PORT ANGELES — Retired intercollegiate athletic director Andy Geiger can name off quite a few home run hires in his storied career — even a former Roughrider.
Now the same man who once tabbed former Port Angeles High School football coach Jack Elway to lead the Stanford Cardinal has been asked to chair the search for Riders’ next leading man on the gridiron.
If he can approach the same sort of success he had with his last football pick at Ohio State — Jim Tressel — Port Angeles fans can look forward to a lot of wins at Civic Field.
“Good fundamentals, creative concepts offensively and defensively, and great execution — that’s what you look for [in a coach],” Geiger said during a telephone interview on Friday.
“I don’t care what level you are at, it will work.”
Port Angeles Schools Superintendent Gary Cohn announced on Friday that Geiger, now living on the North Olympic Peninsula, will chair the interview committee and assist with the search process for a new head football coach after Keith Moorman’s resignation.
Geiger spent 45 years in intercollegiate athletics, 35 of them as director of athletics at Brown, Penn, Stanford, Maryland, and Ohio State before retiring in 2005.
Tressel, who guided Ohio State to a national championship in his second year as head coach in 2002, is just one of many impressive coaches that Geiger unearthed during his career.
At Stanford alone, Geiger found Elway, future NFL coach Dennis Green and women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, who guided the Cardinal to two national titles.
And there’re many more where those came from.
“Nobody bats 1,000,” Geiger said, “but generally speaking, I felt like across the board we’ve been able to attract good people. We’ll try to do the same here.”
Geiger has become heavily involved in the Peninsula since arriving following his retirement.
He is a member of the Clallam County Family YMCA board and the Clallam County Democratic Central Committee, and also does some work for the Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association.
It appears you can now throw Port Angeles football adviser onto that list.
So who does Geiger envision leading the Rider football program?
“You get somebody who you would like to have your child learn and grow under,” he said.
“You establish what your core values are, and obviously you look for football [knowledge].
“If you take the folks you have in the community, you make it the most attractive, most enticing program that you can that is also well-grounded in the fundamentals of football, and they have a great experience putting that together, they will do fine.”.
