After seven seasons, Timberline High football coach Kirk Copeland resigns

Timberline High football coach Kirk Copeland resigned Wednesday after leading the Wolves for seven seasons.

Copeland said he wanted to free up time to pursue other interests, like watching his son Kellen play his senior season with the College of Idaho football team.

“It comes down to the old economic concept of opportunity cost,” Copeland said. “At some point, what are you giving up for the sake of something else? I decided I didn’t want to give other things up at this point.”

Copeland led Timberline to a 26-40 record, building the program into one that reached the playoffs for three consecutive years from 2013-15. Timberline had only reached the playoffs once in school history before Copeland took over the program, and it is still searching for its first playoff win.

Copeland’s seven years makes him the longest tenured head football coach in school history. Rich Gagnon, who led the team for three years from 1998-2001, was previously the program’s longest tenured coach.

The Wolves went 2-7 and 1-4 in the 5A SIC Pod B this fall, snapping their playoff streak.

“I think the program is in fine shape,” Copeland said. “Some things need to happen, and I know we had a down year. But we were incredibly young. At one time against Capital, I counted the underclassmen playing and it was 15, and I stopped counting after that. We have a lot of young talent.”

Copeland joined Timberline in 2007 as an assistant coach after serving as the head baseball and assistant football coach at Bonneville High in Idaho Falls. Copeland was named an All-Big Sky Conference running back at Montana State and played baseball at Napa Community College in California.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 2:09 PM with the headline "After seven seasons, Timberline High football coach Kirk Copeland resigns."