Former North Medford assistant football coach Steve Turner always comes up when there’s an opening for such a position in this area. That’s certainly been the case the past two winters, as North Medford was and is looking for a new head man. Turner made a visit or two in recent weeks to the Rogue Valley as a candidate for the Black Tornado head position, but word comes today he’s going another direction.
Turner posted on Facebook that he’ll be joining the teaching staff at Cascade High in, of all places, Turner — up in the Salem area. The FB post doesn’t say so, but he’ll take over as the head football coach as well, replacing Karl Elliott, who is in his 70s. Cascade is also where Turner began his coaching career in 1976 as an assistant. He was there nine years, then at Rainer for one season as head football coach before coming to Medford and joining Rod Rumrey’s staff at North.
Turner, a mean slowpitch softball player to boot (trust me), moved on to Crook County in 1998 to be the head football coach. It was on to Mountain View in 2008, and he led the Cougars to the Class 5A state championship in December and was named coach of the year. The Cascade move is surprising, only because he was a hot commodity here, where, as his FB post says, he was married and his kids were born. But he and his wife, Mary, also have many ties — including family — in Turner.
Here’s what Jay Reese posted on his radio website from Bend: http://jayreesesports.com/archives/1695. It has more recent pictures of Turner than I put here.
