A day in the life of George Fox football
Keegan Schaan tackles Whitworth’s Isaiah Jones
Updated 11/19/2021 12:11 AM
NEWBERG — My Saturday begins — a bit sleepy-eyed — at 7:45 a.m. I walk into a meeting room on the second floor of the Duke Athletic Center next to Stoffer Family Stadium on the George Fox campus with Todd Shirley, the running backs coach who has happened upon me in the parking lot.
I have been invited to spend a game day with the Bruins’ football program by its head coach, Chris Casey, whom I’ve known since his time coaching at Aloha High in the early 2010s. When I retired from 45 years of sportswriting for Portland newspapers in 2020, Casey had extended the offer by phone. The 2020 fall season, however, was wiped away by COVID-19. Just before the 2021 campaign kicked off, I got another call from Chris. Come on down!
So here I am, on hand for George Fox’s final game of the season against Northwest Conference rival Whitworth, which kicks off at 1 p.m. Casey has no expectations that I will write about the experience; he explains he is doing it because he considers me a friend and wants me to know he respects the job I have done through the years. He thought I might enjoy experiencing the insides of a college football game day from dawn to dusk.
Truth is, I am not going to let it pass without sharing it with readers of my website. This kind of opportunity doesn’t come along often — only once before in my career, when Mike Riley let me sit in on coaches’ meetings at Nebraska before their 2016 matchup with Oregon (much to the consternation of Cornhusker fans, who couldn’t believe a coach could give that kind of access to a member of the media).
This is small-college football — NCAA Division III — and I’ve seen only a handful of games at this level, in which no athletic scholarships are given. These athletes are truly playing for the love of the game.
The stakes for Saturday’s game are high. Whitworth (7-2 overall, 4-2 in NWC play) can gain a share of second place in the conference behind Linfield with a victory. George Fox (5-3, 5-1) can earn sole possession of second for the first time in program history. A 6-1 league record would also be the best ever in more than 80 years on the gridiron at the school.
The Bruins — formerly known as the Quakers — have little football tradition. They were mostly doormats from the team’s inception in 1894 to its final year of football in 1968, when school officials chose to shutter the program after an 0-8 season in the Oregon Collegiate Conference.
The program was reinstated by popular demand in 2014, and also as a way of luring more students to campus.
The 2021 Bruins boast 120 players on their roster. Every one of them dresses for home games and most road games.
A favorite son — Newberg native Casey — was hired as head coach. Chris is one of seven siblings raised in an Irish Catholic household by Fred and Bev Casey, the most famous of them younger brother Pat, who built Oregon State’s baseball program into a three-time national champion and perennial powerhouse. Chris and Pat grew up a block from the George Fox campus and served as ball boys for the football team in the late ‘60s.
Chris has done a nice job building George Fox Football II from scratch. After a 1-8 first season, the Bruins have gone 4-6 in 2015, 5-4 in 2016, 7-3 in 2017, 6-4 in 2018, 5-5 in 2019 and 1-1 in COVID-abbreviated 2020. Take away an annual loss to NWC monolith Linfield and George Fox is 30-15 against the rest of the opposition, including 25-8 in league contests.
After two years at Mount Hood Community College, Casey wound up his playing career with two seasons as a 5-9, 185-pound strong safety for the legendary Ad Rutschman at Linfield. Chris, 63, spent 21 years as a college assistant — 10 at Linfield and 11 at Whitworth — then served nine years as head coach at Aloha High. Casey takes many of his philosophies about football and about life from time spent under Rutschman.
“It’s Coach Rutsch 101,” Casey will say.
That means discipline, dedication, desire. It means humility, integrity, unity.
“We want championship-level players, but we also want to develop championship-level human beings,” Casey likes to say.
“Chris cares about you as a person,” says defensive coordinator John Bates, who has known Casey since 1993, when he recruited Bates while an assistant at Linfield. (Bates then played for Casey when Chris moved to Whitworth the following year). “He cares about your family. He is always working at trying to be helpful with that, whether you are a coach or an athlete. He’s not a guy who has a whole lot of hobbies other than football. It’s about his faith, his family and football.
“He keeps the players calm and lets him know he has great belief in them. He instills confidence in them. They love that about him. So do I.”
