Seton Catholic football preview: Each year, Cougars have taken steps to build a program
The Columbian
Published: August 30, 2018, 5:47pm
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Senior running back Taj Muhammad has seen the Seton Catholic football program’s revival and growth. Meg Wochnick/The Columbian
Building a football program from the ground up doesn’t happen overnight.
If any school in Clark County knows that, it’s Seton Catholic — the school that shuttered its team for a season due to low numbers just two years ago and sent its remaining interested players to rival King’s Way Christian for that year.
Last year Seton fielded a full team with new turf and new jerseys, but played an independent schedule.
This year? The Cougars return essentially everyone, and a team that had two seniors last season now has eight of them. What was a roster of just over 20 players last year is up in the 30s. And after an independent schedule last year, the school is officially a member of the Trico League again.
In his fourth year at the helm, head coach Will Ephraim is another year into the process of building a program. As he trains the current crop of Cougars, he attempts to expand the reaches of Seton’s footprint to the community in hope of drawing prospective students to private-school football.
It’s an easy framework for selling an underdog mentality to his team.
Last season, after Seton’s Week 2 game fell through, it scheduled Oregon’s Philomath High School, a school with over double the enrollment and, as anyone in attendance quickly noticed, significantly more size on the gridiron.
“They kind of laughed at us at the beginning of the game,” Ephraim said, “and we ended up blowing them out. From there, the team realized, ‘oh wow, we can play.’ ”
This year, Ephraim boasts depth. Less of his starting lineup is made up of guys who play both sides, and seldom leave the game (there were six of those players last season).
Senior running back Taj Muhammad will be back at full strength after a hamstring injury during track season. He comes off a 483-yard, six touchdown rushing season with 231 receiving yards and five touchdowns in the air. Quarterback Tyvauntae Deloney, a junior, has spent the offseason working on his arm, and under a new offensive coordinator, hopes to be more of a passing threat. He threw for 649 yards and six touchdowns last season.
Deloney said 7-on-7 camps served as a vehicle to boast his improved spiral, sharper reads and pocket presence.
“Our passing game is going to be real serious this year,” he said.
But looking around the league, Deloney doesn’t see a reason his Cougars can’t compete for a Trico title.
As an eighth grader, he watched as La Center pummeled Seton. Each year, he’s fought to close the margin.
“They just got boatraced off the field,” Deloney said. “This year when we go against La Center that’ll be the game to watch.”
3 THINGS TO KNOW
— Seton played an independent schedule last year.
— Will revamp “holy war” rivalry with King’s Way.
— Seton didn’t field a team in 2016. Several players suited up for King’s Way.
2017 season: 5-4, 0-0, independent.
Schedule
Home games at Seton Catholic
League games in bold
Sept. 1 Fort Vancouver 12 p.m.
Sept. 7 at Charles Wright Academy, TBA
Sept. 15 Riverside 1 p.m.
Sept. 21 at Tenino 7 p.m.
Sept. 29 Stevenson 1 p.m.
Oct. 5 at Columbia-White Salmon 7 p.m.
Oct. 12 at La Center 7 p.m.
Oct. 19 at Castle Rock 7 p.m.
Oct. 27 King’s Way Christian 1 p.m.
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