THE CRESCENT LOGGERS will see a familiar face on the football field next fall, even if it’s a different one.
The Crescent football search committee recommended the hiring of Darrell Yount as the new head football coach last week.
Long the leader of the school’s competitive track and field teams, Yount gets a second crack at guiding the Logger football program after 13 years away from the game.
Yount first took over Crescent football for two seasons following the departure of the school’s winning coach, Gary Kautz, in 1997.
Now he assumes control of the program from outgoing head coach Tim Rooney, who resigned in late March after he re-established the Loggers as postseason contenders.
“I’m very eager to get back into football,” said Yount, who coached the Loggers the two seasons they fielded 11-man teams in 1997-98.
“I’m just excited to continue the success [Rooney] had and build on it and hopefully get a tradition going here again.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be a factor back in football year after year after year.
“I’d love to do with football what I’ve done with track here and get it back on the map.”
Indeed, Yount has installed Crescent as a perennial fixture on the Class 1B track and field scene since taking over as coach in 1995.
In 16 years, his girls and boys teams have each won one state championship as well as 16 individual state titles.
Just last year, Kylie Mitts won the girls 1B javelin title and Denis Claes the 1B boys 110 meter hurdles crown. The latter did so with a Crescent boys team that finished second in all of Class 1B.
“We feel the kids will respond positively to his leadership,” Crescent athletic director Dave Bingham said. “I think it’s a good hire for us.”
Added Bingham in an email, “Darrell clearly demonstrated his understanding of our student body, the ability of the athletes and his expectations for the program.
“He demonstrated his understanding of 8-man football and the skills that need to be taught for the program to be successful.”
Yount’s football experience extends back to his high school playing days at Bonners Ferry High School in Boundary, Idaho.
The Badgers won a state championship with Yount starting at quarterback and outside linebacker his senior year.
While he had a chance to continue playing in college, he decided to focus on track and field instead.
Yount coached eight-man football briefly in Idaho before coming to the North Olympic Peninsula.
He eventually took over the Crescent program once Kautz resigned following the Loggers’ B-8 state title run in 1996.
With a student population of more than 100 students at the time, Crescent competed in 11-man football both years Yount served as head coach; one of which resulted in a playoff appearance.
He stepped away in 1999 to concentrate on cross country, and the football program began a precipitous decline into mediocrity.
It wasn’t until Rooney’s third season in 2008 that the Loggers broke an 11-year postseason drought that dated all the way back to Yount’s second season as coach.
“If the football program had stayed and the former coaches had decided they wanted to remain here forever I was OK with that,” Yount said.
“It wasn’t like I’ve been coveting the job, it became [open] and I feel like I’ve got a lot to bring to the program . . . maybe continue the good start that coach Rooney had here.”
Yount said he has his own vision for the program and will begin formulating a specific blueprint once he gets a feel for his athletes in spring practice.
One thing he does promise is multiple formations and schemes that will keep opposing teams on their toes.
“In no way am I going to try and replicate what they’ve done in the past,” Yount said. “We’re going to do some early spring practices, and then really build the program around their skills.
“I follow the same sort of model as I do with the track program . . . breaking skills down and teaching kids from the ground up.”
Martin to WSU
Keep setting records, and people begin to notice.
That was certainly the case for Port Angeles senior thrower Troy Martin, whose record-breaking season garnered the attention of the Washington State University track coaches.
In fact, they were so impressed they offered Martin a spot on the Cougar men’s track and field team next spring as a preferred walk-on.
Martin will not be a scholarship athlete to begin with, but if he can pass certain marks he has a chance to earn some money toward his education, he said.
If he continues on the pace he’s set this season, breaking school, league and venue records in the discus, that just might be a possibility.
Martin is just the second Peninsula prep athlete to earn a spot on a Pac-10 (er, Pac-12) track roster in the last six years.
Sequim’s Stephanie Marcy received a full scholarship to run distances for the Stanford Cardinal after graduating in 2007.
Marcy update
Speaking of Marcy, the former Wolves state cross country champion is wrapping up her senior year in Palo Alto in style this spring.
The Cardinal distance runner claimed a Pac-10 title last week in the 10,000-meter run — her first in track and field — with a time of 35 minutes, 47.37 seconds.
Marcy was an All-American in the 10,000 her junior year after placing eighth at the national championships.
Her finish at the Pac-10 meet that year: third.
Cristion to Iowa
Port Angeles senior Nathan Cristion signed a letter of intent to wrestle for the University of Dubuque (Iowa) Spartans this week.
Cristion was selected the PDN’s wrestler of the year for the 2010-11 season after placing fourth at 189 pounds in Class 2A.
He was also an All-Olympic League linebacker for the football team and one of two “White helmets.”
The Spartans compete nationally at the Division III level. They placed 11th at the national championships in LaCrosse, Wis., earlier this year.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.