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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hughes expects same trend to continue at LC

Dave Hughes considers himself a member of the “Reyburn Cradle of Coaches.”

You could also dub his ascent to the head football position at Lewis and Clark as one more chapter in the “Saga of the Daves.”

Jeff Reyburn was head football coach at Rogers when Dave Hughes got his start along with Dave Pomante as assistants 21 seasons ago. Dave Carson, who later became head coach at Gonzaga Prep, joined them. Carson was offensive coordinator and Hughes the offensive line coach when Pomante took over as Pirates head coach after Reyburn returned to LC.

“We worked hard together working to build that program,” Hughes said of his formative coaching years as a Pirate. “We learned that you can have success in other ways than wins and losses and it piqued my interest (to be a head coach).”

Hughes would become an assistant coach at Lewis and Clark and last week was named to replace Tom Yearout.

Hughes still considers Pomante a huge influence on him and learned offensive skills from Carson that ultimately led to his reuniting with Reyburn at LC.

“I was running a single-back zone offense and Tom was interested,” Hughes said. “I thought it would be a good move to come over and get going.”

He began as a consultant and took a defensive position before joining Steve Bennett – another Tigers head coaching consideration – on the offensive side of the ball.

The circuitous two-decade saga led to this moment.

“I’m definitely honored and privileged to have a chance to coach Lewis and Clark,” Hughes said.

He considers his experiences at Rogers to have been invaluable.

“One of the main things I learned at Rogers is if you’re in the coaching world and fundamentally sound and working hard with athletes, you generally have positive outcomes with kids,” Hughes said. “What transfers to maybe a little more talented group of kids and athletes is that when you still believe in the same core of values you’re probably doing the right things.”

Don’t fix what isn’t broken. By going inside for its new coach, LC is reaffirming a successful strategy begun with John Hook, continued with his assistant Yearout, and has now passed on to Hughes. The Tigers have had 17 successive winning seasons.

Hughes doesn’t expect much to change. The staff will remain intact, including Yearout in some capacity, he said.

“We have the mantra that basically when the work gets done and you do a good job there’s plenty of credit to go around,” Hughes said. “We take our egos out of it as coaches. People will probably look at it and say, ‘Who’s coaching?’ ”

Hammer time at Mooberry

Saturday’s annual Mooberry Relays, hosted by Rogers High, is moving to Whitworth University and adding the hammer throw. Meet spokesperson Lori Shauvin said the throwing event has attracted throwers from throughout the state.

Nineteen schools have boys and girls teams entered, all but one from the Greater Spokane League and five of eight Great Northern League schools. The first race is run at 9 a.m.

Brown vs. Oregon

Shadle Park basketball player Anthony Brown has been chosen to play in the Washington/Oregon Shootout, April 18 at the University of Portland.

The WSU-bound Highlander averaged 17.1 points per game this year and became the sixth to top 1,000 points for his GSL career, finishing sixth with 1,011. For his career, Brown scored 1,407 points to become the most prolific scorer in Shadle history.

Baseball showdown

District rivals University and Central Valley, two of the top three GSL baseball teams, meet in home-and-home games today and Friday. U-Hi’s Titans (8-0) are hosts for Game 1, the Bears (7-1) are home for Game 2, both at 4 p.m. Unbeaten Mead is 5-0.