Football makes playoffs for the first time in seven years

Posted Oct. 10, 2021

By Farhiya Mohammed

Staff Reporter

The football team made the playoffs for the first time in seven years, but in a 40-27 home loss to South Salem on Oct. 5.

Coach Cal Szueber found motivation early in the season in the form of a newspaper article.

“Before the season, the Oregonian ran an article about the most and least successful football programs of the last decade,” said coach Cal Szueber. “In that article, David Douglas was listed as the 2nd least successful team of the last decade based on win-loss record.”

Prior to the playoffs, David Douglas played Sheldon high school, Reynolds high school, Nelson high school, and Sandy high school. In those games, they achieved a 2-2 record.

Coach Szueber has set goals for next year.

“Next year, we want to be in the weight room a little bit more, get a little bit stronger, and have more participation in the summer,” he said.

“To open the season the way we did against [Centennial], and the way the kids stepped up and played that first game, the last time we played Centennial was a one-point game in overtime, and this time we blew them out,” coach Cal Szueber said.

Douglas played one of its best games in years against Gresham, but the Scots also had a discouraging game against Clackamas, a 47 to 0 shutout.

“We probably played our worst game the night [against Clackamas]," coach Szueber said.

Coach Szueber pointed out that the best approach when the team is struggling is patience.

"It’s a hard thing to have when you’re going through a difficult situation," he said.

David Douglas lacks experience. The Scots are a young team. The pandemic has also affected the team roster. They didn’t get the number of players in the program they would’ve liked.

“I feel that at the end of the 2019 year, we were right on the edge of being a great program, and Covid kind of shot us in the foot, and ever since then we’ve been trying to rebuild from there," coach Szueber said.

Nevertheless, the Scots are improving with every game. The key is preparation.

“We start off in the weight room for about 30 minutes or so, and just try to maintain where we are at with our strength training and conditions," coach Szueber said. "Then we will go out, get dressed, go out to the field and we'll have our specialist do the kicking, the punting, throwing footballs to get warmed up. Then we do our warm-ups and get right into our special teams. After special teams, we either do offense or defense next and then flip it. And then try to give them words of wisdom in the end.

The Scots' next game is this Friday, Oct. 15 against the Raiders at Reynolds High School.