CHIMACUM — Some familiar faces will be in new places when high school football practices begin in a few weeks.
Please try to follow along.
Quilcene’s former head football coach is now an assistant at Chimacum under one of his former Quilcene assistants, while another of the former Quilcene coach’s former assistants is now the head coach at Quilcene.
Nic Dahl, who spent three years as Quilcene’s head coach, has joined Chimacum as an assistant to the Cowboys’ new head coach Mike Dowling.
“I’ve been trying to get on the Chimacum staff for six years, and now I am,” Dahl, a Chimacum graduate, said Tuesday, adding that travel distance from his home in Port Townsend also was a factor in his decision to make the switch.
Football practices begin throughout the state Wednesday, Aug. 20.
Replacing Dahl at Quilcene is Byron Wilson, who joined the Rangers’ staff before last season and coached the defense and offensive line.
Dowling served as an assistant during Dahl’s first two seasons at Quilcene before becoming an assistant at Chimacum in 2013.
He replaces Shawn Meacham, who had an 18-31 record in five seasons at the helm of the often shorthanded Cowboys.
Dahl said he will be the offensive coordinator and Darren Dotson will run the defense.
Dowling, Dahl and Dotson all have sons who will play for the Cowboys this season. Dowling’s son Quinn and Dahl’s son Shane Seeley will be juniors and Dotson’s son Lane will be a sophomore.
Dahl and Dowling also are familiar with the Chimacum players they aren’t related to, having coached many of them in youth football.
“The whole team basically played for us in little league,” Dahl said.
Recently, the Cowboys have been hampered by low turnout, often suiting up only 15-20 players — about the same amount Dahl had while coaching 8-man football at Quilcene.
Soon after being hired, the new coaching staff began recruiting more players to turn out, and had between 35 and 40 for most spring practices.
The staff also has been aggressively fundraising.
“We want to upgrade the gear,” Dahl said.
This season the Cowboys will have new helmets that will help prevent concussions and new all-white road uniforms. Next year they hope to order new road blue uniforms.
New era at Quilcene
Assisting Wilson at Quilcene will be the school’s new physical education teacher Trey Beathard, athletic director Mark Thompson said Tuesday.
The Rangers will technically be in a new league for football, but essentially everything will be the same.
After playing in the Northwest Football League’s South Division in recent years, Quilcene will be in the SeaTac 1B League, the same league it competes in for its other sports — basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.
Joining the Rangers in the SeaTac League will be all of the other teams from the Northwest Football League South Division — Muckleshoot, Rainier Christian and Evergreen Lutheran — as well as Seattle Lutheran, which dropped from Class 2B to Class 1B in the recent round of reclassification throughout the state.
In other Quilcene coaching news, Thompson said the Rangers are looking for a new baseball coach to replace Forrest Thomson, who resigned.
For application information, visit tinyurl.com/pdnQuilceneBaseball.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
