Qwest Field in Seattle recently played home to the Sno-Valley Junior Wildcats JV football team. The team took the field for a 30-minute scrimmage against the Newport Knights Junior Football JV team. The scrimmage took place before the Seattle Seahawks vs. the Houston Texans game. It was officiated by NFL referees and was watched by hundreds of fans, as well as professional players on the field.

After the scrimmage, both teams worked together to present the big American flag (20-yards-by-15-yards) for the “National Anthem” in the pre-game ceremony.

The Sno-Valley Wildcats Junior Football organization has been around since the 1950s, when the Kiwanis organization put together the first youth football games. Ken Castagno and Wilbur Fitch were the first coaches.

The league had a resurgence in the 1970s with a few Carnation and Duvall players in the system, but most of the participation came from Snoqualmie and North Bend. They still played at Mount Si, but were called the Vikings (a neutral name) because players would go on to both Tolt and Mount Si High Schools.

In the 1980s, Sno-Valley joined the Sno-King league and had six levels of play with home games still being played at the Mount Si field. In the 1990s, the organization joined the Greater Eastside League, but had lost the use of the Mount Si football field due to overuse. All home games were moved to the Tolt field in Carnation.

In 2003, both communities had grown to the point where they were able to split the league and each area transitioned from the Vikings to Wildcats and Red Wolves, respectfully.

Just this year, the Junior Wildcats are again playing their home games at Mount Si High School’s new state-of-the-art athletic facility.

Pictured are (front row, left to right): No. 75 Brandon Gillespie, No. 27 Ryan Paauw, No. 62 Mitch Rorem, No. 11 John Farmer, No. 56 Henry Owens, No. 9 Austin Koons, No. 5 Sean Batye, No. 32 William Luse and No. 13 Ronnie Hamilton.

Middle row, left to right: No. 10 Justin Henak, No. 60 Kolton Auxier, No. 61 Josh Mitchell, No. 64 Caymon Granillo, No. 7 Erik Meister, No. 12 Jeremy Bowen, No. 57 Joe Stout, No. 8 Drew MacPherson and No. 29 Cody Furulie.

Back row, left to right: Offensive coach Kurt Meister, defensive coach Terry Granillo, head coach Kevin Owens, coach Ken Paauw and coach Clark Bowen.