A former Lumberjack plans on helping Mark Morris seize the Greater St. Helens 2A League wrestling crown from rival R.A. Long this winter.

Brian Roden, a 1983 RAL grad, was hired on June 18 to be the new Monarchs wrestling coach. MM athletic director Robert Blackman said that Roden’s contract would be approved at the next Longview School Board meeting in mid-July.

Roden is an experienced youth and club wrestling coach and was Kalin Makaiwi’s assistant at Mark Morris for three seasons through 2008-09.

Makaiwi resigned in April. He took over the program in 2003 and last winter led MM to a third-place finish in league, the highest of his tenure.

Roden wrestled for legendary RAL coach Fred Kalal before competing for one season at Central Washington University. He has been active in youth wrestling since 2003, and was an assistant at Cascade Middle School in 2004-05 and at Mt. Solo in 05-06. Roden coached at the Patriot freestyle and Greco wrestling club from 2005-06, started his own club (Pride Wrestling) in 2007 and merged Pride with Bobby Freund’s Kelso Wrestling Club last year.

The Monarchs were junior-heavy in ‘08-’09 and will return starters in eight of 13 weight divisions next season. The strong senior class is led by 2009 Class 2A state runner-up Kyler Roden (the new coach’s son) and Jake Welch, who finished seventh at state in ‘09.

"We’re pretty loaded with seniors," Roden, 44, said. "I’m also looking forward to the younger class coming in. We have some hopefuls and hard workers coming to our room. This is the first time I’ve been at Mark Morris that we had returning state placers coming back to our room. That adds a lot of experience and helps give the younger guys direction.

"We’ll make a run at league and district," he added. "It could be between us and R.A. Long. There’s more work we need to do, but we’ll make a run."

Blackman praised Roden’s "enthusiasm" and his familiarity and rapport with the current nucleus of MM wrestlers.

"He knows the kids in that senior class," said Blackman. "His son has had a great career, so has Jake, and there are others in that group who have had good success, too."

Roden said he anticipates a smooth transition from his assistant’s post to the head coaching gig.

"There’ll be a little more paperwork," he joked. "A lot of the work is the stuff I’ve been doing the last couple years anyways. It will be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it. This team is already headed in the right direction. We have a lot of talent coming back. We’re progressing."

Roden is a process leader at the Georgia Pacific plant in Wauna. His daughter, Anna, will be a sophomore next fall at Mark Morris.