Community Sports

First fired, then re-hired, Gig Harbor girls basketball coach takes job at Stadium

Gig Harbor girls basketball coach Michelle Hackett announced Tuesday, June 2, that she accepted the same job at Stadium High School in Tacoma.

It was the latest twist in the story of the Tides girls basketball coaching situation, which has a lot of them.

Gig Harbor athletic director Blair Suek relieved Hackett of her coaching duties on April 24, before the Peninsula School District reversed the decision on May 4. The district said then that “numerous athletes and parents” advocated on Hackett’s behalf.

In a June 2 letter from Hackett to Gig Harbor players, families and the community, she acknowledged that she recently told them she intended to stay at Gig Harbor before making a sudden pivot.

Michele Hackett resigned as girls basketball coach at Gig Harbor to take the same job at Stadium High School. Photo courtesy of Michele Hackett

Rebuilding

The Stadium girls basketball team won just two of its 20 games in 2025-26.

“Right now the greatest joy and fulfillment I receive as a coach comes from rebuilding — from stepping into a program that is struggling and helping the ultimate underdog rise,” Hackett wrote in her letter to players and families.

“Last year, Stadium High School was winless in league play,” Hackett wrote. “They are a young program, hungry to learn, eager to grow and in need of the specific kind of mentorship and culture building that I feel I am called to provide right now.”

Hackett had experience in that type of situation before Gig Harbor hired her for the 2025-26 season. She was an assistant coach at Charles Wright in 2023-24 and 2024-25, when the girls basketball team lost a combined 36 games.

However, Hackett led the Tides to success in her one year in Gig Harbor. Her Tides finished 19-6 last year, winning the Puget Sound League Narrows Division championship. The league named Hackett the Coach of the Year.

Players on both sides of the issue

Although the district said many athletes rallied to Hackett’s defense, others previously criticized her to Suek. Those concerns apparently led to Suek relieving Hackett. The district later said the athletic director did not follow proper protocol and work with human resources before doing so.

That played a part in the decision of district athletic director Wendy Malich and Gig Harbor principal Bob Marshall to reinstate Hackett on May 4, according to district Chief of Operations Ashley Murphy.

Kaliyah Miller, the Tides’ team captain last season, wrote a letter to Gig Harbor Now and other news outlets after the reinstatement.

Miller criticized Hackett’s laid-back coaching style.

“She rarely coached during games. When times got rough while playing, we would look to our coach for guidance and help, but there was no coach to be found,” Miller wrote. “Ours just sat on the bench like a spectator, there was no coaching going on and I had to call timeouts for our team during games.”

“In my last game of my high school career, winner goes to state (the Tacoma Dome) we should have won, but Hackett didn’t know what to do. Eleven seconds to go, we are down by one with the ball and all she told us to do was run the loopty loop thing you do, (that was a play we ran last year). She taught us nothing.”

The Tides lost to White River, 44-43, on Feb. 28 at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

Miller wrote that Gig Harbor’s 19-6 record last season was a byproduct of talented players. “The coaches award they got this year really should go to our team because we had to coach ourselves and help each other every single game this year.”

Coaching turnover

Gig Harbor is now looking for its fourth coach in three years.

Tim Olson led the Tides to begin the 2024-25 season, but the district suspended him in January 2025. Documents obtained via public records request later revealed that witnesses said Olson and assistant coaches consumed alcohol during a team trip to Florida in December 2024.

Dan Dizon, the district’s executive director of human resources, coached the remainder of the 2024-25 season before Gig Harbor hired Hackett.

Whoever gets the job will have a talented group to work with. Three all-league players should return for the Tides in the 2026-27 season.