Big Time: The People, The Places & The Game of Oregon 8-Man Football

by Jeff Riley

Big The People, The Places & The Game of Oregon 8-Man Football provides an intimate journey into the culture of a gritty, impassioned brand of high school football that is played in the small towns of Oregon that are painted into the backdrop of some of the most spectacular landscapes in snow-tipped peaks, fog-shrouded forests, and rocky canyons so deep, they reach into your very soul. The high-scoring, wide-open affairs are played by 16-year-old kids who toss hay bales by day and footballs by night. They are coached by former rodeo clowns named Stub, weather-beaten cattle ranchers, and former standouts crippled by logging accidents — men who doff their caps as the autumn sun drops behind 9,000-foot peaks, look down their line of scrappy players with hands on hearts, and have a moment. "The sun sets behind those mountains on game night, and I mean, wow," says Joseph coach Toby Koehn, whose field is dwarfed by the 9,839-foot majesty of Sacajawea Peak. "I don't know where else anybody would want to be in the world at that moment."Their fans are mostly a smattering of parents, cousins, and girlfriends. They line the fields in 4x4 pickup trucks and swing their feet below lowered tailgates. They are the working class of Oregon and their sons are the working class of Oregon high school football.Big Time takes you through the 2017 the triumphs of the nation's winningest 8-man football coach, the grit of the running back who rushes for 300 yards in the state championship game with a broken bone in his foot, the redemption of the quarterback returning from a stint in a youth correctional facility, and the soul of a game that connects them all."I've heard the comments from the 11-man people, things like 'Oh, do you guys play with a smaller ball?' As if our game is less than 11-man," says Jack Henderson, whose teams have won more Oregon 8-man state championships than any school in the sport's 47-year history. "Eight-man is more of a game, if you ask me. Besides, it's like what I tell my The big time is wherever you're at."

288 pages, Paperback

Published July 28, 2018