Community Education Sports

Gig Harbor’s new athletic director already on the job

The Peninsula School Board officially hired a new athletic director at Gig Harbor High School on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the same meeting where his predecessor formally severed his connection to the district. 

The new athletic director is Jordan Halstead. The board formalized his appointment as part of the procedural minutia of the meeting, but he’s been on the job for about four weeks already. 

The same minutia (a report from Peninsula School District’s Employee Services Department) showed Erick Counts resigning his 0.4 FTE teaching position. The district hired Counts in August to be Gig Harbor’s athletic director and a teacher, but abruptly removed him from the AD position later in the month. 

Counts addressed his resignation as a teacher in a statement emailed Thursday, Oct. 29, to Gig Harbor Now and The News Tribune newspaper of Tacoma. 

Jordan Halstead

Halstead previously was the athletic director at Issaquah High School from 2023 until August. 

He is a 2010 graduate of Olympic High School near Bremerton who earned bachelors and masters degrees at Central Washington University. A high school baseball and basketball player, Halstead also attended Pierce College and Olympic College, where he was on the baseball team. 

Jordan Halstead

Halstead said a high school mentor inspired him to move into athletic administration. 

“I had a really great role model in Nate Andrews at Olympic (High),” Halstead said. “He was my baseball coach and athletic director. I saw what sports can provide kids and what opportunities they can have.” 

His resumé includes stints directing youth and recreational sports, as well as some COVID-era real estate work, before landing the AD post at Issaquah. He lives with his wife and 2-year-old daughter in Sammamish at the moment but plans to relocate. 

The move will allow the family to bring their toddler closer to Halstead’s family in Kitsap County. 

Hitting the ground running

He said his experience in Issaquah, which he called a “very similar” community to Gig Harbor, will serve him well. 

“The hardest part for me was just joining in the middle of fall season,” said Halstead, who is working only the 0.6 FTE athletic director position. “Just making sure the fall season was running well and kind of looking ahead to winter. … I’m excited to move forward and kind of get our feet went into winter.” 

To that end, Halstead confirmed that Gig Harbor hired Logan Graves to fill its vacant girls basketball coaching position. Graves was an assistant with the Tides last year. 

“We just appreciate Jordan coming in and hitting the ground running,” Gig Harbor principal Bob Marshall said. “Our athletics had already begun this year and he just didn’t skip a beat.” 

Halstead is Gig Harbor’s third athletic director this year. Counts replaced Blair Suek, who resigned in June after four years at Gig Harbor. 

Erick Counts

In his statement, Counts wrote that he has been on medical leave since “my termination from the Athletic Director position” due to “the trauma the administration and district office has put me through.” 

In the immediate aftermath of the district removing Counts as AD, some community members speculated that comments he made on his personal social media page were responsible. Counts confirmed that in his statement. 

“The school district terminated me as Athletic Director in retaliation for exercising my First Amendment rights on a private Facebook account unrelated and unconnected to my job. The school district’s actions have been humiliating and personally damaging,” Counts wrote. 

Gig Harbor Now asked the school district about Counts’ termination in August. District leaders said they were “unable” to answer questions. 

Gig Harbor High School athletic director Erick Counts

Records request

We filed a public records request with the district seeking information pertaining to Counts’ status on Sept. 1. The district acknowledged the request on Sept. 3.

Gig Harbor Now emailed to inquire about the status of its request on Oct. 14 and received no response. After we sent a follow-up email on Oct. 22, with district leadership CC’d, a district administrator blamed the delay on “transitioning to a new system to process and respond to records requests.”

The email promised a response “in a few days at most.” The response turned out to be a request for a Zoom call with district leadership, now scheduled for Oct. 30.

Counts’ statement concluded: “The School District has made it clear that no one’s speech is safe from retaliation. I wish the students, athletes, and their families all the best, and I hope the School District treats others who dare to voice their beliefs with the respect our Constitution demands.”