After a two-year hiatus, the Willapa Valley portion of the Pe Ell-Willapa Valley combine will renew its football rivalry with South Bend and Raymond next month.

Those renewals, however, will not take place on Willapa Harbor. The PWV-South Bend game on Oct. 7 and the PWV-Raymond contest three weeks later are both scheduled for Pe Ell, in western Lewis County.

According to Willapa Valley athletic director John Peterson, this seemingly counter-intuitive scheduling was strictly the luck of the draw.

“We flipped a coin and we lost,” Peterson explained. “When you’re a co-op, you share gates.”

As a combine, PWV alternates its home games between Menlo’s Crogstad Field and Pe Ell’s Trojan Field. The Titans will host five games this year and Pe Ell won the flip to stage the first, third and fifth home contests.

As Peterson acknowledged, the rotation could have been reconstructed to give Pe Ell three home dates but still allow the Raymond game, for example, to be played in Menlo. But the latter contest, as PWV’s regular-season finale, is also Senior Night. Willapa Valley staged that event last year.

One consolation for Willapa Harbor football fans is this type of schedule will likely be a one-shot arrangement.

Raymond and South Bend will host the Titans next year. Noting that the Southwest Washington 2B Coastal Division schedule will be re-arranged for the 2018-19 cycle, Peterson guaranteed that Valley will host its Willapa Harbor rivals during that period.

Backup Plan

With their favorite team struggling offensively and quarterback Russell Wilson hobbling on an injured ankle, Seattle Seahawk fans have experienced difficulty finding any silver linings on the horizon.

Here’s one. If Wilson (who has never missed a snap due to injury in his professional career) is deemed unfit to play, his replacement would be rookie Trevone Boykin, not veteran Tarvaris Jackson.

Boykin may be untested in National Football League waters, but the former Texas Christian University standout has a strong upside potential. He was impressive in pre-season contests. His mobility, which makes him a reasonable facsimile of a healthy Wilson, is a good fit for the Seahawk offense.

Seattle’s starting quarterback in 2011 and Wilson’s backup for the past three seasons, Jackson was involved in a well-publicized off-field incident this summer in which he allegedly pulled a gun on his wife. Although the case was never prosecuted, he is currently out of football.

To many observers, Jackson was an ideal backup quarterback in that he was popular with his teammates and never complained about playing time.

When I think of Jackson, however, I remember a jab once directed at ex-Seahawk Dave Krieg.

Highly competitive and sporadically brilliant but notoriously erratic, Krieg was once described as “a good quarterback to have, if you don’t intend to win the Super Bowl.” The reasoning was that Krieg often produced enough quality outings to lead his team to the playoffs, but was incapable of putting together the three or four consecutive good postseason performances necessary to capture a world championship.

My take on Jackson was that he was a good quarterback to have on the roster if you didn’t intend to play him.

Seattle’s 7-9 record during Jackson’s one season as a starter was no coincidence. It is doubtful if age and inactivity has improved his skill set.

Boykin represents a better backup plan.

Rick Anderson: (360) 537-3924; randerson@thedailyworld.com