By Joaquin Aguilar-Flores
The history of Klamath Union High School football has a lot to say. It is an interesting fact, during the 21st century, KU has only had two football coaches. Now, the school will have three.
During this century, the football program has seen two prominent football coaches hit the gridiron. Wayne Amos and Tom Smith led football at KU with many years to remember and treasure for any school alumni, fan or observer.
Amos and Smith showed commitment to the school as Smith was head coach for the program since 2009.
Klamath Union has found its new football coach. The Klamath Basin can now welcome and say hello to the new football head coach at KU, Andy Campbell.
The transition was heartfelt in the KU community after Smith notified his football team he would be retiring from football during the football team’s award night this past November.
The decision for Smith was something he was contemplating the last several years but said he felt it was the right time for him to step away.
First-year Klamath Union Athletic Director, Tyler Baker, a school alum, was then faced with the decision to find a deserving candidate to fill the big shoes of being head football coach.
The selection process took close to three months to come upon a successful candidate. The school’s interview panel, which included Baker and Klamath Union Principal, Tony Swan, narrowed down the search to two candidates, and announced Campbell as the new coach Thursday.
Campbell is a new face in the community, and like any new person to the Klamath Basin, will require much introduction. He has no roots, no family in Klamath Falls but interesting enough, the area appealed him.
“My wife and I, for years, had talked about the possibly of moving to Klamath Falls. The KU community is special, along with the culture. KU feels like a great home,” Campbell said. “Mr. Baker could barely get the words out of saying I was given the job before I could say, yes.”
There is one thing Campbell will make sure to bring with him when he moves, experience.
Campbell has coached in Oregon, as well as Iowa and Minnesota, which is where he was born and raised. His most recent coaching job was in 2017 as a defensive line coach at Willamette University in Salem.
In June of 2015, he became the head football coach at Stayton High School, a school which shares the same OSAA 4A classification as KU. For his two years coaching at Stayton, he amassed a 10-7 record, made the playoffs each season, and won the first Oregon West Conference title for the program since 2009.
Before Campbell arrived, Stayton won five games in the previous three years combined. The culture was changed in Stayton after the program produced 31 all-conference student athletes.
Campbell left his mark, which will forever be remembered in Stayton, after he and his coaching staff raised funds, along with community support, and helped bring a turf field in less than nine months in September of 2016.
Coaching away from Oregon
In June of 2013, Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa was Campbell’s head coaching position before he moved to Oregon. Lincoln High School is the second largest school in the state of Iowa.
Nothing was handed to him when he first arrived in Iowa and had to start from the ground up. He quickly built a staff of 25 coaches for a football program which consisted of nine different levels.
He brought the program back to the playoffs after a two-year hiatus in a season which saw countless school records being broken, and set an all-time Iowa state record for receiving yards in a game.
Campbell has experience coaching when he has plenty and when he has little. Before coaching in Iowa, he was the head coach at Ashby High School in Minnesota, one of the smallest schools in the state.
KU’s new coach has spent his career growing programs, setting school records and earning countless accomplishments.
“Coach Campbell brings a wealth of football knowledge and experience to Klamath Union. His professionalism, high level of student-athlete accountability, and vision for the future of the football program make him a great addition to our talented and growing KU Athletics coaching staff,” Baker said.
“He is ready to invest into one program and see it grow hopefully over the next 10 years.”
His second job as a coach, in June of 2009, while at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., found him in another pickle. Campbell did not waste time and helped increase the program’s strength and power 1,000-pound club from three to 22 members, breaking three school lifting records along the way.
Campbell’s first head coaching job came in 2007 when helped turn around the program at Silver Valley High School, also in California. He helped the program win its first ever homecoming game, which led to winning a trophy similar to the Canal Bowl.
His first coaching job also consisted winning the football program’s first league game in four years, finishing with the best regular season and league record in school history, on top of setting every major offensive and defensive record.
It led to his football team being recognized by the Desert Dispatch as the, "2007 Team of the Year'' for the High Desert.
“I am pleased with the collaborative effort the interview panel, staff and administration made to bring coach Campbell on board as the new KU head football coach,” Swan said. “We look forward to what his vision, experience, and coaching leadership for KU Football will add to the entire KU athletic program in the years to come.”
Fitting right in
Campbell first visited Klamath Falls on a trip he took to Crater Lake back in 2015. He was left with a positive impression of the community as he passed through Klamath Falls on U.S Route 97 from occasions when he visited Lake Tahoe.
He loves the outdoors and has even kayaked on Spring Creek near Chiloquin while visiting the Collier Logging Museum.
It was Campbell’s wife who showed him the job posting at KU.
“The job had a lot of what we were looking for in wanting to build programs. My wife and I were looking to get into this area the last few years but the situation was not perfect. Football was the open door,” Campbell said.
Campbell said his reasons for leaving coaching were to ‘regroup and prioritize’ and took a job in Scio as a strength and conditioning coach and physical education, health teacher.
During his interview process, Swan and Tyler gave him a tour of Klamath Union and expressed his satisfaction in getting to know the history of the high school.
“Mr. Swan knows a lot of the history here. I was able to hear about the previous coaches before me and hearing what coach Amos had done to make KU a flagship program along with coach Smith. I tapped into the potential here, along with traditions that are here,” Campbell said. “The coaches have done a lot of work in the previous years, along with families and I want to build on that for something the school and alumni can be proud of. We are ready to roll our sleeves up.”
KUHS Alumni
The new district website has an Alumni page for graduates of KU. This past week, six KU alumni sent us updates on their lives since they graduated. Take a look on the KU Alumni page on the district website. And, if you are an alumni, be sure and send us YOUR update!
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Klamath Falls City Schools
1336 Avalon Street
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
541.883.4700
Keith A. Brown, Superintendent
