The League Championship: How Our Football Team is Drawing Closer After Each Game

After its 2014 return to George Fox University (GFU), the football team is starting to make its mark on the Northwest Conference, and is currently standing at number 19 in Division Three national polls for the 2017 season.

After three years of hard training and conditioning, the GFU football team is starting to become a threat to the other D-III college football teams. With five wins and only two losses so far this season, the team has shown major growth since their first year with just one win.

“We started the first meeting in 2014... and the very first question I asked them was ‘Is there any rule that says we have to act like a startup program?;” Head Coach Chris Casey said. “And our players said, ‘No,’ and I said we’re not going to act like a startup program, we’re going to act like a championship level program.”

The team has lived up to the challenge, with intensive practices and undeterred spirits. Casey has coached this team into the top-25 contender, with no signs of the team slowing down anytime soon. 

The whole team is working hard to reach championship level. Freshman linebacker Tyler Vasega said, “As a freshman, my goal is to give my seniors on the team their very best chance at getting a championship ring; I would ask the same of the freshmen when that time comes my senior year here at George Fox.”

Among the few members of the very first team roster in 2013, when the team trained without games, is fifth-year senior Grant Schroeder. Schroeder, who plays as quarterback, said, “Everyone’s bought into the vision that Coach Casey has brought for the past four years.”

The team takes the season one week at a time. Each game is the focus, with the knowledge that each game brings them closer to the league championship.

Reported by Megan Creighton