Prep notebook: Hazen football coach resigns after 3 seasons

Byron Wilson, who guided Hazen to the Seamount League football playoffs the past two seasons, has resigned as head coach.

"I've been coaching for 34 years," Wilson said. "It's time for a little break."

Only three of those years have been at Hazen, during which time the Highlanders were 13-16. They were 11-8 over the past two seasons, twice losing to top-ranked Lakes in the league playoffs.

Wilson, voted Seamount King Division coach of the year last fall, came to the Renton school after seven years as head coach at Service High School in Anchorage, Alaska, where he won four state titles.

"Byron did a nice job for us," Hazen Principal Rick Stubrud said. "We told him he was welcome here for as long as he wanted to coach. He's really a kid-directed coach. He did the things he said he was going to do in terms of getting our numbers (players) back up."

Wilson said an average of 100 players turned out each of the past three seasons.

He indicated he likely will return to coaching in the near future, possibly as an assistant.

K-M opens football job

Kent-Meridian has re-opened the position of head football coach.

Russ Vincent was hired on a one-year interim basis last June after Mike Clancy resigned in late spring. Vincent said he likely will re-apply.

"I'm not 100 percent positive right now," said Vincent, who was head coach at North Mason for seven years before coming to K-M. "If I had to answer yes or no right now, it would be yes. ... I felt we did a lot of things in a positive way and I'd like to continue to be a part of that."

Although the Royals were 1-8 last season, they were more competitive in most games than they had been the year before.

"I felt Russ did a nice job, especially coming in on short notice like he did," said Dave Lutes, Kent School District athletic director. "K-M just wants a fair opportunity to attract a larger candidate pool."

Dotson, Piper-Jordan commit to Eastern

Defensive back Anthony Dotson and wide receiver Andre Piper-Jordan, who helped lead Federal Way to the district football playoffs, have made oral commitments to play at Eastern Washington University.

Dotson was Federal Way's leader on defense the past two years and averaged more than 100 rushing yards per game last fall.

The explosive Piper-Jordan was fifth in the league in all-purpose yards (151.4 per game). He broke his ankle in the final regular-season game and missed a district-playoff loss to Bothell.

Notes

• Jim Theofelis, KingCo 4A boys soccer coach of the year in 1999 at Franklin, has been named head coach at Holy Names, succeeding Amy Gardner. Theofelis has been an assistant at both Holy Names and O'Dea since leaving Franklin. He played soccer at Chief Sealth High School and Evergreen State College, and has coached youth soccer in the Seattle area for more than 20 years.

• Kevin Gleed has resigned after three years as baseball coach at Lynnwood to spend more time with his family. Previously, he was an assistant coach at the school for eight seasons. In his first season at Lynnwood, Gleed led the Royals into the state baseball playoffs for the first time since 1991.