Glen Flanagan, the girls basketball coach for the past 27 seasons, is now the football coach, too

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

One of the longest tenured head coaches in Southwest Washington is getting used to being a head coach again for the first time.

Head Coach Glen Flanagan is Head Coach Glen Flanagan.

Some might call him Mr. Woodland.

And these days, one could call him very, very busy.

Flanagan, who has been the head coach for the Woodland girls basketball team for the past 27 seasons, has taken over the Woodland football program, having experienced summer workouts for both teams now in preparation for the 2024-25 academic year.

Flanagan has been the Beavers’ defensive coordinator for 29 seasons. But now, it will be head coach in football, and then head coach in basketball.

For years, he flirted with the idea of becoming the head coach in football. Whenever there was a change at the top, he talked about the possibility. The timing did not seem to work out, and Flanagan was happy with his spot as defensive coordinator.

But it was different this time, when Sean McDonald left Woodland this offseason to become the head coach at Mountain View in Vancouver. Flanagan and school officials were not sure they could find the right man for the job, so late in the hiring process.

“It’s hard to be a head coach these days. You need someone who knows the community, who knows the philosophy of the town, who knows the kids. If we could just find somebody like this,” Flanagan said.

“We were looking for someone who loves the community as much as I do and loved the kids, and is competitive and can connect the town, connect the youth, connect the old-timers. Who could do that?”

Oh.

“That’s probably me,” Flanagan realized.

Flanagan was working without a net the first year as an assistant coach. He got hired a day before practice started in 1995 and was given a bunch of books on defensive strategies. He was named the defensive coordinator right then and there.

Yes, a lot has changed since 1995 and small-town football and small coaching staffs.

Also that season, for reasons that would baffle head coaches today, Woodland held film sessions with their players every Sunday night in the commons area of the old high school. And they did so with parents and other community members there. They were part of film study.

Flanagan critiqued his players on defense while he was being critiqued by every football fan in the community.

“That forced me to try to be a good coach,” Flanagan said. “It forced me to be thorough.”

Even if there were some benefits to that system, Flanagan said there will not be any community film sessions under his watch.  

Again, he might be new as a head coach in football, but he has plenty of experience as a head coach and dealing with parents and their lofty expectations. 

“If you don’t have thick skin and a big heart, you’re going to be gone,” he said.

Well, he is still here, decades later. Flangan’s basketball teams have been winning for years.

This football hire, though, does present interesting challenges. If, or when, Woodland football makes the postseason, those practices will conflict with the start of basketball season.

Flanagan already has plans in place for November. The basketball team could practice in the mornings, before school. Or, as defensive coordinator for the football team and as head coach, he could schedule defensive drills in practice first, then go to basketball practice later in the afternoon or evening.

“For girls basketball, I might have some grace,” he said of the community’s patience.

After all, he has been the head coach while one rival school in the 2A Greater St. Helens League has had 12 basketball coaches in the same span.

“I have every (basketball) practice plan from the last 27 years on the computer,” Flanagan said. “I know what we’re going to do at tryouts, what we’re going to do in our first few weeks, and when we put our zone offense in.”

It is second nature to him.

“I want to get there in football,” Flanagan said. “I have a long way to go.”

But he has had an incredible start to get there. Flanagan grew up in Woodland and has always appreciated the town. Always.

“No one loves the community like I do. I wrote a paper in the sixth grade about why Woodland was the best place to live in the world. In college, I wrote another paper on it. I believe it,” he said.

He and his wife Jody, also a coach with Woodland athletics, are empty nesters now. They have their grown children, and they have Woodland’s children.

“I know the community. I know the loggers. I know the families. I know the kids,” Glen Flanagan said. “I’m not going to fix your car. I’m not going to build your home. But I love kids, and I know how to relate to kids. I’m going to work with these kids, love on these kids.

“If I can be a dad figure or a brother, that’s the biggest thing.”

The scoreboard matters, the coach said, but it is not the only thing.

“We’re going to be good. We’re going to compete. But your kid is also going to be loved. They’re going to be taught lessons. We’re going to play with class,” Flanagan said. 

“That’s what we’re about.”