Southwest Washington football leaves its mark on all-star game

Summer high school all-star football events often struggle to fill out their rosters.

Between the risk of injury and busy summer schedules, high school players and recent graduates have a lot of reasons to say no to an invite to events like the Les Schwab Bowl.

But Ja’Marcus Robinson of Seton Catholic had one good reason to say yes — his experience at the game last year.

“The coaching staff, for sure,” Robinson said when asked why he returned. “There was an O-line coach called Coach (Paul) Krauss. He was one of my favorite coaches. He told me I should do it again. He got me here again, so here I am.”

Robinson, a recent graduate of Seton Catholic who will play college football at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., made the most of his second Les Schwab Bowl appearance, winning the Lineman of the Game Award for Team Columbia.

“It feels great,” Robinson said. “I worked all over the field, so I feel like I deserve it.”

The Les Schwab Bowl brings together outstanding current high school football players and recent graduates from throughout Oregon, plus Southwest Washington.

Four Clark County players participated in Saturday’s showcase at Griswold Stadium on the campus of Lewis & Clark College in Portland. Robinson, Graham Dumas of Seton Catholic, Cody Jacobus of Washougal played for Team Columbia. Logan Stokke of Union played for Team Willamette.

Robinson was the lone local recent graduate. Dumas, a receiver, and Jacobus, an offensive lineman, both will be seniors in the fall, while Stokke, an offensive lineman, will be a junior.

Despite being a small contingent, the Southwest Washington players left their marks.

In addition to Robinson being picked as a top lineman, Dumas and Jacobus were both awarded the Brayden Bafaro “Do The Right Thing” Scholarships. It’s an honor Robinson won at last year’s game.

“It was a really awesome experience,” Dumas said about playing in the game. “You get to meet guys from all over Oregon. Talk to them about their experiences. We’re a small 1A school, Seton Catholic, so it’s cool to how all those 6A (large schools) experience football.”

Jacobus said: “My favorite part (of the week) leading up is just meeting everybody, playing with them, having a good experience meeting new people.”

Robinson, Dumas and Jacobus also got to experience being on the winning team, as Team Columbia rallied from an early 13-point deficit to win 21-13.

But the experience was less about the game than the week of practices and camaraderie that led up to the game.

The players also got to interact with two Les Schwab Bowl alumni who are now playing in the NFL — Tennessee Titans defensive back Marcus Harris (Grant High of Portland) and Arizona Cardinals receiver Kendrick Bourne (Milwaukie High).

“Favorite memory would probably be meeting Kendrick Bourne,” Dumas said. “Seeing his experience and how he got to be to where is he is today, and the work he put in to get where he was.”

Robinson had a different favorite memory of the week.

“It would have to be the laser tag,” Robinson said. “Laser tag was fun. It brought us together as a team, learned more about each other. So that was my favorite moment.”

But there were a lot of moments like that all week long and on Saturday as well.

“It’s just being with new people, learning like where they’re from,” Robinson said. “We’ve got people from Tillamook all the way to Eugene. We’re just learning about how they operate football-wise.”