It was overcast for our last game of October. It wasn’t the all-encompassing grey that it will be in a month or two after the sun has gone into hibernation for real, but the clouds reminded us that we were on the back nine of this season and it would be a long time before we had another day like we saw last week at North Lake. So, you’d think fate would have been kind to us as we tried to adjust to the new climate, but she had other plans. Highway 99 north was clogged with slow-moving farm equipment and, though I had taken the precaution of leaving early in case of such unforeseen events, I worried whether we would make it to our game in Yamhill on time. Luckily, we had Jackson Browne along for the ride and it’s hard to be in a bad mood listening to him, though that highway traffic was doing its best. Even when, after several miles and many heavy sighs, we were able to pass, the new people in front of us were still content to impede everyone behind them. There seemed to have been some kind of conspiracy to make us late, but I never figured out who was behind that whole plot or what their motivation might have been.
In the end, we defeated the bad guys by breaking a few speed limits within the city of McMinnville and finding some open road on Highway 47 headed north, and just five miles out of McMinville we came into the town of Carlton. Carlton’s high school students attend Yamhill-Carlton High School, or Y-C, as the locals call it, in Yamhill, just a couple of miles north. Though Yamhill gets top billing in the school’s name, it’s Carlton that’s the bigger of the two. Yamhill has grown a lot during this century and now has over 1000 residents, but Carlton has grown more, and its population is about twice that of Yamhill, as it always has been.
There is still a debate as to whether Carlton was named for John Carl or Wilson Carl, both early residents of the area, but regardless of who the actual namesake was, Carlton got a post office in 1874 and was incorporated in 1899, meaning they’re celebrating their 125th birthday this year, with banners all over town to commemorate the occasion. Yamhill, on the other hand, was not named for a person or for a raised area of land where they grow edible tubers. It was actually named for the native Yamhelas Indians who populated the area prior to the arrival of white people.
During the town’s growth over the past 25 or 30 years, Carlton has rebranded itself from a small farming community to a culinary destination, with lots of high-end restaurants and wine shops. That whole part of the valley is positively lousy with wineries, and Carlton has capitalized on its location just outside of McMinville to attract lots of eaters and drinkers. Mrs. Ednold and I have been known to eat and drink, so we made a stop to do just that. We chose the Park & Main, which seems to be part pizzeria and part wine, cheese, and candy shop. The food was good, the coconut porter from Maui was better, and we sat in the front window and watched the non-stop traffic go by on both Main Street and its sidewalks.
One of those ubiquitous Yamhill County grape growers who probably had some wine for sale inside Park & Main is Yamhill-Carlton class of ’77 graduate Nicholas Kristof, who went off to Harvard, became a Rhodes Scholar, and onto a career with the New York Times. He still owns and runs the family farm just outside of Yamhill. He ran for Governor of Oregon a few years ago but was disqualified because he didn’t meet the resident requirement. I don’t know much about politics, but I wouldn’t mind having someone that smart in charge of the state, so I hope he gets another chance to run someday.
We then drove the two or three miles north to Yamhill which, though smaller, is older than Carlton, having been incorporated in 1891, and it appears to have held on to its more traditional farm-town roots. We found the high school right on the main road, pulled into the parking lot, and I got out for my recon mission. The main school building appears to be from the 1930’s or so, but there are several newer buildings scattered around the site, mixing the old-school old school with some modern architecture. We could see the field and grandstand behind the school to the east and made our way toward it.
As the football field is at the bottom of a slope from the school, entry to the stands is through a couple of doors that lead to the top of the bleachers within the covered wooden grandstand. The old all-wood grandstand has been resurfaced and painted all black with a big orange YC painted in the middle, and looks really sharp, and the roof covers the entire seating area. The sprinkles were sporadic throughout the night, but it was comforting to know we were sheltered if things took a turn for the worse. Uniquely, there is probably 50 feet of asphalt in front of the grandstand, between it and the rubber running track, so the seated spectators were that much farther from the action on the field. The view isn’t bad though, and it’s kind of nice to have all that extra space. The field is natural grass with a few smaller wooden bleachers on the far side for the visitors.
The Yamhill-Carlton Tigers compete in Special District 1 of the 3A classification and were coming into the game with a 5-2 record, good enough for second place in the league, and their opponents from Warrenton had an identical record. The Tigers were league champs in 2019 and have finished either second or third since then, and always seem to be one of the better teams in the league. So, it’s a little surprising that they have never won a state championship, though they did make it to the championship game in 1971. Last year they won their first playoff game in over ten years, so maybe they’re turning a corner, and winning this game against Warrenton would be a big step in that direction.
