2016

Bill Kehoe – Northwest Christian Lacey

Bill was born  1961 and grew up in Portland, Oregon.  He attended Lakeridge HS and graduated in 1979.  At Lakeridge, he participated in golf, basketball, and baseball. In 1984 he graduated from Gonzaga University with a BS in Electrical Engineering.  He ran cross country there for 4 years.  After college he started competing in various road races and marathons and he says that provided him with a great foundation for training that he could apply to his future coaching.  Bill also became an avid trail runner and understood the benefits of running on soft surfaces.

Contrary to most high school coaches, Bill worked outside of the high school setting while coaching at Northwest Christian HS in Lacey.  He and his wife enrolled their son at NW for the 1998 year and approached the school principal about starting a CC program without a budget, uniforms, athletes, athletic facilities, etc.  The first team was made up of his son’s friends and a few athletes that wanted to get in shape for basketball.  Bill sent 2 kids as individuals to state that first year and the program continued to grow and experience more success from there on.

One of Bill’s most outstanding and rewarding achievements has obviously been starting the CC program from scratch and building it into a State Championship program that continues to this day under the current coach, Larry Weber. Bill felt the sport of CC teaches kids much more valuable life lessons about the importance of character, integrity, discipline, patience, overcoming adversity, perseverance, hard work, team work, sacrifice, selflessness, pursuit of excellence and many other life skills that they need to be successful in their lives.  If principal Lynch had not taken a risk and allowed me to start a CC program in 1999, he would have missed that great opportunity and blessing.

Bill has had boys state qualifying teams from 2000 thru 2009, 10 consecutive years. His girls have had 7 state qualifying teams during this same period.  His boys and girls have won numerous League and District titles. His girls won State Titles in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009  and finished 3rd in 2001. His boys won State Titles in 2008 and 2009, and placed 2nd in 2004, 3rd in 2006, and 2nd in 2007.Bill’s individual state champions were Gabe Molinaro in 2004, Lucas Graham in 2009 (with teammate Justin Holden 2nd place), and Joscelyn Minton in 2007.

Coach Kehoe was also the head boys and girls track coach for 10 years and his girls won the State Track Championship in 2007.

Dr. John Robertson – Seattle Prep

Dr. John Robertson was born in 1948 and raised in Dallas, Texas.  He  graduated from Sunset HS  and set the Texas State 880 record of 153.2. He also was 5th at the Golden West Track Meet.  His time of 152.7 at that time was the fastest 880 ever run by a Texas high school athlete. He then attended the University of Texas and graduated in 1970 with a BA  in zoology. In college track, John placed 5th in the 880 in the SW Conference Championships. He went on to pick up  his MD degree from the University of Texas in 1974.

Dr. Robertson began his sports medicine practice in Seattle specializing in runners in 1984. He  was not on the faculty at Seattle Prep but was the team physician and a wrote a NW Runners sports medicine column for many years. In 1992 Coach Mike Niggemeyer asked John if he  would like to coach at Seattle Prep. He then went on to coach at Seattle Prep for 21 years, the last 9 years as head coach.

Dr.  Robertson’s teams won numerous Metro, Sea-King, and State trophies during his tenure. His most outstanding achievement was his teams finishing on the podium (top 4) at State 15 out of 16 years from 1997 thru 2012. Prep capped it off by winning the State Title in 2000.

Dr.  Robertson has coached 10 individual state champions in track and CC.  These were Megan Johnson, Ray Rogers, Max O’Donoghue-McDonald, and Joe Hardy. Max and Joe were both All-Americans in cross country.

Ron Huntington – Waitsburg

Ron grew up in Walla Walla and then attended Parkrose HS in Portland, Oregon where he played football and track and graduated in 1955.  He attended college at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho,  graduating in l960 with a major in biology.  As a teacher, Ron taught biology, zoology, earth science, physics, and algebra.

In the spring of his first year of teaching at Walla Walla, he was asked to become the CC coach in the fall.  Besides coaching at Walla Walla he also coached at Milton-Freewater, Oregon Jubilee Christian Academy, and is currently coaching at Waitsburg.

Ron considers one of his most rewarding achievements to be the 1983 CC season and the 1984 Track Season.   Ron’s teams won 8 League and District titles and he had ten CC teams that qualified to State in Washington and one state qualifying team in Oregon.  In 1983 his girls team won the State CC Championships. The 1983 girl’s team championship didn’t almost happen because his number one girl, Christen Hauger, suffered a foot injury in late September and was unable to run until 3 days before the District Meet.  She, however, was able to follow her team-mates Tauruscio and Tyson, to a 1-2-3 finish at Districts and a State CC title the following week.

Some of his top runners included Willy Hernandez 7th at State, Randy Taruscio 2nd at State and she won the State Title the following year, and Libby Tyson 4th at State.

Ron has continuously coached track for the last 48 years.  Some of those highlights were: Phil Girsburger winning the 800 at State in 1983.  In 1989  Chris Katon was 3rd at the Golden West Invite in the 3000 and 3rd at the Keebler Invite in Chicago.  A few years later, Chris ran a 3:58.8 mile at the Pre Classic in Eugene. On the girls side Randy Taruscio and Libby Tyson finished 1-2 in the 3200 at the 1985 state track meet. and Libby Tyson won the 1600 and 3200 at the state track meet in l986.

Ron also  started a track program for Jubilee Christian Academy, a residential program for troubled youth.  In 2004 Ron was asked to be the head track coach at Waitsburg HS.  His teams won 5 boys District 9 Titles and one 3rd team place at State.