Since September, many students have identified an unknown friendly face in South’s halls; Dainean Nelson is the new assistant principal at South. He replaces Ricci Huling, who has moved on to serve as principal at North Eugene High School. Aside from being the newest administrator, Nelson is a longtime Oregonian, an avid gamer, and someone who believes in creating a welcoming space for all students.

Growing up in Eugene

Despite being new to South, Nelson is no stranger to the Eugene community. He graduated from Willamette High School in the late ’90s and attended several Oregon universities—starting at Willamette University in Salem, playing football at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and graduating from the University of Oregon.

Furthermore, Nelson has spent the majority of his professional career in Oregon.  He worked for more than a decade in the Bethel School District, where he taught history for 12 years and was more recently the principal at Willamette High School.

“I knew Principal Zublin from my time working in Bethel; I had heard about South; and growing up in Eugene, I knew about South,” Nelson said.

Goals, games, and growing community

As an administrator, Nelson’s main goal is to welcome and support all students at South.

“That’s the goal. The challenge is balancing,” he shared, “because this is different for individuals, you end up doing lots of things.”

In fact, Nelson is all for getting to know students in various ways. One example he shared was connecting with students over a favorite hobby: video games.

“When I was a student teacher at North Eugene, I started a video game club. I saw kids who were really into games, but only kinda into school, so the rule was you had to be passing all your classes to participate,” he said.

Nelson himself is a talented gamer, having won multiple competitive video game tournaments in Halo 1, Halo 2, and EA Sports College Football. In fact, he has a Master Chief helmet (worn by the protagonist in the Halo video game series) in his office—the prize for a tournament that came with a legendary edition of the game inside the helmet.

Above all, Nelson emphasizes the joy of discovering students’ passions: “My favorite thing about South so far is getting to see what students are into. There’s a class for songwriting, people passionate about math can go further in mathematics, and many language programs.”

Advice for students

When Nelson was in high school, he was a dedicated football player and member of student government. 

“I was a good student because I wanted to play sports in college,” he explained “I always believed I would play NFL.”

His advice for South students is to pursue what they enjoy and try new things. 

“Do everything you can. Don’t pass on good opportunities,” he said.

He hopes students will be considerate of others and thoughtful about the person they would like to be. “Leave space for others,” he said, “I mean that in a lot of ways, including literally recognizing you share this space with a lot of people, and they all have their own lives, homes, dreams.”

At the same time, he advises, “Leave some space for your future self. You’d like the person you are now to like the person in the future, and the person you are in the future will like the person you are now.”

Quick facts about Nelson

Favorite sports teams? Las Vegas Raiders

Favorite musician/artist? OutKast, D’Angelo, Jack White

Favorite song? “Elevators (Me & You)” by OutKast

Favorite place to visit in Eugene? The Ridgeline Trail

Favorite book? The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

Photo credit: Juliana Castro

Article by Lily Yao