Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Saratoga High School football coach Tim Tramp has announced plans to move to the state of Washington, where housing costs are more reasonable.

SHS football coach has accepted job out of state

He cites housing costs as reason

By John Pancharian

True to his name, Tim Tramp is tromping off. The well-liked football coach at Saratoga High School has announced that he has accepted a job in Kirkland, Wash., beginning next year.

"I'm really not unhappy with my position here," Tramp said, "and I'm not looking forward to leaving Saratoga." Tramp explained that he made the decision to leave not as a teacher, but as a husband and father.

"It was a family decision to leave Saratoga," he said, "To buy a home here you need an exorbitant amount of money, and as a teacher and coach, I just don't make an exorbitant amount of money. I hate to leave Saratoga and the situation I have here, but I've got to take care of my family."

Tramp said the housing market in the Kirkland area is such that he will be able to afford a home.

In Washington, Tramp will work at Lake Washington High School. "Last week I got a call from them saying the head coach had resigned," Tramp said. "The teaching assignment is right, and the money is right."

Tramp was hired at Saratoga at the beginning of this school year, and he said he had considered coaching in the Kirkland area at that time but received an offer from Saratoga first.

"The football tradition at Saratoga is remarkable," he said. "They just support the team really well."

Tramp said he has also enjoyed coaching the Saratoga team because they are smart and talented, which helps them overcome the size deficit they often face.

"It is fun to work with kids who are not as physically impressive as some of the best teams, and yet find ways to be competitive and to beat them," he said.

In addition to coaching the football team, Tramp is also a resource/special education teacher at Saratoga.

In what will be a sort of last hurrah in Saratoga, Tramp has been selected to coach the county North-South All-Star Game this summer in which four Saratoga players--Michael Black, Matt McKenna, Tyler Hooper and Cory Schwaderer--will participate.

"I'll be running the offense," Tramp said. "It's really a nice honor to be selected."

He said that coaching the all-star team is both difficult and enjoyable. "You don't have a lot of time to prepare, and you don't know the kids well. It's a real challenge, but it's real exciting because the kids are so talented. You just have to line them up right, try not to get in their way and they're fine."

Before coming to Saratoga, Tramp was the head coach at Harbor High School in Santa Cruz for three years. He said he has never had a player go on to become a professional, or to a top college program, because his students have lacked the necessary size, but that has not dimmed his enjoyment of the game. He recalled one game at Harbor against San Lorenzo Valley High School that was particularly exciting for him.

"In my first year at Harbor there was one game where we were down by about 10 late in the third quarter, but we were able to come back and win in dramatic fashion. That game really catapulted us into the playoffs, and I was named CCS coach of the year that year. That was a really big year for us."

Tramp said making a difference in his players' lives makes coaching worthwhile for him, and he has no regrets about any of the decisions he's made. "Coaching is a learning profession," he said. "You're only as good as the experience you've obtained."

And his parting words about the Saratoga High School football team: "I think they have a tremendous opportunity to be successful this fall. I hope they continue to prepare for the goals they've set this season. They have the talent to reach them."

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