Elvis Akpla (Photo courtesy Lakeridge High School)

Elvis Akpla will have some familiar names on his football coaching staff when the 26-year-old rookie head coach takes over at Lakeridge this season.



But one of them won't be Chad Carlson.



Akpla said that Carlson, who ran Lakeridge's offense as an assistant the last two seasons, and the team have parted ways. Carlson was Akpla's high school coach at Lincoln and was instrumental in Akpla joining the Lakeridge staff two years ago.



"We discussed it at length," Akpla said. "It's best for the program that he's not coming back on the coaching staff next year."



Lakeridge was embroiled in controversy during the 2013 season when coach Tom Smythe resigned during the playoffs, citing a power struggle with Carlson. The school hired an interim coach last season in vice principal John Parke, who retained Carlson.



Akpla said he considered keeping Carlson on board but decided against it.



"It's just one of those things where the situation that we have, it wasn't going to be what's best for the kids," Akpla said. "It could've just caused too much confusion. I'm going to do things my way. I just think it's the best way to go about things."



Akpla, who worked closely with Carlson on the offense last season, will be the offensive coordinator. Former Oregon and NFL defensive back Rashad Bauman will stay on as defensive coordinator.



New to the staff will be former Sheldon and Washington State quarterback Alex Brink, who will serve as the quarterbacks coach, and ex-Oregon lineman Carson York, who will be an assistant line coach.



"I'm trying to keep as many from the staff for continuity, and then try to add as many quality coaches as I can," Akpla said.



Akpla was an all-Big Sky Conference receiver at Montana State and played in three preseason games for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012. Last season, he coached Lakeridge's freshman team to an 8-1 record and was the varsity receivers coach.



He said he will install a hybrid up-tempo offense.



"The way we operate will be very similar to Oregon, and the way we do a few things schematically will be similar to Oregon, but a lot of the concepts I got from the NFL," Akpla said. "We're going to run something that's kind of a blend between some of the NFL concepts and some of the Oregon concepts.



"We're going to run an extremely fast-tempo offense, score a lot of points. Really similar to what I ran with the freshmen but much more sophisticated when it comes to our machinery and types of plays we'll call."

Lakeridge finished 5-6 last season, losing to Sherwood in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs.

-- Jerry Ulmer

julmer@oregonian.com

503-816-7323

@jerryulmer