The Philomath High School boys and girls soccer teams will gear up for the season by hosting a jamboree next week on Thursday, Aug. 29.
Joining the Warriors will be the boys and girls teams from Cottage Grove, Lebanon, Madras and Newport and also the girls team from South Albany. The jamboree begins at 10 a.m. and will run well into the afternoon.
“It’s an opportunity to try a couple of new things that we’ve been working on and answer some of the last questions about who kind of fits into different positions,” PHS girls coach Mat Phelps said. “For the most part this year, we’ve got nine starters returning so it’s kind of like who rounds out the roster and then how do the bench players perform in game situations? That’s the big takeaway that we have.”
The girls had one of the top teams in 4A last season with a 13-3 campaign and appearance in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. The Warriors were right there with the state’s top teams in postseason matchups that really could’ve gone either way. Philomath tied for first place in the conference with North Marion, which went on to win the state championship. The Warriors beat North Marion, 6-2, in a game a couple of weeks before the playoffs started.
The varsity girls are scheduled to play Lebanon at 10:45 a.m. and Madras at 1:45 p.m.
The boys come into this fall after a 4-9 record in 2023. You could say that the Warriors were in a rebuilding phase but showed plenty of promise for better outcomes ahead with competitive outings against playoff-quality opponents (state champion Newport and conference champion Stayton come to mind).
The varsity boys will play at 10 a.m. vs. Madras and 1 p.m. vs. Lebanon.
The matches will feature two 15-minute halves with a five-minute halftime and then a 10-minute break before the next match.
Here’s the full jamboree schedule:
- 10 a.m. — Philomath vs. Madras (varsity boys) on varsity field; South Albany vs. Cottage Grove (JV girls) on JV field; Newport vs. Lebanon (JV boys) on JV2 field.
- 10:45 a.m. — Philomath vs. Lebanon (varsity girls) on varsity field; Madras vs. Cottage Grove (varsity boys) on JV field; South Albany vs. Newport (JV girls) on JV2 field.
- 11:30 a.m. — Cottage Grove vs. Newport (varsity boys) on varsity field; South Albany vs. Cottage Grove (varsity girls) on JV field; Lebanon vs. Philomath (JV boys) on JV2 field.
- 12:15 p.m. — Madras vs. Newport (varsity girls) on varsity field; Philomath vs. Lebanon (JV girls) on JV field; Madras vs. Newport (JV girls) on JV2 field.
- 1 p.m. — Philomath vs. Lebanon (varsity boys) on varsity field; Philomath vs. Madras (JV boys) on JV field; Philomath vs. Madras (JV girls) on JV2 field.
- 1:45 p.m. — Philomath vs. Madras (varsity girls) on varsity field; Newport vs. Cottage Grove (varsity girls) on JV field; Madras vs. Cottage Grove (JV boys) on JV2 field.
- 2:30 p.m. — Newport vs. Lebanon (varsity boys) on varsity field; Cottage Grove vs. Newport (JV boys) on JV field; Lebanon vs. Cottage Grove (JV girls) on JV2 field.
- 3:15 p.m. — South Albany vs. Lebanon (varsity girls) on varsity field.
No football, volleyball jamborees
As for football, the Warriors haven’t competed in a jamboree since 2022 at Corvallis High School. The program had planned to go to one at Crescent Valley prior to last season but it was canceled.
Head coach Alex Firth isn’t losing any sleep over not participating in a jamboree.
“I think there’s some value in them in that you actually get to go out and practice or play against another team,” he said during an interview over the summer. “I just think there’s a risk of injury before the first game of the year.”
Firth thinks back to situations when he was an assistant coach at Crescent Valley.
“We would get an injury every once in a while that was actually a critical injury,” Firth said. “We just don’t have the depth to deal with that (at Philomath). If we had a quarterback hurt or one of our linemen, it would really set us back.”
Unpredictable things can happen.
“You really only have two weeks to get ready to go out and play games against teams you’ve never seen,” Firth said, mentioning that you could end up going against a variety of offensive looks from double-wing to flex to spread. “I don’t know — I think that the risk is not worth the reward.”
Firth isn’t just referring to the physical risk.
“You can lose momentum if you go out there and you’re playing exotic offenses or exotic defenses and you’re not performing as well as you thought,” he said. “I think it can affect your kids’ mentality a little bit. That’s why I don’t like them … I just don’t see value in them.”
The volleyball team isn’t participating in a jamboree this season — in recent years the Warriors had gone to one over in Sweet Home. But Philomath will be the first fall sports program to compete in an actual competition that counts with an Aug. 29 home match against Sprague. That’s a 6 p.m. start if you want to go.
Cross-country opens with 3K races
The cross-country team does not participate in anything identified as a jamboree but you could say the Warriors will tune up for the season with their Aug. 30 trip to Western Oregon University in Monmouth.
It’s aptly called The Open and veteran coach Joe Fulton and his assistants will have the opportunity to evaluate their runners in 3,000-meter races. The course is laid out on WOU’s Ash Creek Preserve, a venue that has hosted some fairly high-profile events over the years.
Here’s the meet director’s description: “The course features a 100-meter wide starting line, gradual sweeping turns, a 10-meter wide track for 90% of the course and a primarily grass surface with minimal gravel and no pavement. It offers a challenging yet fair terrain.”
Philomath’s girls won the event last year with Adele Beckstead as the top individual finisher for the Warriors with second place.
If you’re interested in going, the competition begins at 6 p.m. with junior varsity girls followed by the JV boys at 6:20, varsity girls at 6:40 and varsity boys at 7.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
