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THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Longtime Post Falls High track and field coach Quesnell grateful for the opportunity he never really asked for

| June 7, 2025 1:05 AM

Wade Quesnell never asked to be a track and field coach.

Not when his coaching career began at Filer High in 1981, nor again when he came to Post Falls High in 1992.

Someone else must have known better.

“When I started my coaching career at Filer, I was hired as an assistant football coach,” Quesnell said. “When I went in front of the school board, I walked out as the JV girls basketball and head track and field coach. I came up here, and I was the head (girls) basketball coach and assistant football coach. But by the time I got out of that meeting, I was the head track coach. I’ve been a head track coach for 44 years, but it was something that I never applied for.

“What’s weird is that through all the sports I’ve coached, track is the one that I became the most passionate about.”


QUESNELL, 67, announced plans to retire as head track and field coach at Post Falls High earlier this season. He will remain as an assistant coach for the Trojan football team.

As for what kept him around track and field?

“No. 1, it’s a non-cut sport,” Quesnell said. “We’ll get over 100 kids, and you get a chance to be around these kids that you wouldn’t be around in football, basketball or other sports. They tend to come out in track, and it’s a great mixture of kids with track athletes that are motivated and want to be track athletes. Other kids are looking to be part of something and come out, and they’re the ones that really add to your program and make the program really neat. That’s the thing about track that makes it unique. You don’t have to win a medal to be successful. You can come out, get that first distance or time and you can PR, and it seems like the kids enjoy themselves. You can be a thrower, a vaulter and there’s so many things to pick from.”

With the addition of the javelin, that’s what drew Trojan starting quarterback Isaac McKeown to the track program after playing baseball the previous two years.

“It was something new, so he came out and could hang out with his buddies,” Quesnell said. “And then, he finds out he’s pretty good at it.”

How good?

McKeown became the first state 6A boys javelin champion in May at Mountain View High in Meridian.

“I told him at our awards banquet that he’s the first (6A) kid ever in the state of Idaho,” Quesnell said. “And that’s pretty cool. Nobody can take that away from him.”

Quesnell, who came to Post Falls as a math teacher in addition to coaching, moved on to weights and lifetime sports before retiring from teaching in 2016.

“It doesn’t seem like that long ago,” Quesnell said. “Coaching track and football has kept me in the loop, so it’s almost like people tell me I’m here all the time.”


THROUGH IT all, Quesnell’s stamp on the track program is what he’ll remember most.

“I’m really proud of the program we’ve built,” Quesnell said. “The coaching staff that I’ve been able to work with over the years and the athletes have been great to work with over the years. With track, you don’t have assistant coaches, but more like six head coaches is what it amounts to. You’ve got the sprints coach, the distance coach, the hurdles coach, jumps coach, throws coach and vaults coach. They’re responsible for the kids. I don’t tell them what to do because we’ve always had quality coaches. They all know what to do and they get the kids prepared. From having a quality staff, our athletes — regardless of talent — every meet day, they’ve stepped up. They work to the best of their ability and they would compete as Post Falls, not an individual. Sometimes, track can be a bit of an individual sport, but I took pride that our kids competed as Post Falls. They were always prepared and competed to the best of their ability. When you have kids that do that, and they always competed with high character and class. When you put all that together, that’s success. Regardless of how the meet went.”

Quesnell added that influence from former coaches Dennis Amende (sprints) and Dan Nipp (throws) was also the key to the program’s long-term success.

“Dan was hands-down the best throws coach we’ve had in the state of Idaho,” Quesnell said. “The amount of state champions he coached is just phenomenal. Really, the entire group we’ve had I was fortunate to have. And I’m really fortunate to still have (jumps coach) Marc Allert still with us. What he’s done, not just in track, but in girls basketball has been phenomenal. I told him at the banquet that he’s going to be inducted into that Hall of Fame too. He’s just that good of a coach. Little by little, we’ve had coaches retire and we kept getting really good coaches coming in and they’ve had a positive impact on what we’ve done or what I’ve tried to do with the program. Quite a few years ago, when coach (Samantha) Cooney came, I was the hurdles coach, so she took over hurdles. Dennis always had a lot of sprinters, so I took over the boys and he took the girls. We started watching and it seemed like teams that had good 400 runners had good teams. Dennis and I were sitting there watching and we said we needed to figure out a way to start training all of our sprinters to be 400 runners.”

Now, things are a lot different.

“I remember days when I was coaching in Filer and those early days in Post Falls when the 4x400 (relay) came around, sometimes you needed someone to fill in for someone that was injured,” Quesnell said. “And the kids were hiding. Now, I think we’re at the point where kids are fighting to be a part of it and they really want to be on that 4x400 team. And it’s helped our sprint program. It’s that final race of the meet, and it’s nice to walk off the field and be successful in both the boys and girls events.”

Post Falls was second in the girls 4x400 at state this year. The Trojan boys won the race but were disqualified after it was determined that a Post Falls runner bumped another competitor.

