QuickTake:

Crow and Siuslaw-Mapleton were among the schools that chose to honor Mason Flores with helmet stickers and moments of silence. Coaches said the conversations with student-athletes have been difficult — but necessary.

When Jenna Parker sat on her living room floor last Thursday night, Oct. 8, to cut out No. 8 and No. 12 stickers, she was thinking about her son. 

When she arrived at Crow High School the next morning to apply the stickers to the Cougars’ helmets — ahead of their Friday game against Elkton — assistant coach Ryan Lowery, who also works as the groundskeeper, decided to paint the 8- and 12-yard lines on the field.

Parker, the mother of Crow quarterback Michael Parker, was part of the self-described “crazy moms section” on the sidelines for the Cougars’ 1A six-man game against Elkton.

The program decided to honor two student-athletes: Sweet Home’s Mason Flores, who died Oct. 5 following an injury during a football game Sept. 28; and a Dayville/Monument/Long Creek football player who also died this season.

Crow was among the Lane County teams that honored the two on Friday. The Cougars used Jenna Parker’s stickers on their helmets, and painted the yard lines in the students’ school colors.

Programs across Lane County put No. 8 stickers on their helmets to honor Flores, while others said they also sent flowers, held moments of silence, raised money and read a message from Sweet Home.

Michael Parker, the Crow quarterback, remembers being knocked out and suffering a concussion in a game last year. Doctors kept him overnight at the hospital.

“Injuries and things like that hit close to home,” his mother said. “It’s one of those things where, as a parent, you want your kids to do all the things that they want to do, but then there’s that level of trying to protect them.”

“I really take [Flores] to heart,” Michael said after the Cougars’ game. “Because last year on this field, I got knocked out during one of the plays, and just seeing how much worse it could have been and how much worse it was, I really feel for their family and everything with them. It really hits me hard.”

“In my head, I played for them,” he said. “I played for the people that have passed.”

Several Lane County coaches said they had conversations with their teams over the week about player safety and to discuss why they chose to wear the stickers.

“I think the biggest thing for us is to make sure everyone knew that we were there for them if they needed to talk … because it is a scary situation,” South Eugene head coach Eric Scott said. “If kids have questions, I just want to make sure we can give them the best answers we could.”

Field markings Crow Elkton football Oct. 9, 2026
The 8- and 12-yard lines on both sides of Crow’s football field were painted Friday, Oct. 9 in honor of two Oregon high school football players who have died this season. In the background, Crow Cougars freshman Blake Furniss runs a route during warmups. Credit: Noah Noteboom

‘Nobody prepares you for this’

Siuslaw-Mapleton head coach Sam Johnson said any decal that gets put on the Vikings’ helmets has to be approved by the entire team. His team discussion, then, circled around the opportunity they had to honor Flores.

“It doesn’t require a whole lot of us other than to be the type of men we’re trying to raise [them to be],” Johnson said. “When something bad happens, a lot of the time, you can’t do anything. There’s nothing that we can say other than, ‘Hey, we’re willing to sit here in this with you.’”

Siuslaw’s team chose to put a white-and-green No. 8 decal on its helmet. It’ll clash with their gold colors, Johnson said, and that’s part of the point.

“I know a lot of schools are doing it, and I think it’s really neat how many schools are stepping up,” Johnson said. “It’s tough, because you want to make sure you honor them in a way that they would appreciate and not make it about us in any way possible.”

The discussion wasn’t easy, but it’s one coaches said they felt was necessary.

“It’s tough because nobody prepares you for this — for what you’re going to go say to those kids in that locker room,” Johnson said. “And I can’t imagine what the Sweet Home coaches are going through because you love these kids so much, and you want what’s best for them and something like this happens and it makes you kind of question everything.

“And so, other than putting stickers on our helmets and talking with our kids about what is going on and just trying to get in front of it and let them know we’re here for them and we’re here for the Sweet Home community, there’s nothing really we can do other than that.” 

Oregon football head coach Dan Lanning also spoke about Flores in his weekly press conference ahead of the Ducks’ Oct. 10 matchup with UCLA.

“(I) want his family to know we’re thinking about them,” Lanning said. “I have two sons that play football myself, and to go through something like that — that’s not something any parent or teammate should ever deal with, so thinking of them as we continue to prep. Life is a lot bigger than football, so that is certainly something that hits home and we want to keep them in our thoughts.”

The GoFundMe account set up to help support Flores’ family has since raised more than $79,000, with donations now paused.