The voice of Roger Hansen, the now un-retired track coach at Lake Washington High School, seems to command a mysterious level of respect from his young charges during practice.
Relay teams take their positions to practice handoffs on the eastern end of the stadium. Hansen barks orders, handing athletes strips of tape to mark their positions and honing in the process one step at a time.
One of the athletes participating is senior Allison Wells, who finished third at the KingCo meet last year in the 400 meters and qualified for the girls’ state meet. She and a handful of others, including speedy freshman Thayer Davis, hope to qualify for state in the 4×100 meter relay.
Wells was one of several athletes to come and work out with Hansen before the season, but before last week, even she was blissfully unaware of the highlight-reel reputation Hansen carries with him.
“It’s really cool, but we didn’t know about his history,” she said.
Hansen was inducted into the Washington State Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame with the class of 2004, an organization for which he served as president during the 1981-82 season. He was twice named the Washington State Track Coach of the Year, and helped run the state heptathlon-decathlon competition from 1994 until his retirement in 2003.
Hansen won three consecutive state championships as the head girls coach at Sammamish High School in the 1970s. He left for Lake Washington in 1989, only to win another state title 11 years later. All told, Hansen has 14 KingCo league championships. He also spent a few early years coaching at Juanita High School after finishing a stint in the military.
“These kids don’t know,” said assistant coach Doug Steensland from his place near the high jump pit. “But their parents do.”
The athletes might not have a full history, but it’s difficult to ignore the all-star list of coaches Hansen has on his staff.
The distance coach, Lyudmila Vasilyeva, was internationally ranked in middle distances as a youth runner. Jock McLoughlin set the school shot put record in 1961, and it still stands almost 55 years later.
Darion Powell, who will be assisting the pole vaulters, won the Pac-10 decathlete title and finished fourth in the nation for Washington State University before transferring to LSU, where he finished third at nationals in 2006. Football coach AJ Parnell has stepped in to assist with the sprinters.
Steensland, who works with the jumpers, has known Hansen for almost all of his 44-year coaching career.
“Doug, I coached with in the 1970s at Juanita,” Hansen said. “(McLoughlin), I coached with in the 1970s at Juanita — my throws coach. They wanted to coach, but they didn’t want to be head coach. It was brought up to me, ‘Well, do you want to do it?’ and I said, ‘Oh, what the heck.’”
Hansen expects to work with the sprinters, relays and hurdlers.
“I avoid (coaching) the pole vault like the plague, but other than that, I’ve done a bit of everything,” he said.
Hansen wasn’t about to make any bold predictions — he’s committed to a season and will re-evaluate after that — but he did have a deeply positive outlook on the upcoming season.
“I like our kids,” he said. “They graduated and moved away a number of the good girls that won KingCo last year, but we’ve got a good group of young kids — freshmen. We have some holes in some events, but it’s way too early to tell how good we’ll be.”
