The Mountlake Terrace football program didn’t have to look far to find its next head coach.
Kelly Dougan, who spent the past two seasons as head coach of the Mountlake Terrace freshman team, has been selected to lead the Hawks. Dougan’s hire was announced late last week.
“I’m a big teaching life skills throught the sport of football guy,” Dougan said. “To me, football gives me the opportunity to emphasize education, accountability, time management, respect, discipline, structure and team work.”
Dougan, who owns Sorelli Pizza in Mountlake Terrace, has coached Mountlake Terrace youth football since 1998 and said there’s no place he’d rather be.
“From a personal standpoint — what my job is, what my business is — I don’t want to coach anywhere but Mountlake Terrace,” Dougan said. “This is where I live. This is where my business is. This is the only place where I want to coach. I couldn’t be more excited.”
The new Mountlake Terrace coach is going to emphasize a physical, hard-nosed style for the Hawks.
“When it comes to football (it’s about) being physically and mentally tough,” Dougan said. “Working harder than everybody else. We’re going to be a running team, we’re going to tackle well and be hard-nosed on both sides of the ball. We’re not going to be anything flashy. We’re just going to hit you.
“I want the kids to have fun. I want them to enjoy their experience.”
The new coach will take over for Tony Umayam, who departed last season after 11 years as head coach at Mountlake Terrace. Umayam, a 1990 graduate of Mountlake Terrace, most recently led the Hawks to an 8-3 record and a state berth for the first time in school history.
“Tony’s done a great job. He brought Terrace to a new level,” Dougan said. “There’s big shoes to fill. We want to keep it going. We have a great group of kids coming through our program.”
Dougan inherits a roster that loses 22 seniors, including running backs Ryan LaCasse and Malcolm Johnson, as well as other key contributors Billy Parkins, Josh Hopkins and Justin Hopkins.
“The football motto, at all levels, is, ‘Next man up,’” Dougan said. “We had some great players last year and the year before even. Our seniors and juniors to-be will be stepping up, working hard, being committed, believing in the process.”
Dougan said he’d like to build the Terrace program and get more people out on the field on Friday nights.
“I’d like to get more kids playing football,” Dougan said. “There’s lots of kids walking around the school that could be solid contributors to our program. So we’re going to work on that, getting more interest. We’re going to do our own thing.”
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