By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DALLAS, Ore.– It wasn’t too long ago that first-year Head Coach Alex King was leading a program to success.
After years coaching at South Albany and then an assistant football coaching stint at Regis in Stayton, he got his first crack at a Head Coaching position two seasons ago at 2A Gervais High School during the 2023-2024 season.
It was a short stint, lasting a year as King stepped away from coaching to welcome a child of his own to the world soon after that season concluded, but it was King’s first taste of having to navigate a program through a season in the toughest conference in 2A.
For reference, the Tri-River Conference featured powerhouse program’s like Western Christian just north of West Salem and Regis. 2A Playoff regular’s in Kennedy from Mount Angel and Santiam in Mill City as well come from the conference. But nonetheless, King led the Cougars to their first State Playoff appearance since 1992 before falling to Oakland in the opening round of the playoffs.
“That one year was really fun. I enjoyed it. I was sad that I stepped down, but I’ll always be grateful for that one. That was a good job,” King said of Gervais. I was learning along the way of what worked and what didn’t work. But it prepared me a lot for this job. That year off, it really helped me a lot too. I was able to watch a lot of film and watch other coaches coach basketball, it was a good year off.”
King returned to coaching this season with Dallas. Joining a Dragon program coming off a one win season in 2024. He returns some youth in Tristan Porter and Lukas Lawless, both seeing a lot of Varsity minutes as freshmen last year. Nick Walker returns, King is excited to have his athleticism on the court. Nate Cunningham returns as well as King adjusts his style to what he has going into another tough league in the Mid-Willamette Conference from the TRC.
“I have a lot of guards and young guards, our plan is to get up-and-down the court, utilize our big man in Tristan Porter as much as we can. Nate Cunningham, he’s a very versatile guy. He can play inside, he can play outside. Lukas is going to be one of our most talented Point Guards that we have,” King said. “We’re really guard-heavy and we’re athletic, so being able to run the court and try to out run team’s. Try to be very pesky defensively and that’s going to help us win a lot of games.
Dallas will open the season December 3 at home against Springfield.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
