Community Education Sports
Gig Harbor hires new athletic director
Erick Counts, a former teacher and coach in Tumwater and Shelton, is the new athletic director at Gig Harbor High School.
Counts, a 38-year-old former college football player, started Aug. 3. In addition to overseeing the Tides’ athletics programs, he will teach two class periods.
The classroom time will allow Counts “to know athletes as students, build positive rapport and reinforce the connection between academic success and athletic achievement,” Peninsula School District communications coordinator Shana Nash said in an email.
Longtime coach
Counts’ coaching background extends back to when he was still in college.
After graduating from Shelton High School, he played as an offensive lineman and long snapper at Valley City State University in North Dakota and Antelope Valley College in Southern California. He transferred to Central Washington University, but injuries ended his career after spring ball there.
Gig Harbor High School athletic director Erick Counts
So he coached football for two years at Ellensburg High School while finishing his degree.
Subsequent coaching stops included stints in Devil’s Lake, N.D., Shelton and Tumwater. In addition to football, Counts spent time as an assistant soccer coach and a girls flag football coach.
Becoming an AD was the logical next step, Counts said in an interview.
“I had very impactful ADs throughout my career,” Counts said. “There comes a point for a teacher where you’ve either got to go the principal route or into the athletic administration field. I knew that I could make a better and a bigger difference in the lives of athletes …. So I chose the athletic administration route.”
Moving forward
Counts is married and the father to two boys, ages 10 and 7. He earned two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees and his teaching career focused on social studies and history.
He spent his first couple weeks on the job making sure all fall coaching positions are filled and getting to know Tides staff and athletes.
As for where he wants to take the athletic department, Counts said:
“Forward. In speaking with others about the athletic department, they talk about what’s been in the past. I want them to talk about what’s to come in the future. I care about what happened at the Fish Bowl (in 2023), but I don’t want to dwell on it.
“I want to move past (it), I want to build a relationship between both schools (Gig Harbor and Peninsula). Being in a kind of coastal town, there’s that saying, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ As our tides rise, it’s going to lift everybody else around us.”
Previous AD
Counts replaces Blair Suek, who resigned in June after four years at Gig Harbor. Suek departed in the wake of a tumultuous couple of years for the Tides’ girls basketball program.
According to the school district, Suek fired coach Michele Hackett this spring without going through proper channels. District administrators then re-hired Hackett before she resigned to take the girls basketball coaching job at Stadium.
Counts said the school has not yet hired a new girls basketball coach.