High School Sports

News and commentary on high-school sports around Puget Sound.

The Highline School District has annouced several new coaches in a variety of spring sports.

Here is the list and a little information about each coach provided by Terri McMahan, district AD:

Evergreen High School

Annette Cook – Girls Tennis: Annette has 24 years of experience teaching physical education and coaching numerous sports in the Yakima School District, where she was named “Teacher of the Year” in 2008 for her work at Eisenhower High School.  She has relocated to our area and is serving the district as a guest teacher (substitute) while seeking teaching positions.

Highline High School

Rod Pierce – Softball:  Rod has played softball for over 25 years.  He has 13 years combined as a high school and college coach (four years head coach at West Seattle, three years head coach at Cleveland, two years assistant at Seattle University, four years assistant at University Prep).  Rod is a local attorney.

David Johnson – Baseball:  David has previous experience as head coach at Renton High School (1994-97 and 2006-07) and assistant coach at Hazen High School (1998-01).  He played baseball for Blanchet High School, Yakima Valley College and one year for the University of Washington.  David is a high school coordinator for Everest College in Renton.

Mount Rainier High School

Bob Odegard – Baseball:  Bob has been with the program as an assistant for 14 years and works locally as a property manager.  He is a graduate of Mount Rainier and four-year letterman in baseball.  He began as an assistant to Dave Cook and stayed on in 2001 when Darren Rawie assumed the head coach position.  Rawie stepped down to focus on his duties as building athletic director.

Steve Mohn – Soccer: Steve was a standout player at Thomas Jefferson High School.  He went on to play one year each at Pacific Lutheran University and Highline Community College before being recruited to play at the University of Washington.  He played one year for the Huskies before a broken leg ended his college career.  Once rehabilitated, he went on to play for the Kitsap Pumas and for the past five years has been assistant to Jason Prenevost at Highline Community College.

Tyee High School

Allen Rider – Soccer:   Allen grew up playing soccer and played for four years at Tyee.  For the past five years, Allen has worked as the junior varsity coach, most recently under John Yellam.  Yellam has stepped down to focus on his duties as Building Athletic Director.  Allen works for Target.

Cindy Akana – Softball:  Cindy grew up playing fastpitch in California and has continued to play through her adult years.  She currently works on the Tyee campus as a para-educator and also serves as Highline High School’s head volleyball coach and head coach for the Highline-Evergreen-Tyee Boy’s Swim and Dive Co-Op.