Rylance named next PHS football coach

 

PHOENIX – Phoenix High School didn’t have to look far to find its next head football coach.

Pirates’ assistant coach Bubba Rylance has been named the program’s next head varsity coach and is already leading summer practices as the team prepares for the upcoming 2026 season.

Rylance takes over a program on the rise after former head coach Charlie Hall led the Pirates from a winless 2023 campaign to four wins in 2024 and six wins plus a playoff berth in 2026. 

Rylance plans to keep the team headed in the right direction.

“We keep improving by keeping the standard, raising the standard and making sure kids understand what we’re looking for in the program and how to continue to grow and get better,” he said. “We have to continue to work hard, be disciplined and just continue to build our skill set and get stronger and faster.”

Hall, who took over the PHS football program in 2023, left to become the athletics director at Ashland High School, where he previously coached for 12 years.

Rylance has been an assistant football coach at PHS since 2022 and also served as an assistant basketball coach during the 2025-26 season. His football coaching career began at Ashland High in 2015 as an assistant under Hall. He stayed at AHS until joining the Pirates’ staff in 2022. 

Rylance experienced phenomenal success as a player. He was a first-team all-conference center for a Grants High School (Sacramento, California) team that won a state championship, and he was a first-team all-Frontier Conference center on Southern Oregon University’s 2014 NAIA national championship team.

After playing at the Class 3A level for the past four years, Phoenix will return to the 4A ranks this season to compete in a loaded seven-team Special District 4 conference, which also includes Ashland, Cascade Christian, Henley, Hidden Valley, Mazama and North Valley. Cascade Christian has won three of the last four 3A state titles, Henley has advanced to three straight 4A state title games and North Valley made it to the 4A quarterfinals last season.

Rylance expects the Pirates to compete well against those powerhouses.

“I feel like we have a really good team that’s coming back,” he said. “Realistically, we can go 7-3 this season and make the playoffs by following the standards and making sure that we contribute in all aspects. The players are all-in to what we’re preaching and trying to do.”

The Pirates will participate in the Mazama jamboree on Aug. 8 and their first game of the regular season is scheduled for Sept. 11 at Madras. Their home- and league-opener is Sept. 18 against Mazama.