Klamath Community College hires Athletic Director, soccer coach

Klamath Community College has another first. It’s first Athletic Director Lupe Gonzales. He will oversee the growth of the men’s and women’s soccer teams as well as the co-ed golf team as well as be a coach for the men’s soccer team.  Other athletic programs may follow as current teams develop and become established.

“I would like to grow athletics for KCC and give students the opportunity to remain in the Basin and attend KCC,” he said.

Gonzales is a long-time Basin resident and soccer coach. In 1979, he and his parents settled in the South Poe Valley area outside of Klamath Falls. He attended Henley High School and played soccer at Southwestern Oregon Community College and George Fox University.

He was working at JELD-WEN, when his mentor, Steve Hamlin, convinced him he needed to be working with kids.

“Mr. Hamlin was a principal at Malin Elementary and hired me to work with students which led me to work for the Klamath County School District as a home-school liaison and began coaching soccer.

“The late Sue Tinniswood, who was like a second mom to me, got me into coaching and that fed my passion for sports and soccer. I really enjoyed coaching.” he said. “I have been blessed with an amazing number of friendships thanks to Mr. Hamlin and Sue Tinniswood seeing potential in me.”

Gonzales has coached for 25 years. In that time took the Henley girls’ team to the state championship in 1996 where they placed second. Then he took the Henley boys to the state championship in 2013 and 2024. The 2024 Henley boys won State. He resigned last month from the Klamath County School District to join KCC as its athletic director.

“Soccer is an international sport and is attractive to students who want to attend KCC,” said KCC President Dr. Roberto Gutierrez. “We are proud to have Coach Gonzales join our team as our athletic director.”

With KCC soccer now sanctioned as a Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) for collegiate play, the college needed an athletic director.

The next step is to develop the girls’ soccer club and build it up to join NWAC as well.

KCC also has initiated a co-ed golf team and several community members have approached Gonzales about starting a men’s and women’s basketball team, volley ball teams and cross-country team.

“It’s good to see how far we’ve come from a club soccer team to NWAC in two short years,” Gonzales said.

he team has a roster of 18 to 24 student players. Recruiting new players will be part of the job. Greg Morton helps Gonzales with the boys, and Tiffany Poe coaches the girls’ club.

The men officially start collegiate soccer in August, with a 10-game schedule against other South Region community colleges. In between that, Gonzales hopes to have them face off against more developed teams such as Southern Oregon University and Oregon Institute of Technology, noting it’s always good to play above one’s level.

Coach Gonzales is married to Hollie Hill and the couple has four children, sons, Isaac and Jacob Gonzales, Chase Bacus, who are all attending KCC, and a daughter, Charish, who is a high school freshmen.