Casey has four full-time assistant coaches at George Fox, one part-time and seven “stipend-pay” coaches. Many of them have been with him for awhile. Coordinators Bates, Ken Ingram (offense) and Ian Sanders (special teams) have been at George Fox since the program’s “zero year’ in 2013, but the relationships go back much farther.
“Every guy on the staff has played for me except Neil Lomax and Will Hoge, (the latter) whose dad and I played together at Linfield,” Casey says.
Lomax, the former Pro Bowl quarterback of the St. Louis Cardinals, is finishing his first season as Casey’s quarterbacks coach at George Fox.
Neil Lomax (left) listens as Chris Casey talks in pre-game coaches meeting
“It has been really good having relationships with good, young, respectful men,” Lomax says. “Our players are mature, passionate guys who want to be coached, and they appreciate you being here. I like the coaching staff, too — the morals, the values they follow at George Fox.”
The tone is set by Casey, a family man who has been married to his wife, Kathleen, for 35 years. They have four grown children, with three grandkids and another on the way.
“Chris has the utmost integrity,” Lomax says. “He sticks to his guns morally and ethically. He is a strong, devout Catholic and is not going to bow down on his principles, and that carries over to the coaching staff. It is an amazing culture he has created here.”
Lomax says Casey is old-school, a reflection of both his upbringing and his time learning from Rutschman.
“Chris is fundamentally sound in everything,” Lomax says. “He knows offenses and defenses. He’s a stickler for the simple things — blocking and tackling.”
“Attention to detail,” Ingram says. “That’s a Rutschman trait we picked up.”
Then there is Casey’s character.
“Chris is an excellent coach, but it’s more than that,” Lomax says. “Football is No. 2, but faith is No. 1. A lot of guys talk the talk, but when the lights go on in the locker room, they’re a totally different guy. Not Chris. He has true character. The person he is when no one else is watching is even better than what he displays on the field. He is that kind of a man.”
Lomax relayed a message from the Reverend Billy Graham, that coaches have more impact on their players in one year than most people have in a lifetime.
“Athletics is as good a teacher as there is anywhere,” Casey likes to say. “But your athletes have to know you care about them as people.”
The Bruins know, Ingram says.
“He cares so much about the players,” Ingram says. “And the coaches, too. He has always taken care of me. Our staff is like a family, and I like our players a lot. They’re a bunch of good guys — fun to be around. We don’t necessarily get the best athletes, but we get the best people. That’s pretty cool.”
Casey has served as a role model for those around him.
“Chris is one of the most impactful men in my life,” Sanders says. “A lot of the things I use in my every-day life are things he has taught me.”
Says Bates: “I want to do those kind of things I learned as a player from him for the young men I coach. He’s not the only person I’ve emulated, but he has had some of the greatest influence on that. His players live to compete for him. He is the type of person you can see yourself striving to be.”
As Todd Shirley and I enter the room, Casey is already at the whiteboard, writing notes for a meeting of the coaches that begins promptly at 8:10 a.m. Chris greets me, chats for a moment, then disappears. When he comes back, he hands me a set of George Fox coaching gear — ball cap, three-button shirt and sweats outfit. For the rest of the day, I’ll look like a Bruin coach.
Assistant coaches congregate in 8 a.m. meeting at Duke Athletic Center
The meeting of a dozen coaches begins with a prayer. For 35 minutes, Casey leads in his understated, soft-spoken fashion.
“Chris is pretty relaxed, mild-mannered, soft-spoken,” Sanders says. “But he can be a funny guy. When he’s off camera, he jokes around with the guys pretty good. Game time, he’s pretty serious. We intentionally like to make him laugh and keep it light.”
“Chris is pretty serious about football,” Ingram says. “He wants everything to be just right. But he likes to joke around at times with the players. He’ll tell a guy, ‘I’m still better looking than you.’ ”
“He is so likable,” Sanders says. “Accommodating for everybody. He’s real easy to talk to. It’s a big reason why I’ve chosen to coach with him for so long. He has a charisma about him, a conviction that people follow. He is a natural leader.”
Casey goes down the line, asking his coordinators and position coaches for a quick final report on what to expect from their adversaries from Whitworth.
