THINK BEING A three-sport athlete is hard? Try being a three-sport coach.
Tom Webster has pulled it off with little to no fanfare during each of his four years at Port Townsend High School.
That’s likely to change next year when the Redskins head baseball coach takes the reins of the football program and, quite possibly, the boys basketball team as well.
Yes, that’s each of the big three sports all under the guidance of one man.
It’s a challenge Webster said he’s ready to embrace.
“I think after 20-plus years in all of those sports that I’ve been mentored by a lot of really good coaches,” said Webster, who assisted outgoing Redskins coaches John Stroeder (basketball) and Brian O’Hara (football) last year.
“If I’m not ready now then I’m never going to be ready.
“This just kind of fell into my lap [with coaches resigning positions]. I didn’t come here with that aspiration. It’s a little bit different, but I think it will work out.”
The possible three-sport head coaching scenario is more than a little bit different. It’s completely unusual on the North Olympic Peninsula.
While there are coaches that serve as assistants during all three prep sports seasons, there isn’t a single one in the area that serves as a head coach for three varsity programs.
In fact, there might not be another high school sports program in the entire state that has such an arrangement.
Yet if Webster is named the head boys basketball coach later this summer – he’s one of the candidates, according to Redskins athletic director Patrick Kane — that will be the case in Port Townsend.
“It is a lot of work for one guy,” said Kane, whose school district tabbed Webster as the head football coach this spring.
“We have to weigh in to what he can handle . . . being able to focus on football, baseball and basketball. I hope in a couple of weeks to have a decision made.”
Webster has already displayed an ability to handle a vast coaching load.
He’s been the football team’s defensive coordinator the last four years while assisting either the girls or boys varsity basketball programs (sometimes both) and leading the baseball team each of the past two years.
His workload was similar to that of a head coach with the football team last season.
With O’Hara having to commute from his teaching job in Sequim each day, Webster handled much of the program’s organizational duties.
Now, after 20 years of coaching he gets his first varsity head job in football.
“He just has been with the program for so long,” Kane said. “He’s been the guy behind the scenes with regards to organizing the camps, organizing the plays and the schemes.
“The kids know him. He knows the kids. It was nice to have him step in like that.”
Webster has already selected a coaching staff for the football program.
While he will continue to handle the defensive side of the ball, longtime Port Townsend youth football coach Butch Marx will oversee the team’s spread gun offense.
Terry Khile, Steven Grimm and Gavin Rogers — also youth coaches — will also assist a program that must rebuild after losing nearly every key contributor (13 seniors) from last year’s preliminary state playoff team.
“If you’re a head coach, you’re only as good as your assistants,” said Webster, who plans to run the program much like O’Hara.
“[Redskins boys basketball assistant] Tim Black, was instrumental in what PT was able to accomplish with coach Stroeder. And equally, Brian O’Hara was successful because he had me helping him, too.
“You look at [Sequim football coach] Erik Wiker and he’s got a lot of great assistant coaches helping him, too. That really helps.”
Webster is already putting the time in during the offseason with both the football and basketball programs.
He handled spring football practices early this month and will take the basketball team to summer camp next week.
In between all of that, he’s opening up the weight room, organizing 7-on-7 passing drills and getting players in the gym to work on their basketball game.
Of course, that’s all stuff the self-described gym rat has done in the past anyway.
“That’s what I do,” Webster said. “That’s what I am is a coach.
“I don’t actually think of it as work. It’s what I love to do. I am very excited about trying to do this.”
Chimacum girls hoops
The Chimacum Cowboys didn’t have to look too far to find a new girls basketball coach.
Former Quilcene boys head coach Brad Burlingame was named the Cowboys girls’ new leader by the Chimacum School Board on Wednesday.
Burlingame takes the job just one year after guiding the Rangers to their first state tournament win.
He stepped down soon thereafter, and now he’s looking to start a revolution in the Tri-Area.
“I think there just needs to be a revolution in girls basketball,” said Burlingame, who also served as an assistant coach with the Ranger girls before taking the boys’ head job.
“Girls games are incredibly boring.”
The longtime North Olympic Peninsula resident hopes to spice things up by bringing an uptempo style to Chimacum.
He envisions a team that attacks the basket and reacts aggressively to defensive challenges rather than passing the ball to safety.
Those were the traits he saw in the top girls teams at the Class 2B state tournament in 2009; the same one he took his Ranger boys to.
“The teams that were competitive played very fast,” Burlingame said. “There wasn’t any slow, conservative basketball at all. So I’d rather shoot for the top.
“If you know that’s how you have to play to win the state championship, you might as well play that way all the time.”
Burlingame takes over a program that lost its top three scorers and failed to reach the district playoffs after going 3-9 in the 1A Nisqually League and 8-12 overall last season.
He replaces Mike Clarke, who took the job on an interim basis after the school was unable to find a permanent replacement for Jim Eldridge prior to the 2009-10 season.
Burlingame’s late hire means the Chimacum girls will not get the luxury of a full offseason program.
He’s still actively recruiting players and encourages anyone interested in joining the team to contact him (360-202-5429).
“We’ll just get them into the gym right there in Chimacum and we’ll play pickup games,” said Burlingame, who led the Rangers to the postseason in each of his four seasons.
“I’ll make them learn my favorite offenses and defenses and see what we can put together.”
“For the Quilcene boys and girls basketball before, I used a very aggressive defense to produce easy baskets. I think you can transfer that over.”
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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.