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By Ben McCarty
News staff writer
June 10, 2009
Hood
River Valley high school is on the hunt for a new baseball coach
and new swimming coach after Chris Albertson resigned as
baseball coach after three years and Jane Nichols retired after
seven years with the swim program.
Albertson will remain at the school as a math teacher, while
Nichols will be spending more time focusing on the business she
runs with her husband, Hood River Bed and Breakfast. Albertson’s
resignation is another spin on what has been a revolving door
position over the last 16 years.
Since
Glenn Elliott retired after a 10-year run in 1993, during which
he coached the Eagles to three state titles, the Eagles have had
nine coaches in 16 years, including Elliott, who returned for a
two-year stint in 1998-99. The longest any of those coaches
lasted was four years (Wayne Smith, from 1994-97) and four
coached only one season.
Albertson said coaching for three years was not his plan but
that right now he has to put his family first.
“It was
a tough decision,” Albertson said. “But right now I’ve got to
focus on my family and it was the decision for me and my
family.”
In three
years Albertson’s teams went 33-47 and reached the state
playoffs with a 9-9 league record in 2008, losing to Clackamas
in the first round.
The next
HRV swim coach will inherit a team that returns state qualifier
Alyssa Walker, and a developing core.
The team
has sent several swimmers to college teams in recent years,
including Peter and Zed Debbaut, who both currently swim for
Tufts University, Fatima Valle at Linfield and Kelsey Hale, who
recently graduated from Eureka College after a strong career.
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