Neah-Kah-Nie Football Preview

Playing their first season since 2021, the Neah-Kah-Nie High Pirates returned to OSAA Class 2A football last year and finished 2-5 (2-7 overall) in Special District 1, taking sixth place in the eight-team standings.

The Pirates, guided by second-year Coach Alejandro Quintana-Rios, lost seven graduated seniors from last year’s squad and will have some big shoes to fill at the beginning of practice on Monday. The Pirates have six seniors this year who will help provide leadership ability for the team, including Samuel Lommen, Dallas Coleman, Gage Wilkinson, Matt Steiger, Zane Krumenaker and Isaac Ferber.

“I think we’ll have a much-improved team that will hopefully win more games than we did last year,” said Quintan-Rios. “We’ll just be focusing on improving every day at practice so that we can achieve our goal of getting a good outcome in most of our games and hopefully get a few wins and have some fun too.”

The Pirates will play Sheridan and the Class 3A Jefferson High Lions (0-8 in 2023) in an Aug. 30 jamboree at Nestucca High School. The Pirates open their eight-game season with a 7 p.m. Sept. 6 home matchup versus the Irrigon High Knights (4-5 in 2023). The Pirates lost 66-44 to Irrigon in their season opener a year ago at Irrigon High School.