Rockne DeMello had been named most valuable player in the Oregon Football League while playing for the Rogue Warriors in the OFL for 10 seasons, and saw the rise and fall of the Southern Oregon Heat from an up close player’s perspective.  So it was with an eye toward the future that DeMello and his wife Leona Westdahl decided early in 2008 to start a local franchise in the North American Football League, a minor league adult football program in its ninth season.

“I thought I’d try something new,” says DeMello. “My playing career is numbered so I thought I’d go into ownership.”

DeMello says he was searching the Internet when he came across an NAFL article stating the league was expanding to the West Coast, and it seemed like a no-brainer to him that Southern Oregon get into the mix. Thus the Southern Oregon Renegades were born, and were immediately placed in the Cascade Division of the Northwest Conference.
 
The Renegades tore through the NAFL Northwest division in 2008 until losing their final game of the regular season to state-rival East County on the road.  A long trip to Vancouver, B.C. Canada proved to be too much as the Renegades were cut down in the playoffs after laying claim to the Cascade Division title.
 
In 2009 The 'Gades, once again tore through the regular season going 10-0 including six shut-outs, but came up short in the finale falling to the Bellingham Bulldogs in the conference championship.
 
The 2010 edition struggled to a 5-5 record and was exited from the playoffs by the Bulldogs. The Renegades created the Skittlez Bowl in honor of former player Kris Butler tragically lost in a car accident.  The Rogue Warriors would be the opponent and the game played annually.
 
In 2011, the Renegades joined the Pacific Football League and reloaded the team for a championship run.  A stumble out of the gates against the Vipers cost the team an overtime loss, but later became the first team to shut down the vaunted Portland Monarchs potent offense in a 13-10 loss.  The Monarchs would be shockingly ousted from the playoffs by the Buzzards, and after three tense quarters of play, the Renegades #1 defense rose up and sealed the game away with two crucial fourth quarter interceptions to catapult Southern Oregon into the inaugural PFL Championship game as Southern Division Champions.  Waiting for Southern Oregon were the Kitsap Bears and the northern team took the title 28-14.  During the season, Rockne and company defeated their old Warriors team in both meetings as Rogue shut down at the end of the season.

The 2012 Renegades would try to defend their southern division crown but ran out of gas after a three-overtime battle with the Buzzards, falling the next week to the Portland Monarchs 28-0 in the divisional title game.

From 2013 until 2016, the Renegades would make it to the playoffs three times, and be knocked out in all three games.  A 16-22 record over those four years was an indication of the winding down of football in southern Oregon.  The long trips in the Pacific Football League to Bellingham, Yakima, and Seattle, Washington had taken their tolls.  The PFL would collapse in 2017 leaving the Renegades to play the Pit Bulls twice, blown out in both and the end a decade-long run.

In 2016 Leona Westdahl and DeMello created the "Lady Gades" women's football team.  This "sister" team would feature similar color schemes and logos playing in the Women's Footbal Alliance.  The transition from shutting down the struggling men's team to getting the women's team up and going timed right as the women's game was growing in popularity.  The team would continue on through the 2022 season hampered by Covid-19 shut downs in 2020 and 2021.

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