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

Freeman football coach steps down

Jim Wood said he was ready to retire a year ago, but stuck around an extra year so that he could see this year’s crop of senior football players at Freeman finish their careers.

“There’s always another group of seniors coming up, though,” he laughed.

Wood’s 13-season run as head football coach of the Scotties will officially come to an end with the annual football banquet Wednesday night.

Wood has spent the past 17 autumns coaching football at Freeman. Add in his time as an assistant coach at Okanogan and it’s almost three decades with a whistle.

“It just feels like it’s time to let someone else take over,” he said.

Whoever that is, they will have big shoes to fill. Just as Wood had big shoes to fill when he took over the program in 2005.

In Jeff Smith’s final season as Scotties coach, Freeman marched into the state Class 1A championship game undefeated, losing to Royal 29-7 to bring home a second-place state trophy.

Under Wood, the Scotties have reached the state playoffs seven times. In 2013 they won the school’s only state championship, beating Mount Baker 31-13.

In his 13 seasons, Freeman has posted 94 wins against 42 losses.

This year the Scotties were back in the state playoffs, falling to an old nemesis, Royal, 35-0.

“Royal is always loaded,” Wood said. “I’m just so proud of our kids. They played hard, and they never gave up. We didn’t play that bad. We were down 28-0 at halftime, and it was still 28-0 late when they got a pick six.”

You can say that about every one of Wood’s teams. His players always played hard. And they played smart.

It’s the culture of football at Freeman – the players are proud to put on the uniform and represent their school and their community.

“Oh, I think that was there,” Wood said. “That was something that Jeff Smith fostered and it was there before he took over. That goes a long way back.

“I think it just fit with my personality and the personnel we’ve had here.”

As the 2017 season unfolded, the Scotties needed Wood’s steady influence during what has been a trying, emotional season following a school shooting that rocked not just the school but the entire community.

On Friday night, Sept. 15, just days after one student died and three others were shot, Freeman took the field for easily the most emotional football game ever played at the school.

It was the night the community started to heal.

“They (the team) definitely took the lead on that,” the coach said. “I don’t think they necessarily wanted that role. They had to shut some things out and go out and do their jobs, but it was one night where the community really needed them.

“It was like they were under a microscope, but they were able to focus for 48 minutes, and they got through it. I think they were mentally drained after that, and there were some times when they just had nothing left in the tank. But we picked it up again when we played Cashmere.”

Wood is incredibly proud of what his team accomplished this season.

It was an exceptional response to something no high school, let alone a school team, should have to deal with.

But if any community could bear up under such an ordeal, it would be Freeman.

There will be a process to go through for the school district to find the next football coach.

Meanwhile, Wood said he’s most proud of the young men who have come through his program.

“I’m proud of the state championship, of course,” he said. “But I think I’m most proud of the coaches that I’ve been able to work with and of the young men who have come through the program.

“They still come by practice, and they still come to games. I see them in the grocery store, and they always ask how we’re doing and ask if we need any help.

“And I’m most proud of the effort the kids have put out on the field.”

It will be strange next fall, Wood admitted, not coaching.

“I still have a lot of things that I enjoy doing,” he said. “I will still do my woodworking, and I will go ride motorcycles. I’ll find something to keep me busy.”