Clark County NFF fetes senior high school football standouts

Mountain View seniors Preston Jones and Chris Mitchell were each awarded $3,500 college scholarships on Wednesday during the annual scholarship event for the Clark County chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Also receiving scholarships during the event at Hudson’s Bay High School were Liam Fitzgerald of Camas and Will Ortner of Hockinson ($2,500 apiece), and Peter Schultz-Rathbun of Hockinson and Zach Berfanger of Union ($1,500).
The scholarship winners were selected from 29 nominees based on their accomplishments in football (40 percent), academics (40 percent) and extracurricular and community involvement (20 percent).
Bruce Barnum, head football coach at Portland State and a Clark County native, was the featured speaker.
Jones ran for a Mountain View record 1,726 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior. He is the Thunder’s career leader with 4,169 rushing yards and 57 touchdowns. He plans to play college baseball at Oregon State.
“It’s a huge honor. I’m humbled by this experience,” Jones said.
Mitchell helped pave the way for Jones as a three-time all-league offensive lineman at Mountain View. An all-state selection by the Tacoma News Tribune and honorable mention all-state pick by the Associated Press, Mitchell plans to play football for the Air Force Academy.
“It doesn’t get much bigger than this. It’s a great honor,” Mitchell said.
Jones and Mitchell both said high school football taught them skills that helped them be successful students.
“It taught me about hard work. It taught me how to prioritize my time,” Mitchell said. “It made me a great time manager.”
Each area high school was invited to nominate two players for the NFF scholarships. Other players nominated this year were: Jordan Del Moral of Camas, Alex McGarry and Garrett McKee of Columbia River, Kyle Guler and Ulices Isordia of Columbia-White Salmon, Dallas Goodpaster of Evergreen, Duncan Crawford of Fort Vancouver, Fred Davis and Tyler Van Buskirk of Heritage, Anthony Huser and Dustin Johnson of King’s Way Christian, Zachary Galster and John Sullivan of La Center, Noah Scherwinski of Seton Catholic, Jefferson Kiyasu and Jim Rowe of Skyview, Isaac Adams of Stevenson, Jordan Lawson of Union, Logan Black and Michael Martin of Ridgefield, Brody Oberg of Washougal, and Jared Cloud and Christian Mendez of Woodland.
The Evergreen Football Officials Association presented its Evans-Luce Scholarship Award for Sportsmanship to Hudson’s Bay for the 2015 season.
Four other awards were presented during Wednesday’s event:
Jullian Williams of Skyview received the John Hadley Award, which recognizes an assistant football coach. Larry Peck of Battle Ground was presented the Gary Boggs Award which honors a head coach. Larry McCutcheon, longtime coach at Columbia-White Salmon, was honored for outstanding contributions to amateur football. Rudy Diericks of White Salmon received the chapter’s Distinguished American Award.
Since the Clark County chapter was founded by Gery Gehrmann in 1992, more than $315,000 in scholarship money has been presented by the local NFF chapter. Gehrmann resigned last year as chapter president. Rick Fields has taken over as president.