Dan grew up here in Washington, Edmonds, Seattle and finally Snohomish in 1960 with one year spent in Austin, Texas in 1965. He attended Snohomish High School graduating in 1970, participating in football as a freshman, then cross country, basketball and track. His family wasn’t all that athletic as far as my parents, although they played baseball on a regular basis as a family . Three of Dan’s sisters participated in track which at that time was one of the few sports available to girls. He went to the College of Idaho his first year but transferred to The University of Washington graduating in 1975, majoring in History and English Literature He has remained a proud Husky ever since. Go Dawgs! Dan didn’t participate on any of the college teams but regularly participated in intramural sports playing pickup basketball games at the IMA against guys like Detlef Schrempf and lived and ran with members of the UW cross country and track teams. Dan became a teacher late, in 1988, first teaching World History at the Snohomish Freshmen Campus and the US. History and AP U.S. History at Snohomish and then Glacier Peak High School. He got involved in coaching as a result of running from Snohomish High School and using the track for speed work. He began running with the athletes at SHS and became a volunteer assistant coach for a couple years in he early 80s.
In the late 80s the coach at Snohomish died of brain cancer and he was replaced by teacher who didn’t really want the job. Dan started writing the workouts and running the practices. That carried into track season as well. In 1988 he applied for the head coaching position at Snohomish and the rest is history. Dan coached at Snohomish from 1988 to 2007 before moving to Glacier Peak from 2008 through 2019. The most rewarding part for him was the ability to convince athletes they could do what they never thought they were capable of doing and then to have them continue to apply that confidence to all aspects of their lives. Dan was also able to consistently field competitive teams that ran honest races, bought into the pack running mentality and valued team achievement over individual glory.
Dan’s coaching statistics are phenomenal with 43 league titles, Boys -16, 11 at Snohomish and 5 at Glacier Peak, Girls – 27, 17 at Snohomish and 10 at Glacier Peak. His teams won 37 district titles. The boys had 12, 9 at Snohomish and 3 at Glacier Peak, and the girls had 25, with 14 at Snohomish and 11 at Glacier Peak. They won state meet 9 times, all with the girls teams, 4 at Snohomish, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003 and 5 at Glacier Peak, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018. Probably the most memorable (well they were all memorable but…) were the first , the last, 2003 when we scored 31 points and the Glacier Peak team that scored 41. It was a fantastic feeling when we won when we weren’t supposed to but on the other hand we sometimes lost when we were picked to win. On any given day… Laura Snipes was state champion with the Snohomish team in 1995 and, of course, Amy Eloise Neale was state champ for Glacier Peak in 2009, 2010 and 2012. Overall he had nearly 50 individuals on the podium at state with the highlight being 5 in 2003. Dan was also the distance coach in track at both Snohomish and Glacier Peak, and spent 4 years as head girls track coach at Snohomish, winning the state titles in 2001 and 2002, finishing 2nd in 2003. He also coached all his kids in Snohomish Junior basketball.
His wife of 42 years is Kris and was his biggest supporter, totally enabling Dan to do something for which he had a passion while getting the real work done along the way. He and Kris have four children, Erin, Nate, Savannah and Shea all of whom ran cross country and track for Dan at Snohomish which certainly was a highlight of his life.
Dan’s long time involvement in our sport, his incredible success, and his support of coaches and athletes are among the many reasons that the Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association welcome him into our Hall of Fame.
John grew up in Bellevue and graduated from Bellevue HS in 1986. He was a student
athlete in Cross Country, Soccer, as well as Track & Field. John ran in the State Track Meet his junior and senior years.
John graduated from WSU in 1991 where he was captain of the Cross Country team in 1988 and 1989….and co-captain of the track and field team. He was an All-American in the 3000 steeplechase in 1991.
Coach Hill graduated with a degree in History. He continued to pursue his running goals post college and qualified for the 1996 & 2000 US Men’s marathon Olympic Trials. John’s best time was a blistering 2:17.44.
In 1991 Cliff Nixon (also a WSCCCA Hall of Fame member) invited John to assist him coaching at Interlake High School. In 1994 Cliff moved to Newport High School and John again followed his mentor. And in 1995, the Cross Country position opened up at Bellevue and John coached there until 2018.
