PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles is in the market for a high school football coach after Troy Mann’s contract was not renewed in a personnel action approved by the school board last week.
Mann coached the Roughriders for two seasons, going 4-15 overall, 4-8 in Olympic League 2A Division play.
That included a 3-7 overall mark in 2018 and a district playoff appearance and winning the final game of the 2019 season against North Mason for a 1-8 mark this past fall.
“It’s a contractual thing from year-to-year, and they determined that they didn’t want to renew me,” Mann said Tuesday.
“The kids are amazing. I love coaching the kids. That aspect of the job was great.”
Port Angeles Athletic Director Dwayne Johnson declined to discuss the reasons for Mann’s dismissal.
“I cannot comment on a personnel matter,” Johnson said.
Johnson did say that he appreciated Mann’s passion for the game and his players.
“The enthusiasm he had with the younger cohort [stood out],” Johnson said.
Mann said the ability to mentor and help his players learn positive life lessons was the best part of his time coaching the Roughriders.
“My focus was impacting lives positively, encouraging success and educating them that hard work will pay off because you need to work hard in life,” Mann said.
“At the end of the day, I am proud of my experience and honored to have influenced these kids. And I think there will be some success stories coming from this group of kids as they go forward.
“Everything else: it is what it is. I have no shame, no regret or guilt, felt I represented my character and represented the best of intentions of the kids,” Mann said.
In the short term, Mann joked he was focused “on getting his Christmas lights up,” and would invest more time in his business as a physical trainer and owner of Port Angeles gym Fitness West.
A former youth football coach with the Port Angeles Future Riders, Mann didn’t rule out a return to the sidelines.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mann said. “[Coaching youth sports] that’s a possibility there, but I’m not sure.”
The next Roughriders head football coach will be the program’s ninth leader since 2001.
When asked why there’s been so much turnover with the football program, Mann said he didn’t believe the issue lay with coaching.
“I know and I think the community knows there’s a reason coaches only last for a couple of years,” Mann said. “I don’t know if it’s the coaches that are hired.”
Johnson didn’t get specific when asked about the football program’s struggle to retain coaches.
“It’s definitely a good challenge,” Johnson said of the job. “It has solid expectations.”
Johnson said the district would post the position on the district human resources site and open a search starting next month.
“We are going to open up the position in January statewide and see what we can do,” Johnson said.
The district will try and attach a teaching position to the coaching job, but that’s a tricky funding proposition as recent cutbacks have eliminated some teaching positions.
“We will look at doing that as a priority upon approval,” Johnson said. “We lost that 2.2 million in state funding last year.”
