Tim Martinez: Three new ADs, plus Seton Catholic wins high honor

This fall, I will get to interact with three new athletic directors at area high schools.

Jamal McKenzie will become the new athletic director at Union High School, taking over for Rory Rosenbach.

Rosenbach, who has served as Union’s AD since 2016, is stepping away from his AD duties to spend more time with family. He will continue as the Titans’ football coach and will work as a PE teacher at the school.

McKenzie worked previously as the campus security officer at Union. He also has served as an assistant basketball coach at George Fox University for nine seasons under former Union coach Maco Hamilton.

Stephen Baranowski is the new athletic director at Camas High School, taking over for Rory Oster.

Oster, who served as Camas’ AD for eight years, moved to Minnesota with his family.

Baranowski previously worked as the associate principal and athletics coordinator at Liberty Middle School in Camas.

At Columbia River High School, Nick Davies is leaving as AD to take another position within Vancouver Public Schools. Jennifer Johnson, an English and AVID teacher at River, will be taking over most of Davies’ AD duties.

I look forward to working with each of these new athletic director and bombard them with my unending string of queries.

New Heritage baseball coach

Speaking of athletic directors, Jason Castro will continue as AD at Heritage, but he will also take on another title next spring — varsity baseball coach.

Castro was the 2010 2A state baseball coach of the year, selected by the Seattle Times, when he was the baseball coach at R.A. Long in Longview. He was also the 2A GSHL coach of the year with the Lumberjacks before becoming an administrator — first as AD at Prairie and then Heritage.

“We look forward to Jason’s vision, experience and enthusiasm for the game having a huge impact on the T-Wolves,” Heritage principal Derek Garrison said.

New soccer coach at Ridgefield

Steven Evans has been hired as the new girls soccer coach at Ridgefield, the district announced Tuesday.

Evans replaces Jeff Lukowiak, who led the Spudders to the 2A district title and a state semifinal berth last fall.

Evans played soccer for the University of Portland for three seasons before joining the Portland Timbers as a homegrown player from 2013-15. He was later loaned out to the USL Sacramento Republic.

Evans has been coaching all levels of boys and girls soccer since 2017, most recently with the Washington Timbers FC.

Seton Catholic wins Scholastic Cup

Seton Catholic is the Class 1A winner of the WIAA’s Scholastic Cup for the 2021-22 school year.

The Scholastic Cup is a year-long competition in which schools earn points based on academic, athletic and sportsmanship excellence.

Seton Catholic garnered academic state championships in eight sports this year (baseball, boys basketball, football, boys swimming, boys track and field, girls track and field, cheer and boys wrestling) and the Cougars’ girls cross country team won a 1A state title, helping Seton secure the Scholastic Cup with 1,375 points, outdistancing second-place Seattle Academy by 30 points.

Camas was a runner-up in Class 4A with 1,105 points. Newport of Bellevue ran away with the Scholastic Cup with 2,164 points.

Elsewhere, Kalama placed fourth in Class 2B and Columbia River was ninth in Class 2A.