The camaraderie with the athletes has also improved.

“We were at regionals this year and the 4x400 kids were running,” Quesnell said. “And our distance kids, each lap, they had a different choreography going to cheer them on and really supporting us. It’s just great to see Post Falls kids supporting Post Falls kids.”

“I have been fortunate to work with some great head coaches that have had a tremendous influence on me, and coach Quesnell is one of them,” Post Falls assistant football and track and field coach Brian Etchison said. “From getting to know him as the head track coach at Lakeland, to getting to work with him, he has become a great friend and mentor. Wade is truly all about the kids. He wants kids to come out for track and have a great experience and he has worked his tail off to ensure that happens. He is as competitive as anyone, but he’s a great relationship guy with a soft heart for people. I have really treasured the seven years I have known him and the last three getting to work with him. I am going to miss all the time we have gotten to spend together talking track and life.”

“I was really lucky to have great coaches all through my career as an athlete — from middle school through college,” said Cooney, a longtime Post Falls assistant track and field coach who competed at Idaho. “They were great people, great role models, great motivators, but none of them comes close to what Wade does. I went into education largely because I wanted track to be part of my adult life and I ended up at Post Falls purely by chance. It’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me. Wade cares so deeply about the sport, about the athletes and his coaching staff. I think that’s one of the things that sets our program part is the insanely low turnover in our coaching staff. That’s because of Wade. I think our student-athletes really benefit from that as well.”


IN AN effort to give the kids one more competition before the state-qualifying meets, years ago Quesnell had an idea of bringing together the best of the best in North Idaho, regardless of classification, to compete in the District 1 All-Star Meet.

“I thought it would be nice for the small schools, and I competed for a small school at Murtaugh High, to compete with the large schools,” Quesnell said. “So we incorporated the entire District 1 from Lakeside to Mullan to Bonners Ferry, take the top 16 kids and you’ve have one heat of the distance events and two of the individuals and everyone can get another relay in. And I think it’s been a really successful meet.”

Now, other districts have done it as well.

“I might have stolen it from the guys in District 2, I’m not really sure,” Quesnell said. “They’ve been doing it for a long time too.”

Recently, Quesnell has begun inducting former athletes into a meet Hall of Fame.

“We’ve had a lot of phenomenal athletes compete here since it started,” Quesnell said. “We started to think we needed to start honoring those athletes and then the coaches. That’s the other thing that I really enjoy about track is that I’ve got a lot of true friends that are opposing coaches. Kelly Reed (Lake City), Shawn Amos (Coeur d’Alene), Dave DeMers (Sandpoint) and all the coaches from District 1, we all get along. Once we get to state, we’re all cheering for North Idaho. This year, it was really cool to see Moscow’s girls win a state title. I really think North Idaho is a little special that way in that the coaches really get along and help each other out.”

This year, at the District 1 All-Star Meet, Quesnell, without knowledge to him, was honored by his staff for his time with the program.

“I was out there trying to get the track events going again and coach (Steve) Mills tells me to stick around,” Quesnell said. “Then they bring out this plaque and he starts saying all these nice words. I’m just standing there and a little nervous and anxious, but thought, this is a nice thing.”

As Mills was reading a list of Quesnell’s accomplishments, well over 200 former athletes and coaches, as well as friends and family walked into the infield behind Quesnell.

“I turned around and had no idea that all those people came,” Quesnell said. “I was completely overwhelmed. More than anything, I was humbled that I’d have that many people show up and thank me. Especially the former athletes and coaches. That made my day really, really special for me. My family from southern Idaho came up, and how I didn’t see them in the stands, I have no idea. Normally when I’m running a track meet, I’m pretty focused on running the track meet.”


WHILE HE’S stepping away from track and field, that doesn’t mean you won’t see Quesnell around Post Falls High still.

“Right now, I’m still helping with football and going to help again this fall and decide what I’m going to do from there,” Quesnell said. “Being an assistant under Blaine (Bennett), it’s a good gig. Because of Blaine and the other people on that staff, I can see myself staying a while longer. I’ll probably keep working as an official at The Podium in the winter. Maybe now I’ll have a little more time in the springtime. All my family still lives in southern Idaho in the Boise/Twin Falls area and my wife’s (Carol) family lives in the Twin Falls area, so maybe I’ll spend some more time with my family.”

As for stepping away from a job he never technically applied for ...

“I guess I’ll have to write something up to make it official,” Quesnell said. “When I finally write that resignation letter, that will be a sad day for me.”

“It’s impossible for me to imagine what track season will look like next year without him,” Cooney said. “Honestly, I don’t think I will ever be able to imagine a track season that doesn’t involve seeing him every day. Besides my immediate family, he’s one of the most important people in my life. Coaching a sport like track, where the competitions are long with a fair amount of down time, you spend a lot of time with your fellow coaches. I will miss how hard we can make each other laugh and I will miss the fact that he’s the other emotional member of our staff. I will miss his leadership. I will miss having someone who loves track as much as I do.”


Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.