Cascade Christian senior quarterback Haiden Schaan terrorized defenses with his command of the Challengers’ offensive scheme, and now he has some new hardware to show for his efforts.
After guiding Cascade Christian to the Class 3A state championship, Schaan capped off his spectacular season by recently being named 3A Offensive Player of the Year in one of several notable honors for the Challengers.
“For us offensively, he’s what made us good,” said Cascade Christian head coach Jon Gettman, who was named 3A Coach of the Year. “He’s a great decision-maker and was able to distribute the ball really well. The run that he had throughout the entire season was incredible.”
Schaan completed 224 of 343 passes for 3,079 yards, 37 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran 106 times for 774 yards and 16 more scores and even caught a TD pass among one of his two receptions.
“When it came down to it, he had the best season we’ve had accounting for 54 touchdowns,” said Gettman. “Not since I’ve been coaching have we had a quarterback that’s thrown the ball for 3,000 yards and run for 700 yards.”
Schaan was far from alone in making that happen, and the state’s coaches recognized that in their all-state voting. Joining Schaan with first-team all-state recognition for Cascade Christian were senior Ben Dunn at receiver and defensive back, junior offensive lineman Logan Flenner, junior kicker Ethan Hoffman and senior linebacker Cristian Flores Alatorre
Dunn caught 65 passes for 1,078 yards and 17 TDs and had five interceptions with 52 tackles. Hoffman converted five of his seven field-goal attempts, with a long of 49 yards, to go with 48 PATs. Flores Alatorre made a team-best 82 tackles and Flenner helped pave the way for an offense that averaged 418 yards per game.
St. Mary’s junior running back Gavin Rajagopal broke a 30-plus year drought for the Crusader program by also being named to the 3A first-team. He was the Crusaders’ lone honoree after powering his team’s offense throughout the season by rushing for more than 1,400 yards with 17 touchdowns.
Second-team all-state honors went to Cascade Christian senior defensive lineman Anthony Ujdur and Schaan at punter, with honorable mention notice going to junior running back Caleb Jordan, junior receiver Ian Fralich, sophomore linebacker Kiegan Schaan and senior defensive back Jacob Crowl.
“You get the accolades when your team does well,” said Gettman. “I was excited for all of them; it’s a testimony to all the kids buying in and selling out and doing what you ask of them.”
Santiam Christian senior Kyle Parameter was named 3A Defensive Player of the Year, while Lakeview senior Alex Decker and Scio senior Jacob Lowther shared 3A Lineman of the Year honors, and Lakeview junior Jace Brazeal and Rainier junior Jake Bruce shared 3A Returner of the Year.
— Reach reporter Kris Henry at 541-776-4488, khenry@mailtribune.com, www.facebook.com/krishenryMT or www.twitter.com/Kris_Henry