Mathieson says he will coach again, if asked, but only at a school he works at during the day

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

Adam Mathieson had to laugh when looking back at his career as the head coach of the Mountain View High School football team.

He had come to the school as the athletic director for the 2007-08 academic year. That spring, the football coaching position opened.

He was hired as the interim coach.

“I’m the longest tenured interim coach in the history of the United States,” Mathieson said Monday night in an interview with Clark County Today.

“It’s time for Mountain View to hire a permanent coach.”

Mathieson announced Monday afternoon that he was resigning as the Thunder’s coach, noting that a series of budget and employment decisions from Evergreen Public Schools led to the decision.

All athletic director positions at the four traditional high schools in the district are on the chopping block, the result of budget cuts that were announced in March. Mathieson was then told last week that while he will be offered another job within the district, that job will not be on the campus at Mountain View High School. 

That, to him, is a deal breaker as far as being a football coach.

“To do the work we did at Mountain View, and the time we did it, it’s not easy,” Mathieson said. “You can’t run the organization in a way for the kids and families to be successful if you’re not in the building.”

He is not done coaching, he said. He just won’t coach football at a school that is different from where he is working. He believes in the teacher-coach system. He is an educator first.

“I want to be involved in the lives of the people I work with during the day,” Mathieson said. 

Yes, that does mean he would be willing to be an assistant coach if he is working at another high school. If the head coach there wants him, of course.

“I’m a football coach. I love coaching football. I love kids. It will be best for me to be involved in the lives of wherever I am next,” Mathieson said. “Any way that I could help grow the game and mentor kids, I’d be more than willing to do that.”

If he coaches again, as an assistant or head coach, that program will be gaining a winner.

Mathieson’s 15 teams at Mountain View had 14 winning regular seasons. The Thunder went 99-52, reaching the state semifinals in 2018. That year, Mountain View won a program-best 11 games. The program won five league championships, six when including the abbreviated spring season during the pandemic.

He said he will miss the moments more than any result of any game.

“The locker room traditions. The walk out to ‘Thunderstruck.’ And the band,” Mathieson said.

He recalled the band getting a couple of penalties called on the Thunder for performing when they weren’t supposed to be playing. Mathieson loved the passion, though, so even if he asked the band not to do that again, he grinned. 

“You miss those things,” he said. “When your time passes, you don’t remember the games as much as the moments within, the kids, and the bus rides.”

As far as games, though, noted the matchup in 2010 at Columbia River, when the Thunder scored 35 points in the second quarter in a game that sent the Thunder to the postseason for the first time under Mathieson. There was also a Friday-Saturday game against Columbia River, a contest that took two days because the lights at McKenzie Stadium malfunctioned in the middle of the game on Friday night.

“I always had great games with John O’Rourke,” Mathieson said, referring to the longtime coach of Columbia River, who passed away in 2021. “Those matchups with John going back a decade ago were great moments.”

He also loved the state quarterfinal win against Rainier Beach in 2018. It featured two high scoring offenses, but the defenses and special teams ruled in a 7-6 Thunder victory. A blocked kick in the second quarter was the difference.

“It was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been a part of,” Mathieson said.

Mountain View is sure to have plenty of exciting and important games in the near future. 

“The program is on good footing, with wonderful kids there. It is a great school. You know they are going to be OK,” Mathieson said. “I will miss our kids. I will miss what we built. But I also know they’re set up to move forward.”

The football team will just be under new coaching leadership.

“Kids deserve someone who can be there year round,” Mathieson said.  

Mathieson noted it has been an emotional roller coaster since early March when Evergreen Public Schools announced it was cutting the equivalent of 140 full-time positions, including all four athletic directors. He was holding out hope that if he was moved to another position, it could be at Mountain View.

When he was told last week that there would be no job at the school for him, he said he had to act fast. He wants Mountain View to have time to find its new coach.

“I’m at peace right now,” Mathieson said.

“I’m so thankful for the 16 years I had. It’s been awesome. We’ve learned so much from so many people. It’s been a wonderful journey,” Mathieson said.

He and his wife have three children, all who attend Evergreen Public Schools, including a daughter who is a junior at Mountain View. Mathieson said they are “entrenched” in this community.

“I just think it feels like it’s time,” Mathieson said. “With the AD job gone and no job in the building, it just feels like it’s time for that chapter to be closed.”