With Stuffle stepping away, LHS hires Briggs

When Keith Stuffle wrapped up three months of deliberation and decided to end his 10-year tenure as Lewiston High track and field coach, he felt a stab of apprehension about the direction of the program.

Later, though, he heard a few of the names of coaches who wanted to succeed him.

"I was very much relieved," he said, "especially now that I hear Colin's going to be taking over that program."

Colin Briggs, a former University of Idaho decathlete who spent last season as an assistant at Moscow High, was recently hired as Stuffle's replacement, becoming just the third head girls' and boys' track coach at LHS in 29 years.

Stuffle, 46, whose Lewiston boys' team in 2006 came within 11/2 points of the school's first state team championship in 50 years, said he submitted his resignation in September, ending 25 years as a prep and junior-high coach. He remains a teacher at the high school.

Only indirectly, he said, was his decision related to the graduation last spring of his son Zion, who claimed two state 5A hurdles titles as a Bengal and is now competing for the Idaho Vandals. Keith Stuffle said he was prepared to leave the LHS job four years ago until Zion tearfully asked him to remain on board through his prep career.

"As a young man," said Keith Stuffle, who grew up in Orofino and won three state hurdles titles for the Maniacs, "I believe track and field saved my life on multiple occasions, and I vowed I would give back to the sport. I think 25 years is pretty good at giving back."

He said he'll stay involved in track in some capacity but is no longer interested in coaching at the high-school level.

Among the high points of his decade at Lewiston was the Vollmer Bowl project he coaxed to completion in 2010, in which terrace seating was installed at the Bengals' much-used track venue, Vollmer Bowl, boosted by a generous donation by the late Bruce Sweeney.

Stuffle's boys' teams at LHS won two district team titles, including one last spring despite a season-ending injury to Zion Stuffle. At the 5A state level they placed second, third and fifth in the coach's first three years.

The Bengal girls also claimed a district crown, in 2007, and during Stuffle's tenure 31 school boys' and girls' records changed hands. He was also head coach at Orofino for five years, leading the Maniacs to three top-4 team placings in Idaho state 2A girls' meets and two in boys' competitions.

Stuffle, however, remains critical of Idaho prep track at the state level, claiming that northern and southeastern Idaho athletes must sometimes overcome "cronyism" and Boise-area bias.

Briggs, 25, originally from Culver, Ore., is a physical-eduction teacher at Lena Whitmore Elementary in Moscow, and last spring was an assistant track coach at Moscow High, working primarily with jumpers and hurdlers. He'll commute to Lewiston for track practices and meets this spring and meanwhile will seek a teaching position in that town.

As a multi-events athlete at UI from 2009 to 2014, Briggs placed several times in Western Athletic Conference meets, taking second one year in the indoor heptathlon. Meanwhile, he spent summers coaching for the Comets Track Club based in Pullman and secured bachelor's degrees from Idaho in P.E. and exercise science.

His coaching mentors include Wayne Phipps, the former UI coach now at Washington State, and two of his assistants, Julie Taylor and two-time Olympic hurdler Angela Whyte. He is collaborating with Whyte in formulating a set of instructional programs.

"One of my main things is, 'You get out what you put in,' " Briggs said. Although track is a highly individual sport, he said, part of the coach's job is to harness individual efforts toward team goals.

Stuffle said he has known Briggs for a few years, starting from the time when, unsolicited, the younger coach traveled to Lewiston during the summer to help organize summer track competitions.

"He's a young man with a wealth of background in the sport and a ton of passion," Stuffle said. "It takes me back 25 years when I was fresh out of college and full of youth and vigor. I see this young man just taking this program and running with it."

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Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.