NW Briefs: Williams quits as Ingraham football coach

Anthony Williams has resigned as coach of the Ingraham High School football team after four seasons. But he's not leaving the coaching profession.

Williams, 31, cited a desire to learn more as a coach elsewhere and the fact that he's going back to school at City University to study physical education as reasons for stepping down.

"I was looking to grow as a coach," said Williams, who will coach running backs at Bothell High in 2006. "When you're in charge, it's hard to learn. My ultimate goal is to land a job on the college coaching level."

Williams' departure leaves Ingraham searching for a head coach just weeks before fall practices begin on Aug. 16.

The Rams posted the school's first winning season in 17 years, going 8-2 last season under Williams. The Rams' last winning season had come in 1988, when they were 11-1 and won the big-school state title.

In his four seasons, the Rams went 14-26. Williams will remain as an emotional behavior disorder teacher at Ingraham.

Expectations mixed for EWU football

The Eastern Washington football team has been picked to finish anywhere from second to fifth as the Big Sky Conference preseason coaches and media polls were released Monday.

The Eagles, who shared Big Sky titles the last two years and advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs both seasons, were picked second by the coaches and fifth by the media. A year ago, Eastern was picked to win the title it eventually shared with Montana.

Also, EWU senior tight end Tim Calhoun, junior offensive guard Matt Alfred and junior safety Bryan Jarrett have been selected to the preseason All-Big Sky team.

Eastern opens the season Aug. 31 at Oregon State, then plays at West Virginia on Sept. 9. Eastern has its home opener against Central Washington on Sept. 16.

In other Big Sky football news, conference games will be shown live on the Internet this fall. The league announced a three-year deal with a Salt Lake City company to start bigskytv.org, a Web site that will show Big Sky football, volleyball and men's and women's basketball games live.

Note

• Evergreen State has hired Paolo Mottolla as women's soccer coach.

Compiled from wire and sports-information reports and other sources. Times correspondent Matt Massey also contributed to this report.