COACH OF THE YEAR
2021 - 2022
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4A - Brent Barnes
LAKE STEVENS HIGH SCHOOL
Retiring after 35 years at Lake Stevens HIgh School, Coach Barnes was a State Champion himself in 1980 at 158 lbs. He went on to be a NJCAA National Champion in 1982 at NIC. He continued his wrestling career at Oklahoma State University.
He began his coaching career at North Idaho in 1985, then moved to an assistant coach position at Bethel high school in 1986. For the past 35 years, he has served as the Head Coach at Lake Stevens High School. He has also helped lead Team USA as a 6-time USA Wrestling Women’s World Team Coach.
Other Acomplishments:
11 State Team Champions
18 Top 3 State Finishes
1 Academic State Team Champion
Five top 25 Nationally Ranked Teams
32 WESCO Team Titles
30 Regional Team Titles
41 Individual State Champions
195 State Placers
3 Individual National Champions
1 World Champion -
3A - Caleb Schlack
FERNDALE HIGH SCHOOL
With an overall dual record of 126-48, Coach Schlack has led Ferndale since 2010. During that time, his team have been regional champions on four occasions.
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2A - Jody Coleman
ORTING HIGH SCHOOL
Jody Coleman is the head wrestling coach for Orting High School. Since taking over Orting in 2013, Coleman has led the Cardinals to 4 3rd place finishes and 4 2nd place finishes at Mat Classic. Under his coaching guidance he has had 7 state champions that amassed 15 state championship medals. Two of those wrestlers were 4 time state champions. Jody Coleman also helps with Ortings Junior Wrestling Club. Coach Coleman runs the South Sound Wrestling Camp annually. He is also a board member on the Washington State Wrestling Foundation and wants to see college wrestling grow in this state.
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1A - Kyle Simmons
LA CENTER HIGH SCHOOL
Coach Simmons has led La Center High School for the past 10 seasons. Durin g that time he has lead La Center HS to it's first ever league title, steadily increased the participation numbers and yearly retention of wrestlers at the high school level and help develop and grow the local youth wrestling program.
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B - Jason Hilzer
RITZVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
I have coached Ritzville for 16 years. Have coached 1 State Champion and numerous other placers. I grew up in Ritzville and graduated in 1992. I placed 4th at Mat Classic 4. I came back to RItzville and coached my brother who was a State Champion in 1996. I am married with 2 kids. I took a few years off from coaching to be a referee. I came back and started coaching again in 2006. I was recently diagnosed with leukemia in July. I will be getting a bone marrow transplant at the end of March in Seattle.
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Girls - Tori Sharpe
SKYVIEW HIGH SCHOOL
Coach Sharpe is in her eleventh year as a Skyview Girls Wrestling Coach, serving ten of those years as the Head Girls Coach. She also coaches girls soccer in the fall, and Clark County Special Olympics Powerlifting in the spring. During the length of her career as a wrestling coach, she and her coaching staff have had the privilege of leading their girls team to two academic state championships, 12 state placings, and Skyview’s first state champion.
Tori owes all of her success to her fellow coaches Amanda, Gabby, Vern, Six, Jeff, and Jess Pritchard. And to the Girls coaches of Clark county, including her most important partner of all, her husband Kyle Sharpe.
Tori is a 2001 Skyview High School alum, wrestled for Jeff Thompson from 97-2001 and is back coaching with him today. It’s because of his influence that she came to love the sport, become an educator, and make her way back to the mat.
2020 - 2021
4A
Chris Feist
Tahoma High School
Coach Feist started with the program in 2002 as an assistant coach, and became the head coach in 2005-2006 school year. Feist has coached 23 individual state champions and 97 state placers.
His teams have placed in the top 10 at the state tournament in 18 of his 19 years as a coach of the Bears, including state championships in 2012 and 2017.
3A
Rob Smith
Prairie High School
Coach Smith has been actively coaching both wrestling and football for the past 33 years, with the last 17 at the helm of the Prairie High School boys and girls wrestling program. During his years on the mat, Smith has coached 5 individual state champions and 63 state placers. Twenty-three of those placers coming from Prairie alone. Prior to Coach Smith's arrival at Prairie, the school had a total of 6 state placers in the previous 23 years. During the 2019-2020 season, Smith led the Falcons to their first-ever Duel Meet League and District Championships and finished the season with 7th place at Mat Classic XXXII.
2A
Jamie Rakevich
WF West High School
1A
Mike Gonzales
Zillah High School
Coach Gonzales has been the Zillah Head Coach for the past 15 years. During that time, he has coached 74 State Placers, 22 State Finalists, 14 State Champions and 5 Team State Trophies.
B
Braden Davis
Liberty High School
Coach Davis began his coaching career at Central Valley High School as an assistant coach during the 2013-2015 seasons. While at CV their team had 9 State Placers and 2 State Champions.
Brayden moved to the Head Coaching position at Liberty High School in 2015. While there, he has had 16 state placers, 8 State finalists and 6 State Champions. At Liberty, he has had 3 top 10 finishes with the school’s highest placing in 2020 of 2nd Place.
Girls
Travis Mango
Federal Way High School
Travis Mango is honored and humbled to coach at Federal Way High School where he has taught Special Education for the past thirteen years. Coach Mango started his career as the head men’s and women’s wrestling coach during the 2008/2009 season. In 2008, he started the women’s program with only 4 wrestlers which has grown to have turnouts as high as 30 wrestlers. When the combined programs split in 2016, he took over as head coach to only the women’s wrestling program. Since 2008, the Federal Way women’s teams have placed in the top-10 of state eight times, including having 6 individual champions and 36 medalists at state. In addition to wrestling, Travis enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, landscaping, and working out. Travis could not have accomplished any of this without the love and support of his incredible wife of twelve years, Stephanie, and their two beautiful children Sophia and Luke.