It’s been Jon Eagle’s dream to coach football at the college level for 40 years.
So when the opportunity presented itself at age 61, the longtime Camas High coach jumped at it.
Eagle resigned Monday as head coach at Camas to become an assistant coach under Bruce Barnum at Portland State.
“The timing was never right,” Eagle said about the move to college football. “I’ve always tried to put family first, and I could never put my family through all that. And at my age, I didn’t expect that opportunity to happen again. But it did, and this time, the timing was right.”
Eagle said he has been in discussions with Barnum for more than a year.
“It was supposed to happen a year ago,” Eagle said. “But PSU had a hiring freeze and it didn’t happen. Then I had kind of written it off. But we kept talking, and here I am.”
Eagle went 127-22 in his 17 seasons as head coach at Camas, directing the program’s rise into a state powerhouse.
He led the Papermakers to 4A state titles in 2016 and 2019 and a runner-up finish in 2013. Camas to nine Greater St. Helens League titles under his guidance, two at 3A and seven at 4A. His teams reached at least the state semifinals five times.
“We are very excited that Coach Eagle has this opportunity to move onto the next level, and I can think of nobody more deserving,” Camas athletic director Rory Oster said. “I have not come across a stronger leader of young men than Coach Eagle, and we are all in support of his next challenge.”
Oster said Jack Hathaway will take over as interim head coach for the 2021 fall season.
Hathaway has been an assistant under Eagle for seven seasons. He was previously the head coach at Heritage from 2011-13, going 7-21 with the Timberwolves.
“Jack is going to do a great job,” Eagle said. “The most important thing is we are keeping the band together. I don’t think we talk enough about the quality of coaches we’ve had at Camas. I’ve always prided myself in being able to accumulate a lot of coaching talent, and I think we were able to do that at Camas.”
A former Columbia River High quarterback, Eagle spent 38 years in public education with 29 of those years as a head coach. Eagle went 84-38 in 13 seasons at Evergreen from 1988 to 2000 and 18-10 in three seasons at Redmond from 2001-03.
He came to Camas in 2004 as an assistant under Bob Holman before taking over as head coach in 2008.
Eagle said he will work on the offensive side of the ball for the Vikings, but his exact position has not yet been determined.
Eagle said he was emotional in breaking the news to his players on Monday.
“As I told the kids, at some point we all have to get off the train, whether as a player or as a coach,” Eagle said. “This was just my time.”
After going 5-7 in 2019, the Vikings did not play during the COVID lockdowns in 2020. Portland State played one game this spring against Montana and have a full Big Sky Conference slate set for the fall, with nonconference games against Hawaii, Washington State and Western Oregon.
“It will be a loss we will feel deeply throughout our community here in Camas,” Oster said. “He is a future Washington State Coaches Association Hall of Famer, and a leader who meant so much to our kids, our school, and our entire community.”
