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Newberg boys teams hits the court without its
leader
Hale hired as new Newberg High School boys
soccer coach
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Gonzales steps down from St. Paul boys basketball post |
The coach spent six years with the Buckaroos; takes
coaching and teaching jobs at Santiam High School |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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St. Paul High School boys
basketball coach Buell Gonzales Jr. stepped down from his teaching
and coaching duties this week to take a similar job at Santiam High
School.
The six-year coach compiled an 80-71 record while at the helm of
the Bucks.
“It was a tough decision,” Gonzales said. “It was a family
decision.”
Gonzales, 31, also served as a physical education teacher at St.
Paul. He will take on similar responsibilities at Santiam, a Class
2A school with an enrollment of 200 students that competes in the
Tri-River Conference. The Wolverines finished with an 11-14 overall
record this past season under coach Andy Sydow, who resigned to take
a job at Regis High School.
“The teaching job is high school PE only, so the teaching job
itself was very good,” Gonzales said. “Santiam, just like St. Paul,
is a quality school. It’s well run and has a good faculty.”
Gonzales, who is married and has a daughter who will be a freshman
and a son who will be in third-grade, said he was looking for a fit
similar to St. Paul.
“The school was rated as exceptional, so I wanted to go somewhere
where I knew people and the quality of the education was the same as
St. Paul,” he said.
When Gonzales stepped foot in St. Paul, it was his first head
coaching job. He turned the boys basketball program into a winner
his first few seasons, despite having to battle practice time issues
each season. Since St. Paul football team year in and year out
qualifies for the state playoffs, it cuts into the practice time of
the basketball program. Still, Gonzales found a way around it.
By the end of his first year, the team fell in the first round of
Casco League district playoffs. His second year, Gonzales, a
two-time state triple jump champion on the Prairie City High School
track teams in 1992 and 1993, guided the Bucks to a sixth-place
finish at state.
“It was the first time they had made it to the state playoffs in a
long time,” Gonzales said. “That was a good feeling.”
But it was his third year that the Bucks had their best season in
years when St. Paul finished third. The quick improvements in the
program went to prove that it wasn’t how much practice time a team
had, it was the quality of them, Gonzales said.
“You would like more practices, but I was surprised that the more
practices you would have, the better you would be wasn’t necessarily
true,” he said. “When you get third at state with less than 30
practices, that says something. You learned how to organize and get
the most out of your time.”
In the 2003-2004 season, the Bucks lost in the first round of the
state tournament and struggled the past two seasons, finishing fifth
in a competitive Casco League South.
Gonzales will likely move to Mill City by the end of July. He will
soon start to interview assistant coaches.
“Right now, I just want to get over there and meet the kids and
watch them play and get to work in the gym,” he said.
St. Paul will also lose its cheerleading coach, Kendra Gonzales,
Buell’s wife. She guided St. Paul to a Class 1A/2A state
championship two years ago.
Gonzales said he will miss St. Paul. He won’t be gone for too long,
though. St. Paul will take on Santiam in a game this upcoming
season.
“I really appreciate the opportunity St. Paul gave me,” he said.
“I’m really fortunate that I was hired and to have the experiences
and meet the people I did here.” |
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From
June 3, 2006, Newberg Graphic
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