Scott Swanson
Steve Hummer, who graduated from Sweet Home High School and then returned to teach there for18 years, is moving on to bigger things at South Albany High School.
Hummer, 46, is the second Sweet Home teacher and coach to leave for South Albany this year. David Younger signed on last winter as the Rebels’ head football coach.
Hummer said it’s a good time in life to make a move.
“Both my kids are graduated,” he said. “South’s a bigger school. It’s an opportunity I’ve discussed for over a year and that’s been in the works. When the job opened up, I couldn’t, I didn’t want to say no.”
Hummer, who grew up in Sweet Home, wrestled, played football and baseball at Sweet Home High School before graduating in 1985 and moving on to Western Oregon University, where he majored in physical education and social science.
He taught for five years at Gervais Elementary, then returned to Sweet Home in 1994, where he taught social science, served as an assistant coach for wrestling, football and baseball, and served six years as head softball coach. He also headed the school’s Josai Japanese exchange program and served as activities director for 10 years.
South’s principal is Sweet Home alumnus Brent Belveal, who once was South’s head wrestling coach, and Hummer said he knew Belveal through that connection.
“He knew I was looking to go elsewhere and do different things,” Hummer said. The Rebels actually had an opening for softball coach last spring, but it didn’t work out, he said.
This time around, South has just hired a new head wrestling coach, Andrew Peterson, and needed an assistant for that program as well as someone with Advanced Placement course teaching experience, which is what Hummer did at Sweet Home.
“It was a perfect fit for me,” Hummer said. He was hired out of 115 applicants.
“It was a little scary, to say the least. Things worked out well.”
With his son Kyle ready to move from Linn-Benton Community College to Oregon State University and his daughter Hailey newly graduated from Sweet Home and heading to Western Oregon, Hummer said he and his wife Ladema are ready for change. She will continue as a teacher’s assistant at Hawthorne School while he commutes, but he said they will probably relocate to the Albany area sometime in the next year.
“It makes sense for us to move,” Hummer said. “It’s hard to be a coach from out of town. You get home from a game or event at 9 or 10:30 at night, then you get up and go right back.”
The Rebels’ softball program is lacking development, but Hummer said he plans to get a feeder program started.
“That’s what we did in Sweet Home,” he said. “We got Under-12 and Under-14 programs started and we had girls playing and traveling.
“We have girls there with talent and ability. We need to develop a summer program and play some fall ball and do some winter hitting. That part of it needs to be developed. We just have to work hard and bring it along.”
Hummer said leaving Sweet Home will be “bittersweet.”
“But it’s the right thing for me and my family right now. There are a lot of people on that staff that I really love and care for. We hate leaving, but we’re excited about the opportunity.
“It’s kind of a new adventure.”