Todd Quincey wants Friday nights to be cool again at Fort Vancouver High School.
“The only way to do that is to start being a little more competitive,” he said. “Or, a lot more competitive.”
Fort athletic director Dirk Hansen would probably settle for just a little competitive right now. The Trappers did win their last game of 2012, but they had lost 23 in a row before then.
“We think this is going to be a good fit,” Hansen said. “He’s had a lot of experience with building programs that are struggling. He’s going to bring stability to our program. He’s a good guy, a hard worker. We can’t wait to get it started.”
Quincey has been a head coach three times, including one stint at Sandy, Ore. The last few years, he has been in California, where he was the head coach at Glendora and Northview high schools and last season was the defensive coordinator at Marshall near Pasadena, Calif.
His season at Marshall in particular could help him succeed at Fort. The team won three games, he said, but that was such an improvement the school celebrated as if it had won a league title. The team began with 18 players last summer, but finished the season with 36. This spring, that program has 50 players in the weight room.
Quincey said he knows how to get students to come out for football, and to make it fun so they will stay in the program.
While he is living in California until the end of this school year, he has been to Fort Vancouver a couple of times.
“There’s kids there. Just got to get them on the football field,” Quincey said. “They have to realize they can win there.”
Quincey said after meeting with Hansen and Scott Parker, the school’s principal, he knew this was the place for him.
“I believe in what they’re trying to do,” Quincey said. “They’re trying to change the whole culture of the athletic program. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made this move. It’s important to have support of the administration.”
Quincey said he and his wife — Shelley is from Oregon City — want to raise their sons in the Northwest. Tyler is a seventh-grader and Logan is in the fourth grade.
