In kind of a poignant coda on the Foxes’ 2024 football season, it’s sobering to note that there will no longer be any Willis brothers on the roster. I’ve been covering Silverton football since the fall of 2012 and nearly every team has had a Willis playing on one (or both) of the lines. Matthew served from 2012-14, Ben from […]
Silverton High put on a glittering display of total soccer during its standout 2024 season, leading Class 5A in most goals scored and fewest goals allowed. The Foxes, under first-year co-coaches Don Holland and Eric Lay, ran the table in the Mid-Willamette Conference, outscoring opponents 41-0 in the 9-0 rampage. The league title was the first since 1990 for Silverton, […]
Former Silverton High athlete and current University of Oregon student Kyle Kramer is $100,000 richer after nailing a place kick on ESPN’s GameDay college football preview program. Kramer, who played football and baseball for the Foxes before graduating in 2021, earned his shot at fortune by winning a raffle. Approximately 200 tickets were handed out at 3 a.m., hours before […]
We’re just two games into the Class 5A Special District 2 football race and it’s already a two-team race between Silverton and Wilsonville. Which is kind of what I was hoping for. When the OSAA downsized the bloated Mid-Willamette Conference from its 10 teams to six for the fall, it pushed Silverton, Central, McKay and Woodburn into a new district […]
The Silverton High football team is 3-1 at the end of a grueling nonleague schedule that featured two Class 6A teams and another wild duel with longtime rival West Albany. The Foxes are ranked seventh in Class 5A and had a well-deserved bye Sept. 27 as they prepare for the league season in a new league. Silverton opens Class 5A […]
The Silverton High girls basketball squad’s Class 5A title last month capped 10 years of staggering success by the boys and girls programs, both in terms of league accomplishments and statewide achievement. Consider: In the ten-year span from 2015-2024 the girls team has won or shared seven Mid-Willamette Conference titles, won two state Class 5A titles (2016 and 2024) and took […]
Austin Ratliff is used to being in the spotlight. A starter on the Silverton High football team as a sophomore, he helped lead the Foxes to a state Class 5A championship in 2021, catching six passes for 172 yards and 3 TDs in the semifinals vs. West Albany and he also caught a TD pass in the title win vs. […]
By James Day The Silverton High volleyball program is off to a strong start under “new” coach Kirsten Barnes, who is back leading the program after guiding the Foxes to eight league titles during her first stint with the team from 1996-2010. Silverton was 7-4 overall at Our Town presstime and 4-2 in the pressure cooker that is the Mid-Willamette […]
By James Day It’s year two for Silverton football coach Dan Lever, who led the Foxes to a 7-4 record and a Class 5A quarterfinals berth a year ago. “Year two is a lot better than year one,” he said Aug. 7 as the team opened fall camp. “In year one you are just trying to get everything in place.” […]
This is the 10th anniversary of my sports column in Our Town. Well, actually, it’s the 11th, but I’m not counting the COVID year. With football season almost upon us I thought it was a good time to look back on those ten-plus years and note the top moments from our two teams, Silverton and Kennedy. During that stretch both […]
In the quarterfinals of the Class 5A boys basketball tournament last March, Silverton was locked in a tight struggle with Crescent Valley. The Raiders led throughout, but the Foxes kept answering. With 2:40 left, point guard Jordan McCarty uncorked a blistering no-look cross-court pass to a wide-open Austin Ratliff cutting to the hoop. He laid it off the glass to […]
Fifty years. That’s a long time to be out on torn up fields trying to teach kids about football. But that’s what Don von Weller (Silverton High Class of 1969) has been doing since 1973 when he was asked to coach fifth-graders. And von Weller, 71, a graduate of Western Oregon University (then-Oregon College of Education) who earned his master’s […]
It’s only a week or so into the fall sports season and we’re already dredging up the Silverton record books for information. That’s because senior Jackson Pfeifer of the Foxes scored five touchdowns in the team’s 40-29 opening-night football win at Dallas on Sept. 2. Pfeifer scored on a 7-yard run, a 3-yard run, a 45-yard interception return, an 80-yard […]
The Foxes lost tons of contributors from a 12-1 2021 squad that took home the school’s first state title since 1991. But the program, which has made the playoffs every year since 2011 (minus the COVID year), boasted a 25-2-1 record for its 3 teams a year ago and new coach Dan Lever clearly has a lot of talent to […]
“What a year for the Foxes!” said Silverton athletic director James Rise. With two teams – baseball and softball – still in the playoff hunt, the 2021-22 school year has produced state titles in football and boys track, runner-up finishes for boys basketball and girls golf and quarterfinal appearances for volleyball, boys soccer and girls basketball. How did all this […]
By James Day Track and field championships are not built on one big explosion. There is no last-second bucket or game-saving tackle. Things happen in bits and pieces. Two points here, four points there. A hero in the early moments of day one might ultimately be the difference-maker. The Silverton High boys track and field team captured its first Class […]
The Silverton High girls golf team has claimed its first Mid-Willamette Conference championship since 1980. The Foxes used a strong second-day showing to win by 29 strokes in the two-day event May 2-3 at Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis. “We only had a 7-stroke lead going into day number two so to win by 29 was a great reward […]
By James Day In the midst of one of its most successful sports seasons ever Silverton High finds itself posting a series of help wanted signs. The good news is that Athletic Director James Rise and school administration already have filled one slot. Josh Craig, who led the football program to a 41-11 record in five years and last fall’s […]
The Silverton High wrestling squad had three wrestlers place and two more score points in an impressive performance at the Feb. 26 Class 5A state meet in Redmond. The Foxes finished ninth in the team race with 63 points. Silverton was third among Mid-Willamette Conference teams (behind champion Crescent Valley and No. 5 Dallas). At the district meet the Foxes […]
Silverton High football coach Josh Craig, who led the Foxes to the Class 5A state title this past season, has announced his resignation. Craig, 31, is stepping down because of family considerations. “My wife gave birth to our second daughter (Colby on Jan. 4), and now we have a 19-month-old (Murphy) and a newborn,” Craig said. “When I got the […]
Dewey Enos continues to build a solid foundation for wrestling at Kennedy High. Enos, a Silverton High grad, started in 2017 with just 10 wrestlers. This season, he has 26 athletes on the roster and some good momentum based on a second-place finish at districts during last spring’s COVID-influenced season. “To be honest there were some very hard years, and […]
The Silverton High boys basketball team, which blazed through a 14-1 COVID season last spring, is off to a strong start for 2021-22. The Foxes were 4-0 and ranked third in Class 5A at Our Town’s presstime and were battling in the Capitol City Classic in Salem. Post-Christmas the squad will play at a tournament in Arizona. The Foxes are […]
Somehow you get the feeling that folks in Silverton will be talking about the final play of the 2021 Class 5A football title game for a long time. Here is the setup: The Foxes were clinging to a 26-20 lead against Thurston and were facing 4th and 17 at the Colts’ 26 with 12 seconds left. No timeouts left. Let’s […]
By James Day HILLSBORO – The Silverton High football team raced out to a 23-0 lead Saturday against Thurston and then held on in resilient fashion to take a 26-20 victory against the Colts and earn the Foxes’ first state football title since 1991. Silveton also got payback for 2019, when Thurston dominated the Foxes 44-14 in the semifinals. The […]
When the football season started we knew that Silverton boasted some potent offensive weapons. Quarterback Jordan McCarty was back for his third season as a starter. Veteran wide receivers Vandon Fessler and Austin Ratliff also were on hand, as well as a sizable and seasoned offensive line. That left running back. During fall camp fifth-year coach Josh Craig suggested it […]
