The Kentlake High baseball program suffered a major shakeup Tuesday morning, when head coach Jason Evans stepped down.
Evans, who does not teach, pointed to a work conflict as the lone reason for his resignation.
“I whole heartedly felt I was going to be there for years and years and years,” said Evans, who didn’t want to go into detail about the resignation. “It has nothing to do with the coaching side, administration or the kids. They’ve all done everything a coach could ever imagine. I can still honestly say that I am a Falcon through and through.”
Assistant baseball coaches Jeff Armstrong and Rich Gallagher also are stepping down with Evans.
“It was a possibility that one of them might have taken over as an interim coach,” Evans said. “Both of them respected me enough to say, ‘If you’re going to walk away, we’re walking away, too.'”
Evans has been at the helm of the Kentlake program the past five years. During that span, he posted a 74-40 overall record, guided the Falcons to one South Puget Sound League North Division title (2008), and a second-place finish at the state tournament (2008). In addition, 19 Kentlake players have gone on to play baseball at the college level and one professionally during Evans’ tenure.
“I pride myself on that,” Evans said. “You don’t hear of a lot of programs that are doing that type of thing. I wanted to move kids on to college and give them the opportunity. And I wanted to build the high-school program like a college program so that when they got (to college), they wouldn’t be shocked.”
Kentlake has advanced to the postseason in each of the last five years, and will return one of the most talented squads in the SPSL North in the spring. A group that will return five juniors who started last season as sophomores.
“I would be surprised if in the next two years, Kentlake doesn’t go deep into the playoffs,” Evans said.
In five years, the highlight for Evans came in 2008, when son Marcus was a senior catcher and the Falcons took a school best second-place finish at state. Kentlake established a new program record for wins in the season with 20.
“That was a special season,” Evans said. “A team that didn’t have all the talent in the world, but they had hearts bigger than a grapefruit. When we stepped between the lines, we felt like we were going to win.”
With the season right around the corner, Kentlake AD Bruce Rick plans on finding a replacement soon.
“We will move quickly,” Rick said. “No specific date has been determined. Once a good applicant pool is gathered we will interview. Based on the number of calls/emails I’ve already received, I think we’ll be able to have a candidate hired real soon.”
Anyone interested in applying for the position is asked to contact Rick at 253-373-4924 or by e-mail at bruce.rick@kent.k12.wa.us.
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