Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
WIAA Hall of Famer takes head job
Newly hired Odessa head boys basketball coach Mike Carlquist coaches his Okanogan squad during a 2019 contest.
ODESSA - A 39-year coaching veteran and a WIAA Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee has been hired as the high school boys head basketball coach. Mike Carlquist, who was an assistant coach under HP Carstensen last year, accepted the job as approved by the school board Tuesday, June 6.
The 64-year-old Carlquist brings a long history of coaching stops to a program looking to climb back into state contention. He started as an assistant coach for two years in his hometown of Oroville, then took the head coach job at Coulee-Hartline in 1984. Almira joined the athletic partnership two years later.
Carlquist moved to Goldendale for 14 years in 1992, then took a three-year pit stop in Cashmere before spending 12 years coaching Okanogan. He has a career record of 543-343 as a head coach, the 17th-most in state history.
After leaving Okanogan last year, he planned to retire in May, but Carstensen convinced him to move to Odessa as an assistant.
"We moved to Odessa Nov. 16," Carlquist said. "I didn't know about (taking the job) until I met our kids...they're all really smart, polite and play hard."
Carlquist said he was also impressed by the Tiger parents.
"They have good parents, which can be kind of a rarity in modern athletics," Carlquist said.
Carlquist hopes a core of eight solid upperclassmen can improve upon last year's eighth-place finish, admitting the team was a notch or two behind the district's top teams like Wilbur-Creston, Almira/Coulee-Hartline and 1B state champion Wellpinit.
"I don't feel any dire pressure to get back to title contention," Carlquist said. "Everyone, including myself, will just have to get 20% better...we have a chance to be pretty good. We also have a chance to be mediocre. But I think we're going to get better."
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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