Big shakeup in Bulldogs' fall gridiron schedule
Jul. 18—If Baker High School's football schedule this fall were a haircut, it would be a mullet.
If it were a TV channel, it would be MTV during its heyday.
The Bulldogs' schedule, to put it another way, has a decidedly 1980s flavor.
A major shakeup in Baker's league has resulted in games against multiple former rivals from the old Intermountain Conference.
In those days Baker was a Class AAA school, a division that included Oregon's largest high schools.
Today Baker is in the Class 4A ranks, with bigger schools divided among the Class 5A and Class 6A divisions.
"Big changes from last year," said Buell Gonzales Jr., the Baker School District's athletic director.
Baker's longtime Greater Oregon Conference foes Ontario and Mac-Hi are gone — Ontario having dropped from Class 4A to 3A for football only, and Mac-Hi having done so for all sports.
Although Baker hasn't played Mac-Hi in football since 2018, Ontario has been a regular rival.
The Tigers remain on the schedule for 2022, but this time it's a nonleague game, set for Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.
Only one Greater Oregon League rival remains as a league opponent — La Grande.
In the newly constituted 4A Special District 5, Baker will travel to La Grande for its first league game on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.
The Bulldogs then play four straight games, three of those at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium, against other members of the new special district:
—home against The Dalles, Oct. 7, 7 p.m.
—home against Madras, Oct. 14, 7 p.m.
—at Crook County (Prineville), Oct. 21, 7 p.m.
—home against Pendleton, Oct. 28, 7 p.m.
Baker varsity coach Jason Ramos said he's excited about the new league.
"I'm in favor of it," he said. "Getting more teams in our league is a positive. We're excited to have new teams in our league."
For the past several years the Greater Oregon League had just four teams — Baker, Ontario, La Grande and Mac-Hi.
That made it tough to fill the schedule some years, Ramos said.
In 2019, for instance, when Mac-Hi didn't compete in the Greater Oregon League, Baker played La Grande and Ontario twice each. The Bulldogs also traveled to Bend for a nonleague, neutral site game, and to Washington for another nonleague contest.
In 2021, Baker played Newport in a neutral site nonleague game at Sisters.
Ramos acknowledged that the new special district offers a tough slate of games, with Pendleton, The Dalles and Crook County dropping down from the Class 5A ranks.
"It's a challenge, but it's a welcome challenge," Ramos said. "Every game's going to be a big game, which is what you want in league play."
Ramos noted that although the more daunting league schedule could make it tougher for Baker to qualify for the playoffs, that might be offset by the Oregon School Activities Association giving the league an additional playoff slot.
Regardless, if the Bulldogs qualify for the playoffs they'll be better prepared due to the higher level of competition, Ramos said.
He's also excited about Baker having five home games this fall, three of them against new league foes in Madras, The Dalles and Pendleton.
Baker had just three home games in 2019, mainly because the Bulldogs, with Ontario and La Grande as the only league foes, had to settle for road games to round out its schedule."
"It's going to be fun to have some new teams coming in," Ramos said.
Baker opens its nine-game schedule with four nonleague contests.
The Bulldogs will travel to Turner, near Salem, on Sept. 3 to take on Cascade, a rematch of the 2021 season opener at Baker, which the senior-laden Cascade squad won 35-0.
The opener is Baker's only Saturday game, with the other eight set for Friday.
Baker's home opener is Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. against Homedale, Idaho, the Bulldogs' lone game against an out-of-state school.
Baker travels to Vale on Sept. 16 for a 6 p.m. PDT game, and then returns home for the final nonleague game against Ontario.
