Jon Eagle has won four state titles in 33 seasons as a head coach, two each at Camas and West Linn. (Photo by JR Olson)

In three seasons as West Linn's football coach, Jon Eagle has shown why he forged a reputation as an elite coach in Washington, where he won 233 games and guided Camas to two state championships.

Eagle has built on the sturdy foundation established by his predecessor, Chris Miller, by going 34-3 and leading the Lions to state titles in 2022 and 2024 and a semifinal appearance in 2023.

But as Eagle prepares for his 44th season of coaching football, he plans on it being his last as a head coach. He said he wants to have more free time to travel with his wife, Debbie, and visit their grandchildren in Spokane and San Diego.

“People always said, 'When you know, you know,'” Eagle said. “I don't think I'm done coaching, but I think I am in terms of being a head coach. I still enjoy the heck out of it. I just think it's time to not be a head coach. If my grandkids were living in Camas, I'd probably still keep coaching.”

Eagle has compiled a 267-76 record with four state titles in 33 seasons as a head coach. He went 88-39 at Evergreen of Vancouver (1988-2001), 18-12 at Redmond, Wash. (2002-04), and 127-22 at Camas (2008-20).

He assisted at Portland State in 2021 before taking over at West Linn. The Lions, who won a state title in 2016 under Miller, haven't skipped a beat under Eagle, posting records of 12-1, 11-1 and 11-1.

Eagle was tipped off about the West Linn opening in 2021 by Lions assistant coach Anthony Newman. Eagle's relationship with Newman goes back to when Eagle was a graduate assistant at Oregon (1985-86), coaching defensive backs, and Newman was an NFL-bound strong safety for the Ducks.

“I said, 'Well, shoot, that sounds pretty good,'” Eagle said of the West Linn job. “Chris and Anthony were instrumental in putting together a really good staff, and when I got the job, Anthony convinced all those guys to stay. So much was already in place due to what Chris Miller and Anthony had done.”

Eagle said that Newman, the defensive coordinator, would make an excellent head coach. Newman also was the defensive coordinator at Central Catholic, where he was part of three state title teams in 11 seasons (2009-19).

“When I first got the West Linn job, I said to Anthony, 'Why aren't you the head coach?'” Eagle said. “He didn't want to do it. In the last three or four years, I've really worked hard on convincing him that he needs to be out in front of kids. He's really gifted in that way.”

Eagle was a quarterback at Columbia River of Vancouver – making the high school's hall of fame – and played in college at Central Washington and Linfield. He broke into coaching in 1982 as an assistant at Linfield and spent the following two seasons on the staff at Bend.

He made his name at Camas, winning 110 games in one 10-year span. He also coached Camas' boys track team to a co-state title.

“We just had a lot of good kids, and we kind of fine-tuned the program,” he said. “We kept tweaking it. In a one high school town, you really can get a lot done.”

Eagle has continued to live in Camas while coaching at West Linn. During the season, he meets the players for lunch, watches film, goes to practice, then waits for the heavy interstate traffic to clear before heading home.

“It's about 25 miles door-to-door,” he said. “It's not bad.”

Despite graduating a talented class from last year's state championship team, West Linn should be in the hunt to repeat for the first time. According to Eagle, the Lions are talented and deep, but lack experience, in particular at quarterback, where juniors Carson Smiley and Sloan Baker are battling it out.

“I think we can win with either one,” Eagle said. “We lost a really good offensive line, but we really like who we've got coming up. But they're going to be green. I really like our defense. I think we're going to be super athletic. We've got kids that can run and think.”

Eagle's time at West Linn has coincided with a terrific run of talent.

“At West Linn, all the kids that should be playing football are playing,” he said.

Eagle doesn't have any concrete plans for after the season, although he has an offer to return to coach a team in Parma, Italy. He coached in Italy for the first time this year, January through June.

“But you can't visit your grandkids when you spend five months in Italy,” he said.

He has left the door open to coaching in the Northwest again.

“I'll probably come back someday as an assistant somewhere,” he said.