MEDFORD, Ore. – Longtime Mazama High School football head coach, Vic Lease is stepping away from the field, for now.
Lease has coached for 26 years, 11 as the Viking’s head coach.
He says he feels it was time to step down, to focus on his family and his new goals to pursue a principal position.
He says that he has a few years left in education and wants to continue making an impact.
Over the years, Lease led the Vikings to an 85-24 record, with nine conference titles and a 4A state title.
But he said that it was never really about the accolades to him,
“[The players] get to look back on that when they’re an old man like me and say, ‘hey remember when we were in high school’ and everything. But for me, that’s… That is not, by any means, what it’s about. The relationships that I have with those young men and the coaches that I’ve coached with, that is what it’s really about.”
Coach Orlyn Culp will be the one to succeed Lease next season.
Lease says that coach Culp has a similar mindset to him when it comes to the game and the values it instills in players.
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