The Lowry High School football team will usher in a new era next season, as long-time head coach Tim Billingsley is stepping down from the position. Billingsley will still teach one more year at the school before retiring from that job as well.
"I have had a great time coaching the kids. I was thinking back, and I have been coaching football in one way or another at Lowry or in Winnemucca since 1986," Billingsley said. "I am going to miss it and have had great support from the community and the school. I have worked with great assistants since I have been here. Being a head coach is a year-round job, just not the few months during the season. I just decided to take a little time off and do things that I couldn't do during football season."
Billingsley began coaching out of college at Wooster High School in Reno and came back to Winnemucca in 1986, where he coached the junior varsity team. Billingsley took over for Vince Mendiola at the varsity level shortly afterward and coached the Buckaroos until the end of 1993 season. The 1993 season was the first for Lowry at the large-school classification and the Buckaroos beat Galena in the first game of the 1993 season.
In his first stint as head coach, Billingsley led Lowry to the AA (Division I-A) state title game in 1990 and 1992. The Buckaroos lost on a last-second field goal in 1990 to Truckee in Winnemucca and to Moapa Valley in 1992 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. That was the last time Lowry played in the state title game.
"I would love to have that 1990 game back," Billingsley said. "We had that game won on our home field. That is the closest Lowry has been to win a state championship in football."
Billingsley stepped down as coach for the first time in 1993, but stayed a part of football in Winnemucca, coaching in the Winnemucca Youth Football League a few years later.
"When Michael (oldest son) was six, I started back coaching youth football," Billingsley said. "When he got into junior high, the position at Lowry came back open and I couldn't turn it down."
Michael Billingsley is currently wrestling at Air Force and Billingsley's middle son Beau was just accepted into the Air Force Academy as well. Billingsley also has a younger son, Cade, who is a freshman at Lowry.
When Billingsley took over for a second time in 2007, Lowry was at the bottom of the standings in its league. The first year back was a rough one, as the Buckaroos were outscored 418-53, while losing all 10 games. Lowry was shut out six times that season.
Lowry snapped a 16-game losing streak in 2008, defeating Cole Valley Christian in Idaho. The Buckaroos won three games that season.
"I knew it was going to be rough in my first couple of years," Billingsley said. "That's the way it goes. You are usually not coming in with a championship team and you have to build them up. There wasn't a lot of excitement about the program and numbers were down."
The turnaround in the program began in 2009, when Lowry won six games and reached the playoffs. The Buckaroos nearly pulled off an upset over Fernley in the postseason.
The turnaround from one of the worst team in Division I-A to one of the best was seen in 2010, when the Buckaroos won eight games. Lowry knocked off Spring Creek in the first round of the playoffs and was leading Moapa Valley - one of the top programs in the state - 20-14 in the state semifinals, but watched as the Pirates scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to win.
"I knew we had something good coming up," Billingsley said. "I coached those guys when they were at the youth level and knew what they could do. That helped, because the kids new me and I knew the kids."
Lowry experienced its first 10-win season in 2012, going 10-2, but suffered another loss to Moapa Valley. The Buckaroos repeated that 10-win season in 2013, however, another semifinal loss - this time to eventual champion Faith Lutheran - ended the Buckaroos' season. Lowry reached the playoff for a sixth consecutive season in 2014, going 7-4 on the season.
"One of the proudest things we can look back at is that the coaches and players in the past few years have put Lowry football back on the map," Billingsley said. "I love working with the kids and have worked with a lot of great coaches and administrators."
Billingsley was 50-19 in his last six years at Lowry and 110-49 in his career at the school, including nine playoff appearances.
"It has been a fun ride and I have had great people around me," Billingsley said. "I really think the program is in good shape."
A successor to the position is underway with applications being accepted first from within the Humboldt County School District, according to Lowry principal Ray Parks. If there are no applications within the district, it will be open to outside applicants.
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