Beaverton, Southridge hire football coaches

The Beavers welcome former player James Testa, and the Skyhawks bring in Aaron Tanabe from Seaside

New Southridge football coach Aaron Tanabe / Chase Allgood, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

Two Beaverton School District football programs announced this week who will take over for long-time coaches who stepped down after the 2024 season.

On Thursday, Southridge hired Aaron Tanabe, who led Seaside the past six seasons, to take over for Kevin Bickler.

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Two days earlier, crosstown rival Beaverton handed the reins to James Testa, who played for Bob Boyer in the late 2000s and will replace the 22-year veteran after he announced his retirement in November.

Tanabe arrived in Seaside in 2018 as the school’s athletic director and served as an assistant for Jeff Roberts when the Seagulls reached the 4A state championship game.

He took over for Roberts the following year and in six seasons at Seaside went 28-25, making the playoffs four times and winning a share of the Cowapa League title two years ago, when the Seagulls advanced to the 4A semifinals.

Tanabe said Thursday that “it wasn’t an easy decision” to leave the North Coast program to replace Bickler, who went 22-50 in eight seasons with the Skyhawks.

“The relationships we’ve built with our kids and the community in Seaside are and always will be special to me,” Tanabe said.

He’s also ready for the challenge of returning Southridge to the heights the program reached two decades ago, when during a five-year period (2004-08), the Skyhawks went 41-17, played in the 6A final in 2006 and won the school’s only title in 2008.

“What stood out was how much everyone in the room cared about this program getting up off the mat,” Tanabe said. “We’re hungry for the work that is ahead of us.”

While Tanabe joins a new program, Testa returns home to take over another program that has struggled the past few years.

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Boyer retired with a 117-107 record, starting in 2003 when he won the Metro League title and led the Beavers to the 4A quarterfinals. He won a second league title in 2019 and reached the state semifinals in 2004 and 2008, but the program has seen hard times of late, going 9-33 the past five seasons.

Testa graduated from Beaverton in 2008 and played collegiately at Linfield. He was an assistant at Mountainside the past seven seasons, and this will be his first head coaching job.

“This football program, school, and community has had such a positive impact on who I am as an individual, and the opportunity to pay that forward is a privilege I am very grateful for,” Testa said in an Instagram post. “My goal is to provide the most positive learning experience possible for our student-athletes and contribute to the Beaverton community any way I can.”

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