10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2016
Mattila: ‘It was about turning young boys into men’
because I was coaching the
boys,” he said. “And they (the
girls’ varsity team) needed a
coach.”
Over the next 15 years, he
amassed 290 wins in basket-
ball, won coach of the year
four times and reached the
playoffs four years in a row
between 2007 and 2010.
By 2003, Mattila retired
from teaching but continued
coaching. After the 2011 sea-
son, Mattila was taken by sur-
prise when the district ired
him, citing the need for a
change in leadership. Mat-
tila retired in Warrenton, and
said he has only missed four or
ive games since the end of his
coaching tenure.
Continued from Page 1A
Local guy
Mattila grew up in
Longview, Washington. He
played baseball and football,
wrestled and helped coach lit-
tle league. At Grays Harbor
Community College, Mat-
tila played football under
John Elway’s father Jack and
helped coach powderpuff
football and softball teams.
He then transferred to West-
ern Washington University to
study teaching.
“I like to think that a good
coach is a good teacher,”
he said. “I enjoy teaching.
Coaching is what motivated
me to become a teacher.”
After graduating in 1970,
Mattila got his irst shot at
Tillamook High School,
where he taught English and
coached the football team,
irst as assistant and then as
head coach. Now the 10th
most winningest coach in
Oregon football history, Mat-
tila was nonetheless ired
from Tillamook two years
into his irst head coaching
job. “We didn’t win enough
games,” he said.
Tillamook’s loss ended up
being Warrenton’s gain.
Boys to men
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Former Warrenton High School football coach John Mattila oversees a practice in 2006.
Rising Warriors
Mattila said he saw an
advertisement for a head
coaching job with the War-
riors, applied and started in
1974 teaching social studies,
eventually switching primar-
ily to physical education and
health. Along with freshmen
and junior varsity boys bas-
ketball, he started coaching a
football team that had never
made the state playoffs.
Within his third year, War-
renton had won its irst league
championship in football.
Between 1974 and 2011, Mat-
tila amassed a record of 252
wins, 129 losses, 15 league
championships and 23 trips to
the state playoffs, where the
Warriors reached the semii-
nals several times.
His daughter, Allison,
reached her junior high school
basketball team in 1996, when
Mattila took over as head
coach.
“I wasn’t getting a chance
to see my daughter play,
“The thing about sports is
… you’ve got a carrot that kids
want,” he said. “They want to
be involved, want to be a part
of it, want to be successful. You
use that carrot to keep them
going in the right direction.”
By the time he started high
school in 1998, Josh Holla-
way said, Mattila was already
a prominent igure immedi-
ately associated with Warren-
ton football. Hollaway was a
lineman for Mattila for four
years and coached with him
from 2007 to 2010.
“It wasn’t just about foot-
ball,” Hollaway said. “It was
about turning young boys into
men, and being good people.”
Mattila has had many suc-
cess stories from his years as
a football coach, from one stu-
dent, Dusty McGrorty, making
it to the NFL, to the many for-
mer students who come back
to volunteer their time with the
school’s sports teams. When
former player Tyler McGrorty
needed help coaching the
8-year-olds on his youth foot-
ball team, he reached out to
Mattila for help.
“You learn a lot from him,”
he said. “And he sees things
that I don’t necessarily see,
because he’s been doing it for
so long.”
Deferential to praise, Mat-
tila credits the assistants who
volunteer their time to coach
sports. And with the kids, he
said success goes beyond the
football ield.
“I don’t want to take any
credit,” Mattila said of the suc-
cess stories. “I think good kids
come from good families, and
we have had a lot of good kids
that have done really well and
been successful.”
Library: Board found that new library would likely be cheaper, safer
Continued from Page 1A
into the Waldorf, blending a
library with housing and pre-
serving the Waldorf, and relo-
cating to Heritage Square.
The Library Board took no
position Tuesday on whether a
new library at Heritage Square
should contain a housing com-
ponent. Consultants have esti-
mated that housing on top of a
library at Heritage Square could
add $15.6 million to $17.8 mil-
lion to the price tag.
The board instead focused
on the potential for a mod-
ern library that would meet the
needs of the community and
could become what David Oser,
a board member, described as “a
beacon for residents and visitors
alike.”
A new library could serve
as an economic anchor on 12th
Street and a spur for downtown
redevelopment.
The existing library would
remain open during construc-
tion at Heritage Square, remov-
ing the need for a temporary
location.
The board found that a new
library would likely be cheaper
and safer to operate than ren-
ovating the existing building,
either by using the basement or
parking lot or by branching into
the Waldorf. Consultants have
estimated that it would cost
$5.7 million to $7.1 million to
expand into the basement and
$9 million to $10.4 million to
go into the parking lot. Expand-
ing into the Waldorf would cost
between $8.4 million and $9.6
million.
Project inancing
The city would launch a
Submitted Graphic
The Library Board has recommended a new library at Heritage Square.
fundraising campaign for a
library project to help offset the
cost to taxpayers.
Oser, a banking and inance
expert, believes private dona-
tions and grant funding would be
easier to attract for a new library
than for a renovation project.
The Library Board approved
the recommendation in a 3-0
vote, with Summers, Oser and
Susan Stein in support. Board
members Kimberley Chaput
and Chris Womack were absent.
The city has about $1.6
million set aside for a library
project, $750,000 in capi-
tal improvement money and
$872,000 available in the Logan
Memorial Library Trust Fund.
Some on the City Coun-
cil have asked for more details
about inancing, but the pre-
sumption is that the city will
have to ask taxpayers to approve
a bond for a project.
Steve Emmons, who is
active with the Astoria Library
Friends Association, said he had
favored renovating the existing
library. “However, if the com-
munity truly wants a grand pal-
ace of information, show me the
money,” he said.
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