The two-deep report provided from Spokane suggests that the Pirates’ top two quarterbacks will be missing — one due to COVID complications, one because of injury.
“If that’s the case, they’ll be starting an underclassmen with little experience,” Casey says. “We’ll want to get after him.”
Later, Casey tells me in the apparent absence of the regular QBs, “we think they’re going to keep it more conservative. Run more, throw shorter passes, that sort of thing.”
Bates says the George Fox defense must “secure their running back and tight end. We have to be cognizant of those players. They’re going to want to go to their experienced guys.”
Casey has six George Fox players listed on the whiteboard who are ineligible because of COVID, illness, academics or other reasons. He asks about the availability of a couple of injured players and wants to know if one player in particular will be ready to go.
“When he runs, he limps,” says a coach. “But when the game starts, he’ll be fine.”
Casey has some simple goals on offense. “Keep the ball in our possession. No turnovers. Let’s not beat ourselves.”
Twenty recruits and their parents will be on hand today. Casey asks the position coaches for their reviews. One coach says of one, “frankly, he’s not very good,” but most of the reports are positive, in the 3-4 range out of five in terms of talent.
Casey says of one, whose family he knows: “We know he’s a great kid, a great human being. Morals, values — he has all of that.”
Casey goes over plans for the Senior Day ceremony, which will take place after the game, not pre-game as is usually the case.
“We’re going to be very detailed with this,” Casey tells his staff. “With introductions, I don’t want it to look haggard like it has at times in the past. Let’s be organized, efficient and razor sharp.”
The meeting ends at 8:45 a.m.
“Have a great day, gentlemen,” Casey says. “Play to win.”
9 a.m. Chris and I walk into the dining hall, the last two to arrive. Immediately, 120 players rise to their feet for a standing ovation. I’m pretty sure the reception isn’t for the reporter.
"Ca-sey! Ca-sey!" they chant. It lasts for maybe a minute.
“It started before I got here,” says Dylan Gabriel, an offensive guard in his fourth year in the program. “Whenever he comes into a room for a meeting or before practice, everybody stops what they’re doing and claps and cheers him on. It gets pretty crazy on Tuesdays, our first meeting of the week. We have done it for four or five minutes straight. Sometimes it will die down a little bit and somebody stands up and gets everybody going again.
“Everyone loves Coach Casey so much. We’re always excited to see him. It’s just a fun thing. He gets a kick out of it. He says he needs to record it and show it to his wife.”
Chris paces, shakes his head, finally raises his arm and it gets quiet.
“TAPE,” he says, and in unison, his players recite the program “identity” that starts every meeting: “Togetherness! Attitude! Perseverance! Effort!”
“That’s our mantra, and it’s not just a shtick,” Lomax says. “It’s not just a banner on a wall that you tap your hands on as you leave the locker room. We live it. Chris ingrains that into us every day.”
At 9:05 a.m. Jamie Johnson, the team chaplain, begins a 20-minute “chapel” talk, continuing his season-long theme of togetherness. His message, centered on Jesus Christ and his doubting apostle Thomas, focuses on belief, trust, loyalty and second chances.
Players listen to chaplain Jamie Johnson during morning chapel session
At 9:25 a.m. Casey reminds players to clean up after themselves following breakfast.
“This place is supposed to be spotless,” he says. “Last couple of games, it’s not been. Let’s make sure we do it right. Little things are big things.”
At 9:30 a.m., players head for the breakfast buffet. Casey cases the joint, nibbles on an apple, surveying the lines, kibitzing with players.
“I don’t eat much before games,” he says. He later gets down a banana with some cranberry juice.
The cook, a white-haired lady named Danya, spies Casey and makes a beeline for him. They exchange a long hug and a few words.
“She has known our family for a long time,” Chris says later. “It’s amazing how many people I have reconnected with since I took this job, being from here.”
At 10 a.m., Casey delivers what amounts to his pre-game speech to the players. All eyes in the room are on him.
Chris Casey gives what amounts to his pregame speech to players
“If you have their respect,” he tells me later, “you have their attention.”
Casey’s words are a litany of cliches that serve as motivational reminders. Find answers, not excuses. The most important play is the next play. Fight through adversity.
