▶️ Wheeler County Rattlers: 3 tiny Oregon towns for one 6-man HS football team

Within the tiniest of the tiny Oregon cities, highschool soccer remains to be very a lot part of the material of the group.

It is probably not conventional 11-man soccer. It’s not 8-man — that’s reserved for the “large” little cities.

It’s 6-man soccer. And in three tiny cities in Jap Oregon, they’re combining their faculties and athletes to discipline one 6-man workforce. 

Head east from Central Oregon — manner east — and ultimately you’ll end up in Wheeler County. It’s the least populated county within the state.

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Far more cows than individuals. All the county solely has a inhabitants of 1,300 individuals — give or take. However what they do have is a highschool soccer workforce that occurs to be the reigning 1-A Oregon state champions.

The Wheeler County Rattlers.

The Rattlers aren’t the one workforce enjoying 6-man soccer throughout the state, however they’re the one workforce that has to mix three cities with three totally different excessive faculties to discipline only one 6-man soccer workforce.

The cities of Mitchell, Spray and Fossil mix their faculties, their assets and their athletes to make up the Wheeler County Rattlers.

There are every kind of distinctive challenges. Practices rotate from college to high school, forcing gamers to be bussed from side to side as much as an hour every manner.

Residence video games rotate fields. Friday night time lights actually don’t exist — video games begin at 2 p.m. and are performed below God’s mild.

And teammates may by no means attend the identical college.

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That is cowboy nation. The soccer discipline in Spray is a part of the rodeo grounds. Cattle shoots line the sting of the sector. The rodeo enviornment flows proper into the grass and there’s every kind of dwelling discipline benefits.

The Rattlers are chasing one other state title after going undefeated in 2021 — fairly the turnaround for a workforce that had gone a mixed 2-14 the earlier two seasons.

Deschutes, Multnomah, Clackamas — these counties may need the individuals. However in Wheeler County, they’ve acquired the cows they usually’ve acquired the horses on the sector — figuratively and actually.

Wheeler faces Powers Saturday. The winner heads to the state title recreation.