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50 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, November 25, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 16, 2004 Singler to face coach who served as adviser Prep Notebook By DON HUNT Mail Tribune Bill Singler remembers the day he swung by Tom Smythe’s office in the spring of 1996. Singler was on the recruiting trail as an assistant coach at Oregon State and had his eyes on a player at McNary High in Salem, where Smythe was the head coach. The two talked for several minutes about the recruit when Smythe suddenly changed the subject. Smythe told Singler, who had coached at nine different colleges over the previous 20 years, that he ought to enter the high school coaching ranks. "He said I’d have fun doing it and that my life would be a lot more stable and a lot less hectic," recalls Singler, now the head football coach at South Medford. "I was already thinking about going down that path, anyway, but that really reinforced it." Singler, who was part of the Jerry Pettibone regime at OSU, lost his job as running backs and special teams coach when Pettibone was fired at the end of the ‘96 season. Advertisement Singler spent the following year at Southern Oregon University and then was hired by South Medford in the fall of 1998. Friday night at Spiegelberg Stadium, Singler’s Panthers will meet Smythe’s Celtics in a Class 4A, second-round state playoff game. "Tom had been a part of both worlds, and he said he liked coaching high school kids the most," Singler says. "I owe him a debt of gratitude." Smythe sandwiched a head coaching run at Lewis & Clark College in Portland between stints at Lakeridge and McNary. He’s won three state titles — one at Lakeridge and two at McNary. Singler, a standout receiver at Medford High and Stanford University in the 1970s, had a goal of becoming an offensive coordinator at a Division I school when he launched his coaching career at Long Beach State in 1977. But it never quite materialized. He was a running backs, wide receivers or special teams assistant at Long Beach State, Southern Oregon (twice), Cincinnati, Kansas State, Oregon Tech, Stanford, Rutgers and Oregon State and served as the head coach at an NAIA school — Pacific — for two seasons. Singler also had one-year posts at Logan High in Union City, Calif., and at Eagle Point. Talk about a nomadic lifestyle. "It was OK when it was just me, but when I got married and had a family, I knew I had to settle down," Singler says. "I couldn’t be happier about the way things have turned out." Singler’s first two teams at South Medford struggled to 1-8 records, but he turned the corner in 2000 when the Panthers made the state playoffs. Over the past three years, South has won two Southern Oregon Conference titles and has gone 17-2 in league play. ASSUMING THE Medford School District rehires him, Rod Rumrey plans to return as the head football coach at North Medford next season. The Black Tornado bowed out of the state playoffs with a first-round, 28-10 loss to Barlow, its earliest exit since 2001. For a program that has the most playoff appearances and state titles in state history, such a quick exodus is disappointing to its players and fans. But Rumrey deserves credit for keeping the team afloat after former head coach John Beck left for Crater last winter and took virtually the entire Tornado staff with him. Rumrey spent many hours making dozens of phone calls in forming his staff last summer, a process made all the more difficult by the budget crunch that has hit state schools the past few years. North Medford won its first three nonconference games against opponents that made the playoffs and was 5-0 and ranked No. 1 when it lost 28-21 to South Medford on Oct. 8. After that, injuries began to mount. Free safety Josh Bakke missed the final four games, and two-way lineman Tim Endecott the final two and a half. Kyle Williamson was nursing a knee injury at the end of the season that limited his effectiveness, and fellow wide receiver/defensive back Drew Herrera played with a torn ACL nearly the entire season. "Losing Endecott really hurt because he was our quickest lineman on both sides of the ball," Rumrey says. "He’s our main blocker on a lot of the misdirection plays we like to run." With so many ailing players, North Medford lost much of its speed and quickness, a handicap that was painfully evident in a 55-34 loss to Roseburg on Oct. 29 and during last Friday’s setback to Barlow. Rumrey is optimistic about next season. North Medford will lose most of its marquee players but will return six offensive linemen who started at least one game this season, led by center Johnny Vaigafa, and nine players who started at least once on defense. SOUTH MEDFORD standout tight end Kyle Singler injured his right thumb in the waning minutes of the Panthers’ 17-7 victory over Roseburg on Nov. 5, but the 6-foot-7 sophomore still managed to catch three passes for 45 yards in last Friday’s 41-14 win over Madison. Singler was scheduled to see his doctor Monday to determine if he has a fracture. "Whether it’s broken or not, he’ll continue to play," coach Singler says of his nephew. "He has a high pain threshold and he’ll fight through it." Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities