Steilacoom’s football coach abrubtly resigns, cites personal matters

Rich Lane has resigned as the football coach at Steilacoom High School.

The third-year Sentinels coach submitted his resignation letter on Tuesday, principal Michael Miller confirmed.

Miller said the school does not discuss personnel issues publicly, declining to provide more details.

When contacted late Monday, Lane said it was due to personal matters, and that he’ll be taking time off to spend with his wife and children.

“I need to take some time, take a year or so off, and see how I feel after that,” Lane said.

Miller said that assistant coach Colby Davies will take over as Steilacoom’s interim head coach for the rest of the season.

Steilacoom is atop the 2A South Puget Sound League’s Sound division standings at 3-2 and 3-0 in division play. Lane’s final game as a coach was Thursday in a nonleague loss at home against Tumwater.

Lane led the Sentinels to an 8-3 record and a trip to the first round of the 2A state playoffs a year ago after the team was 5-6 his first year and 4-7 the season before that.

Lane graduated from Girard High School in Kansas before playing at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as an offensive lineman. He previously coached eight years in Corcoran, California before moving to Steilacoom.

Davies is a graduate of Steilacoom, where he played football, basketball and track, and he went on to play football at Western Washington University and Pacific Lutheran. He had been an assistant coach from 2011-14 at Steilacoom before spending the past two years as the head coach at King’s Way Christian in Vancouver, Washington.

Steilacoom next plays Orting at 7 p.m. Friday at Steilacoom High School.

This story was originally published October 3, 2017 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Steilacoom’s football coach abrubtly resigns, cites personal matters."