SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Eagles are heading into the fall with a new head coach as Tony O’Neel steps into the leadership position for the 2026 season. O’Neel said he is excited for this opportunity to work with a program and sport he is very familiar with. 

“I’m pretty thrilled that not only just the school, but the kids are buying into having me coach two sports,” said O’Neel. “Doesn’t happen at many places, but that’s my two favorite sports.”  

He has had prior experience coaching for Soap Lake, serving currently as the head coach for the boys soccer team and acting as an assistant coach under Garrett Devine’s leadership last season.

Filling in the assistant coach positions this season are Lee Leavell for Special Teams Coordinator and Gavin Burns as the Offensive Coordinator. Along with the head coaching position, O’Neel will also act as the Defensive Coordinator while calling situational on offense when needed. 

After playing football all four years in Ephrata, O’Neel went on to play for the Montana Western Bulldogs in college, where he graduated two years ago. During his college years, O’Neel said he learned a lot about future development style as a Bulldog that he hopes to bring into Soap Lake’s program. 

“Just being a good leader on and off the field and other things like that,” he said. “It just showed me how to respect your teammates, coaching staff and just grow.” 

Last year, the Eagles finished their season 2-6 in the Central Washington B League and graduated four seniors from the roster in the offseason. O’Neel said the roster is looking promising early this season as Soap Lake is seeing senior returners like Andres Lopez and Tyler Hart looking to lead the team this fall. 

This year’s roster has around 18 players in total as of the late summer practices. 

“I’m so thrilled, man. This is a great turnout for us,” said O’Neel. “We got some numbers.” 

Similar to what he’s done with the soccer program, the coach said he is very focused on first building up a culture for football. Through the leadership efforts of the returners being shown on the field in early season he is already seeing buy in from the younger players 

“I think a lot of these younger guys are buying in because (the seniors) are leading the way,” said O’Neel. “We’ve had a couple meetings over the summer and I’m really liking how this team building and chemistry’s going.” 

Much of the roster is still young, so the focus leading up to week one is to focus on building themselves and learning their own strengths and weaknesses, he said. Following this idea, O’Neel is going to use a strategy he learned in college. 

“You draw out Mount Everest, and if you’ve seen documentaries and stuff, to climb Mount Everest it’s not just one full go climb. You’ve got to spend months up there,” said O’Neel. “That’s what I showed these guys, I showed our 10-game schedule, and each week is a build up to the top of Mount Everest.” 

He said during their metaphorical climb, each week will be broken into individual goals where the team can either go up or down a level for their journey. As they do so, he wants the players and staff alike to learn and grow regardless of where they find themselves at the end of each week.  

“We might not be able to climb Mount Everest this year, but hopefully in future seasons we can keep climbing,” said the coach. “I try not to tell them a big goal, and I try to break it up into little goals. Start achieving some little goals, it gives you an opportunity to reach that big goal.” 

The Eagles first game is on the road Sept. 3 against Odessa at 7 p.m.

    Tony O’Neel, Soap Lake’s new football head coach, motions to the players on what he wants them to do during practice.
  

    Soap Lake’s Carter Guizar completes a catch during one of the summer practices this season.
  

    Albiero Reyes from the Eagles prepares to kick the ball during a special teams drill in summer practice.
  

    Tyler Hart from Soap Lake prepares to make a pass at practice as he gets ready for the fall.