Blake Ecker recalls feeling pretty nervous on the evening of his head coaching debut. It was Dec. 6, 2002 and the Warriors were hosting Pleasant Hill in front of fans that had gotten pretty used to winning.
Philomath was coming off a state championship season in Dave Garvin’s final go-round as the head coach. Eight players off that team had graduated but Ecker remembers having no shortage of talent with junior Jake Kettles and senior Adrian Bowman among the returnees.
Clinging to a two-point lead with 16 seconds remaining Friday night against Stayton, Philomath senior Logan Matthews walked up to the foul line to attempt a couple of free throws. It’s no secret that as a whole, the Warriors’ shooting performance at the stripe has seen better days. So far this season, Philomath has a…
Still, the nerves were there — certainly understandable.
Perhaps his team’s 21-3 start in the first quarter had a calming effect in what ended up as a 72-45 rout. The Warriors went on to a 22-7 record that season, qualifying for the Class 3A playoffs and winning a couple of games in the tournament.
Twenty-two years later, the 56-year-old Ecker still heads up Philomath’s program. And on Friday night on his program’s home court, the Warriors pulled off a thrilling 44-42 victory over a very good Stayton team.
It was his 400th career win.

Asked to reflect on his basketball coaching career, Ecker said it’s all about the players.
“The players get the wins, right?” Ecker said. “I’m just the fortunate guy that’s trying to put them into the right spot to be successful — that’s what we try to do.”
Ecker’s statements were modest but not too many coaches in the history of Oregon high school basketball have achieved 400 victories. Through Friday night’s win, Ecker’s career coaching record stands at 400-177, a winning percentage of .693.
“Fortunately, I’m at about a 70% win percentage and I go back and think about all of the other coaches I’ve had — Coach (Eddie) Van Vlack, (Ben) Silva, (John) Hanson, Marshall White, Terry Bolin was here for a couple of years when I first started,” said Ecker, mentioning just a few that have been with him along the way and later adding Woody Bennett and Gary Cox to the list. “I thank all of them for being on staff and helping me.”
Ecker also thinks about those who came before him such as Garvin, Norm Robinson, Craig Rothenberger, Clif Wegner, Everett Hartman and others.
Now in his 23rd season as Philomath’s coach, Ecker has taken the Warriors to the state finals three times with championships in 2014 and 2016 and a runner-up finish in 2023. He joins an exclusive club of 25 coaches who have reached 400 wins at the same school — a list that from this region includes Craig Rothenberger at Junction City and Don Carey at Stayton.
“All of the players from the first day that I took over, you’ve got to thank all of them,” Ecker said. “I appreciate what they’ve done and for buying into what we wanted to do on the basketball court — that’s pretty special.”
Ecker himself was a standout basketball player for the Warriors and was a second-team all-state selection following his senior season in 1987. For his career at PHS, Ecker had more than 1,000 rebounds.
Ecker started coaching the Warriors before any of this season’s players were even born.
“He’s been here a long time and 400 is a big number and I’m just glad we were able to get that one for him,” PHS senior Zack Powers said after Friday’s win. “We were hoping to get that against Cascade, you know, but I’m glad we were able to get it tonight.”
