Matt Gracey was a head coach in Port Angeles before heading south to take football jobs in California and Arizona.
Most recently, he took some time off from coaching.
Football and the state of Washington came calling again. Gracey answered on Tuesday.
Gracey has been named the head football coach at Heritage High School.
“One of the key issues is working for an AD I know and respect,” said Gracey, who met Heritage athletic director Leta Meyer about five years ago and has always kept in touch. “This was one of those times it worked out. The job came open and I happened to be looking to relocate.”
Gracey will take over for Chuck Hawthorne, who was hired on an interim basis last July following the sudden resignation of Jack Hathaway just as spring drills were beginning in June.
Gracey said it took some time away from the game for him to realize he had to be back in the game.
“This is what I need to be doing,” he said. “Being a football coach and a teacher is what I was born to do.”
At Port Angeles, he said his team had the fourth-best offense in the state in his second year. He runs the spread but is quick to make adjustments.
“It’s going to boil down to the kind of kids we have,” Gracey said. “You do what your kids are able to do.”
He also wants this to be his family’s last move.
“It’s one of my favorite places. The Vancouver-Portland area is awesome,” said Gracey, noting he spent a week in Vancouver for a football camp at Heritage when he was coaching at Port Angeles.
Gracey will finish out the school year in Arizona — he teaches English and physical education in Mesa. He said the school year there ends May 22, so he will be at Heritage in time for spring practice, which begins June 1.
“I don’t want to move anymore. I want to build it and stay around and be with the program,” he said.
Heritage has not had a winning regular season since 2008.
“I want to set the program on the right path,” Gracey said of the first year.
“It’s getting the kids doing the right things. They’ve got athletes. It’s a school that can win. It’s about getting them to believe they can. We’re going to turn this around, and we’re going to find ways to win football games.”
