CHENEY – With the close of the 2022-23 school year the revolving doors are spinning and moves underway in both Cheney and Medical Lake with administrators and coaches.
Cheney will see different faces in both the athletic director’s chair and for girls’ basketball as Tim Kennedy vacates the AD chair and moves into a vice principal’s role. His replacement is former girls’ basketball coach Ken Ryan.
At Medical Lake the churn comes inside the basketball program where Jordan Starr is moving back to familiar territory in the Yakima Valley to become boys’ coach at Selah High.
The Cardinals filled that position within as Brett Ward will move from being the girls head coach and boys assistant Yeta Holloway will replace Ward.
Kennedy assumes his new position July 1 and Ryan’s opening has been posted on the district website.
Ryan moved from Deer Park where he coached both boys and girls’ programs for 11 seasons to take over the Cheney girls hoops job in the 2021-22 season. He exits the coaching job with a two-year record of 13-29 but the AD opening presented the right move.
“It was one of the hardest decisions of my professional career,” Ryan wrote in a text message. “But I thought about it and I can make a bigger impact on all sports (as athletics director).”
For Ward, who was elevated to the Cardinals’ job in 2019 from assistant coach, replacing Noel Hachtel, it’s a homecoming.
“Yes, headed back to where I grew up to coach the Selah Vikings,” he wrote in a text message. “I really enjoyed my time and experiences at ML,” which date back 10 years.
Starr moves from a program which had a rugged 1-19 season in 2022-23 and where he had a 31-43 mark in four seasons. “Although we struggled last year, I really think we built a strong basketball culture,” Starr said.
“This boys’ job is the reason I came out to Medical Lake in the winter of 2016,” Ward said. “I applied for that job twice and was a finalist twice before someone else got it both times.”
Ward said he did not anticipate only doing the girls job for one year, “But that’s the way it worked out.”
As for the boys team, “(There are) definitely some pieces to build on,” Ward said.
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