Union High’s Steve Sheehy Named NFHS 2024-25 National Coach of Year

Steve Sheehy of Union High School in Union was named the National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS) 2024-25 National Coach of the Year for cross country, a national honor that recognizes long-term success and program stability at the grassroots level. The recognition places Sheehy among a small group of coaches honored from across the country.

“UNION- Steve Sheehy was one of 24 coaches from across the country recognized as a 2024-2025 National Coach of the year by the NFHS,” a local post noted, highlighting the national scale of the award.

Sheehy has been the girls and boys cross country coach at Union High School in Oregon for 23 years and has led the boys team to nine Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) state titles and the girls team to six state championships. The Union boys cross country team has qualified for the Oregon state meet 21 consecutive years under Sheehy’s tutelage. In track and field, Sheehy has coached six athletes to 10 individual titles in three events. Those results underline why state, sectional and now national bodies have repeatedly singled out his work.

Locally Sheehy has accumulated repeated honors from peers: he has been selected Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year nine times by the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association (OACA) and has received the girls cross country honor six times. He was the NFHS Section 8 Coach of the Year for girls cross country in 2013; Section 8 covers the Northwest region, including Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

Beyond trophies, Sheehy has been a fixture in Union County civic life. Since 1996 he has served as treasurer of the Bobcat Foundation, which has raised and distributed more than $500,000 for Union High School graduates in the past 30 years. Elkhorn Media Group reports Sheehy is a 24-year member of the OACA, a former chairman of the Union School Board, and that he retired at the end of the 2024-25 school year, concluding his career on a high note.

The NFHS listing of 2024-25 national boys-sports award recipients places Sheehy alongside coaches from around the country, including Eric Filipek (baseball, T.C. Roberson, NC), David Marshall (basketball, Bridgeport, WV), Jim Stanton (football, Billings Central Catholic, MT), Jamie White (golf, Haleyville, AL), Jay Anderson (soccer, Missoula Hellgate, MT), Dan Bledsoe (swimming & diving, Western Albemarle, VA), John Neal (tennis, Charlottesville, VA), Mike Reed (track & field, Gordon, TX) and Tim Kaczmarek (wrestling, Huntley Project, MT).

For Union County residents the award is recognition of sustained investment in youth programs that support physical health, mental resilience and community cohesion. The Bobcat Foundation’s fundraising and Sheehy’s long tenure amplified opportunities for student-athletes from a rural district to compete and succeed. With Sheehy stepping away, local leaders and families will face the task of preserving program continuity and fundraising momentum so future Union High runners and graduates can access the same supports that helped produce nine boys and six girls state titles and two decades of state qualifications.