Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — A few practices and two games into the 2018-2019 season, Larry Brown’s tenure as Sequim High School’s girls basketball varsity head coach is over.
Brown handed in his resignation to school officials on Wednesday, athletic director Dave Ditlefsen said.
Ditlefsen declined to specify the reason behind Brown’s resignation.
Linsay Rapelje, who coached the Wolves for two seasons in the mid-2000s, was named the team’s new head coach and coached the team in a 79-36 win over Kingston Wednesday night.
“Your daughters inspire me to want to coach again — they truly are an amazing group of young women,” Rapelje said in a letter sent to the team’s players and parents Wednesday.
“I hope to not only be a positive role model for your daughters both on and off the court, but I also hope to contribute to their continued growth and success in basketball and life.”
Assistant coaches Sven Wiker and Joclin Julmist have stayed on in their respective roles, Sequim High School officials said.
A Spokane native, Rapelje graduated from East Valley High School in 1996 and played collegiate basketball at Western Washington University from 1996-2000. She coached at Western Washington basketball and NBC basketball camps while a player, and coached basketball at Edmonds-Woodway and Meadowdale high schools after her time at Western Washington.
Rapelje moved to Sequim in 2002 to teach English and coach girls’ soccer and girls’ basketball until 2006. Since then she has worked as a teacher-librarian at Sequim High School while raising two daughters.
Rapelje’s teams qualified for the postseason in both of her seasons as varsity head coach, going 15-9 in 2004-2005 and 10-11 in 2005-2006.
Brown’s Wolves went 8-14 and qualified for districts in 2016-2017, then went 8-12 and missed the postseason in 2017-2018.
