'Let's take it beyond that'
CALEB PEREZ | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 months, 1 week AGO
Brent Cox, during his time as the head wrestling coach at Warden High School. He said he is looking forward to starting a new chapter in his coaching career and hopes to build up the football team into a strong, winning culture.
FILE PHOTO
WARDEN – Former Warden Athletic Director Brent Cox has been selected as the new head football coach at Warden High School.
“I’m happy to be head coach, and I want these kids to compete and get after it,” said Cox. “We’ve got to change the culture a little bit around Warden and get these kids thinking bigger, instead of just being part of a football team, I want them to be part of a winning program.”
Cox said he is a graduate of Warden and has worked as a middle school coach, assistant football coach, and wrestling head coach over the years, along with being the athletic director. When the position of head football coach opened during the offseason, he decided that it was time for him to take on a new coaching experience once again.
As the new head coach, he said he hopes to begin building a culture like he did with the wrestling program during his time as coach. He said he wants to bring love for the sport back for both the athletes and the community.
“When I was a wrestling coach, I wanted these kids to grow up and be good sons and good fathers, and that’s what I want to do for this football program,” said Cox.
During the first year, he said he is just planning on putting a focus on discipline and making the players accountable for what they’re doing.
“We always want to just go out and win games, and that’s easy to say, but my biggest thing is I want these kids to grow up, have love for this sport and be able to have a good experience that they want this sport to be part of their lives,” said Cox.
Warden plays in the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference, which has historically been a tough league in the 2B, he said. Going forward, he would like the team to make deeper runs into the playoffs and put more points on the board.
“It always just seems like we’re in the middle of the pack and I’m ready for this football team to grow and be better than that,” said Cox. “We’ve always been around .500 for many seasons, and it’s like, ‘Let’s take it beyond that.’”
Warden High School began its first football practices of the year with “two-a-days" starting Wednesday and will continue with those until Saturday.
ARTICLES BY CALEB PEREZ
Cougars conclude season in state tourney
YAKIMA — The Warden Cougars’ softball season came to a close Friday in the quarterfinals of the 2B State Tournament after falling in a tight matchup against Rainier 13-10. Even with a loss the Cougars were proud of the successes they made this season. “It went well,” said Head Coach Randy Wright. “We’re a young team; we hung right in there in both games, but in the end the mistakes kind of cost us. We played well, but they had some big innings against us.”
Eagles’ Ewing and Knights’ Orth compete at state tennis
YAKIMA — The 1A and 1B State Tennis tournaments began Friday morning and Xavier Ewing from the Soap Lake Eagles and Cael Orth from the Royal Knights each began their bid as they looked to battle through the bracket. Full stories on both players will be published at a later date.
ACH falls into consolation bracket in state softball tournament
YAKIMA — The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors fell 5-8 in the quarterfinal bracket to the Colton Wildcats during the 1B State tournament. With this loss, the Warriors continue their state bid in the consolation bracket as they battle for a chance at third place. “We came out strong as we needed to, got three runs in that first inning, and we shut them down,” said Warriors head coach Faye Butler. “Then I think the nerves and all the excitement got to us, did a couple overthrows and they had a good rally on us.” The Warriors started off strong with the three runs in the bottom of the first inning to gain a substantial lead over their opponent. ACH maintained this lead until the third inning as Colton tied up the score with three runs of their own.