: Coaching Staff

The 2009-10 season marks Luke Roth's 26th year as Sheldon head coach.

Roth was born in Newton, Kansas and graduated from Western Mennonite High School in Salem in 1971. At Western, Roth lettered in basketball, track, soccer, and cross country. He attended college in Virginia before completing his BA degree in English and Communications from Goshen College in Indiana in 1976, where he played basketball for the NAIA division school.

His first coaching experience came in 1976 at Stryker High School in Ohio, where Roth taught high school English and was an assistant basketball coach and head track coach for one year. In 1977, Roth and his wife Catherine moved to Eugene. He was a teacher and assistant basketball and track coach in Eugene 4J for seven years before taking the Sheldon varsity girls basketball job in the fall of 1984. Roth earned a Masters Degree in 1985 from the University of Oregon. He taught for 30 years in the Eugene school district, including the last 20 years in the International High School, with some teaching assignments at all four Eugene high school campuses. Roth taught at Sheldon from 1980-2007, and retired in 2007 after teaching a total of 31 years. Roth served as interim athletic director for five months at Sheldon following his retirement from the classroom. He and his wife Catherine have two grown children, David and Emma, and one grandchild, Diego.

Roth has taken four Sheldon teams to Europe since 1987 and developed an ongoing exchange program with a German club. In the summer of 2003, he led a tour to Australia, playing club teams in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. In 2006, Roth took two Sheldon teams to the Spalding WYBT Invitational International Tournament in Kona, Hawaii.

Roth's 25-year varsity coaching record at Sheldon High School stands at 420-208 (67%).His Sheldon teams have won four conference championships and two second-place finishes in the last seven years. Roth has guided Sheldon teams to 14 OSAA state playoff appearances in the last 16 seasons, including two consecutive Elite Eight appearances in 2007 and 2008. In recent state tournament appearances, the Irish captured the 3rd place OSAA trophy in 2004, and the 4th place OSAA trophy in 2007.

•JEFF WINGATE moves to a new position as varsity assistant in his fourth year with the Irish program. Wingate played football, basketball, and baseball at Montclair HS (CA), where he graduated in 1967. A retired U.S. postal worker, Wingate currently works part-time for the Register Guard. He has coached youth basketball for 14 years in Eugene and is the founder and co-director of the Willamette Valley Basketball Academy. Wingate has extensive experience hosting tournaments and coaching traveling club teams with the WVBA organization. He has a grown daughter living in southern California and is married to Janet Nagler. His stepdaughter Essie recently graduated from the U of O after playing basketball for SEHS.

•BRIAN BRANCATO returns to coach the Sheldon JV team after two years as JVII-Frosh coach where he led his teams to a 47-1 record. This will be Brian's fourth year assisting the Sheldon basketball program. A 1987 Cottage Grove High School graduate, Brancato was a three-sport athlete for the Lions. Brian graduated in 2005 from the U of O with a degree in history. Brancato is a fourth-year Sheldon teacher and also serves as the Irish head softball coach. He previously coached in Cottage Grove. Brancato and his wife Barbara live in Eugene and have five sons.

•CLAY MYERS returns for his third year as an assistant in the Sheldon program, helping with the JV team. Myers graduated from Sheldon in 1981. He attended one year at OSU and three years at the University of Alaska. His collegiate sports experience included participation on the bowling team and serving as the U of A mascot--a whale! He was an assistant to the basketball coaching staff at U of A. Since 1999, Myers has coached Kidsports and YMCA basketball. He is a builder and manager of investment properties and currently works for the University of Oregon part time in the maintenance department. He lives in Coburg and has two girls: Regan, age 8 and Logan, 3.

•CORY MCGRAW returns to the Sheldon girls program where he previously coached as an assistant for seven years from 1996-2004. He will guide the JVII team this season. For the last three years, McGraw coached the Sheldon Quad-A 8th team. McGraw graduated from North Eugene in 1989 where he excelled in basketball as an all-league and all-state player for the Highlanders. He played at Umpqua Community College following high school. McGraw is a long-time employee at Jerry's Building Supply. He has three children: Taylor, Trevin, and Paytin.

•LAURIE SLONECKER will assist with the JVII team this season after helping last year with Sheldon's varsity team. A 2001 Sheldon graduate, she played varsity basketball for four years. She was named Sheldon's Most Valuable Player in 2000 and was the Erin Livermore Memorial Award recipient in 2001. Slonecker graduated from Gonzaga in 2005 and received her MBA from Penn State in 2008. She worked for MTV Networks in New York and Boeing in Arizona before returning to Eugene last year. She currently works in the human resources department at the Oregon Community Credit Union.