A chance to move closer to home was presented, and Rob Kassebaum took the opportunity.

Kassebaum, who graduated from Cascade High School in Turner, has been hired as an assistant coach for football, wrestling and track and field and as a weight training teacher at South Albany.

As a head coach at Nyssa, a 3A school, he won football state titles in 2005 and 2006 and was a co-head track and field coach when the Bulldogs won a state championship in 2005.

He and his wife Michelle have four children. Michelle grew up in Eugene, and most of their family lives in western Oregon.

"We want to get the kids close to them," said Kassebaum, who did student-teaching at Woodburn and then made stops at Sweet Home and Stayton before going to Nyssa, south of Ontario on the Oregon/Idaho border.

He spent the last two years in Homedale, Idaho, just south of Nyssa.

Kassebaum, 37, joins a South football program that looks to be on the way up.

Last fall, the Rebels reached the state playoffs for the first time since 2001 and return several key players.

"I'm looking forward to working at a bigger school," he said.

Kassebaum credits his football success at Nyssa to "a good staff and just some exceptional kids," including current Oregon State linebacker Paul Jones and Oregon track and field decathlete Marshall Ackley.

Sweet Home football coach Rob Younger said he recruited Kassebaum when Kassebaum was at Woodburn.

"We thought he was a good young coach," Younger said, adding that Kassebaum was "very knowledgable with the Xs and Os. He always wanted to get better."

Younger noted that Kassebaum works well with people and "coaches for the right reasons."

Kassebaum has not coached wrestling the past few years but has spent those seasons officiating the sport.

With football teams going deep into the playoffs, often into December, it made it difficult to run a wrestling program.

But officiating provided another outlet.

"It's been fun. It kept me involved," he said.

Kassebaum said it will be hard for his family leaving the area they've spent the past seven years building friendships.

He plans to be in Albany for good during the first week of August after finishing a summer school commitment.