Robin Camp/Corvallis Gazette-Times First-year Philomath High football coach Gerald McEldowney is still learning who his players are and what they are capable of doing.

Thrown into the fire

Warriors don't have much time to adjust to new coach, system

By Kevin Hampton
Corvallis Gazette-Times

PHILOMATH — Taking over a football program can be a slow process, even for a coach with plenty of experience.

Gerald McEldowney is in his 28th year on the sidelines, but his first with the Philomath High football team.

He has spent the past two weeks as a coach, but also getting used to filling roles such as the Warriors' equipment manager and trainer, among others.

The biggest task has simply been getting to know the players who will make up this year's version of the Warriors.

He's had to jump in with little prep time after accepting the job a month before the start of the season.

"I really don't know a lot of these kids and basically what we tried to do in camp and (last week in practice) is get to know the kids and find positions that are best-suited for them and go from there," McEldowney said.

It helped that McEldowney had the players in camp a few weeks ago and was able to get some ground work done with around 43 athletes.

He had them go through drills and work on skills to determine which players were the best fits for each position.

"The kids had a lot of fun," he said. "We tried to introduce some of our new terminology and whatnot. I feel they got quite a bit out of it."

McEldowney quickly discovered that the Warriors are young. They are down to three seniors, but have quite a few sophomores and juniors on the roster.

He said he is particularly encouraged by the size of the freshman class, which has about 25 players out.

The Warriors are strong at tight end, with junior Ben Motter expected to get a lot of playing time, but the passing game could be limited this season.

"We're a little bit young and green at quarterback, but they're getting better," McEldowney said.

Brett Johnson is one of the seniors and the only player who is finishing a four-year football career with the Warriors by the time the season is over.

Johnson, a wide receiver and safety, said most of the potential players in his class either dropped football after a season or two or have decided to focus on other sports, and others are not interested in playing.

He said the coaches and players are trying to get a few more players to join, particularly linemen, and could get a few late additions once eligibility issues are cleared up.

"It's making me step up a lot more since I'm the only senior on the team," Johnson said. "It'd be nice to have some more people come out. (But) I think over the next years we should have quite a few players come out."

The team has had two weeks to get used to a new coach, learn parts of a new system and prepare for Friday night's game at Stayton and next week against Siuslaw.

"I think we're learning our new plays pretty fast, especially considering how fast we learned last year," Motter, who started at tight end and defensive end last year, said. "(McEldowney) seems like a good coach. He has discipline, but that's what our team needs."

Although the Warriors are faced with an early start, they have five non-league games before the ValCo League season starts up.

It wasn't an ideal timeline, but McEldowney was determined to make do by going with a watered down offense early, most likely focusing on the run.

He also eased the learning curve a bit by using as much of the previous system as possible, though the players still have to get used to new terms, techniques and number systems.

"I'm not real crazy about having two weeks of practice and going into the first football game against Stayton at Stayton," he said. "I would really like to have another week under our belts before we play our first game, but that's what we've got to do and we've got to get ready and accomplish as much as we can."

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