Sports Column

Neil Lomax enlists with the Roosevelt Roughriders

Former NFL star will be PIL team's offensive coordinator

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Aug 1, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

KYLE GREEN / THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE

Ex-NFL quarterback Neil Lomax (middle) won't have as much time as usual for golf this fall with buddies Clyde Drexler and Joey Harrington, or others, because he's answered a "calling" to help coach football at Roosevelt High.

Members of SouthLake Foursquare Church in West Linn have done a lot to help Roosevelt High become a more desirable destination for students over the last year.

Church members adopted Roosevelt – located in one of the city’s lowest socioeconomic areas – for community service outreach that has included several work days to spruce up the school yards and the facilities of the North Portland school.

Now SouthLake may be giving the best gift of all – an offensive coordinator for the Roughriders’ football team.

Neil Lomax says he was sitting in church about a month ago when the subject of Roosevelt was raised.

“And all of a sudden, I heard this voice – ‘What are you going to do, Neil?’ " Lomax says. “I felt a calling. I don’t know how else to put it.”

Lomax is the former Portland State quarterback who went on to Pro Bowl fame in the NFL. A Lake Oswego resident, he served one year as offensive coordinator at Tigard High and has coached many youth teams in his hometown, teams that have featured three of his sons.

“I love coaching,” Lomax says. “My boys are pretty much through the (Lake Oswego High) program now. I’d been thinking, ‘What am I going to do this fall?’ "

Lomax knew Roosevelt had won only one game in its previous two seasons. The Roughriders ended last season with only 18 players in their program.

New coach Christian Swain, who coached the secondary at McKay High the last five years and is also head coach for the semipro Oregon Thunderbolts, had recently been named head coach at Roosevelt.

So Lomax called Swain, whom he had never met. And volunteered to serve on his staff. For free.

“I told Christian, ‘I can do more service than just painting walls and mowing grass. I can help you take care of the offense and be the best coach you can be,’ " Lomax says. “My idea was, it wouldn’t be a weekend of service or a summer of service, but a season of service.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit