Washington high school football keeps best coaches

– Dallas Jackson, NationalHSFootball.com

Santa has come early for Washington high school football.

In the span of just ten days the top two coaches in the state have elected to stay home. Butch Goncharoff as well as Mat Taylor will not leave Bellevue (Wash.) High nor Sammamish (Wash.) Skyline, respectively.

Taylor had interviewed for the head coaching position at Central Washington University last week but announced Tuesday that he was withdrawing his name from consideration. The school is set to announce who it will offer the position to before the New Year.

The Yakima Herald reported that Taylor just did not feel comfortable leaving Skyline yet.

“It was an unbelievable process; I just, when I got home, I felt like, I’m a teacher,” Taylor said. “When it comes down to it, that was a part of me I wasn’t ready to let go of yet.”

Taylor has helped make Skyline a nationally relevant program. The team had won four state championships in the last six seasons and gained multiple appearances in the HSFB100. Taylor has coached elite quarterbacks like five-star, USC Trojan freshman Max Browne and Kansas starter, Jake Heaps.

Despite being the lone finalist without college coaching experience the stellar reputation Taylor has made for himself elevated his status and made him a strong candidate for the position. His effort in getting his players recruited led many to believe that high school coaches in the area would have willingly sent players to Central Washington to play for him.

Eastern Washington defensive coordinator John Graham, former Idaho and Nevada head coach Chris Tormey, and St. Cloud State co-offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker remain finalists for the Central Washington position.

Goncharoff was never officially linked to the position at Westlake Village (Cali.) Oaks Christian but sources close to the coach told NationalHSFootball.com that there is a very short list of programs he would move his family for and that was one of them.

Goncharoff had applied — and interviewed — at Orange (Cali.) Lutheran following the 2011 season but withdrew his name from the process at that point.

The Oaks Christian position was only open long enough for the school to re-hire its founding coach, Bill Reddell on Dec. 19.

At the time Reddell told L.A. Times high school reporter Eric Sondenheimer that retirement was not what it was cracked up to be and wanted to be back on the sidelines.

“One thing I learned by being out was to be appreciative of the job,” he told the paper. “It was a great job, and I missed it. My wife said I needed to get back into coaching. I’m very happy to be back.”

Goncharoff has coached in Washington the past 13 seasons and has built the program around a Wing-T offense and disciplined defense.

Bellevue produced perhaps the biggest high school victory ever in 2004, when it defeated Concord (Calif.) De La Salle to end the Spartans’ record 151-game winning streak. The team also took down perennial Texas power Euless (Texas) Trinity last season as well as Southern California power, Long Beach Poly, during Goncharoff’s tenure.

In Goncharoff’s 13 years at Bellevue, the team won 11 state titles and had been ranked in national polls most every season, including a No. 26 finish in the HSFB100 to end the 2011 season.

The state has been rated, at best, as a third-tier state for high school football and had it lost its best two coaches could have slipped into a state with evaluations similar to that of neighboring Idaho or Colorado.