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SOU football’s Dylan Young @ Ashland High School (September 2014 victory over the Carroll College Fighting Saints)
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @DY_Lee11 @CoachBrown_SOU
You would think a team called the “Fighting Saints” would be penalized more often for pass interference.
Ja’Quay Rucker and Dylan Young
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @DY_Lee11 @jruck7
Dylan Young asked me for one last photo as his career as a Raider ended last month. I was happy to oblige with the above. However, he better be comping me a photo pass next year when he is playing for the Cowboys so that this isn’t the last photo I take of him. đŸ˜‰
For some of my prior photos of Dylan, click here.
SOU football – Dylan Young and Austin Dodge lift the NAIA Championship trophy while Heston Altenbach looks on
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @DY_Lee11 @Play_NAIA
P.S. Matt Sayre isn’t fat. Here is a non-distorted version…
Athletic Director Matt Sayre looks on in Daytona Beach, Florida as the Raiders win the NAIA national championship
Austin Dodge
@SOU_Football @SOURaiders
… this happened.
David Weider, Kolby Koberstein, Gannon Schroder, Dylan Bratlie, Keegan Lawrence, and Nathaniel Timoteo
Daniel Breaux
Dylan Young
JJ Latu
Melvin Mason
Bubba Rylance, Max Proudfit, and Austin Dodge
pregame speech by Coach Howard to the future national champions
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
quarterbacks
Dylan Young’s final TD catch – he holds the SOU record with 33 in just two years
Matt Retzlaff has 21 TD catches and will be a junior next year
apologies that everyone isn’t in this–things were chaos and getting this many in wasn’t easy
Julius Rucker Jr.
receivers
Michael Bryant
Michael is an Emerging Media and Digital Arts student who is also on the football team. He has helped make some incredible videos. Here is the one shown before the game in Chicago:
Here is the one shown before the game in Daytona:
He will be graduating soon so if your company needs someone who can create masterpieces like these, contact him.
This last photo was explained in this post. My favorite part of it is the smile on Jim Nagel’s face. Coach Nagel has won many state and national championships so I’d be curious to hear from him how this bus ride compared to others he has experienced after winning the big game.
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
Today’s first photo requires a bit of explanation. These were the players’ bus drivers for the entire week. I took this at Tuesday’s practice as our bus drivers watched from the sidelines. That’s CJ on the left and Ean on the right. I asked them how it felt to be the bus drivers of the future NAIA Champions, and they smiled and said I should probably get a photo of them. All week long I asked them how the bus drivers of champions were doing. Perhaps this planted a seed in Ean’s head? More on this possibility below.
The coaching staff at SOU is second to none. Although Coach Howard is not eligible for the NAIA Coach of Character Award, as he hasn’t been at SOU for five years yet, if NAIA officials could have witnessed everything he has done they would certainly make an exception.
I had the unique opportunity of standing on the opposing sidelines for seven of our games this year. I do this so that the SOU sidelines and crowds are in the background of most of my photos. Anyway, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the interactions between our players and coaching staff are very different than they are on other teams. The love, honor, and respect the SOU team has is incredible and a major contributing factor to the team’s success in my opinion.
Coach Howard gets the fact that coaching is about developing better people, better student athletes, and not just about how many TDs someone has. Of course, the former leads to the latter as demonstrated by this team.
Daniel Breaux with the sack
Dylan Young’s fourth catch of the evening would be his last as a Raider and the 159th during his two years in Ashland
Austin Dodge enters the bus after winning the championship and immediately takes photo of championship trophy sitting in Coach Howard’s seat
After the game everyone was in an absolute state of euphoria. We’ve all seen championship celebrations on TV. Sometimes you even get to experience them as a fan at the stadium. But to actually be there, with the players, takes things up several notches.
Back to my first point about our bus drivers…
I boarded Ean’s bus after the game. Spirits were high. As we pulled out of the stadium, without warning, Queen’s “We Will Rock You” pounded out of the stereo speakers, and the bus erupted into a celebration well beyond what I’ve witnessed before, anywhere.
