Present day, Bob Jacobs is the guy in charge of Washougal High School football. He hopes to have the job well into the future, as well.
As far as the past? Well, he does not need a history lesson.
This is a new beginning for Washougal football, a program that has seen controversy surround the departures of its last two head coaches.
“I don’t know anything, nor do I necessarily need to know,” Jacobs said last week, referring to the program’s struggles, as he ran the Panthers in spring drills, the first practices he has led as the new football coach. “Everybody in this building, I believe, has the welfare of these kids, this program, at heart.”
That is all Jacobs needs to know in order to get started.
“My job is to keep everybody moving in the right direction,” he said. “I’m very non-political. I’m a team guy. My objective is to get everybody together to support these kids.”
He hit on character development, discipline, accountability with academics. Those things, he said, would lead to improved outcomes on the scoreboard.
And he envisions big things at the Class 2A school.
“Nothing better in my mind than small-town football,” Jacobs said. “We want to bring pride to the community, where people want to come on Friday nights and be excited to be sitting in our stands.”
He has a new motto for the program, too
“Panther Pride. Panther Strength. Panther Nation.”
Jacobs, who lives in east Vancouver, has been the head coach at Portland’s Marshall High School the past eight seasons and spent 20 seasons with the school, advancing from being the freshman coach, to junior varsity, then the varsity defensive coordinator.
Yet, with the many changes ahead in the Portland Public Schools — including a plan to make Marshall a magnet school and eliminate athletics beginning in the fall of 2011 — Jacobs knew he would have to look for other coaching opportunities.
When Josh Gibson resigned from Washougal this spring, that opportunity was just a few miles from Jacobs’ home.
“Coach Jacobs brings a level of experience to the program that is a really good fit for us right now,” said Doug Cox, the school’s athletic director. “He just impressed us with his focus. He has a lot of good ideas of what he could bring to our school, our community, our program.”
Jacobs is not a teacher, but he said he is a partner in a business, a business which allows him the time to be a football coach.
“I will be on campus a lot,” he said. “I have enough time to be here a bunch.”
With that time, the plan is to build by starting with the youth programs in Washougal. He wants to be on the same page with those coaches, so the future Panthers will understand what is expected of them once they arrive at the high school.
“When you start to get all the programs clicking on all cylinders, you’re going to see good things happen,” Jacobs said.
He also will encourage his football players to play other sports. Small schools, he said, cannot afford “elitist” programs that try to steer an athlete into one sport.
The players were just getting to know the new coach toward the end of May in weight training and then with the first week of spring drills last week. Many of the players were fond of Gibson, who resigned after two seasons. But Gibson advised those players that for the sake of the program, they should embrace whoever became the next head coach.
Colton Sullivan, a junior-to-be quarterback and one who publicly supported Gibson, said he has taken his former coach’s advice and is looking forward to working with the new coach.
“I feel pretty confident with (Jacobs),” Sullivan said. “I think he’ll be able to step in and do a great job.”
It is all about the future now for the Washougal Panthers.
“It’s exciting to be in a small town. It’s like apple pie,” Jacobs said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. Football’s gotta be fun for everybody, the coaches, the kids, the community, and everybody has more fun when you’re successful.”
