After being named Jackson High School’s head football coach last Friday, Mason Siddick couldn’t wait to get started.
“I was so excited that when I got the call on Friday morning, I went up to the high school (and) wanted to meet people — meet whichever guys I could,” Siddick said. “I’m super pumped. Jackson is a very great high school (and) has a great sports system.”
Siddick replaces longtime Timberwolves coach Joel Vincent, who stepped down in November after 21 seasons at the helm.
“Mason has demonstrated a strong knowledge of football, but more importantly, he has demonstrated an ability to motivate and connect with student-athletes,” Everett School District athletic director Robert Polk said in a release last Friday. “… We are excited to have Mason join the Jackson High School community.”
Born in Zimbabwe, Siddick moved with his family to the United States in 2001. He was a standout at Lake Washington High School and went on to play football at Carroll College in Montana, where he was a first-team all-conference defensive lineman and co-captain on the Fighting Saints’ 2010 NAIA national championship team. Siddick was part of three national titles during his playing career at Carroll.
Siddick then served as an assistant at Carroll for five seasons under head coach and six-time national champion Michael Van Diest.
“I was very fortunate and very lucky to learn from a great football coach in Mike Van Diest,” Siddick said. “I got to learn (from) and work for a really great coach, so naturally you get accustomed to winning. You learn what it takes to win (and) the habits that come with it.”
Siddick said he hopes to instill that type of winning culture at Jackson. He inherits a team that went 4-6 last season, including 2-5 in Wesco 4A.
“Winning is hard,” Siddick said. “It takes a lot of hard work. At Carroll, it showed us that football can be hard, but it can also be fun. And that’s just what I want to bring to Jackson — great work ethic, a team that finishes what it starts and a team that has fun. We want to be disciplined, and we definitely want to be successful.”
Siddick’s passion for coaching was reaffirmed after spending a year away from the game in 2016. After he and his wife welcomed their second child, the couple moved to Washington to be closer to family, which gave Siddick some time to reflect.
“I wanted to see if coaching was what I really wanted to do, or if it was just something that I fell into right after college and got comfortable with,” he said. “I think I already knew the answer to that, but nonetheless, it was good just to take that year off to realize this is what I really loved to do.”
Siddick returned to the sidelines in 2017, coaching the defensive line at Snohomish High School. He then spent last season as the defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator at Inglemoor High School.
Siddick said he’s ready to hit the ground running at Jackson.
“We’ve already started the weight room (and) got the guys going,” he said. “We’re in grind mode. We’ve gotta make up for some lost time.”
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