Prep Notes: Highline looking for boys basketball coach

Add Highline of Burien to the list of high schools looking for head boys basketball coaches.

Darrin Stolz has resigned after five seasons. Like three other coaches in South King County who recently have stepped down, he said he would like to spend more time with his family. He and his wife, Julie Mitchell, have 11-year-old twin daughters. Stolz has coached their recreational league team the past two years.

"I'm just going to take at least a year off," Stolz said. "You spend so much time playing father, teacher and coach, you don't do any as well as you want."

Stolz said he thinks the struggling Highline program needs someone who can devote more time to turning it around. The Pirates were 4-16 each of the past two seasons and 1-19 the year before. Stolz's best season was his first, when Highline was 7-7 in the Seamount League and qualified for the playoffs at 8-14 overall.

"It has not been going well," Stolz said. "To get it going, someone has to have the time and energy, more than I'm willing to give."

Stolz was head coach at Tyee for four seasons before taking the job at Highline, where he previously was an assistant for five years (one with the girls program).

Kentwood, Beamer and Tahoma also have boys basketball positions open.

Chief Sealth No. 9

in final rankings

Chief Sealth is No. 9 in the nation in the final USA Today rankings of the nation's high-school girls basketball teams.

Sealth, which is under investigation for recruiting violations, finished 29-0 and won its second straight Class 3A state championship.

No Washington boys team made USA Today's final top 25, but 4A state champion Franklin is the only team to have defeated California champion De La Salle, which is ranked No. 6. Franklin beat De La Salle, of Concord, Calif., 58-56 in a San Diego holiday tournament.

Seattle Prep (26-3), the Washington 3A boys champion, is ranked No. 31 in the final "Fab 50" rankings of Student Sports. Franklin (23-5) is unranked.

Note

• The Washington Track Weekly, an e-mail publication that carries the state's best high-school track times and meet results, is being published for the 10th consecutive year by Scott and Joan Spruill of Yakima. The subscription price is $20. To subscribe, e-mail watrack@msn.com. The mailing address is 1525 So. 32nd Ave., Yakima, 98902.

Times staff reporters Sandy Ringer and Craig Smith contributed to this report.