1957-1964: Mel Krause coaches the newest addition to the Eugene basketball teams, the Highlanders. Mel Krause would later go on to coach the University of Oregon baseball team. His 1964 team won North's first basketball championship.
1965-1997: The Barney Holland years. Barney Holland was quite the athlete. He was a football and basketball player at Marshfield High School and the University of Oregon (he was the quarterback for the Ducks). After college, he began coaching Lebanon High School. He came to North after Mel Krause left in 1964.
Barney's legacy at North was huge. Barney coached the Highlanders to their other three championships in 1966, 1976 and 1977. Barney's best players during his years at North were the Ainges: Doug, David and Danny. Doug (the oldest) and David did not win championships with Holland, but they did make it into the playoffs several times. They were both excellent basketball players (as well football, baseball and track athletes) and set the stage for their little brother Danny to come in and dominate North athletics.
Danny entered North Eugene as a sophomore in 1974, and quickly established himself as a great athlete. By the end of his junior year, Danny had helped North win its third championship. As if that wasn't enough, Danny also won the Midwestern League MVP award. He won it a second time in his senior year, and won his second consecutive championship. After leaving North, he blasted his way through college basketball with Brigham Young. After a few years playing Major League Baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays, he was drafted into the NBA by the Boston Celtics. His NBA highlights include two championships with the Celtics (Larry Bird and Kevin McHale were teammates during those years).
(For more info on Danny Ainge, go here. For more info on the late 70's championship teams, go here.)
Danny Ainge and related NEHS basketball links:
The Altar of Ainge (a fan site)
Danny's MLB Baseball stats
Basketball jerk of the week? What on earth?
Cool article about what Danny's doing since leaving the Phoenix Suns
A few Danny Ainge articles
An article about Danny's son Austin
Danny's induction into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame
1990's: The Viohl and Lockard years. Terry Viohl slowly rebuilt North into somewhat of a power in the early 90's. The Lockard boys, Jay and Ty, were his best players in the early years. After they graduated, Kamba Tshionyi and Kailee Wong dominated. Tshionyi was a tall, athletic player who contributed game in and game out. After North, he attended Stanford University and became a captain of the Cardinal basketball team, although he did not get a great deal of playing time. Wong was a strong, athletic complement to Tshionyi. His main sport was football, but he was an accomplished basketball player as well. Together, Wong and Tshionyi led North to great respectability in the Midwestern.
Viohl retired from teaching and coaching after the 1994 season, and was replaced by his assistant and JV coach, Jim Lockard. Jim was the father of Jay and Ty, and obviously taught the boys a lot about the game. Lockard had quite a few good players, including Carl Holmes (the nephew of a former UO assistant basketball coach), Ryan Tucker, Dan Self, Scott Holmes, Mike Hawkins and Ken and Dan Read. The highlight of the Lockard years was definitely North's third-place showing in the 1997 season. North barely won with free throws with no time left on the clock against top ranked Barlow (Freddy Jones, a talented UO basketball player, was on the Barlow roster).
Jim Lockard left the team at the end of the 2000 season, and will be replaced with assistant coach Bill Wagner.