid, the transition to college is an eye-opener from high school,” he said. “The intensity and the amount of time you spend involved in the sport is different, and it’s hard. He said it was hard, but he loves it. He’s out there working his tail off.”
As a senior at Philomath, De La Rosa was the league Player of the Year and a first-team all-state pick at wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner. He totaled 21 touchdowns — 12 receiving, five rushing, two on returns and one on an interception return — while catching 41 passes for 638 yards and picking off six passes.
Listed on Oregon State’s roster as a 6-foot-1 running back, De La Rosa is majoring in environmental engineering.
Parker’s comments on De La Rosa and the Firth interview come near the start of the broadcast, which is available online.
2. Mariman’s legacy
When Philomath High hosts the Paul Mariman Invitational on Saturday, runners will be competing on a course originally designed by the man whose name is on the meet.
Mariman taught and coached for 37 years in Oregon, with stops in Alsea, Newberg and Enterprise along with two stints in Philomath. He returned for good in 1975, taught English and built the Warriors’ cross-country and track programs into a small-school power. His teams won eight state titles and 31 league championships. Seven of those state crowns came in cross-country — six by the girls from 1984 to 1990 and one by the boys in 1993.
By every account, he was also a gentle soul.
“He was the most unlikely of heroes — mild-mannered, modest, soft-spoken, gentle and believe it or not, a bit shy,” Joe Fulton, his longtime assistant and successor, said when Mariman was inducted into the PHS Hall of Fame in 2023.
Mariman never typed anything. He wrote everything in flawless cursive, and his classroom chalkboards were works of art. He also didn’t trust a measuring wheel. To lay out a course, he used his own stride, which he had refined to exactly 1 meter. Athletes and coaches called it the “Mari-meter,” and he would count off 5,000 of them to mark a 5K.
Mariman died June 1, 1997, at age 61. He had gone into Good Samaritan Hospital for back surgery and suffered a stroke there. About 500 people filled St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Corvallis for his funeral. Afterward, the annual Timber Town Invitational was renamed in his honor, and the course behind the high school was named for him.
Fulton said keeping Mariman’s name attached to the meet means a lot to him.
“Paul and I were really close friends. I’m just happy to be able to carry on the tradition that he established at Philomath way back when he started,” Fulton told me in 2021. “I came in and started helping him out in the early ’80s and we’ve kept it going. He’d be happy.”
Mariman, a father of nine, is buried at Mount Union Cemetery. His grave marker reads, “I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
The 41st annual Paul Mariman Invitational begins at 11 a.m. Saturday with middle school and youth club races. High school junior varsity races get started at 1 p.m., followed by the varsity races at 2 p.m. Fulton reported 786 runners entered — 511 for middle school-youth and 275 for high school. In all, 19 high schools, 13 middle schools and three youth club teams will be represented.
3. Stay alerted
If an emergency hits Philomath, will you hear about it? That depends on which alert systems can reach you, and many residents may not realize there are two.
The first is a Wireless Emergency Alert, the loud, jarring message that pops up on your cell phone without any sign-up required. Because it’s a federally managed system, WEAs are reserved for immediate life-safety threats, such as certain evacuation orders and Amber Alerts. Messages are also strictly limited in length, which explains why a WEA sometimes arrives without saying who sent it or what’s going on.
The second is Linn-Benton Alert, which you have to sign up for. It’s tied to your address and can send texts, calls and emails with far more detail, including lower-level evacuation notices (Level 1 “Be Ready” and Level 2 “Be Set”), shelter-in-place instructions and other local hazards.
According to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, only about 16% of county residents were registered as of September. Each family member needs a separate account, and an outdated address can mean missing an alert for your neighborhood. Signing up for Corvallis Police Alerts doesn’t count, either — that runs on different software.
To find out whether you’re registered, watch for the system’s test message, which goes out on the Saturday before daylight saving time changes. The next one is set for Oct. 31. Test messages come from 889-11, and other alert calls typically come from 541-766-6200, so consider saving both numbers as contacts. Also check that emergency alerts are turned on in your phone’s settings and that spam blockers aren’t screening county calls.
For help registering or confirming an account, email EmergencyManagement@bentoncountyor.gov or call 541-766-6864.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
