Anderson Officially Gets Cda Job
Bill Anderson thinks he may have found the perfect place to retire when he’s through coaching high school football and teaching.
That in part explains why Anderson, 51, who was officially named Coeur d’Alene High’s head football coach Thursday, will embark this fall on his third head coaching job in five years.
School officials approved the hiring of Anderson at a board meeting Thursday. Sources last week told The Spokesman-Review that Anderson had been offered the coaching job.
But officials involved in the selection process would neither confirm nor deny offering Anderson the job, saying they couldn’t make an announcement until the school board had approved their decision.
“I’m very excited about coming to Coeur d’Alene,” said Anderson, who spent the past two years as head coach at Grandview, Wash., and two years prior at Powell, Wyo.
“Coeur d’Alene is one of the areas we’ve been looking at for a long time to try to get into, as well as Spokane. It seems like a nice area to put our roots down and retire some day.”
Anderson replaces Greg Drake, who resigned last fall after five years as the Vikings’ head coach. CdA, which shared the Inland Empire League championship with Post Falls and Lewiston, finished 5-5, and Drake’s Vik teams were 27-24 overall.
Anderson is 109-78-2 in 22 years as a head coach. Grandview was 5-4 last year (3-6 his first year) in one of the toughest Class AA leagues (Mid-Valley) in Washington.
Anderson was selected from five finalists. Others interviewed were: CdA assistant coach Will Havercroft, former Vik assistant Chris Hyta, Lake City assistant Sean Tripp and Mike McKinney, an assistant at Palm Desert (Calif.) High.
“He brought to the interview an impressive background and sold us on the desire to build on the tradition at Coeur d’Alene,” said Viking athletic director Larry Schwenke, who served on the selection committee.
In a roundabout way, Anderson is getting closer to his roots. He’s a Clarkston native where he graduated from high school in 1963.
He started his head coaching career at Asotin, Wash., where he spent four years. He spent the next three years at a small school in St. Paul, Ore. After one season as offensive coordinator at Pacific University in Forest Grove., Ore., Anderson began his longest high school stint (11 years) at LaSalle in Milwaukie, Ore.
That’s when Anderson began his search for the perfect retirement community. He spent two years at Powell but didn’t enjoy frequent 8- to 9-hour one-way trips for games.
That led him to Grandview, where he never planned to stay long. In fact, Anderson was a finalist last spring for the Sandpoint job.
“Grandview was just a place that offered us a chance to get back this way,” Anderson said. “We weren’t going to stay and retire here. I figured I’d be here four or five years, not this short of time.”
Anderson will visit CdA next Thursday and Friday to meet with players and prospective coaches.
“All I know is Coeur d’Alene has a great football tradition,” Anderson said. “I hope to continue the tradition and add to it.”