Coupeville High School cross country coach Luke Samford, seen here with Catherine Lhamon, has moved to Kansas. (Helene Lhamon photo)
Add another job opening to the list.
Coupeville High School will need to hire two new head coaches before the fall sports season begins – if the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic allows athletics to restart.
Wolf boys soccer coach Kyle Nelson has already stepped down from his position, and now CHS cross country guru Luke Samford is making a similar move.
Samford, who is also an assistant track and field coach, confirmed he has moved to Kansas with wife Hayley.
The decision was based on their jobs, and the cost of living difference between the states.
A former NCAA D-I athlete, Samford coached college runners for seven years before moving to Whidbey Island.
In his one season at the helm of the recently-revived CHS harrier team, he radically increased the number of participants in the program, and helped guide Wolf junior Catherine Lhamon to the state meet.
After much success through the early ’90s, Coupeville shut down its cross country program and it went dormant for two decades.
While a handful of Wolf runners such as Tyler King and Danny Conlisk trained and traveled with other schools over the years, with King winning a state title in 2010, the sport didn’t fully return to the school until 2018.
Natasha Bamberger, who won a state cross country title for CHS in 1985, coached the Wolves in their first season back, then stepped aside to focus on her real-world job.
Now, after Samford’s departure, Lhamon and Co. will have their third head coach in as many years.
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