PORT ANGELES — The prep coaching carousel has moved new leaders onto the North Olympic Peninsula, while other coaches have shifted seats on the bench.
New faces will be found on the sidelines at Port Angeles, Forks and Crescent high schools when football practices begin for high school teams on Wednesday, Aug. 19.
The Roughriders will be led by Bret Curtis, a history teacher at the high school.
Curtis moved to Port Angeles in 1992, and coached the Stevens Middle School football team from 2000-08 and served as an assistant at Port Angeles under former coaches Mark Greenleaf, Keith Moorman and Tom Wahl.
Wahl left the Roughriders with a 23-28 record and playoff appearances in three of his
five seasons.
After the resignation of Forks head coach/athletic director Mark Feasel, the Spartans have a new head coach in Craig Shetterly.
Shetterly previously built Cedar Park Christian into a winner in three season in charge from 2008-10.
He also helped Class 2A powerhouse Prosser to three straight trips to the state semifinals as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator of the Mustangs.
In Joyce, 1994 Crescent High School graduate Brian Shimko will lead the Loggers.
Shimko has been a youth football and baseball coach for a number of years, including serving as a head coach in Port Angeles’ Future Riders football program.
He takes over at Crescent for Darrell Yount, who resigned after four years coaching the football team. Yount maintains his position as the Loggers’ track and field coach.
Other major coaching hires include Brent Wasche taking over as head wrestling coach for Port Angeles, after longtime coach Erik Gonzales took a coaching and teaching position at Hockinson High School in Vancouver, Wash.
Wasche formerly coached at the 2,500 student Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth, Texas, and will trade the purple and gold of the Timberwolves for the Riders’ green and white.
At Crescent, Chris Ferrier will serve as head coach of the boys basketball team.
Darren Heaward, who led the Loggers from 2008 on, stepped away to spend more time with his grandchildren according to Crescent athletic director Dave Bingham.
Ferrier has held head coaching positions with the South Whidbey boys, Skykomish boys and girls and Oakville girls basketball teams.
Bingham was impressed by Ferrier when the latter brought his teams to Crescent for contests.
“I always put it in the back of my mind that he’d be a great coach to go after if we ever had an opening,” Bingham said.
Ferrier held a three-day hoops camp at the school in late July, the first step in building a K-12 hoops program.
“There’s kind of an understanding that the entire basketball program needs to be rebuilt from the bottom to the top, and that’s a challenge that I’ve always looked for,” Ferrier said.
Sliding over from her previous position as a Sequim assistant, 2007 Wolves graduate Justine Wagner, will serve as head coach for the Sequim girls basketball team.
Wagner takes over for Evan Still who compiled a 27-37 record, including the school’s first district win since 2007-08, and first win against Port Angeles in 17 games last January.
Wagner also coaches the Wolves’ boys and girls tennis teams.
Former Peninsula College player and assistant and Port Angeles High School standout Danika [Goodwin] Johnson will serve as girls junior varsity coach and Kathleen Kiele and Art Green will serve as assistants.
Wagner took a group of players to the University of Oregon’s team camp earlier this summer.
Sequim also will have a new head soccer coach with the resignation of Victor and Julie Lancheros after three years in charge.
Brittany Murdach, an assistant for the Wolves and a science teacher at the high school, will move over as head coach this fall.
Port Townsend
Ahmad Baabahar, who guided the Redhawks’ boys soccer team to a 4-8-2 record and a 1A district playoff berth, has been tabbed as the new coach of the PT girls soccer team.
He replaces Colin Foden, who garnered an 8-38 mark over the past three seasons in his second stint in charge of the Redhawks.
Blue Heron Middle School track coach Cameron Botkin will serve as the new high school volleyball coach.
She replaces Nettie Hawkins who led the team for six years.
Scott B. Wilson is the new head girls basketball coach for Port Townsend.
He served as an assistant last year under Jeanne McNulty-King.
King’s first and only varsity team went 2-17 last season.
Erica Dirksen, a PTHS grad, is the new assistant girls’ basketball coach.
Ron Aguirre is the Redhawks new softball coach, taking over from Kelli Parcher who stepped down after posting a 2-30 record over two seasons in her second stint with the program.
Open positions
Forks is looking to fill its head girls basketball coach opening after the departure of Al Scheibner. The school also has assistant coach openings for boys and girls basketball, baseball and track and field.
Chimacum is seeking a new volleyball coach after Sam Archambauly stepped down.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
