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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels July 31, 2004 The man behind the magic Long-time Grizz football coach moves on By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings These days, the first contact many people have with Jim Nagel occurs when he walks past them at an Ashland High sports event. He's the guy in the Grizz polo shirt, who might have a matching AHS baseball camp on if the contest is outside. File Photo | Ashland Daily Tidings Long-time Grizz head football coach Jim Nagel, in this September 2002 archive photo, transformed the Ashland program and, with it, upped the level of play in Southern Oregon. He starts coaching at Linfield College this month. But for those who've never met him, he could seem like a parent who's really jazzed his kid made varsity and had to buy all of the fan gear. It's difficult, with just a look, to realize Nagel is Coach Nagel, the legendary Grizz head football coach who produced three state championship football teams and took squads to the state playoffs for 16 consecutive years before stepping down after the 2002 season. Though Nagel's presence at Ashland High has become a community fixture - as athletic director, as an assistant track and field coach - in the 21 years he has lived in the Rogue Valley, beginning this fall, he will no longer be found in that corner office with the picture window facing the Grizz football field. After retiring completely from the coaching, teaching and administrative duties he has held down for decades, Nagel took a position as the quarterbacks' coach at Linfield College in McMinniville. "I think the thing I'm trying to do is look forward more than look back," Nagel said. "I don't think my career's ending. It's just shifting, changing." It's a big deal Though Nagel spent more than two decades with the Ashland football program, he never imagined the time would be so storied. Nagel had bounced between coaching positions with college programs, such as San Jose State, San Francisco State and New Mexico State universities, and high school teams throughout the Southwest before settling in Ashland in the early 1980s. "I just had to go from my career as a football coach and climbing the ladder to family being the No. 1 priority," Nagel said. "I had no idea we would experience the success that we have had here. I thought I was just going to raise my family and try to be somewhat competitive." He'd been on the job for about five years when the Grizzlies brought home their first of three state championships. For Nagel, that victory back in 1989 stood out the most. "It didn't seem possible for a a small school," he explained. Ashland was one of the smallest 3A schools in Oregon at the time, when 3A was the largest division in the OSAA brackets. The next spring, Ashland High graduated only about 20 more seniors than Phoenix High did. But every year had its own story. In 1997, when Nagel's son was a senior on the Grizz squad, the team went undefeated in conference play and owned the No. 1 ranking in the state. Three players on the team were picked up by big-time football programs. However, in the second round of the state playoffs, the Grizzlies were eliminated by Tigard. "It was the most bitter defeat," Nagel said. "We just had a lot of experience and talent and then they all graduated." Left with big shoes to fill, the 1998 Ashland team didn't have the same inherent expectations as the senior-laden squad before them. Maybe that's why it was the most satisfying year in Coach's memory - the state trophy was totally unexpected. In fact, most of the season happened by accident. Nagel had planned to take the head coach position with the Southern Oregon University football team, but turned it down to stay with Ashland to finish out his career and, hopefully, "keep the playoff streak alive," he explained. Worth waiting for Ashland line coach Stan Gida was with Nagel, sitting in the press box at Autzen Stadium on the University of Oregon campus when the 1998 Ashland football team overcame a two-touchdown halftime deficit against Roseburg in overtime to win its third state title in 10 years. "We were all so happy, we didn't know what to do with ourselves," Gida said. "He was always calm and cool. He inspired confidence in his coaches and in the kids he coached. You knew hew as going to call the right thing." Known for his ability to make sweeping adjustments during 15-minute halftime pauses and tendency to scout himself, so opponents couldn't pin-point what he would do in a particular situation, Nagel "was second to none," in Gida's mind. "He could go to a pro team and contribute," Gida explained. "He knows the game that well. He's the best high school football coach I've ever been around." But putting aside the wins - Nagel accumulated hundreds of them and, in the 1990s, had the best record of any high school football coach in Oregon - and the trips to the state championship (the Grizzlies played in five under Nagel's watch and won three) the best part of the past two decades for Nagel has been the people he's come into contact with. "I was fortunate to gather a great coaching staff together and had a number of dedicated players," Nagel said. "I don't think I'd change a thing about it. Everything really fell into place." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. 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