Tumwater High School football legend Sid Otton will be among the world’s best football players and coaches this weekend.
As he should be.
The Seahawks announced on Monday the retired Tumwater High coach will join players Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, Bobby Wagner, Doug Baldwin, Jimmy Graham and K.J. Wright at the NFL’s Pro Bowl in Orlando, Florida, this weekend.
Punt, pass and kick national-championship participants Casey Canonica from Tacoma and Brynna Nixon from Bonney Lake will be there, too.
Otton retired in November at the end of his 43rd season coaching Tumwater, where he began as a head man when President Gerald Ford was steering our nation out of Watergate. Otton is the most successful high school football coach in Washington state history, with a career record of 394 wins, 131 losses and six state championships.
He is the Seahawks’ 2016 nominee for the Don Shula NFL High School Coach of the Year Award. Otton is the 2016 High School Coach of the Year for Washington.
The Don Shula NFL High School Coach of the Year Award honors an exemplary football coach at the high school level who displays the integrity, achievement, and leadership demonstrated by the former Miami Dolphins coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer. This weekend will be the first time in Pro Bowl history all Shula Award nominees will be honored and participate in Pro Bowl week events. The winner of the national award will be announced during the Pro Bowl Sunday in Orlando (ESPN television, 5 p.m.).
Otton was a head coach in Washington for 49 years in all, starting in Coupeville then Colfax. He began leading Tumwater in 1974.
Five of his state titles came at Tumwater. His most recent one was in 2010. In 43 years leading the T-Birds, Otton went 361-112 with 27 appearances in the state playoffs.
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