Glen Lee, longtime girls basketball coach in Oregon, announces retirement: ‘I enjoyed every second of it’

By Dan Brood | Photo by Taylor Balkom 

Glen Lee built the program from the ground up. 

And, it its brief history, he helped make the Mountainside girls basketball team a constant postseason presence.

Now, Lee is ready to turn over the Mavericks’ reins to someone new.

Lee, a longtime high school girls basketball coach in Oregon who will turn 56 in April, announced his retirement from coaching Monday.

“Thirty-five years is a long time to be doing this,” Lee said by phone Wednesday. “I had a long coaching career, and I enjoyed every second of it. I really enjoyed my time on the sidelines.”

Lee has been the only girls basketball head coach Mountainside has had since it opened its doors in the fall of 2017.

“When that opportunity arose, I jumped on it,” Lee said of the Mavericks’ coaching post. “Not too many people get that opportunity, and I really enjoyed the process.”

In that first season, when the school included just freshmen and sophomores, Mountainside played basketball only at the junior varsity level.

In the 2018-19 season, its first at the varsity level, Mountainside went 14-11 overall, 5-7 in Metro League play, and reached the Class 6A state playoffs, despite having nine freshmen, and no seniors, on the roster.

In the 2019-20 season, the Mavericks went 19-10, including a third-place 8-4 record in Metro League play, and they reached the Class 6A state tournament for the first time. Mountainside split its first two games at the state tournament and was set to play in the fourth-place game when the remainder of the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In the shortened, revised 2021 season, Mountainside went 9-8, including a 6-4 Metro mark, putting the Mavericks in a tie for third place in the league standings. There were no Class 6A state playoffs. 

This past season, Mountainside went 15-10, tying for third place in the Metro League standings at 7-5. The Mavericks advanced to play in the Class 6A state playoffs, where they were edged 71-65 by Cleveland in a first-round contest.

That gives Lee a 57-39 record in his four varsity coaching seasons at Mountainside.

“Our program achieved a lot in a short period of time,” Lee said. “The parents, the community, the kids were all great. The program will still be in great shape. There are some good kids coming up, and there should be a tremendous amount of continuity, and the future looks bright. It’s time to hang up the whistle.”

And that whistle got a lot of use.

After first serving as an assistant coach at Central Catholic, Lee’s initial head coaching job came at La Salle Prep, where he coached the Falcons girls from 1992-94. Lee then was an assistant boys basketball coach at Sunset, under head coach Ken Harris, for one season. After that, Lee became the girls basketball head coach at Central Catholic, where he served from 1996-99.

He spent two years as an assistant girls basketball coach at Centennial before moving over to West Linn, where he was the girls basketball head coach for 12 years, going 178-128. Lee took over at Lincoln for the 2013-14 season, and he coached the Cardinals through the 2016-2017 campaign before moving to the post at Mountainside. Lee went 59-41 at Lincoln.

He finished his coaching career with an overall record of 345-293.

“It’s been 35 years, including 29 at the varsity level, and I’ve loved every second of that experience,” Lee said.

Lee added that his mother, while in relatively good health, is in her twilight years, and that played a part in his decision to retire.

“I would like to spend as much quality time as possible with her,” he said.

In addition to his coaching duties, Lee has also put together the Class 6A coaches poll the past 15 years.

Lee is continuing with his job at the Oregon Golf Club, where he has served as the food and beverage manager since 1992.