I don’t know if Ean always does this, or if my constant reminders during the week that he was driving the future champions possibly sparked this idea in his head to make sure he had “We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions” at the ready, but either way, thank you Ean for making a special moment that much more memorable for these guys.
P.S. He also hooked up Austin Dodge’s iPod to the bus’s stereo to play “Sweet Caroline” after Queen.
Austin Dodge singing Queen’s “We Are The Champions” on the bus after the game
Coach Howard may not have sung as much as the players, but he still enjoyed the moment with his well-deserved trophy
Gannon Schroder, Drew Gibson, Coach Berk Brown, and Daniel Breaux take the field for the second half
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @racetodaytona #NAIAfootball
Wow! What a week! What a season!
I just returned from Florida where the SOU Raider Football Team won the NAIA National Championship.
Many of you have asked where you can find my photos. There are some here, here, here, and here. I took over 2,000 photos and haven’t looked at most of them yet so give me some time.
I will post Florida related photos here and NAIA National Championship related football photos here.
Conner Dodge holds up some support for his brother Austin
Melvin Mason scores one of his three touchdowns
Matt Retzlaff and Bobby Heiken doing the “Mo”
Alex Stork recovers a fumble
Max Proudfit and Tylor King protecting Austin Dodge
Raider fans
Karrington Jones celebrates his interception with Jaylenn Hart and Kalan Hoedl
Dylan Young battles for the ball
Coach Howard riding on bus after game with trophy by his side
SOU football – Dylan Young (Raider record holder for most TD catches)
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @DY_Lee11 @Play_NAIA
Once again, Hensley Ratings showed that they know more about which teams are better than the coaches. The NAIA Championship Game in Florida next week (12/19/14) looks, on paper (based on the NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll), like a surprising #8 seed (SOU) vs. a surprising #7 seed (Marian). However, when the final computer rankings came out a few weeks ago, the Raiders were #2 and Marian was #3. As I mentioned before, the Carroll vs. SOU quarterfinal game pitted the top two teams against each other and SOU came out on top.
So don’t be surprised that Southern Oregon University and Marian University Indianapolis made it to the finals. Be surprised that they weren’t awarded home games for the quarter and semifinals.
SOU football – Austin Dodge
2014 First Team All-Conference Offense and (third year in a row!) Offensive Player of the Year
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
SOU football – Dylan Young
2014 First Team All-Conference Offense
SOU football – Drew Gibson
2014 First Team All-Conference Offense
SOU football – Matt Retzlaff
2014 Second Team All-Conference Offense
SOU football – Ryan Retzlaff
2014 Second Team All-Conference Offense
SOU football – Ronald Rylance and Max Proudfit
2014 Second Team All-Conference Offense
SOU football – Daniel Breaux
2014 First Team All-Conference Defense
SOU football – Dustin Fretwell
2014 First Team All-Conference Defense
SOU football – Joseph Lealofi
2014 Second Team All-Conference Defense
SOU football – Heston Altenbach
2014 Second Team All-Conference Defense
SOU football – Laurence Calcagno
2014 Second Team All-Conference Defense
SOU football – Karrington Jones
2014 Second Team All-Conference Defense
SOU football – Aldrick Rosas
2014 First Team All-Conference Special Teams
SOU football – Thomas Giddens
2014 Second Team All-Conference Special Teams
SOU football – Dylan Young
@SOU_Football @SOURaiders @DY_Lee11
This weekend the Southern Oregon University football team will be on the road again, taking on the College of Idaho Yotes. Carroll is the only team in the Frontier Conference getting much respect from the coaches doing the NAIA national rankings. The coaches seem to look more at records and the teams’ performances in prior years than strength of schedule in the current year, who a team beat, or where games take place.
College of Idaho doesn’t garner any votes from the coaches, but more accurate and objective rankings like Hensley Ratings say otherwise. There, the Yotes are ranked #15. In addition, College of Idaho is undefeated at home. Still, Hensley Ratings predicts the Raiders will be victorious by a touchdown.