West Linn Looking to Dominate the State for Years to Come

Everything changed with the arrival of Coach Chris Miller. West Linn turned into a state and regional power, producing some of Oregon’s top teams ever. That trend looks to be continuing with some of the young athletes currently coming up through the ranks. The Lions have a light senior group, led by the likes of [player_tooltip player_id="28903" first="Kace" last="Naone"], but are loaded for years to come after that. Give a lot of credit to the community and the structure of the program from the youth on up. Miller should be considered one of top coaches ever to represent the state, as he could very well be leading a college team, or be back in the NFL coaching. Looking at next year’s Junior’s, [player_tooltip player_id="147247" first="Earl" last="Ingle"] and [player_tooltip player_id="110180" first="Mark" last="Hamper"] both rank as two of Oregon’s top athletes for the 2023 class, and will vie for conference POY honors next season. Even as somewhat of an undersized LB, I have Ingle ranked my #6 overall player for the class, among the top 100. He is that talented. Hamper came in at #15 and is incredibly versatile. He will have the chance to be a 1st team all-state kid on both sides of the football. To put the ridiculous amount of talent from the 2024 class into perspective, look no further than the Lion’s freshman team taking on 5A Crescent Valley on Senior night, and beating them 44-0. Let me say that again... A bunch of 15 years old’s went down to Corvallis and dropped the hammer on numerous individuals heading off to college. My #2 overall athlete for the entire class [player_tooltip player_id="152337" first="Wiley" last="Donnerberg"] (6-3 200 24’), had a 50-yard receiving TD, a pick 6, and a kick return for a TD. He will be a major D1 recruit with double digit offers from most of the Pac 12 and elsewhere. Add in his brother [player_tooltip player_id="152336" first="Gus" last="Donnerberg"] (6-3 200 TE/LB 24’), the very versatile [player_tooltip player_id="152344" first="Hunter" last="Haines"] (6-0 160 ATH 24’) , along with two of the better baseball players in the country in [player_tooltip player_id="152345" first="Gabe" last="Howard"] (6-2 180 WR/CB) and [player_tooltip player_id="152361" first="Ryan" last="Vandenbrink"] (6-1 195 RB/LB 24’), and you have a core group of players who could rival the likes of Elijah Molden and Tim Tawa from a few years back. As most know the Donnerberg’s come from an impressive family, with Gus projecting as a major D1 kid as well. [player_tooltip player_id="152344" first="Hunter" last="Haines"] could be the most intriguing of all, with his brother Gavin being the PRZ Oregon 6A Offensive POY and dominating the state the last two seasons, before moving on to play at OSU. Hunter will probably end up as more of a perimeter athlete, and 6-2+ before he is done. He suffered from a fractured pelvis this past season, but could start on D and be a major contributor in the fall. When all is said and done expect him to be one of the top ranked overall athletes in Oregon. Baseball will take precedent for Howard (Oregon commit) and VandenBrink (OSU commit), but both could play division 1 football if they pursued that route. Obviously very few athletes have these types of credentials. Look for Howard to potentially start at receiver and/or CB, while VandenBrink could sure up the top LB group in the state and also play RB. 2024 QB <strong>Nick Sakys</strong>’ is a kid that not a lot of people know about yet, but could end up being one of the top quarterbacks in the region. He’s an athletic leader, with a strong arm, and someone who will have a handful of D1 kids around him to distribute the ball too. In summary it’s still very early with a lot yet to be determined, but the Lions will be a clear-cut favorite to win multiple state titles in the years ahead. Mountainside HS of Beaverton will also be loaded, with similar #s and great coaching, led by John and Sean Mannion. We will be talking a lot about these kids in the coming months and can’t say enough good things about the West Linn community in general.