Wille had too many irons in the fire

Published 11:07 pm Friday, April 18, 2008

Something had to give. As athletic director, assistant principal and head boys basketball coach at Monroe High School, Brett Wille had an unusually massive amount of responsibility.

As painful as it was to admit, Wille knew he had to make a change.

He did it Friday, resigning from his job as Monroe’s boys hoops coach. Wille guided the Bearcats program for seven seasons.

“Without question, this was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make in my entire life,” said Wille, 33.

This school year Wille became Monroe’s athletic director and juggled all his roles at the school. But after meeting last week with school district officials and thinking it all over, Wille said two things convinced him to stop coaching, at least for now.

“I had to look at it as a new father and trying to build a family,” Wille said. In December he and his wife adopted their first child, a baby girl. Sixty-hour work weeks, including lots of night coaching commitments, got to be too much, he said.

The other key reason: Wille said he wants to pour more energy into his athletic director job because all of Monroe’s sports programs deserve attention, not just basketball.

Wille said he essentially made up his mind last weekend. He met with Monroe’s assistant basketball coaches on Thursday and told them his decision. They asked him to reconsider, Wille said: “They really didn’t want me to resign.”

A three-sport athlete at Woodinville High who played basketball at Northwest University in Kirkland, Wille said he’s proud of what he and his staff did at Monroe. They worked hard to build a respected program, he said.

The 2007-2008 season was Monroe’s most successful under Wille. The Bearcats won 13 of 20 games and went 10-6 in Western Conference North Division contests. They were on the verge of qualifying for the Class 4A District 1 tournament but lost a tiebreaker with Stanwood and Lake Stevens for the division’s final two berths.

“This past season was great,” Wille said. “We had a group of kids that, not only were they good at basketball but they represented everything we wanted them to represent on and off the court.”

Wille apparently did his part by setting a good example. He won the 2008 Norm Lowery Sr. Coach of the Year Award, presented by the Snohomish County Boys Basketball Officials Association. The honor goes to a coach who demonstrates great sportsmanship, fair play and leadership.

Wille will help hire his successor. Next week he plans to come up with a time frame for finding Monroe’s next head coach.

Writer Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.