“We don’t need you to do anything unique or special,” he tells his troops. “We just need 11 guys to work together and do their jobs.”
Casey reminds them a victory gives them the best league record in program history.
“We control our own destiny,” he says. “Let’s take advantage of it.”
Sanders briefly takes the floor and talks about physically intimidating the opposition.
“You can intimate without saying a word,” Casey cautions. “You go out there and play physical.”
At 10:40 a.m., we head back to Duke Athletic Center. Casey is greeted by a couple of alums who played football in the 1960’s. He introduces me and heads upstairs. One of them stops to talk for a second.
“Good that you’re doing something on him,” he says. “He does a lot more than coach football.”
At 10:45 a.m., Casey is under a tent adjacent to Stoffer Family Field, speaking to the group of recruits and their parents.
Chris Casey speaks to recruits and their parents
“We have a motto — we’re developing championship people in a championship program,” he says. “We want great people and we want great players, too. We want to win every damn game. We want ‘attitude’ people, people who are team players. We expect championship level in football, in academics, in life.”
By 11:40 a.m., Casey has met with some donors, talked with a couple of friends and spoken briefly to an alumni group. Two referees come into his office for last-minute instructions. They go over captains, ask about any unusual or new offensive formations to look for, remind him to stay in the coach’s box. Any other concerns?
“Yeah, that we might lose this game,” he kids.
At 11:45 a.m., as he takes off his jacket, he exhales.
“I think I’ve talked to four groups this morning — five if you include the officials,” he says. “I still have a bunch of stuff to do to get ready.
“Being a head coach, the CEO administrative stuff. … you have so much to do these days. It’s never-ending. And COVID has added to it. There has to be an easier occupation.”
At noon, John Bates comes into the office and mentions that Whitworth’s No. 12 — starting quarterback Jaedyn Prewitt — is on the field, throwing passes during pre-game warmups.
“All I can go by is the information they give us on the two-deep,” Casey says with a shrug.
All three coordinators coach the games from the sidelines. Four position coaches will be in the press box, offering a bird’s-eye view while working the phones. Ingram calls the plays. Casey wears a headset but lets his assistants do most of the coaching once the game starts.
At 12:35 p.m., pre-game warmups end and the players trot off the field into Duke. The defense meets in the weight room. The offense in the locker room. Rap music plays in the background. Some of the players sit in silence, preparing themselves mentally for battle. Others talk quietly. Some munch on fruit or an energy bar.
At 12:50 p.m., they head back onto the field. Kelly Hughton sings the national anthem, the coin flip gives Whitworth the ball first — the Bruins choose to defer — and the game is on.
Placekicker Jason Santoni, a 6-6, 195-pound senior, knocks the return specialist out of bounds on the opening kickoff, drawing a big cheer from his teammates on the opposite sideline.
George Fox gets on the board first, Adam Hawker’s diving 45-yard reception setting up Ethan Kassebaum’s six-yard TD run for a 7-0 lead with 3:45 left in the first quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, Santoni makes the tackle again — who is this guy?
Whitworth — using third-string QB Gio Fregoso, a 5-9, 200-pound sophomore who will go the entire way — quickly scores a TD to even the score. George Fox QB Haiden Schaan’s 37-yard scramble is the big play as Santoni converts a 35-yard field goal to give George Fox the lead back at 10-7 with 10:27 remaining in the second quarter.
Junior quarterback Haiden Schaan takes off (courtesy Jake Ryan)
After a Whitworth punt inside the final minute of the first half, the Bruins take the ball at their own 10-yard line in what has been a defensive battle. Run a couple of plays, kill the clock and head into half-time with a lead, I’m thinking. The Bruins don’t play it safe, though. They take right to the air, complete a couple of passes, and then a 47-yard bomb to Leon Johnson gives them the ball at the Whitworth 10 with nine seconds to go.
“We went into our two-minute mode,” Casey says later. “If we protect (Schaan) and he gets the ball vertical down the field, we have receivers who can make plays.”
Joe James (55) and Aaron Valenzuela (50) put the hurt on Pirate QB Gio Fregoso (courtesy Jake Ryan)
George Fox uses its final timeout and decides to take a final shot into the end zone before setting for a field-goal attempt. Schaan is told to throw the ball immediately; it’s either a completion or throw it out of the end zone. Do not take a sack under any circumstances.
