Kevin Eager

Kevin Eager enters his 37th season of track and field coaching this spring, 20th as the head coach at Gig Harbor, becoming the longest tenured head coach in the school's history.

His career started as an assistant at Washington High School, where he coached three individual state champions and the team won two AA Boys State Championships under Hall of Fame coach Mark Smith. In 1995 Eager moved on to coach the jumps at Pacific Lutheran University. While there he became decathlon/heptathlon coordinator in addition to his duties in the jumps. This experience in the multi-events served him well in understanding the full spectrum of disciplines in the sport.

During this time, Pacific Lutheran won four men’s and three women’s Northwest Conference team titles and had several top five finishes in NAIA competition. In 1999, Pacific Lutheran became an NCAA Division III school, and both the men’s and women’s teams had their best showing nationally, finishing second and third respectively in the NCAA III national meet. Individually, Eager worked with 13 men’s and women’s Northwest Conference event champions, and 14 men’s and women’s All-Americans.

Eager came to Gig Harbor as head coach for the 2004 season, and in the 19 years since the Tides girls and boys teams have won six state team titles, been team runner-up another four times, and had three other top-4 podium finishes. At the league level, Gig Harbor has earned 21 team championships under Eager and he has been voted league boys or girls Coach of the Year 19 times. In 2007 he was voted Washington State Track and Field Coaches Association Boys Coach of the Year and was also one of eight finalists for National Federation of High Schools Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year. More recently, in 2018 the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association chose him as the Washington State Boys Coach of the Year. Gig Harbor athletes have won 30 state individual titles, and have been state runners-up another 35 times during Eager's tenure, with over 70 athletes going on to compete at various levels of college.

Eager has also served as assistant coach since 2003 with the Gig Harbor cross-country program. He is USATF Level I and II (jumps) certified and has completed both the track and field technical certification program and the sprint/hurdle/relay specialist certification provided by the USTFCCCA Coaching Academy. Over twenty of his former athletes have become track and field coaches. Eager served as vice-president for the Washington State Track and Field Coaches Association from 2010-2016, and in 2017 ascended to the presidency of that organization, which he holds presently.

Coach Eager is a Pacific Lutheran graduate in his 25th year teaching social studies and AP Psychology at Gig Harbor High School. Aside from coaching and teaching, he enjoys riding his bikes and taking football way too seriously for an adult who should know better. His wife, Kristi, is a Boeing employee and the Tides' hurdles coach. They reside in Tacoma with their ridiculous dog, Murphy.