Volleyball coach moves on

Next man (or woman) up: The revolving carousel of coaches continues at MHCC.

After a two-year stint at the helm of the Saints volleyball program, head coach Andrew Clifton will depart to take the head coaching position at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls.

Clifton applied for the position back on March 7, but didn’t sign the dotted line until last week, he said.

“I am really happy with this,” said Clifton. “I like this level a lot and it will be better for me to have players for four years so I can develop them.”

Clifton’s replacement in Gresham will be announced by the Mt. Hood Athletic Department soon, officials said.

Although he had a dismal record of 6-16 in the South Region of the NWAC and 21-51 overall during his tenure with the Saints, he firmly believes the program is headed in the right direction. He has few regrets, other than he didn’t feel as though his won-loss record reflected his coaching, he said.

“I wish I had a better opportunity to prove myself a little bit more while I was at Mt. Hood,” he said. “But I had some circumstances to deal with that were out of my hands… I still had a great time at Mt. Hood.”

Clifton said the hardest part about this change will be leaving behind Mt. Hood, where his wife and he really enjoyed their time. “It’s tough to leave the girls. That’s the hardest part of the whole thing. I really wish all of them luck. Hopefully I can keep in touch with all of them and I’ll be following them and their stats online. And if it works out, I would like to catch a (match).”

He added, “I left the (Saints) program running; it’s not at a dead spot. They will do just fine.”

Clifton replaces interim OIT head coach Joey Parnell. The Owls are apart of the Cascade Conference and compete at the NAIA level, for four-year universities.

Last season, the team went 15-12 overall and 10-10 in league action under Parnell. The Owls will return a majority of their players, so Clifton feels good in terms of his chances to compete right away once he steps foot on campus, he said.

“I just need middles, because they have an internship program for their med school (at OIT), and I have a senior who is doing that instead of playing,” he said. “I am set up in every other position. I’m only recruiting three or four more players compared to a huge turnaround (at the two-year, community college level). I was used to getting seven to ten players, but I won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Clifton said he first heard about OIT through a friend of his, Jason Corwin, who served as the Owls head coach from 2010-2014. Clifton and Corwin had worked together at the University of Portland. “I got some info from him and it sounded very appealing,” said Clifton.

Though Clifton is excited for this next adventure in his life, he still isn’t settling. He wants to run a Division I NCAA program when the timing is right.

“Never going to lose sight of my goals,” he said. “But for the time being I am going to enjoy sitting back and settling in. I want to build something at OIT. But, who knows?”