Welcome to our 2023 high school football previews! We’ll be giving you a look at several local teams leading up to the start of the season. Today’s feature is the Crosspoint Christian Warriors. Don’t forget to check out our Henley Hornets, Klamath Union Pelicans and Mazama Vikings previews too.
At a glance
Head coach: Jim Johnston (first season, second stint, 1-3 overall, 83-28 career)
Classification: 1A (8-player)
League: Special District 1
2022 record: 3-5 (2-3 SD1)
Playoffs: Did not qualify
Returning starters: 4 offensive, 4 defensive
State championships: None
Season outlook
It wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think that Crosspoint Christian football would be in a much different place right now.
After all, when two schools with successful football programs merge, the resulting team should be a perennial championship contender, right? You certainly wouldn’t expect it to go 6-15 in its first three seasons.
But that’s exactly what happened at Crosspoint Christian.
Warriors head coach Jim Johnston, who returns to the program after two years away from coaching, said there were several factors that contributed to the dropoff.
“When you deal with different dynamics in how schools are ran academically as well as, in a way, politically, it took a while for that merger to set in,” Johnston said. “And then we got hit with COVID, and I think that kind of put everybody back.”
Crosspoint Christian opened in the fall of 2020, the product of a merger between Hosanna Christian School and Triad School. The two schools shared a bitter rivalry—known as the Holy War—that Johnston coached on both sides of. He was hired to start the Triad football program in 2007, his first venture into 8-player football. Johnston said his first group of players had almost no football experience.
“I think we had one kid that played Pop Warner,” Johnston said.
Still, the Timberwolves managed a 3-5 record in their inaugural season, followed by a 6-3 record and their first playoff appearance in 2008. In the next two seasons, Triad won 22 games and made back-to-back state semifinals.
Johnston resigned for personal reasons following the 2010 season. After a two-year break from coaching, he was hired to lead the team at Hosanna Christian. The Lions, whose roster had been decimated by graduation, went 2-7 in Johnston’s first season. They went 50-11 over the following six, including a state championship game appearance in 2017. When the school merged with Triad in 2020, Johnston kept his job as head football coach.
As Johnston said, though, the merger was far from seamless. During the 2020-21 school year, students were split between both campuses, and there was no brand identity for the new school. Because of the pandemic, Johnston’s players didn’t have in-person classes, and the 2020 football season was pushed back to spring 2021. The yet-to-be-named Warriors went 1-3, and Johnston stepped down.
Now, after another two-year break from coaching–which included one season as a referee–Johnston will try to (re)build his third program. He feels that Crosspoint Christian is in a better position to succeed in his first season than Triad and Hosanna Christian were.
“The [previous] coaching staff…did a really good job just kind of patching things together and getting us to a point where I think we can be competitive again,” Johnston said.
The Warriors have a strong foundation offensively with senior running backs Chase Bacus and Garret Little and junior quarterback Kody Sparks, who Johnston believes will thrive with more structure and experience after playing the position for the first time last season. Bacus, Little and Sparks will get to operate behind a deep offensive line that includes sophomore Brock Throne, who’s listed at 6 feet 4 inches tall and 250 pounds. Johnston said Throne’s offseason improvements will make it even more difficult for opposing defenses to get past him.
“He’s athletic now where he was just kind of a big kid last year,” Johnston said.
Johnston kept the Warriors busy in the offseason, instituting a strength and conditioning program during the spring. In the summer, he took them to team camp with 10-time state champions Dufur and six-time state champions St. Paul, who were fresh off an appearance in last year’s title game. He also got them into a passing league.
Players said the challenging offseason paid dividends.
“I feel like that helped us out a lot,” senior running back and linebacker Vincent Brancacio said. “My speed got a lot better.”
“I feel like I’ve become a lot stronger,” senior tight end and defensive end Keaton Murphy said.
Another important part of the offseason was establishing an identity.
“I let the kids define what kind of team they wanted to be at camp, and their biggest thing that they came up with was they wanted to not be the ‘almost’ team or the ‘maybe’ team,” Johnston said. “If we…develop the culture the way I think we can, I think the wins will follow.”
The coming years look promising, too. Johnston estimates that the Crosspoint Christian middle school team has close to 50 seventh and eighth graders.
It may not take long, then, for the Warriors to reach–and perhaps exceed–the heights that their predecessors at Triad and Hosanna Christian did.
“We’re just trying to get back to that type of a program and that type of culture,” Johnston said. “I think that when they buy into what we’re about, they’ll be really proud, and it’ll happen quick.”
To hear more from Jim Johnston, Vincent Brancacio and Keaton Murphy as well as Kody Sparks, Garrett Little and Owen Deal, check out the extended interview highlights on our YouTube page!
Players to watch
Chase Bacus, RB/DB, senior
- Named captain for 2023
- Well-regarded for his speed
Owen Deal, C/DL, senior
- Named captain for 2023
- Has improved his speed significantly during the offseason
Vincent Brancacio, RB/LB, senior
- Named captain for 2023
- Has improved his speed and strength significantly during the offseason
Garret Little, RB/LB, senior
- Named captain for 2023
- Has improved his speed significantly during the offseason
Kody Sparks, QB/DB, junior
- Second season as starting quarterback…had no experience playing the position prior to 2022
Keaton Murphy, TE/DE, senior
- Has improved his strength significantly during the offseason
Brock Throne, OG/DT, sophomore
- Listed at 6’4, 250 pounds
- Has improved his athleticism significantly during the offseason
Trey Johnston, WR/DB, freshman
- Will start at receiver
Chris Kelly, OG/LB, sophomore
- Will be a two-way starter
Schedule
All games at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted
* denotes non-league games
*Aug. 31 @ Dufur 7:30 p.m.
*Sept. 8 vs Perrydale
Sept. 15 @ Chiloquin
Sept. 22 @ Mohawk
Sept. 29 vs Bonanza
Oct. 6 vs Camas Valley 6 p.m.
Oct. 13 @ Myrtle Point
Oct. 20 BYE
Oct. 27 vs Lost River
