Scott Swanson
Sweet Home Track and Field Coach Billy Snow has been chosen Section 8 Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations Coaches Association.
Snow, 58, who has coached at Sweet Home since 1985, took over as head coach in 1992 after Alan Temple stepped down. He was selected 4A Track and Field Coach of the Year for the last three years, after the Husky boys won the state title in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The NFHS is divided into eight geographical sections. Section 8 represents six Northwest states: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
The last Sweet Home coach to be honored with a Section 8 award was wrestling Coach Steve Thorpe after his team won a state title in 2009.
Snow was philosophical regarding the award.
“That’s what happens when you coach a long time,” he said. “I’ve made enough mistakes. I’ve kind of rectified those. I think, as a coach, you learn as you go along.”
He said that credit for the success represented by the award goes far beyond him.
“It’s not a “me” award,” Snow said. “It’s a program award. I have been blessed with some great people to work with over the years.”
He said his staff of assistant coaches is typified by people who care more about athletes than themselves, and that the athletes, particularly in the last “seven or eight years,” have been “a great group” who have “bought into the program.”
“Kids is the reason they do it – not so they can brag that their kids did this or that. There’s no way on God’s green earth that we would have accomplished, as a program, what we’ve accomplished without that group.
“It’s not ‘me;’ it’s ‘we.’
Assistant Coach Jim Kistner, who has worked with Snow for the last several years, said he has thought a lot about what has made the Sweet Home track and field program so successful – in addition to the fact that the boys team has had a top-flight multi-event athlete in Dakotah Keys, who is now at the University of Oregon.
“In the program I just think everything really clicked,” Kistner said. “(Snow) got the right group of people, he’s brought in a lot of coaches who know what he’s doing. The kids respect him. We honor the traditions that have been established over the years. We just have total buy-in. It works. He gets the most out of the kids, Billy does.”
He said that Snow is “a wonderful mix” of “old-school” in some areas, “but he’s also very, very progressive.
“He’s not a hard-line coach. But there’s something about him that you can’t really describe that they respect him. He knows what he’s doing. We want to win and it’s wonderful that we’re in that position, but that hasn’t been the main focus. The focus has been on individual kids, establishing relations with them and about building character and integrity and just being part of something special in their lives.”
Kistner said he appreciates that school administrators and Snow have “stuck it out” when the team hasn’t been as successful.
“You look at all the great programs and they didn’t start winning right away. Billy has stuck with it.”
Former Sweet Home football coach Rob Younger, now associate director of the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association, said Snow won the award after being selected Oregon’s top track coach and then going against the top coaches from the other five states.
“What distinguishes him from everybody else is all the things he does beyond coaching,” said Younger, who taught in the high school science department with Snow for more than 20 years. “Not only does he have a tremendous track program, but there’s also his involvement in school, in the community, in church. He’s multifaceted. He’s involved himself in so many positive things for so many people.”
He added that Snow puts as much effort into junior varsity athletes as he does into state champions.
“He doesn’t care,” Younger said. “He’s a tremendous man of integrity and character and he instills that into his student athletes.”
He also noted that Snow is “very humble.”
“If I hadn’t come to school last week and presented it in front of the student body and staff, nobody would know because he wouldn’t tell them,” Younger said.
In addition to Snow, other Section 8 coaches from Oregon are Boys Basketball Coach Dennis Murphy of South Medford; Baseball Coach David Gasser of Astoria; Boys Soccer coach Eric Johansen of South Salem; Wrestling Coach Steve Lander of Roseburg; Boys Golf Coach John Hamilton of Catlin Gabel; Boys Swimming Coach Daniel Zimmer of Henley; Girls Basketball Coach Cindy Anderson of Wilsonville; Volleyball Coach Rosemary Honl of Crook County; Girls Golf Coach Dennis Metzger of Molalla; and Eight-Man Football Coach Lee Lowe of Imbler.
State Coach of the Year Award winners from Oregon were Marty Johnson, Football, Sheldon High School, Eugene; Joan Kintz, Girl’s Track and Field, Gladstone High School; and Steven Baker, Softball, Centennial High School, Gresham.
Three Oregon coaches were among the 21 National Coaches of the Year for 2010, selected for the NFHS’ top award. They are Girls Cross-Country Coach Joe Volk of St. Mary’s School, Medford; Girls Swimming and Diving Coach Rex Watkins of Crescent Valley; and Boys Tennis Coach Jeff Wood of Jesuit.
Snow and the other honorees will be recognized at the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association annual banquet May 28 at Casanova Center at University of Oregon.