Kamiak High School has filled another one of its three coaching vacancies for the winter sports season.
Athletics director Sean Monica announced Tuesday that Joe DeGrazia, a 2010 graduate of Edmonds-Woodway High School, will take over as head coach for the Knights’ boys basketball program.
“We had a very deep candidate pool for the head boys basketball position, and Coach DeGrazia immerged from a highly competitive process, as the clear choice for our interview committee,” Monica said in the announcement. “Coach DeGrazia is a true student of the game, and utilizes a growth mindset to support his players’ personal, academic, and athletic development.”
DeGrazia spent the past season as the head coach of Bishop Blanchet’s boys squad, his first year as a varsity head coach at the high school level. He led the Braves to a 9-15 mark overall and a 6-10 record in the ultra-tough Mountain Division of the Metro League, which includes perennial state powers O’Dea, Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic.
Prior to taking over at Blanchet, DeGrazia spent one season as an assistant at Lake Washington and three as an assistant under his former high school coach, Todd Rubin, at Redmond.
DeGrazia, who teaches at Harbour Pointe Middle School in Mukilteo, said there was only one job that would lure him away from Blanchet after only one season. That job opened up when former Kamiak coach Brandon Corsi stepped down following the 2019-2020 season.
Kamiak’s new coach emphasized the importance of building relationships with players and said his time at the nearby middle school allowed him to develop bonds with many of the team’s current players, a potentially big jump start for a new coach while the coronavirus outbreak is keeping teams from participating in usual spring and summer practices.
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