By JOSHUA FEJERAN
SEQUIM — A North Olympic Peninsula native is coming back to take over the boys basketball program at Sequim High School.
Matt Thacker, who was born in Port Townsend, raised in Chimacum and graduated from Port Angeles High School, has been recommended by Sequim High School athletic director Chris Olson and principal Shawn Langston as the next head boys basketball coach.
The hiring decision will be finalized by the School Board on July 18, and Olson said he does not expect any problems.
The position opened up last month when previous head coach Brian Roper resigned to take a position at Lynden High School, north of Bellingham.
“We were looking for someone that wanted to stay in the area for a long time, somebody young enough to build a program and someone with head coaching experience,” Olson said.
“We’re very excited with our choice. I think he’ll do a lot of good things at Sequim and fit in well.”
Thacker has more than 19 years of coaching experience at the high school and junior college level.
He has held head-coaching positions at Life Christian Academy in Tacoma, Chimacum High School, Tacoma Baptist and Green River Community College.
More recently, he was the head basketball coach at Wickenburg High School in Wickenburg, Ariz., where he took his team to the Class 3A Arizona state tournament during three of his four years there.
The last two years he has coached at Oroville High School, a Class 1A school in Eastern Washington, where he earned coach-of-the-year honors and again took his team to the state tournament.
