I imagine former North Medford football coach Rod Rumrey will be an interested spectator when Sweet Home plays Phoenix in the Class 4A quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Saturday at Spiegelberg Stadium.
Rumrey coached Sweet Home to the 1987 state championship in football and his Husky baseball team was state runner-up in 1988, shortly before he took over at North. His right-hand man in football back then, Rob Younger, replaced him and has been there since. Rumrey’s connection to Phoenix? His son-in-law, Brent Barry, is the school’s vice principal and softball coach.
Phoenix coach Toby Walker — who has done an absolutely remarkable job in turning around the Pirates — joked that he’s watching for Rumrey in case the former coach gets the urge to scout for his former Husky assistant.
It should be a good matchup, in Walker’s view. Sweet Home “isn’t a whole lot bigger than us,” he says. “Every other team we’ve faced is bigger than us.” And the Huskies have two or three kids that stand out but, for the most part, they’re workmanlike and not too showy.
“They just play tough football, they’re well-coached and they don’t make mistakes.”