John worked on helping young athletes find something inside themselves to go beyond their physical and psychological limits and imagination through athletics. He built programs that were all inclusive and celebrated each level of talent and personality with dignity and respect. Coach Hill coached numerous boys and girls League titles in the always rugged Kingco League. He coached 10 girls teams and 13 boys teams at the state meet. Four of the boys teams and also four of the girls teams were on the podium, and 15 of his teams finished in the top 10. Two of his outstanding girls at state were Marie Foushee and Kelsey Walker. For his boys at State, Mike Hill and Spike Sievert were two of his best.
In track and field, John helped coach the 2003 Girls State Champions and the 2014 Boys State Champions.
John has two daughters…..Zia and Kalea. He is currently the Athletic Director at Bellevue High School and Meet manager at numerous athletic events including the Bellevue Invitational, one of the larger meets in the state.
John’s involvement in the sport have affected numerous lives in a positive way. His success speaks for itself, and it is our honor to welcome him into the Washington State Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame.
Dennis grew up in Davenport Washington and graduated in l970, where he played football, basketball, and track and field. He attended Eastern Washington for 2 years and then graduated from the University of Washington in l976. He then worked in the microbiology field for a few years before getting a teaching degree. He started at Central Valley High School in 1984. At Central Valley Dennis taught all the sciences.
Dennis started coaching cross country right away, and coached for 34 years. He coached both boys and girls but concentrated on the girls program the last part of his career. While coaching he had some incredible success. In fact, from 2002-2106 he had 12 teams at state. All were in the top 10, and three on the podium (3rd place, 2 in 4th place, 5th place, 2 in 6th place,7th place, 2 in8th place,2 in 9th place and a 10th place). The team that was probably his most talented finished in 4th place at the 1993 state meet, running without their top athlete. Along the way, his girls won 8 GSL league titles, and 6 regional titles (as well as the last district title before the move to a regional format). Along the way was a run of 6 titles in 9 years.
Dennis’ teams were noted for being strong pack runners, rather than relying on 1-2 top athletes. Still, he had several girls on the podium, led by Kearan Nelson’s 3rd place in 2016. Kearan went on to place 2nd at the Footlocker West regional meet, and then 6th at Footlocker Nationals before running at BYU.
Despite the obvious athletic success of his teams, Dennis says he is probably most proud of developing a group of girls into life-long runners, goal setters, and hard workers.
Coach Dennis was also extremely happy to have had the opportunity to coach his children in the sport he loves. He is happily married to his wife, Janet.
In addition to his success in cross country, Dennis was also a highly successful track coach, as well as on of the key organizers for the Washington State Track and Cross Country Coaches convention. Tremendous contributions to our sport, and the many athletes he coached, not to mention the coaches he worked with are the reason we are honoring him with induction into the Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Rod describes himself as a lifelong track bum who grew up in Pendleton, Oregon. He attended Pendleton High School through his junior year and then moved and graduated from West Valley HS in 1982. Rod likes to say he was a beg-on athlete at the University of Washington from 1985-1988 where he was a high jumper for the Huskies and a letter winner.
Rod started as a personal trainer for 25 years and part-time coach. He eventually retired from PT and became a full-time track and CC coach. Rod has been at Kings HS since 1992, taking over as head coach in 1996. He has coached 21 boys state qualifying teams and 22 girls state qualifying teams. But when you delve into a bit more, it is even more impressive. His girls have won 7 state championships and his boys 4 state titles. From 1999-2002 his boys won 4 straight titles, and then had 9 more top 4 finishes since then. His girls won 3 in a row from 2001-2003, and four in a row from 2006-2009, along with 8 other top four finishes. Rod’s boys won 8 district and 6 league titles while his girls took 11 district and 5 league titles. In fact, his teams have won a league title in 16 of the last 23 years (discounting the Covid year of 2020). During that time, there were 37 podium finishes for the boys and 38 for the girls, with four individual titles on each side.
Many of you are also aware of Rod’s annual Washington State history list, which Rod has been publishing now for over a decade, and can be found at watfxc.com.
Outside of his time coaching, Rod still competes in masters track and field. He has has won 11 national titles in the decathlon, heptathlon, and pentathlon.
Rod says his family is “the herd of kids with a dream” that he gets the pleasure to work with. So in a sense, he really is “Living the Dream.” Rod’s commitment to our sport, both as a coach, and in his work with the annual and in other areas are why he is being inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame.
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