Alas, Schaan gets sacked and the clock expires. The quarterback gets an earful from Casey as he walks off the field to the locker room.
“That’s a little reason why I like Chris even more,” Bates, who played for Casey at Whitworth, tells me later. “Those are the times I remember the most as a player — him being our defensive coordinator, getting after guys, letting us know when we do great things, but at the same time letting us know he has the expectations that we can do things better.”
Moments later, calmed down only a tad, Casey mutters to a scribe, “There’s gotta be an easier occupation.”
Casey is speaking facetiously — he loves his job — but there is an element of truth to a comment he has made twice in the course of two hours.
“I’m being facetious, but I’m being honest,” Casey will say later. “What it takes to win one football game is astronomical. It takes everything out of you. There are so many highs and lows through the week and in a game. Pat and I have talked about this many times. We’ve always said, the way we’re both wired, unless we can totally give ourselves to our players in every way, we shouldn’t be coaching.
“We’re extremely competitive. Every little thing you don’t do well bothers you. You demand excellence and a championship level of yourself, your coaches and your players. That takes a ton out of you.”
Casey huddles with his offensive coaches, then heads into the locker room. He has a short message for his players: “This is a game you can win. You guys know it. Let’s prove it on the field. You got the lead; now let’s build on it. Let’s get rolling.”
The George Fox offense sputters through most of the second half, though. Whitworth drives and gets a 45-yard field goal to make it 10-10 with 9:19 to go in the third quarter, then blows a chance to go ahead when its kicker misses a 30-yard field goal attempt on the next possession. The Pirates get it back at their own 48 on an interception as the quarter ends.
Ethan Kassenbaum gets a lift from O-lineman Zach Luworo after scoring the game’s first touchdown on an six-yard run (courtesy Jake Ryan)
Casey gathers his team around him on the George Fox sidelines. Every player takes a knee. The coach delivers a brief but impassive speech: “Every guy take care of your assignment. Let’s get this done!”
Whitworth attempts a 40-yard field that is blocked by Jaron Marks, but the Bruins still can’t get anything going offensively. After a punt, cornerback Lucas Schwin makes the first of the two biggest defensive plays of the game — and perhaps the season. He steps in front of a receiver, picks off a pass and returns it 31 yards to the Whitworth 31 with 4:09 left.
Lucas Schwinn returns the biggest interception of the season for the Bruins (courtesy Jake Ryan)
Given the short field, the George Fox offense takes advantage. Schaan runs for 10 yards and a first down, and then hits Hawker on a slant for 11 yards and a TD with 1:46 remaining.
Adam Hawker (81) and Leon Johnson celebrate Hawker’s 11-yard touchdown reception with 2:23 left that provided the winning points (courtesy Jake Ryan)
Too much time remains, however. Whitworth converts a fourth-and-five at its 46 to keep the drive going, then uses its final timeout after advancing to the George Fox 20 with 26 seconds remaining. Three plays get the Pirates to the 11. On fourth down, with two seconds on the clock and suspense filling the stadium, Fregoso’s pass in the end zone is knocked away by Schwin as the clock hits zero. Suddenly, there is bedlam as 120 Bruins rush out to swarm Schwin and celebrate one of the biggest wins in school history.
Bruins on sidelines reacts to a big play (courtesy Jake Ryan)
Moments later, the Bruins gather in front of Casey in the opposite end zone.
“We found a way, guys,” Casey says. “Give yourselves a hand.”
After a raucous ovation, Casey observes, “It’s going to make this Senior Day ceremony a lot more fun.”
Laughs all around.
“By God, we got second place all to ourselves.”
More applause.
“You talk about overcoming adversity … you did stuff right today. You’ve done it all season. (The Pirates) played a heckuva game with a backup quarterback … but it was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful victory. That was a damn good college football game.”
Then the team’s honorary coach — Geral Cox, who has Down syndrome — gets in front of the players to do a short dance step that has become a tradition after a victory. Then former Bruin running back Anthony Garcia — who is watching from beyond the fence — is called in by the players. He recreates his now famous move. Casey joins him, to the delight of the players.
