Forks: Coach layoffs leave high school athletic program reeling

FORKS — High school wrestling coach Aaron Roddis says he’ll stick out his spell of coming unemployment and stick around.

The entire varsity football coaching staff of Forks High School — most notably head coach Andrew Peterson, a former University of Washington and National Football League player — may turn over, however, before the 2002-03 school year.

The planned moves come after Tuesday night’s announcement that Roddis, first-year coach Peterson and two of his three assistants were among nine teachers who will lose their teaching jobs with the Quillayute Valley School District at the end of the school year.

Peterson, who formally submitted his resignation as football coach Tuesday, said he’ll look for a new teaching-and-coaching position elsewhere. So, he said, will assistant coaches and fellow teachers Brian Hollatz and Robbie King. King has said he would like to stay in the area, however.

A third assistant, Todd Fraker, works in the Quillayute district as a long-term substitute teacher and was also informed that his job wouldn’t be available next school year, Peterson said.

The reduction-in-force cuts, made Monday and announced at Tuesday night’s school district board meeting, came as part of a plan to pare $800,000 in expenses from the district’s $10.8 million budget.

By Wednesday, they were the talk of the Forks community.

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The rest of this story appears in the Thursday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.

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