Dan Lever resigns as Tualatin football coach, takes head coaching job at Silverton

By Dan Brood | Photo by Leon Neuschwander  

It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was a decision Dan Lever felt he had to make. 

Lever, who has been the head football coach at Tualatin High School the past five years, is moving on to take the football head coaching job at Silverton High School.

“I’m excited, but it’s also bittersweet. It’s all about family,” said Lever, who, with his wife, has two children, a son, 4, and a daughter, 2. “During the pandemic, we bought some property there. And our kids will go to school in that district. It’s hard to be a good dad and a good football coach. That’s what this is about. It was a very tough decision. But it was a win-win decision for me.”

Lever took over as Tualatin’s head coach prior to the 2017 season.

In Lever’s five years at Tualatin, the Timberwolves went 39-15. Tualatin reached the second round of the Class 6A state playoffs in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Timberwolves advanced to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs in 2019. There were no state playoffs in the 2020 season, as there was just a revised, shorted season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This past fall, Tualatin went 12-2 overall and 4-1 in Three Rivers League play, sharing the league title with Lake Oswego and West Linn. Tualatin defeated Mountain View, Westview, Summit and West Linn in the state playoffs to reach the Class 6A state championship game. Tualatin fell 44-14 to Central Catholic in the title contest. 

“I have some very fond memories here at Tualatin,” Lever said. “There are great people here. There’s a great coaching staff and great kids.”

Before coaching at Tualatin, Lever was the head coach at Gervais High School in 2010. Lever, a 2005 graduate of Canby High School, where he shined on the football field before playing at Linfield College, also had coaching stops as an assistant at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, the University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, Wash., and Santa Barbara Community College. 

Lever is taking over at Silverton for Josh Craig, who stepped down from the head coaching post after leading the team to the Class 5A state championship, as the Foxes bested Thurston 26-20 in the title game.

Silverton went 12-1 in 2021, with the Foxes’ only loss, ironically, coming against Tualatin, in a nonleague game Sept. 10 at Tualatin High School.

Silverton is graduating a group of standout players, including quarterback Jordan McCarty and receivers Austin Ratliff and Vandon Fessler. But the program looks to be strong, as the Foxes freshman team went unbeaten last season, and the junior varsity lost just one game, to Central Catholic.

“Silverton has a great program,” Lever said. “The torch is burning there, and I hope to keep it going.” 

Lever also sees good things at Tualatin in the future. The Timberwolves, like Silverton, will be graduating a strong group of seniors, but Tualatin also potentially will return a strong group, including Jack Wagner, A.J. Noland, Richie Anderson, Will Wilson, Scott Copeland and Drew Corcoran, just to name a few.

“I know that (Tualatin athletic director) Ted Rose and (principal) Mike Dellerba will keep the program in great shape,” Lever said. 

Lever added that he is also planning on teaching at Silverton High School.