Doing it all

COULEE CITY — Ever since Brandon Walsh was a student at Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School he’s been balancing multiple sports, being a lineman in football, wrestling and playing third base and catcher in baseball.

Now he’s turned that into a career, coaching the same Warriors he once played for.

“I was one of those kids that loved what I was doing when I was doing it,” Walsh said. “That’s probably why I can coach two sports now, and be an athletic director. If I’m in the moment, I’m going to do that the best I can.”

Beginning coaching as an assistant with the ACH wrestling team, it wasn’t until 1998 that Walsh found himself in the position that he still holds to this day – head football coach at Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School. Back then, he was in his first year as a teacher, teaching the fourth grade and coaching middle school softball wrestling as an assistant.

“It was one of those deals where it was right time, right place,” Walsh said. “A position opened up here as I was graduating from college.”

Walsh still coaches wrestling for the Warriors, but now as head coach.

“I don’t coach middle school softball anymore, but I still coach football and wrestling and taking on other duties like being an athletic director and dean of students at the high school,” Walsh said. “I actually still teach, fifth grade. It’s been good.”

With a master’s in athletic administration, Walsh applied for the open athletic director/dean of students position with the school district. Being an athletic director at any other school wasn’t in the cards for him.

“If it ever opened up I’d be interested to do it, but I wasn’t interested in leaving here to do it,” Walsh said. “

Wearing as many hats as Walsh does for ACH, the days can be busy – even at a small school.

“At most little schools, (an athletic director) is someone like me, a teacher” Walsh said. “For my position, I spend the morning in the high school and I’m doing the athletic director, dean of students work. Then, I transition into the classroom in the afternoon.”

Between scheduling buses to games, setting up gyms for basketball and more in the morning, he describes the move between his jobs as a seamless one.

“Having that schedule, it makes it kind of easy in some ways because it’s very cut and dried,” Walsh said. “I go down to fifth grade, and that’s my time to teach. I’m not bouncing back and forth between two different duties throughout the day.”

Under Walsh the Warriors have been to the 1B state football championship game six times, winning four of them. He says the 2007 and 2021 championship teams stand out.

“(In 2007) we had come off of about seven years of mediocre or bad football, and we were trying to build something,” he said. “It finally came together in ’07, and we’ve had a ton of success since then. “Last year (2021) stands out because we were so dominant. That was a special year when you go undefeated and your closest game is 30 points.”

Of course, it’s not just those two seasons that Walsh enjoys reminiscing on.

“I could pick a lot of them,” Walsh said. “We’ve had some great kids over the last 15 years or so, and it’s been a lot of fond memories.”

After last year’s football season, Walsh said he received texts from former players congratulating him on delivering ACH its fourth state title – a testament to what he enjoys the most about coaching.

“The best part about coaching is relationships that you build with the kids,” Walsh said. “Obviously it’s fun to win and have success, but in the end, I love it.”

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.