Yellow Pages
ANACORTES — Bill Evans figured his days as a head football coach were over.
He was perfectly content working as a Anacortes High School physical education teacher and an assistant football and wrestling coach.
Then his athletic director came calling.
When coach Charlie Bell resigned at the end of the season, Evans was asked by Rick Mergenthaler if he would take the job.
After giving it some thought, Evans said yes.
“I do have a passion for football and a loyalty to the kids here,” said the 52-year-old Evans.
Evans will become head football coach, pending school board approval Thursday.
He has experience as a head football coach.
Evans coached two seasons at Pe Ell (1981-82) and nine at Granite Falls (1983-1991), posting a 62-43 record and five times reaching the playoffs.
Two of his teams — Pe Ell in 1982 and Granite Falls in 1990 — reached the state quarterfinals, and twice Evans was named coach of the year in the Cascade Conference.
“He’s an outstanding teacher,” said Mergenthaler. “He’s got an outstanding rapport with our kids and he’s a great communicator.”
Evans left Granite Falls for the opportunity to work and live in Anacortes. He came to Anacortes to teach weight training and coach football with Larry Lunke.
“I thought I was done being a head coach,” said Evans. “I never saw myself doing it again until a month ago.”
That’s when Mergenthaler made his pitch.
“I have respect for the administration,” said Evans. “I feel good about working for them. That had a role in it.”
Evans has coached several positions under Anacortes football coaches Lunke, Ted Beyer and Bell, though much of his work has been with linemen.
Mergenthaler has always admired Evans’ attention to fundamentals. That is something Evans likely won’t change.
“I think that’s one of the big things we can do, keep it pretty simple and drill the fundamentals every day,” said Evans.
Anacortes is coming off a season in which it went 1-9 — the win came in its season finale against Sultan — and was outscored 326 to 122.
The Seahawks had trouble with a small roster that was hurt by injuries and by the physical teams in the Northwest Conference.
“The challenges here are we need to build up the numbers and we need to create a bigger commitment to strength training,” said Evans.
Evans, who has also coached boys’ and girls’ golf at Anacortes, will tinker with what the Seahawks did offensively in 2008. The no-huddle, spread offense figures to at least be scaled back.
Evans said he is likely to take parts of what Lunke, Beyer and Bell did to make a new offense.
“We’re going to change some things,” he said. “We’re not exactly sure what we’re going to do, but we want to be able to control the ball more.”
• Dan Ruthemeyer can be reached at 360-416-2133 or by e-mail at
