Say Dave Olsen’s name and South Kitsap sports fans will nod in recognition. In fact, for longtime Kitsap residents, he’s something of a legend.

He coached at South Kitsap High for 33 years, was head coach of the girls track team for 13 and led South Kitsap to its only back-to-back state championships in 1991 and 1992.

On Jan. 16, Olsen’s legendary status was confirmed when he was inducted into the South Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame.

“It was fun. I coached for 33 years when you add it up, and 13 as the head girls coach,” Olsen said.

Five members of the back-to-back state championship teams attended the Hall of Fame banquet with him.

“I really enjoyed seeing them all again,” he said. “It had been 24 years.”

After attending Central Washington College of Education (later becoming Central Washington University), Olsen wanted to teach wood shop. However, that position was unavailable, so he took a position that focused on different shop classes, such as wood, auto and metal.

At Central, he was a four-year letter-winner in track. He mostly participated as a jumper and was a team captain his senior year. He graduated in 1963.

“I graduated one Saturday, married my wife the next,” Olsen said. He has lived with his wife in Port Orchard for 52 years. They have a son and daughter who both followed in their father’s footsteps and became teachers. Along with teaching and coaching, Olsen owned his own photography business.

“I named it after myself, Dave Olsen Photography, because people already knew who I was,” Olsen said.

In 1963, when Olsen graduated, Lloyd Pugh was the head boys coach for track at South Kitsap High, and only two coaching positions were available at the school. At that time, the high school sported just a boys track and field team. Maynard Lundberg was the assistant coach at the time, and Olsen had to wait for him to retire.

Olsen eventually became assistant coach and mentored under Pugh for many years. Olsen said Pugh taught him many of the tactics he used with his state championship team.

“I knew the scoring in all the meets before the statisticians,” Olsen said. “I knew what the score was to let other runners letter or change things up.

“Lloyd Pugh taught me that. He was my mentor and the heart and soul of the track team.”

The 1991 state championship was a huge moment in Olsen’s head coaching career. Although he knew his team was strong, he never expected them to reach that pinnacle of success.

“I knew we’d score a lot of points at the state meet, but I never thought we’d win,” Olsen said.

That is, until a sports reporter came up to him and said they’d won.

“I said I knew because we’d just won the mile relay. It was the last event of the day. That’s what I thought he was talking about,” Olsen said. “But then I learned we did win, and the headline read ‘Holy Cow’ because that’s what I said.”

After that moment, Olsen went to the officials and said, “We’ll be back next year.”

After graduating only one senior, he was right.

“We came back the next year and tied. But, you still get a trophy,” he said.

The team that season set two goals for themselves. The first was to win the league championship, win West Central District and then take home a state championship. The second goal was to letter as many people as possible.

“I let them know there were ramifications” in reaching those goals, Olsen said. “They’d have to work harder than they ever had before. And to letter, you have to score points.

“So if you were in first and I was third or fourth, the number one would have to back off for number three or four to score points.

Their bonding as a team was excellent, Olsen said.

“We were all together and supported everyone. Nobody left until everyone (finished). Even if their event was first, they would stay until the last.”

Along with track and this team, Olsen is most proud of his family. In addition to having a son and daughter, he and his wife have five grandchildren.

He described his wife as a “sweetheart, always has been.”

To paint a picture of how highly people thought of her, Olsen told a story about her coworkers when she retired as a kindergarten teacher.

“People would always ask her what she wanted for retirement, and she would always joke, ‘A trip to Hawaii,’” Olsen said.

“So when the time came, they called me and asked if this was doable. I told them I didn’t see why not, but Carol said, ‘I can’t go now and leave Dave to fend for himself.’ ”

The group of fellow teachers and former students eventually sent them both to Hawaii for a week.

“We enjoyed it big time,” Olsen said.

Although Carol has been suffering from dementia for the past few years, Olsen still enjoys lunch and regular activities with his sweetheart on a daily basis. And looking back on his life and his long, victorious career, he couldn’t be happier.

“It was fun, tiring, frustrating, wet, cold,” he said. “But I’m one of the lucky guys in the world. I got paid for what I like to do.”