He has one big pair of shoes to fill
Published 12:18 am Friday, September 14, 2007
EVERETT — Rick Stubrud is an experienced football coach, but he’s not kidding himself. Stubrud knows he’s stepping in for a legend.
“I’ve got kind of a tough job, don’t I?” Stubrud said Thursday after overseeing his first practice as Archbishop Murphy High School’s interim head football coach.
Archbishop Murphy on Thursday named Stubrud the temporary successor to former Wildcats head coach Terry Ennis, who early Wednesday died of cancer-related complications.
Ennis founded Murphy’s football program in 2000 and had been its only head coach, guiding the team to remarkable success, including Class 1A state championships in 2002 and 2003. He also coached at Stanwood, Bellarmine Prep, Renton and Cascade. His victory total (287) is second-best in state history.
Ennis, who battled prostate cancer for nearly five years, hand-picked Stubrud to take over at Murphy.
Last spring Ennis invited Stubrud, his brother-in-law, to begin working with Murphy. At the time Stubrud, who has been a head football coach at Sunnyside and Hazen (1983-1998), was considering other coaching opportunities.
Ultimately, Stubrud decided to join Ennis at Murphy. Stubrud, 56, has been around the team for about two weeks and traveled to Las Vegas for the Wildcats’ season-opening game. Stubrud said he knew he might someday take over for Ennis but he never imagined it would happen so soon.
“(Ennis) fully anticipated to have quite a few months left ahead of him,” said Stubrud. “I think that’s been the most disquieting thing for everybody, myself included. It just went so quickly that last few days.” Stubrud was Hazen’s principal from 1998-2005. He recently retired from the Renton School District after serving one year as athletic director. The Murphy job is his first head coaching position in more than eight years.
“I would have loved to be (Ennis’) right-hand man,” Stubrud said, “but I’ll be The Man instead, just in his place.” Considering all that’s happened, things seemed to go smoothly Thursday at Murphy’s practice. Stubrud said he has no plans to change the framework developed so carefully by Ennis. The interim coach said he made that clear during his practice-opening talk with the team.
“I just explained that, for all of us, we need to step forward and carry on. I think that’s the most important thing,” said Stubrud.
“I think (the players) had to grow up and become men a lot quicker than they wanted to because it’s just an unbelievable experience,” he added. “So we put some closure into it from the standpoint that we do need to move on and we are going to largely just say, ‘Let’s complete coach Ennis’ last season.’” Murphy’s season continues tonight with a Cascade Conference game at Coupeville. Both teams are 2-0.
Henry Woods, a Murphy senior co-captain, said finding out about Ennis’ death was harsh; Woods didn’t want to believe it. But the Wildcats must push ahead, and the interim coach made a good impression, Woods said.
“Coach Stubrud is a real nice guy, a real nice coach. He understands what coach Ennis wanted to get done,” said Woods, a running back/defensive back. “I think he’s a good fit to come in and get us down the right path.” Tonight Murphy’s path goes to Coupeville. Feelings will be raw and possibly overwhelming for the Wildcats.
“Going out on the field, it’ll be emotional, most definitely, just ‘cause (Ennis’ death) was such a tragic thing,” Woods said. “We wanna get out there and be able to express our emotions on the football field.”
Contact Herald Writer Mike Cane at mcane@heraldnet.com. For more high school sports news, check out the prep sports blog Double Team at heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
