The Kingston Buccaneers have hired a second person this summer as their new football coach.
Ethan Goldizen is an Olympic High School graduate returning to Kitsap County after a short stint across Puget Sound.
“One of my goals is to work in the high school realm,” Goldizen said. “Kitsap County has always been a number one target to coach and teach so I looked for jobs on the district sites. I was confident I could take on a 1A or 2A school.”
Goldizen is jumping into the boat halfway through the summer offseason. Since he is joining late, he is looking to build a foundation early. “One of the biggest challenges is how can I gain these kids’ trust,” Goldizen said. “All of the administration, organizing and scheduling, I can take care of. If I don’t build a great relationship with the kids, it will be a rough year one.”
Billy Russo stepped down as football coach at the end of January at their postseason banquet. Russo coached the Bucs for three seasons and ended 3-6 last season. Kingston initially hired Ron Earp to take over in early June. However, Earp stepped away after a couple of weeks for family reasons. So Kingston began its summer workouts, scrimmages and 7v7 tournaments without someone on top of the realm.
Goldizen is a former wide receiver and assistant coach at the University of Puget Sound. “Playing and coaching college has helped with my leadership and coaching skills,” he said. “Playing in college under head coach Jeff Thomas taught me a lot of morals and my coaching style will be very similar to his.”
Goldizen was an assistant wide receivers coach from 2020-22 and running backs coach from last year. “I was exposed to a lot of different schemes,” Goldizen said. “As a player, we were prolific in the passing game. Getting into coaching, we introduced a more power run game with wing and I formations.”
Defensively, Goldizen may incorporate UPS’s 4-2-5 and 4-4 stack defense he saw during practices. Lastly, he will prioritize special teams because “it can flip the script.”
Kingston has been shadowed in the Olympic League for several years. However, Goldizen hopes to put Kingston back on the map. “The biggest thing I want to do in the first year is establish a culture that will last years,” he said. “It is important to grab the people locally and give them pride instead of being Poulsbo’s stepchild. I want to build an identity that we are Kingston.”
Goldizen recently earned his master’s degree in teaching and is looking for a job in the North Kitsap School District. If he does get a job, he plans to coach at Kingston for a while. Until then, he will plan to substitute teach across the county and coach the Bucs.
Goldizen said he is excited to return to the Friday Night Lights because, “There is nothing like playing under the lights for the locals—that is special.”
