Huskie alum Maldonado returns as cross country head coach

OTHELLO - Othello School District announced June 1 that former Huskie's athlete David Maldonado will be the new head coach of Huskies cross country. In the days since the announcement, Maldonado said he was overwhelmed by the support from the community.

"It feels amazing, the amount of support that I didn't really expect from the community, and through social media," Maldonado said. "I just was able to really admire all the connections and great relationships that I've maintained over the years, and I think a lot of it has to do with just time passing by, and everybody realizes, 'Oh man, look at this guy, now he's the new head coach."

After graduating in 2020, Maldonado went on to earn a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in Spanish from Washington State University, according to OSD's statement. Most recently, he completed his Master of Arts in teaching.

Over the last few years, he's also developed as a coach, leading in several other sports like girls' soccer, boys' and girls' basketball. His journey as a coach began in the Central Valley School District, he said. There he coached intermural soccer while in undergrad. As time evolved, his passion for mentoring only grew.

According to OSD's statement, Maldonado is currently a mathematics teacher at Moses Lake High School. He intends to combine his experience as an educator and coach with a strong desire to positively impact young people

Having coached a variety of sports, Maldonado has found something he can carry with him in each experience.

"The competitiveness is going to be there naturally, but what I've been learning is, 'Okay, it's not always about winning,'" he said. "Then there's the aspect of, 'How am I communicating with these students? How am I communicating with the parents and my athletic director to carry a successful program or season?' So, for me, I think my biggest growth has been in my communication skills."

When the position first became available, Maldonado began to consider applying. The longer he thought about it, the more enthusiastic he became.

"I just thought, 'What would happen if I actually was able to apply?'" Maldonado said. "Just my enthusiasm for the support and all the other commitments that I used to give as an athlete, if I just translated that into what I know now as a coach for my actual team. That was like my logo and my hometown. That's the biggest honor for me."

As he looks toward his first season as the head coach, Maldonado has a lot of ideas he's bringing with him to the Huskies program. For the program in general, he plans to seek more collaborative summer training opportunities with neighboring districts and traveling to different competitions they have not been to before, he said.

In addition to expanding their reach, Maldonado will also put a focus on growing the program.

"I'm going to have a heavy focus on retention and growing numbers," he said. "I think we have to do that by tackling the sport from the bottom, which by that, I mean the elementary level. We can start some sort of youth cross-country program that starts at the elementary level and feeds up to the middle school, which then feeds up to our high school program. I think that will be really good for the whole program as a whole."

More specifically with this upcoming season, he would love to see his athletes averaging quicker race times - something he feels they're capable of doing.

"The overall goal is to reinforce a strong 18-minute competitive boys' team and have our lead girls running a consistent sub 23 minutes," the coach said.

Above all else, Maldonado is eager to get started and give his best effort to the Huskies program and the Othello community.

"I'm very grateful for the opportunity," Maldonado said. "I see it as a really big blessing, and it just really motivated me to see how well my community received me coming back, and I'm excited to just invest my best work that I've done yet in terms of coaching to what is Othello High School, and what is the CWAC."

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