“Our first or second year here, Anthony would come out and do a Cam Newton-like dance,” Casey says later. “They wanted me to follow along. I can’t dance at all. If we win, one of the players does the dance and I follow.”
Casey is not sure he wants me to write about the interaction with Cox, who has been a part of the George Fox program for several years.
“We should never get too much recognition or attention for doing what is right in life,” he tells me later. “We are not doing anything special but, again, just doing what is the right thing to do in life. That is to love, care for and bring happiness — because he feels such a part of the team — to Geral. We probably benefit more from him than he does from us. He teaches our team daily the lesson of never having a negative attitude or outlook.”
The players break to prepare for the Senior Day ceremonies. I grab Schwin, who made a team-high 11 tackles and the two biggest plays of his career.
Chris Casey introduces players and their families during post-game Senior Day ceremony
“We came into this game wanting to get solo second place (in the NWC),” Schwin says. “Coach Casey was talking about it all week. Our team believed we could do it. We needed to make big plays when it came down to crunch time, and that’s what happened.”
Casey, Schwin offers, “is everything to us. He’s such an influencer, a role model that we all look up to. He teaches us so many life lessons that carry on past football. On that last (Whitworth) drive, he was on the field, telling all of us to get a stop, that it takes heart and desire. We all believe that. We love him for that.”
Schwin, a senior academically with a season of football eligibility remaining, isn’t sure if he’ll be back.
“Right now it’s a maybe,” he says. “Still have to figure out some academic stuff.”
I approach Schaan, who is in the same situation as Schwin but intends to return for another football season in 2022. I ask him about the dressing-down he got from Casey at the end of the first half.
“I appreciate Coach Casey getting on me,” he says. “I love being challenged in that way. He does a great job of holding me accountable and challenging me in advance of my game management, and of my play on the field and making smart quarterback plays. I respect him a lot. He’s a man of his word. He preaches living at a championship level, and he does that day after day. I love having him as my coach.”
The Bruins’ other defensive MVP on this day — senior tackle Aaron Valenzuela, who had seven tackles, 2 1/2 tackles-for-loss, a sack and three quarterback hurries — has played his final game in a George Fox uniform.
“I’ll never forget this win my whole life,” he says with emotion. “It means so much to go out on our home field and prove something. To have the best league record we’ve ever had … It means a lot.
“I’ve been here for four years. This place has been like another home to me. Coaches have been father figures to me. My teammates are so close to my heart. It’s tough to walk away, but I have job opportunities and I’ll graduate this spring. I’m hanging up the cleats.
“Coach Casey cares so much about developing every person on the team. My freshman year, when I wasn’t playing much, he always wanted to know how I was doing, how I was developing. Nothing but respect for that guy.”
The seniors and their family members are lined up on the field for the post-game ceremony. Casey takes the microphone and tells the crowd, “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. That was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been a part of. I’m very proud of how tough-minded the guys were to win that game.”
Then he puts on his reading glasses to begin the procession.
“I don’t care about time here; I care about quality,” he says. “We’re going to do this right.” Many remaining in the stands applaud.
Later, in the quiet of his office, Casey has allowed the moment to sink in.
“Just to watch the thrill of our guys in their run to the end zone after that final play … it shows what athletics can be about,” he says. “It brings people together. It’s great for enthusiasm and unity and effort and togetherness. It shows the human spirit. Our country needs more of that.”
He pauses.
“When you invest so much in something and put so much time and energy, and in the end win that way, it’s so exhilarating,” he says. “The guys play for each other. They love to play the game of football. It teaches them tremendous life lessons.”
One of those lessons is this: “You don’t have to win a championship to be at championship level as a human being.”
I ask Casey how much longer he intends to coach.
“I can’t tell you,” he says. “I evaluate things every year. At the end of each season, I evaluate myself. As long as I am invested into everything we’re doing, into the lives our players, and am willing to do that fully. … The day I don’t give 100 percent championship-level effort, I’m getting out, because then I’m not giving the players my best.”
Hopefully, that’s still a few years down the road. The guy still has much to give. His players still have much to gain from his leadership.
I head home thinking, what a day this has been. A fun day for me. A very good day, for sure, in the life of a football Bruin.
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