Oregon native takes first steps on L&C pitch

An interview with new head coach of football, Jay Locey

By Rocky McNeff /// Sport Editor

I sat down with the new Lewis & Clark football head coach, Jay Locey, to find out a little bit about the incoming Pioneer. The football team has also added Isaac Parker to team as an Offensive Line Coach.

To learn more about the future of Pioneer football and ideas from the new members of the football staff, attend the L&C Athletics hosted event on February 21st at 2pm in Smith Hall.

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Corvallis. I went to Oregon State, played there. So my resume’s pretty brief, really. I played at Corvallis High School, played at Oregon State, taught at Lakeridge High School which is in Lake Oswego for about four years. Then I went to Linfield College for about 23 years and was the head coach for the last ten and then was at Oregon State for nine years and then here. So it’s not too many moves.

What brought you back to coaching DIII football after being at OSU?

Well, the thing that attracted me here to Lewis & Clark was the setting, the school, the possibilities; there may have been an opportunity at Nebraska but may not have been the timing that I was looking for and I was eager to actually be a head coach again, so the opportunity to be a head coach was very intriguing and I thought in the state of Oregon and in Portland and in a beautiful setting, it was a pretty good opportunity, and good administrative support from President Glassner and Shana Levine. So I felt really good about the direction that it was moving and that they wanted it to go.

There are some things that Lewis & Clark has going that very few Division III schools, I believe, have.

It’s a vital part of the academic process from my perspective. That would be to complete a young man who competes in athletics but also be a man of excellence in school, life, and football, for our case.

What is your first initiative as L&C’s head football coach?

Well, I think number one you have to recruit some kids. Increase the numbers, also develop our guys in the program, and develop our guys with the motto of excellence and create a brotherhood and a “team first” environment. We’ve got a staff in place that we feel good about right now. There’s been great interest and the opportunity to play early on and being in a start-up and playing a vital role in a fresh start. There’s pretty good enthusiasm and excitement with the guys that we’re recruiting.

I understand you were a professor as well as a coach at Linfield College, what did you teach?

I taught Kinesiology. I taught a variety of classes in a 23 year career. But I taught a Principles of Neuromuscular Conditioning class which was an exercise science class. Those were the two main classes I taught later on. I taught a variety of proactivity classes for P.E. majors and that varied from dance to weight training and I taught personal health promotion classes as well. It was fun! I enjoyed it!

Was that always your aspiration?

I wanted to be a teacher and coach and I was dabbling in that at Lakeridge, and then I felt like I wanted to be at a small college. So I went back to school. I actually went back to University of Oregon and got my masters there, I don’t share that with too many people, but I did that. Then was in a position to be an assistant professor at Linfield College, so that opened up that door. That’s when the teaching and coaching began at that college. That was probably my aspiration and then the opportunity to go Division I at Oregon State was appealing just because it was with a friend and teammate from high school, Mike Riley, and my thoughts and philosophies were similar to his, so it was an easy mix. I thought it would be a neat opportunity that would be pretty exciting, and it was.