Philomath High School’s softball players will have a familiar face returning this spring. Tim Muir, junior varsity coach for the past two years, takes over for Kari Jaques.
Muir, a 2000 Philomath High graduate who also helped with the varsity last season, said he wanted the job to help provide continuity within the program.
“I’ve coached a lot of these girls for three years now and I’ve built a bond with them,” said Muir, who also coached the group that he’s referring to in seventh- and eighth-grade softball. “I just felt like once I found out Kari wasn’t coming back, that I didn’t want them to have to start all over again.”
Softball has cycled through head coaches in recent years at Philomath. The Warriors finished 9-13 overall and 4-11 in the Oregon West Conference last spring, placing fourth. The year before, the first under Jaques, Philomath went 13-12 overall and 7-8 in conference play, also finishing fourth.
Muir said the turnover has taken a toll on players who are forced to relearn a new system and build new relationships each season.
“They should be having a better time at softball than what they’ve had and I want to give that to them,” Muir said. “And at least this way, they know one of the coaches when they’re coming back. Like for most of them, they all had to start completely over with completely new coaches, and I didn’t want them to have to do that again. It’s not fair to them.”
Muir credited his brother, former Philomath football coach Troy Muir, with shaping his approach to building his staff.
“The one thing I learned from my brother was you surround yourself with good coaches and if you have good coaches, they make you a good coach,” he said. “That’s one thing I have definitely learned from him.”
Muir’s assistant coaches this season will include Kathy Kohler as outfield coach, Jesse Skaggs as infield coach, Kelsey Olson as hitting coach and Tasha Myers, a former college softball player, working with pitchers a few times a week.
Muir said baseball coach Levi Webber and Kohler have been helping him navigate the administrative side of leading a high school program.
Muir mentioned another lesson from his brother — that coaches are building a program, not just fielding a team — has shaped how he wants to develop players before they reach high school. He pointed to inconsistent coaching at the youth level as a recurring challenge, saying incoming players often don’t know their positions by the time they reach JV.
“The hardest part that we have that I’ve noticed the last couple years in high school is, especially for JV, they just don’t have the skills when they come in,” Muir said. “They need to have established positions in seventh and eighth grade so by the time they get to high school, they know how to play.”
Muir said his first year coaching JV was easier because he and Jaques had already taught many of the players their positions at the youth level. This past season was more difficult, he said, because incoming players didn’t know their positions, which cut into time that could have gone toward team-building.
“So that’s kind of where I’m — I’m trying to get it set up to where I have coaches for seventh and eighth grade that are the same coaches every year, and then I’ve got to find a JV coach,” Muir said. “I’m hoping to find a college grad that’ll come in and help.”
The team has done informal practices over the summer, Muir said, with cage work and other conditioning planned for August before fall workouts begin.
Muir graduated from Philomath High School in 2000. He works in construction but has stepped back and now has time to devote to coaching.
Philomath appears to have the potential for a veteran lineup returning next spring with only one senior on last season’s roster.
“My daughter’s (Natalie) got two more years, but I love it, I enjoy it,” Muir said. “I’m semi-retired so I have the time to do it.”
