Scott Stencil is the new head baseball coach at Cascade High School.
Stencil, a 1997 Everett High graduate, was hired on Wednesday. He played baseball at Bellevue Community College and Gonzaga University before coaching baseball and basketball at a variety of levels.
This is Stencil’s first prep baseball head coaching job.
“I’m just really excited to get to be a part of (the winning tradition at Cascade),” said Stencil. “My plan is just to try to keep the tradition as strong … as it has been in the past.” Stencil said he aims to make sure Cascade players represent the school well on and off the field.
“He does a great job of connecting with kids,” Cascade athletic director Doug Kloke said, “and I think he sees the big picture. He’ll teach kids to play baseball but also to be respectable young men.” Stencil, a math teacher at Cascade, replaces Pat Opel, who left so he can watch his daughter, a sophomore at Marysville-Pilchuck, play softball this spring. Cascade was 46-27 in three seasons under Opel. The Bruins advanced to the postseason each year and placed fourth in the state in 2005.
Opel coached the Bruins’ junior varsity team for two seasons before taking the top job.
“The people (at Cascade) were great and the program’s in great shape,” said Opel, who thanked Kloke and former Cascade assistant coaches Mat Bartee and Joe Dickerson.
“It was just time for me to take a break,” Opel said, adding that he plans to coach a summer team and will likely return to high school coaching in a few years.
Opel applauded the hiring of Stencil, a former standout pitcher and outfielder who has had assistant coaching stints with the Everett Merchants and Everett Community College. Stencil is “going to do an outstanding job,” Opel said.
Stencil said it will be strange coaching against his alma mater, Everett. He got a taste of it last year. As Cascade’s JV boys basketball coach, Stencil guided the Bruins against the Seagulls.
Cascade’s baseball team graduated a large group of talented seniors, but Stencil said he looks forward to rebuilding the program and maintaining its successful reputation.
Said Stencil, “Just to have a chance to try to continue that on into the future is pretty exciting for me.”
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