For just the third time in more than half a century, the Roseburg High School football team will have a new head coach on the sideline.
Assistant coach Matt Watson has been selected as the 18th head coach of the Roseburg Indians, replacing Dave Heuberger who resigned the position in November after eight seasons at the helm.
“I am incredibly grateful and humbled to be selected to lead the RHS football program,” Watson said. “I look forward to the opportunity to help instill qualities in our student-athletes that will help them build a tradition of success in life.”
Watson served under Heuberger for the past seven years, filling the role of receivers coach and offensive coordinator. He’s also an assistant coach on the boys lacrosse team and teaches social studies at the high school.
“I couldn’t thank coach Heuberger enough for everything he’s done for me and my family. The mentorship and the lessons that he’s taught me,” Watson said. “I hope to build on the traditions and build on the success and continue to find success.”
Watson got into coaching football under his own high school coach Rick Taylor at North Bend. He later coached at the high school level for three years in Rock Springs, Wyoming, before moving back to the Umpqua Basin.
The 34-year-old will get his first shot at being a head coach and said he was inspired to pursue the role after what he saw from the team in a 7-3 victory over Grants Pass in the season finale last fall.
“They kept their head down, kept working and kept digging,” Watson said. The Indians had lost seven consecutive games prior to the win over the Cavemen.
“It was one of those situations where I knew I was in the right place,” Watson said. “Things felt like they were the right time. I wasn’t going to go anywhere and it’s just the right fit. These are my guys and this is my community. Everything felt like they just fell into place like they were supposed to.”
The RHS program will not only be transitioning to new leadership, the Indians also appear to be be moving from Class 6A to 5A for football next season.
The school filed a petition with the Oregon School Activities Association Football Ad Hoc Committee in January. The committee made a recommendation to approve Roseburg’s petition and place the Indians in a new league along with North Eugene, South Eugene, Churchill, Willamette, Springfield, Thurston, Crater and Eagle Point.
The committee’s recommendation will be up for final approval by the OSAA Executive Board at their meeting Feb. 5.
“It’s not going to be an automatic cake-walk. Nothing is ever going to be given to us,” Watson explained about a possible move down. “It’s not like we’re suddenly going to be punching down. Nothing but respect for all the teams we know we’re going to be facing.”
Watson will be tasked with turning things around at RHS. The team has had just one winning season in the last decade and made only two appearances in the postseason (2021 and 2014).
“We have a community that has a long tradition of loving football and that’s a community in which our coaches and our players can thrive in,” Watson said. He added that his goal is to give the community a group of kids they can root for.
“One of the biggest challenges is that we’ve got eight seniors moving on to bigger and better things. You don’t ever replace any of those kids, we just got to have some of those 25 juniors coming back to step up and fill those roles.”
The Indians had five underclassmen earn all-conference honors during the 2023 season, when Roseburg finished with a 2-7 overall record.
Headlining possible returners will be linebacker Maveryck Akers, who led the Indians in tackles with 52.5 during his sophomore season.
Another challenge for Watson will be establishing a coaching staff.
Watson said “a lot is up in the air right now” when it comes to hiring his staff, but he feels he has a proven recipe for finding the right candidates.
“It’s finding people that love the community, love these kids and know football. We put that together and it’s been a pretty reliable, consistent ingredient for finding staff,” he said.
The 2024 high school football season will kick off near the end of August and Watson plans to use the time to provide plenty of opportunities for the Roseburg Indians to get better.
