Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Whitmore heads to Entiat
RITZVILLE – Greg Whitmore never intended to work with Lind-Ritzville schools for 30 years.
In fact, he thought he’d be in town just a couple years before moving on to something bigger.
As it turned out, the 58-year old teacher, coach and athletic director said there is almost nothing better. Almost.
But on June 30, Whitmore said goodbye to Ritzville to take the helm of the Entiat School District as superintendent. Entiat is where he grew up.
His first official day on the job was Friday, July 1.
The transition, albeit just beginning, is “pretty strange,” he said.
“I turned in my keys yesterday (Monday, June 27), for the first time in 30 years,” Whitmore said. “This will be the first football camp I’m not involved in (in Ritzville).
“When you’ve been one place for 30 years, there’s a whole bunch of firsts,” he said.
Almost all of Whitmore’s career, so far, has been in Ritzville.
A 1988 graduate of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, he went to graduate school at University of Arizona when it was hard to find a job.
“My first job was teaching health class in Phoenix,” he said. “Then I got this one interview in Ritzville in the summer of ’92.”
He was selected from more than 30 candidates and returned home to Eastern Washington with only one year of teaching under his belt.
He was hired as a physical education teacher, and then as an assistant football coach under Mike Lynch.
After serving as Lynch’s assistant 13 years, their rolls reversed and Whitmore took on the head coach for the next 17.
Since 1974, only Lynch and Whitmore have served as the Broncos head coach.
“It’s been a real highlight working with Mike,” he said. “He’s kind of out there, but he turned into one of my best friends and mentor.”
Whitmore said he’s had a lot of great experiences in Ritzville working with top-notch principals and superintendents, but that he doesn’t have a “highlights film.”
He also raised two girls here.
“I blinked my eyes and it’s 30 years,” he said of how fast the time went by, noting COVID-19 made the last two years the toughest in his career.
But the opportunity to return to his roots and face bigger challenges are drawing him away.
“(Entiat) always felt like home,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the challenges.”
Whitmore said at times he’s worried like his message and position were getting stale, but that he always challenged himself to do better for his students and athletes.
“This is probably the only job that could’ve gotten me away from Ritzville,” he said, noting that he’s looking forward to learning new things as the leader of the school district from which he graduated valedictorian.
“Change is good,” he said. “It’ll be good in the end; it’ll be good for Ritzville.”
While he’s moving on, Whitmore said he’s not leaving Ritzville permanently.
“I’ll be back to visit,” he said. “I’ll always bleed some red and black.”
Roger Harnack is owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. An award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher who grew up in Eastern Washington, he's one of only two Washington state journalists ever to receive the international Golden Quill for editorial/commentary writing. Roger is committed to preserving local media, and along with it, a local voice for Eastern Washington.
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