Outlaws football could be gone with the wind

The success of Sisters football has been accomplished through the program that Coach Bob Macauley has built up over the years. It's a program that may soon be gone with the wind.

Larry Benson and I have known Bob for more than 20 years, and though we live in Forest Grove more than three hours from Sisters, we videotape most of his opponents on this side of the Cascades for Bob and the team. The Aspen Lakes Golf Course donates their course for the Outlaw Open every year. Countless other people in the community volunteer many hours for the Sisters football program. You must ask yourself: how much of this will disappear if Bob Macauley is no longer the head coach?

How do the school board and the superintendent thank their coach for 16 years of selfless work and for building one of the best football programs in the state and for having a positive influence on the students of your community? They force him to resign.  The program that took 16 years to build and that has so many people willing to volunteer so many hours to keep it successful will soon deteriorate!

I met Bob Macauley in August of 1986. He had just moved from Idaho to Gaston, Oregon to teach junior high English and coach our football team at Gaston High School, a small school of about 160 students.  Only eight players showed up for his first practice. At the end of his six-year tenure he had 45 players turning out and had gone to the state playoffs his final three years. He brought the program back from the grave. The team had won only two games in the previous three years.

Coach Macauley's six-year record at Gaston was 39-20. In his last four years Gaston went 33-8. The Greyhound program would never recover from his departure. In the 16 years since he's been gone, Gaston has won only 48 games. I fear that Sisters High School is on that same self-destructive path.

Gaston's loss, however, was Sisters' gain. Again given the task of resurrecting a dead football program, Bob Macauley did just that. He rolled up his sleeves and built one of the best football programs in the state of Oregon. His record at the helm of the Outlaw football program is 129-47. In the last 11 years his record is 107-24, with 10 playoff appearances, nine quarterfinals appearances, six semifinals appearances, four finals appearances and two state championships.

Those numbers, however, cannot quantify the total effect of Bob Macauley coaching these boys. There's no way to track the number of young men who treat their girlfriends better because they learn and live the pillars of the program.

You can't count the number of players who treat their parents with a little more respect because of having gone through the football program with Bob Macauley and his assistant coaches. You can't count the number of players who wouldn't have graduated had they not been a part of this team. You can't collect data on the number of parents who work together in a positive way for a common goal - the football program. These things are not tangible. But they are the pieces that pull together and make the culture at Sisters High School what it is. These things will be lost without Bob and his team's guidance.

It's time for the citizenry of Sisters to stand up and be counted. If they feel that forcing Coach Macauley to give up his coaching duties is wrong, they need to say so. And they should do so before it is too late.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writers. - Editor.