A6
FRIDAY
December 25, 2020
SeasideSignal.com
Baseball coach brings winning culture to Seaside
By GARY HENLEY
Seaside Signal
Building a program and
changing the culture. If you
do that, the wins will come.
That’s the message Brett
Wolfe brings with him to
the North Coast and his
new position as head coach
of the Seaside baseball
team.
The hire was a no-brainer
for Seaside.
Wolfe spent 25 years
as a coach at North Med-
ford High School, with 494
career wins and state titles
in 2007 and 2014.
Similar to when former
Astoria High School base-
ball coach Dave Gasser
came to Astoria in 2006,
the Gulls now have their
legendary coach from a big
school, and a soon-to-be
opened batting cage facil-
ity — now they just need a
season.
The 2021 spring cam-
paign is scheduled to take
place April 12 to May 23.
Whenever the kids
return to the diamond,
Wolfe said he is here to stay
and intends on bringing a
winning culture.
The Seaside boys have
a successful record in sev-
eral sports over the past six
years, winning two state
titles in four championship
appearances in basketball, a
runner-up fi nish in football
in 2018 and state titles in
boys golf in 2014 and 2015.
If any Seaside sport
needed some consistency,
it’s baseball. And that’s
where Wolfe hopes to
deliver.
“The key is consis-
tency,” he said. “It’s hard
for kids to get excited when
there’s so much change.”
But once a foundation
is built, he said, “you get a
program that wins, like bas-
Andy Atkinson/Medford Mail Tribune
Brett Wolfe is bringing his baseball knowledge, along with
494 career wins, to Seaside.
ketball, and kids get used to
winning. You just have to
guide them, and the win-
ning takes care of itself.”
The Gulls have had four
coaches in the past three
seasons. Longtime coach
Joel Dierickx stepped down
after 2018; Dan McFadden
had the Gulls in 2019; and
Ross Knutsen took over
for McFadden in 2020, the
season that was lost to the
coronavirus pandemic.
Knutsen stepped aside,
and in came Wolfe, who
was hired as the varsity
coach over the summer.
Wolfe said he met with
representatives from the
school last Christmas about
this time.
“I drove up and met
with Jeff (Roberts, Sea-
side High School principal)
and told him my intent. Me
and my wife (Kim, married
37 years) looked at this as
our target area to retire to,
because we love the area
and we’ve always wanted
to live up here.”
The couple has a son in
Mount Vernon, Washing-
ton, and a daughter who
teaches in Medford.
Wolfe said he also
“wanted to keep my hand
in baseball, and this was the
perfect match.”
At fi rst, he was look-
ing to serve as a substitute
teacher, but an opening for
a teaching spot at the high
school occurred near the
start of the new school year.
Wolfe accepted the position
and is now teaching full
time.
He added, “I knew Sea-
side was looking for a
coach the year before, and
I couldn’t make the transi-
tion at the time. Ross (Knut-
sen) stepped in and said he
would do the interim year
(2020), then I could take
over the program after the
season ended. Unfortu-
nately, the season never
happened.”
Citing family and busi-
ness priorities, Knutsen
stepped down and Wolfe
was hired. Knutsen will
still serve as an assistant.
At North Medford,
Wolfe coached the Black
Tornado from 1995 to 2019,
and fi nished six wins shy of
the 500-career win mark,
all for a 6A school.
Wolfe knows he is step-
ping into a hot area for Ore-
gon high school baseball.
Since 2006, teams from
Clatsop County have made
a combined 10 appear-
ances in state championship
games, winning seven.
Wolfe has done his
homework and is aware of
the successful programs
in Astoria, Warrenton and
Knappa.
“It’s a different culture, a
different level of play,” he
said.
“There’s some good
baseball around here. I’m
excited, because rumor has
it that the OSAA (Oregon
School Activities Associa-
tion) might be pushing for
local leagues this spring
to limit travel. If that’s the
case, the good thing is that
there’s some very good
baseball here.”
And Wolfe hopes the
Gulls will be part of the
mix.
Wolfe compares his
coaching approach to that
of Warrenton’s Lennie
Wolfe (no relation), saying
“I’m kind of an old school
guy. You give your best
effort, you don’t throw your
bat or your helmet and you
hustle on and off the fi eld.
“There’s good athletes
here in Seaside,” he said.
“And I’m excited about the
baseball program.”
Living in Seaside is just
a plus.
“As far as the weather
goes, it’s great,” Wolfe said.
“It’s a little grayer than I’m
used to. But we love the
lifestyle, and we go to the
beach every day.”
The only negative:
there’s more shark attacks
in Seaside than Medford.
“Fortunately, I’m not a
surfer,” Wolfe said of the
recent shark attack. “And
that just kind of confi rmed
that I never will be.”
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Utti sidelined, Teubner fi nishes 2020 season
Seaside Signal
While athletes at Sea-
side High School wait for
the start of a sports season,
a couple of former Gulls
are busy competing at the
collegiate level.
Maddi Utti is in her
senior season with the
Fresno State University’s
women’s basketball team
and Alexander Teubner is a
redshirt freshman for Boise
State University football.
Both have seen action
this month, although Utti
recently had her string
of 94 consecutive starts
snapped in a Dec. 11 game
vs. St. Mary’s College of
California.
She also missed the next
game, a 102-93 double
overtime loss at the Uni-
versity of San Francisco on
Dec. 13.
Fresno State’s latest
game, Dec. 20 vs. Califor-
nia State, Bakersfi eld, was
canceled.
The Bulldogs’ next
scheduled game is Jan. 2 at
the University of Wyoming.
Utti had started Fresno
State’s fi rst four games, and
was averaging 14.8 points
per game and 6.3 rebounds
per game.
The Bulldogs are 3-3
through six games.
Meanwhile,
Teubner
saw action in fi ve of Boise
State’s seven games of the
2020 season.
The former Seaside run-
ning back, who rushed for
2,420 yards and scored 44
touchdowns in his senior
season in 2018, is listed as
a safety on the Boise State
roster.
He had two solo tackles
and saw action on special
teams.
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Seaside’s Alexander Teubner recently had some air time in
Boise State’s win over Hawaii.
The
Broncos
fi n-
ished 5-2 overall, 5-0 in
conference.
Boise State lost to San
Jose State University 34-20
in Saturday’s Mountain
West Conference Champi-
onship game.
Teubner was awarded
“Scout team Player of the
Year” for the Broncos last
season. He had to quaran-
tine the fi rst two weeks of
practice after Boise State
resumed because his room-
mate tested positive for
COVID-19.
Teubner missed two
games because he con-
tracted the virus. He returns
as a sophomore next fall
and is expected to be a
major contributor for the
Broncos in 2021.
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Briana Boyd
Seaside Elks award
scholarships
compete against students
sponsored by Elks Lodges
in St. Helens, Astoria, Tilla-
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port, Toledo and Florence for
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The scholarships are
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tions of citizenship and lead-
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ria from the Elks National
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Westin Carter and Bri-
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$1,000 scholarships by the
Seaside Elks Lodge.
As winners of Most Valu-
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