It’s been a while since Oregon Ducks junior Noah Whittington ran a route for Oregon Football in full pads. His comments on returning to contact play for fall camp may make you feel like he has a screw loose.

“It feels great,” Whittington said. “It feels like everything I’ve been missing. You know, I’m just excited. It feels good to get tackled. I don’t even know how to explain it after not getting hit for a long time. It’s kind of like nervous the first time about to get hit after, it’s kind of like, feel like I never left.”

The running back has been heavily involved with the Ducks on the field since entering as a sophomore transfer from Western Kentucky. He played in all thirteen games his first season and came in second on the team that year for rushing yards with 779. Whittington also racked up 139 carries and five rushing touchdowns on said yard.

However, Whittington tore his ACL in Oregon’s contest versus Colorado, cutting his junior season short during only the fourth game of the 2023 campaign. Whittington utilized a redshirt after this injury.

It stands to reason Whittington might have been apprehensive to have his body hit the turf again.

“Yeah, I was kind of mentally like, ‘uhhhhh,’ but after I got tackled the first time, I was able, you know, actually hit the whole lot harder. So now it’s just like, it’s really no hesitation,” Whittington said.

Whittington confirms that he is at one hundred percent for fall camp, after Oregon coach Dan Lanning told the press before spring practices that Whittington was quickly progressing in his physical therapy treatments.

“My goals?” Whittington said. “It was kind of just, you know, to be back out there and be able to actually practice, and I feel like, Yeah, I’m doing a pretty decent job.”

With a fully-stacked running back room, Whittington has a challenge ahead of him to compete for that starting job. Whittington admits that the coaches are also putting on the pressure to perform.

“How we attack adversity. You know, our coach really been challenging us a lot, you know, to stack good days, and when we don’t have them, he can really, like, rip into us. So it’s just like being able to overcome that and actually accept his challenges and come out the next day. I feel like mentally, we’ve done a great job at doing that,” Whittington said.

Under first-year Oregon Football assistant head coach and running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples, there’s a balance of tough love.

“I mean, it’s been how it should be, you know, like we have times where it’s laid back, it’s chill, you know, we get to connect and know him on a personal level. Then when we’re not upholding the standard of the room. He let us feel it,” Whittington said.

Whittington wants a slice of kick-off action as well in the fall.

“I would love to, but it’s not up to me,” Whittington said. “It’s up to coach, Joe Lorig, and he gon’ tell me. He might say something about, like, how I’ve catched the ball, but, I mean, I’ve been trying to catch it how he want me to catch it. So he’ll put me back there.”

And though kick returns have been an issue for the Ducks in the past, Whittington is ready for a revenge tour that includes aiding the special teams.

“Yes, it’s a big emphasis on that in the special teams meeting. And I feel like we gonna get the job done this year. We might get a goal, I say, like five, five or four. Oh, for real. We really been getting, like, detailing it like it’s been on the front end of like, what we need to get better at,” Whittington said.

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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon, a program of J Bar J Youth Services, is proud to announce that they have been awarded a generous $285,000 grant from the Marie Lamfrom Foundation. This substantial funding will enable the organization to provide crucial mentorship and support to over 225 children each year for the next two years.

The grant from the Marie Lamfrom Foundation represents a significant investment in the future of Central Oregon’s youth. With these funds, Big Brothers Big Sisters will continue its mission to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the potential of young people in the community. The grant will be used to enhance the Community-Based Mentoring Programs including recruiting and training new mentors and ensure that each child receives the personalized attention they need to thrive.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Marie Lamfrom Foundation for this transformative grant,” said Jenn Davis, Program Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon. “This support will allow us to reach more children, provide them with life-changing mentorship, and build a brighter future for our community.”

Over the next two years, the funding will directly impact the lives of hundreds of children in Central Oregon by providing them with caring, supportive mentors who will guide them towards academic success, emotional well-being, and positive relationships. The grant will also help Big Brothers Big Sister expand its outreach efforts, ensuring that more children in need have access to these valuable programs.

About Marie Lamfrom Foundation

The Marie Lamfrom Foundation is dedicated to supporting nonprofit organizations that empower individuals and strengthen communities. Through its philanthropic efforts, the foundation invests in programs that foster education, health, and opportunities for all. Learn more about the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation by visiting www.marielamfrom.org.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon

A program of J Bar J Youth Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon was founded in 1994. The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. BBBSCO serves over 220 youth annually and continues to grow programming. We are committed to serving at-risk youth and youth facing adversity with mentors in our community.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon is a 21 Cares for Kids partner.

About 70% of Oregon schools will offer free breakfasts and lunches to all students during the upcoming school year, up from around 55% a year ago, the state Department of Education said Monday.

Their ranks now include almost every school in the metro area, including all in Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, and the Beaverton School District, its third largest, both of which offered free meals only in higher need schools last year.

Universal school meals are having a national moment, after briefly being on the menu coast-to-coast for all students during the pandemic’s immediate aftermath. The federal government discontinued that effort in October, 2022.

Most recently, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, soon to be the Democrats’ formal nominee for vice president, went viral after being inundated with hugs from children when he signed a bill to make school breakfast and lunch free for all in 2023.

The topic isn’t without controversy though. Only eight states, all of them led by Democrats, have passed legislation guaranteeing free school meals regardless of income. Republican governors and legislators have pushed back, arguing that the program wastes money giving free meals to children from families who can afford to buy school food or pack a lunch from home.

Anti-hunger advocates have pointed to studies showing that making meals at school free for all students can reduce the stigma associated with getting them and that feeding all students translates to better behavioral and academic outcomes.

In Oregon, a bill that would have funded free school meals statewide died in the 2023 legislative session. But advocates are planning to renew that request in the 2025 session, said David Wieland, a policy advocate for Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. It would cost less this time, Wieland said, because of changes in federal reimbursement policies that helped fuel this year’s expansion in Oregon.

The proposed bill is still taking shape, but advocates envision grants to help districts for whom it is a logistical struggle to serve meals — for example, to purchase more scratch cooking equipment, Wieland said. There are also ongoing conversations about how to ensure that students have time to eat cafeteria meals and meal choices appeal to their palates to cut down on waste, he said.

Last October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that if at least 25% of students in schools and districts were enrolled in government assistance programs like food stamps or Head Start or were homeless, migrants or in foster care, the entire school or district could qualify for free meals and get reimbursed for up to 90% of the cost of providing them. Previously, the threshold had been set at 40%. Oregon lawmakers pitched in an extra $17 million to help schools defray the extra costs.

Another big factor that aided the expansion, said Matt Newell-Ching, a policy manager for the Oregon Food Bank: a federal pilot program that has allowed all Medicaid-eligible Oregon children to be automatically registered for free school lunches, taking the paperwork onus off of their parents.

In schools that aren’t offering universal free school meals this year, a family of four needs to make under $90,000 annually to qualify for their students for free lunches. Every school district sets its own prices for lunch, and costs can vary widely. There are no free meals planned in ???

In addition to Portland and Beaverton, free meals will also be offered in North Clackamas, Tigard-Tualatin and Hillsboro.

“Everyone’s food budgets are high right now, and this helps all families,” Newell-Ching said. “Instead of putting in means tests about who needs it, this is a recognition that food costs are high for everyone.”

— Julia Silverman covers education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her via email at jsilverman@oregonian.com or find her on X.com at @jrlsilverman.