After moving from California in 2018, Steven Andreen's introduction to Oregon high school football came in three seasons as an assistant at David Douglas.
And as he considered potential opportunities for his first head-coaching job, Mt. Hood Conference rival Barlow held great appeal.
“At Douglas, we'd see Barlow once a year, and we'd always talk about how tough they were, and you can never really count them out,” Andreen said. “Regardless of what they had, you knew you were in for a tough game.”
So when Tracy Jackson retired as the Bruins' coach after last season, it got Andreen's attention.
“I was like, 'Oh man, that's the one,'” Andreen said. “I had it mentally circled as a job I really wanted.”
On Tuesday, Barlow announced the hiring of Andreen as its next coach. He succeeds Jackson, who went 17-16 in three seasons, including 6-6 last year, when the Bruins made it to the semifinals of the 6A Columbia Cup.
Throughout the interview process, Andreen found that the had a “great connection” with the school. Even the blue and gold colors – just like in his Southern California playing days at La Quinta – seemed to strike a chord.
“It just always kind of felt right,” he said. “We see things the same way. It was kind of cool to have that gut feeling be validated.”
Andreen began his coaching career by assisting at La Quinta for two seasons. He spent one season at nearby Garden Grove and seven years on the staff at Santiago.
At Garden Grove, he helped the team win the 2010 CIF championship. During his time at Santiago, he served as JV head coach and was the varsity offensive coordinator in his final two seasons.
He and his wife, Adrienne, decided to move to Oregon in 2018.
“We came on spring break in college and just kind of fell in love with it,” he said. “We were amazed at how gorgeous it was. For the next couple years, we'd just talk about it, we should move to Oregon. One year we just bought a house and moved.”
Andreen earned his master's degree at George Fox University and did student-teaching at David Douglas, where he joined the coaching staff during the COVID-shortened season in the spring of 2021. He took last season off after he and Adrienne had a baby daughter.
Andreen mostly worked with the defense at David Douglas, serving as linebackers coach and special teams coordinator in his last season. Thoughout his career, though, he has coached all position groups on both sides of the ball except defensive backs, he said.
Andreen is waiting to see how his staff comes together before defining his role at Barlow. On offense, he prefers a single-back formation.
“:I like to spread people out and run the ball,” he said. “I like to run the ball, control the clock.”
To learn about Barlow, Andreen has consulted Terry Summerfield, the team's coach from 1998 to 2019 and an assistant on the staff last season. Summerfield, who took Barlow to the 6A semifinals in 2019, was part of the hiring process.
“One thing he was really positive on was they made a run in the Columbia Cup,” Andreen said. “They got to finish the season strong. To be able to play some extra football built a lot of momentum for the kids. It's really exciting that these kids got to taste two playoff victories last year. That alone is something really nice to build off of.”
Andreen lives in Sandy and teaches economics and US history at David Douglas.
jerryu@osaa.org
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