As often happens, word had apparently gotten around that the Ednolds would be in town, so Yamhill-Carlton had decided to hold their Haunted Homecoming this week. To help mark the occasion the cheerleaders had made a big Homecomin’ banner for the players to run through as they came on the field. I’m not sure what it was made of, but it didn’t break as easily as everyone was expecting, and the first few players through ended up running 20 yards with the banner plastered to their torsos before they finally ripped it off. Soon afterward, it was time for the Star-Spangled-Banner, and one of the students did a fine job with the singing, but the real star was a horse named Lady.
Lady was ridden onto the field by a Y-C alum who was carrying the flag as she rode. She trotted (Lady, not the girl) the length of the field during the song, or maybe she was cantering. I don’t really know the difference, but I do know that when it came time for the final stanza she galloped back the length of the field at full speed and got a big cheer when she made it back to the end zone just as the song ended. The horse was beautiful, and it was a nice twist on the old pre-game ritual, and it was emotional because the PA announcer had let us know that this would be Lady’s last ride. I’m not sure what that means, but for the rest of the game I was half expecting to hear a gunshot from in back of the equipment shed. I never did, though, so hopefully Lady is not on her way to the glue factory just yet.
When play began we were treated to a competitive game, for a change. Both teams have quarterbacks who can throw, but both defenses were solid, so it was tough for either to gain much yardage until Y-C broke through toward the end of the first quarter. That long touchdown was their only big play of the half, though, and the teams went into halftime tied, 7-7.
What had started as a small crowd had grown as the game went on. The Tiger cheerleaders did their cheering, but there was no organized group of students to lead, and no band to help them out. I missed not having a band, but the DJ on the PA system did his job well and played appropriately inspiring hard rock and hip-hop classics to keep things lively, and us old folks did our own cheering to urge the Tigers on. When the players went to the locker room for halftime, we had other people to cheer for, because it was time for a coronation.
The homecoming court couples walked down the front steps of the grandstands and took their places in front of the crowd, and a couple of alumni did the honors of presenting the king his crown and the queen her tiara. Not surprisingly, the young man who had scored Y-C’s touchdown in the first half turned out to be the king. It was a nice, simple ceremony, and then the announcer reminded the crowd that the big dance would be taking place shortly after the game. I got pretty excited for a moment before he also reminded everyone that only high school students were allowed into the dance. That’s fine. I wasn’t really dressed for it anyway.
Still a little bummed about the dance, I decided a little popcorn might make me feel a little better. The concessions are located in one of the buildings between the grandstand and the school known as the Tiger Dome. It really is dome-shaped, and it houses the Y-C basketball court, and the concession area is big, clean, and warm. The popcorn was nothing special, but if I was looking for special I wouldn’t have gotten popcorn. I didn’t get my coffee because the senior class moms were selling hot chocolate down in front of the grandstands and I had to spread my support around a little. It, also, was nothing special, but it was hot, and it was chocolate, which was exactly what I was expecting.
The Tigers came out and scored again in the third quarter to lead 14-7 going into the final quarter, and then the pace quickened. They scored again in the fourth, but the Warriors from Warrenton answered. Then the Tigers scored, and the Warriors answered again to get within 5 with just a few minutes remaining. The Tigers were able to convert a huge fourth down and hold onto the ball after that, and ran out the clock to preserve their 26-21 homecoming win. Yamhill-Carlton has some big boys and some really talented runners, and Warrenton might be even bigger and also has a few good runners. Regardless of their final records, it would be a shame if either team didn’t make the playoffs.
Sure, we’d suffered the age discrimination imposed by the homecoming committee and were unable to attend the dance, but it was an exciting game right to the end, the Tigers had put themselves alone in second place in the league, they had crowned a new king and queen at the same time, and hopefully Lady the horse was safely back home resting in a stall enjoying the beginning of her retirement. We’d seen the Tiger Dome and enjoyed one of the nicest old wooden grandstands I’ve ever seen. And Jackson Browne has put out over a dozen albums in the past 50 years, so he was able to sing us all the way home during an enjoyable ride that didn’t include any massive tractors going 10 miles an hour on a major highway. It was a good night.
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