Bennett named interim Post Falls football coach

As he continues his battle with cancer, Post Falls High football coach Jeff Hinz has decided to step back from his head coaching duties.

Blaine Bennett, an assistant for the Trojans last year and a former Central Washington University football coach, has been named Post Falls interim football coach for the 2016 season.

“Jeff decided that he physically couldn’t do the position to the level that he wanted to,” Post Falls athletic director Craig Christensen said. “That’s everybody’s hope, that Jeff can get back to do the job. Jeff’s still our guy; we’re going to fill in until he can come back.”

Hinz, 44, has been Post Falls’ head coach the past 11 seasons, and a longtime Trojans assistant prior to that. He was diagnosed with non-smoker’s lung cancer after he suffered a broken leg on Thanksgiving Day 2013, and has been in and out of the classroom since. Hinz made it to most Post Falls football practices last fall, but missed two Trojan games last fall while he was in the hospital. He has taken a leave of absence from teaching this year.

He said this has been an idea coaches and Post Falls administrators have been kicking around since the end of last season. He said the players deserved to have a head coach that could be there every day for them.

Hinz said he continue with the program as an assistant this fall, helping out when/where he can.

“We’re pulling for Jeff to come back,” Christensen said. “And in the interim, we have a very quality staff to keep things going.”

Bennett, 51, is in his first year as a math teacher at Post Falls High. He was an assistant football coach for the Trojans last fall, coaching the wide receivers.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity; the administration here is fantastic,” said Bennett, who met with the team Friday morning. “Rather than make a huge change, they offered me the position as interim football coach, and I’m excited to accept. Obviously we want to keep Jeff involved. We want to continue with the great things he and the other coaches have done.”

Bennett, a quarterback in high school and college, said he would probably serve as offensive coordinator, with Trojan assistant and Post Falls grad Adam Shamion running the defense.

Bennett, a 1983 Walla Walla High grad, played for his dad, Blaine “Shorty” Bennett, at Walla Walla High and later at Central Washington, after playing at the University of Idaho. He was an assistant coach at Washington State, Chico State, Idaho and Western Oregon. He was later head coach at Western Oregon, quarterbacks coach at Purdue and assistant head coach at Michigan State before becoming head coach at Central Washington in Ellensburg in 2008. He coached CWU for five seasons.

Bennett was an assistant at Eagle in 2014, when the Mustangs defeated Post Falls in the first round of the state 5A playoffs. After that, he coached the Graz Giants, a professional football team in Austria, before choosing to return to the Northwest.

Bennett went 41-16 in five seasons at Central, coaching the Wildcats to four Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships. He was fired before the 2013 season began.

According to the Daily Record newspaper of Ellensburg, Bennett was fired for violation of university rules, including concerns over money spent on alcohol to entertain visiting coaches helping with camps at CWU.

Bennett denied the school’s account of the situation, but chose not to take the matter to court.

“There were a lot of things that were printed and said that were inaccurate,” Bennett said. “It’s too bad people can print and say things that are not true.”

Blaine and his dad, who lives in Spokane, run the All Northwest Football Passing Academy, with camps in Spokane and the Tri-Cities, among other places.

Christensen said most of last year’s Trojan assistants will be back. Sean Dorris, who served as interim head coach last fall while Hinz was away, resigned following the season to prepare for a transition to the adminstrative side of education.