On Thursday, Powell’s little league football players were going against the one and only Powell Panthers, and it was important to work as a team.

Ethan Asher, a volunteer coach for the Powell Panthers and organizer of the Thursday night’s second annual Facing the Panthers scrimmage event, focused on teaching Powell’s little league football players this lesson. It was one he had learned and lived on the same field throughout his career as Powell High School’s quarterback.

A 2019 column in the Powell Tribune from Ben Borcher used an excerpt from Ethan’s game journal. The fourth bullet point read “Is it worth it? Find others behind your reasoning. When the hits come, focus on people around you.”

As he repeatedly told his youth players, you’re not one player against 11.

The “little guys,” as they were affectionately named by announcer Russ Schwahn, took that advice and won the game — they were on top of the world.

Asher’s hope is that they find “the joy” in football, and joy and passion for the game is something that Asher definitely has. After a 2019 accident left him seriously injured, some of the first things he remembered were football stats.

“He has never lost football even when he had just come out of a coma, when we were trying to get him to talk he would list off stats … so he does have a deep passion for the game,” Ethan’s mother, Tiffani Asher said. 

The scrimmage started as a way for Ethan to give back to the community and sport that gave him so much support following the terrible crash four years ago, he said.

Ethan wanted to give back to the team “and just kind of grow the football program a little bit, get people more excited about football.”

As a part of this effort to give back Ethan helps coach the little league teams and also serves as a volunteer coach for Powell High School.

“The idea kind of came up to just have a game between the little guys and the high schoolers, have them all warm up together so that they all know they're on the same team,” he said, “But, then have them kind of go at each other a little bit for a couple quarters.”

They faced the Panthers

Football numbers had been decreasing both at the high school and little league level, to the point the younger athletes were only playing nine man football, Ethan said. He hoped that hosting the scrimmage would get kids excited about playing football.

“It was cool [we] beat the high schoolers, I didn’t expect it, it was nice I got to play against my brother,” Xander Whitlock said following the game, he was one of the “little guys.”

Xander is the younger brother of Powell Panther Evan Whitlock; Thursday’s game gave them their one and only chance to face off against each other and the younger brother came out victorious. 

Jack Tietema had been to see Powell High School football games and he always wanted to play quarterback Jhett Schwahn. When he got the chance he was not disappointed, “he’s pretty fast, and a good kicker,” Tietema said.

Jersee Erickson, the only girl on the field, is in her first year of playing football and hopes to go on to play on the middle school and then the high school team, she said.

She couldn’t pinpoint a particular reason she likes football, she just enjoys playing the game, she said with a smile. 

“I thought it was really fun, I just wish they would’ve played a little harder,” Paxton Hernandez said.

He always wanted to be a coach

Asher had always planned on coaching football — before his accident he was going to become a teacher, just so he would be able to be a football coach. 

“That was the long term plan back then and then it turns out I don't need to teach,” Ethan joked.

A year after he graduated, high school coach Chase Kistler called Ethan and asked if he could help out with the football team — two years after that Ethan could also be found helping little league football. 

Outside of football he has remained diligent about his physical therapy, and can now fire his hip flexors and bend his right and left knee.

It’s not necessarily a step in the right direction but a bend in the right direction, his physical therapist told him.