At Sheldon, the beat goes on.

Byline: Steve Mims The Register-Guard

It was Sept. 15, 2000, when Sheldon lost to Churchill, 30-13, to open the Midwestern League football schedule with an 0-2 record.

"We went to Churchill and played about as perfect as we could play and they were so good at the time that we got drilled on the scoreboard although I thought we played pretty good," Sheldon coach Marty Johnson recently recalled. "We could have played them 100 times and probably not beat them."

Sheldon has played more than half a hundred league games since then and the Irish have never run into the same problem.

The Irish have not dropped a league game since that loss to the Lancers and they will carry a streak of 51 straight league wins into their Southwest Conference opener on Oct. 5 at South Medford.

Sheldon has a chance to surpass the state record of 55 straight league wins set by Marshfield from 1994-2000 this season although even if the Irish reach that point they may not get the record. Heppner is even closer to the Pirates' record as the Mustangs take a 54-game league winning streak into the season.

There is an irony and strange symmetry between the streaks of Marshfield and Sheldon, beginning with the fact that win No. 2 of Sheldon's current streak was a 21-7 win over the Pirates on Oct. 6, 2000 that snapped Marshfield's streak. The dominance that Marshfield carried through the Midwestern League in the last half of the 1990s seemed to be transferred to Sheldon that night, as the Irish became the dominant program in the Midwestern League this decade before capturing the first SWC title last year.

"That was kind of the big one," Johnson, a Marshfield graduate, said of the win over the Pirates. "That big win really began to make our players believe we could compete with the upper echelon."

It was also a big win for the program because it came against the school that was the class of the league.

"When we first started, Marshfield, that is what we were shooting for," said Sheldon assistant coach Lane Johnson, Marty's brother. "The state championship was great, but when we could beat Marshfield we knew we had a chance to play with anybody. It was so lopsided the first year, it was embarrassing."

When the Johnsons were hired at Sheldon in 1997, the first game was a 59-0 loss at Marshfield. The loss was humbling, but the Irish bounced back to finish 5-4 that season.

"That was a killer," Scott Wright, Sheldon's starting quarterback in 1997 who is in his first season as an assistant coach with the Irish, said of the loss to Marshfield. "But I always look on the positive side and I felt without our quality coaches what the season could have been if they had not shown up. What was a 5-4 season could have been a lot worse."

Sheldon went 6-3 in 1998 and made the playoffs in 1999 before losing to Jefferson in the first round to finish 6-4.

After starting the 2000 season at 0-2, Sheldon had to win all six of its remaining league games to make the playoffs and the Irish did that to begin what has turned out to be a league winning streak that has lasted more than six seasons. The Irish not only reached the playoffs that year, but they won two games before losing to Tualatin in the semifinals.

With a strong junior class that included quarterback Alex Brink, Sheldon had built up expectations heading into the 2001 season. The Irish went undefeated to win their first league title in a decade and advanced to the state final before losing to McNary, 35-10.

"I don't know that we could foresee exactly what was going to happen," Marty Johnson said of the run to the final. "I don't remember going into that season feeling that we were a legitimate Final Four or state-title game team. We just kind of started over again and certainly as Alex got better, the confidence of the whole team started to rise to a different level."

With Brink and many other starters returning in 2002, Sheldon was a preseason favorite to contend for its first state football title.

"That was one of those seasons where definitely everyone expected us to do what we did," Marty Johnson said. "So for a stretch of that year it wasn't that much fun because if we didn't win by enough, or we had a couple turnovers, or didn't shut a team out, then people wondered what was wrong.

"I didn't feel like I did a good job of leading throughout the first six or seven games and I made sure in week eight to go back and have fun along the way because if you are not having fun, it is not worth it."

Sheldon went undefeated again that season and made it back to the state championship game where the Irish defeated Lake Oswego, 31-24, to capture the title.

The Irish went undefeated in the Midwestern League for the next three years before moving into the Southwest Conference last season. Sheldon went 5-0 to win the inaugural title in the new conference and stretched its winning streak to 51 games in the process.

There are no signs, plaques, or newspaper headlines heralding the streak in the Sheldon locker room and players through the years have acknowledged the wins and the pride the streak brings to the program without making it a bigger issue. Marty Johnson said the streak is not discussed much by coaches or players.

"Absolutely not. I think if we would have done that, it would have been over a long time ago," he said. "We coach every week the same, the opponent doesn't matter. I feel the same anxiety for every game on the schedule for the last 10 years and I think other coaches would say the same thing. We've never even come close to feeling like we've got it figured out."

Even in 2002, when everyone figured the Irish were a contender for the state title, Sheldon was not overconfident.

"I remember going into that year, our league only got three playoff spots, and I remember telling Marty that we needed to have a good year just to make the playoffs," Lane Johnson said.

Added Marty: "There was Marshfield and Willamette and Churchill and Thurston that season, good teams with good guys coming back. We talked about how we would be able to explain to people that we played in the state championship game one year and then did not make the playoffs the next year. In turn, we ended up winning the championship."

The Irish have never had a team loaded with hot college prospects during the streak as Brink, now a senior quarterback at Washington State, was the only player to earn a Division I scholarship before last season when receiver Aaron Pflugrad signed with Oregon and lineman Bo Moos signed with Arizona State.

The Irish have instead relied on deep and talented teams that find the best way to utilize a receiver who may be considered too slow by colleges or an undersized defender to remain on top..

"We talk a lot about pride and the program and team and how to a certain extent it doesn't matter who the individuals are," Marty Johnson said.

"If you put all your eggs in one basket and have an injury or have a kid decide not to play, maybe you start to drop off a bit. We've gotten some pretty key performances from kids that maybe wouldn't play in other programs. They come to our program and believe they can do it and maybe that has something to do with it."

CONSECUTIVE LEAGUE WINS

Oregon prep teams with the most consecutive victories in league play, regardless of classification

55: Marshfield, Midwestern League. Ended by Sheldon (21-7), Oct. 6, 2000.

54: Heppner, Columbia Basin/Blue Mt. Current.

51: Sheldon, Midwestern League/Southwest Conference. Current.

50: St. Mary's (Medford), Big Fir League. Ended by Yoncalla (17-10), Oct. 7, 1983.

50: Dayton, West Valley League. Ended by Amity (6-0), 1997.

49: Regis, Tri-River League. Ended by Colton (6-0) in 2OT, Nov. 7, 1980.

46: Junction City, Sky-Em League. Ended by Marist (27-24). Oct. 1, 1999.

43: Pendleton, Intermountain League. Ended by Baker (21-13). Date unknown.

42: Lost River, So. Cascade League. Ended by Chiloquin (28-27) in OT, 1967.

41: Seaside, Cowapa League. Ended by North Catholic (20-7), Sept. 28, 1963.

- Source: Mal Van Meer