Kelly Amos named Timberlake High football coach — again

Timberlake High has been a successful football program for a good two decades, and many of its coaches have been there for much of that run.

So the Tigers figured, why mess with a good thing?

Kelly Amos, who started the Timberlake program in 1998, and returned to the football coaching staff eight years ago, was named the Tigers’ head football coach earlier this week, pending school board approval.

“I told those guys, the biggest reason I have to take this job is because of them,” Amos said of the other assistant coaches on the staff. “You don’t get the opportunity to have a staff in place — almost all of them have been a head coach, or are a head coach in another sport. And they have tons of football experience. And I can step in and have that staff ... that’s unheard of, especially in a school our size.”

Amos, 51, replaces Roy Albertson, who resigned recently after 17 seasons as Timberlake coach. Albertson, 72, cited health concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic in stepping down. Albertson, a head coach for 29 seasons all told, was 108-64 in 17 seasons at Timberlake to 16 state playoff appearances, including six trips to the semifinals.

Amos was the Tigers’ defensive coordinator the past two seasons.

“He’s got a lot of experience, he knows Timberlake really well, he knows the staff, knows the kids, he knows how the school works — it’s not just about athletics,” Timberlake athletic director Tim Cronnelly said of Amos. “And he’s also taken over the summer (conditioning) program last couple of years, and it’s been real visible how much, not just our football kids, but all of our kids, have benefited from that.

“It was important to keep our staff together, and they work really well together.”

Amos will be just the fourth football coach in Timberlake history — and he’s been two of the four. He guided the Tigers’ football team for its first three seasons, going 8-19. He returned to the football coaching staff in 2012, coaching the freshman for six seasons. He moved up to the varsity in 2018.

“Truthfully, when I came back, I was coaching freshman football, which was a blast; I had a great time doing it,” Amos said. “After being a head coach for quite a while, it was kind of a refreshing thing to just coach football. So at first, I didn’t have any intentions, but as the seasons progressed, I got more and more interested in it.”

Amos has also served two stints as Timberlake wrestling coach. He started the program in 1998, and coached the first seven seasons. He returned in 2015 and coached four more seasons, resigning in 2019. He’s been a varsity track assistant the past five seasons, coaching the throwers. He plans to remain on the track coaching staff.

Amos, a Moscow High and University of Idaho grad, spent a year at Lakeland while Timberlake was being built, and has been in Spirit Lake since the school opened — he currently teaches business education classes.

Before that, he was at Clearwater Valley High for four years. He was head football coach there for three seasons, and head wrestling and track and field coach all four seasons.

While at CV, he got a call from Van Tuinstra, whom he’d known through wrestling, and who was going to be principal at Timberlake when it opened. Tuinstra encouraged Amos to apply to Timberlake as a teacher and coach.

Amos was also athletic director at Timberlake his first year in Spirit Lake.

Amos said he’ll continue as defensive coordinator, for continuity’s sake, as long as he can handle both duties.

Also back will be longtime assistant coaches Brian Kluss, Mike Menti, Bill Rider and Rob Ranney, along with Bryce Johnson, who will be in his second season as a freshman coach/varsity assistant.

Kluss is the longtime offensive coordinator; Menti, a former defensive coordinator, is a defensive coach for the junior varsity team. Rider is an offensive coach for the JV. Ranney, the JV defensive coordinator, will coach special teams on the varsity.

While he figures to put his own stamp on the program, Amos said Timberlake football under him won’t change much from Timberlake under Albertson.

“The cool part about our staff is, our philosophies pretty much all line up,” Amos said. “We are going to be a wing-T football team. We run the ball, control the clock, and that’s what we’ve been doing since Roy’s been here, and that’s not going to change.”

Amos is the youngest of four brothers — three of which are coaches.

Shawn Amos, some 18 months older than Kelly, is getting ready for his 24th season as Coeur d’Alene High football coach. Pat Amos, the second-oldest, was head football coach at Potlatch for several years, and is now head wrestling coach at Moscow High.

Kelly said with a laugh that Mike Amos, the oldest brother and a retired construction superintendent, is “the only smart one in the family” because “he didn’t go into the family business.”

When Amos learned he was going to be head football coach again, he said his first phone call went to Albertson. The two had talked about this scenario in recent years, knowing someday “Alby” would someday step down as head coach.

When he resigned, Albertson said would like to return to coaching at Timberlake someday as an assistant, when it was safe to do so.

“I said to Roy, ‘When you are cleared to go, I want you to be with us,’” Amos said. “Because we love coaching with Alby, and we want him to be a part of it.

“He is always welcome in our program.”