POULSBO — Scott McKay, who has been athletics coordinator for the North Kitsap School District for three years, has resigned.
McKay will return to Kingston Junior High, where he was a coach for several years, to be a physical education instructor and health teacher.
McKay said he wanted to have more contact with students.
“If felt like it was more and more removed from kids and working with kids,” McKay said of his position. “That had a lot to do with it.”
There were several changes in the district athletic programs while McKay was coordinator.
He hired new coaches in girls basketball, boys basketball, fastpitch, volleyball, and girls and boys tennis, which prior to his second year in the job had been a co-ed sport.
The largest change under McKay was North Kitsap’s entrance into the Narrows League in the 2001-2002 school year. Before then, only football had competed in the Narrows League, and the other sports had competed in the Olympic League.
The change created a girls golf program, which is coached by Brian Bignold; it changed tennis from a co-ed to two programs, one for boys and one for girls; and it gave the 4A high school more competitive opponents.
“It’s upped the level of competition,” said McKay. “That was a positive.”
Whoever follows McKay will have challenges of his or her own. While the school recently added a boys basketball coach, it still has positions open for head wrestling and boys soccer coach.
Farther on the horizon is the new high school scheduled to open in Kingston in the fall of 2006, which will likely trigger a change in both the schools’ classification and may lead to league realignment.
Under current Washington Interscholastic Activities Association guidelines, a school must have 1,201 students or more to be classified 4A, while a school with 601-1,200 students is classified as 3A.
North Kitsap High School had more than 1,400 students last year and was 4A.
Kingston High School will open with approximately 800 students in grades 9-12. It is planned that the school will eventually expand to 1,200 students.
As for McKay, he hopes to return to coaching.
Before becoming athletic coordinator, he was an assistant coach for the North Kitsap High School football team.
He also coached baseball and football at Kingston Junior High and baseball and track at Poulsbo Junior High.
