By Oliver Lazenby
In fifth grade, Sean Linville was mesmerized as the Bellingham High School’s basketball team tossed layups into the net during a special assembly at Carl Cozier Elementary.
He’s 46 now, but that memory is burned into his brain – that was the moment he knew he had to play high school basketball, Linville said.
Linville wants to bring that kind of inspiration to the Blaine school district in his new role as middle school and high school athletic
director.
Linville, who is also Blaine varsity baseball head coach and former assistant football coach, started the job in August.
Sean Linville
So far he’s been busy interviewing and hiring coaches for several openings in the middle and high schools. He hopes to eventually have opportunities to integrate varsity sports in elementary and middle school assemblies and inspire kids to play sports, he said.
“I truly believe high school sports have an enormous place in the development of our young kids,” Linville said. “Things you learn about yourself playing athletics are invaluable. You go through adversity. You have hard things happen and you have to respond. Are you resilient, are you accountable and reliable?”
In addition to inspiring student athletes and working with coaches, the job involves scheduling – making sure Blaine teams have umpires, officials and buses – and managing events.
“I’m still learning every day what I’m supposed to be doing,” Linville said.
Linville’s grade school experience didn’t just inspire him to play basketball. While at Bellingham High School, Linville excelled in sports, playing football, baseball and basketball throughout the year. After graduating, he went to Washington State University on a baseball scholarship.
Linville transferred to the University of Washington his senior year, in 1994, and helped the Huskies win 46 out of 74 games. They qualified for the NCAA tournament, where Linville helped power the team’s offense as designated hitter by knocking several home runs, and the Huskies nearly qualified for the College World Series.
“I feel so passionately about sports because I know what they did in my life and the things they taught me,” Linville said. “I think it’s been a huge positive for me and I’d like it to be that for our young kids.”
Linville’s work started with the Bellingham Bells, coaching and then managing the team between 2001 and 2005. After that, he coached baseball at Ferndale High School and took the team to state in 2006, 2008 and 2010. In 2010, the state baseball coaches association named Linville the Washington State 3A Coach of the Year.
Linville has coached Blaine’s varsity baseball team since 2013, first as assistant coach and then head coach. He also assisted with coaching the varsity football team.
“He knows how to help a coach,” Blaine varsity football head coach Jay Dodd said. “He can mentor new coaches. He can take a lot of stuff off coaches’ plates so they can spend more time with kids. I think he’ll bring a lot to the table in terms of what he can do for Blaine High School.”
This fall, Linville is attending sports that he never did during his tenure as a baseball and football coach.
“I really enjoy the kids in our schools and I want them to know they’re supported,” he said from the sidelines of a Blaine girls soccer game on September 18. “I got pretty dialed into the sports that I was coaching and I didn’t make it to soccer events; I didn’t go to volleyball games, so I think it’s important.”
In addition to coaching, Linville has worked in Blaine High School’s credit retrieval program for the past nine years, helping students make up classes that they failed. When the athletic director position opened, he thought he could help the district’s coaches.
“I really wanted to be part of the coaches support system,” Linville said. “That was the number one appeal. I feel strongly about this community and I was hoping I could help.”
Linville takes over for Wayne Vezzetti. Until this year, Vezzetti was Blaine High School’s assistant principal and athletic director. He had help from Steve Miller, district athletic coordinator. Miller plans to retire in December, at which point Linville will take on both of those positions.
In his time filling those two roles, Vezzetti took on more responsibility as assistant principal with tasks such as evaluating teachers and working to reduce truancy, he said.
“Hiring Sean frees me up to focus more on what I need to as an assistant principal,” Vezzetti said. “I think the coaches really appreciate having a full time athletic director and all the background Sean has to mentor them. He’s also working on the budget and I know he’s cleaning up some things that I wasn’t able to give a lot of focus to.”
Many other school districts in the county have shifted to having a full-time athletic director, rather than having an assistant principal handle the job.
Vezzetti served on the committee that hired Linville and called the process intense and extensive.
“We interviewed six or seven people for that position and there were quite a few of us on the committee,” he said. “We got the best guy in Sean.”
