As the Evergreen Wolverines prepare for the 2010 football season one critical question has been answered. Who is coaching them?

Answer; Mark Becker, 1998 Highline High grad and former player who worked as a volunteer at Tyee in 2005 with Pat O'Grady.

O'Grady is now coach at Lindbergh in Renton. Charlie Pettit, former Tyee coach, had encouraged Becker to help develop some younger talent that year and now the tables have switched. Becker employs Pettit as an assistant coach for the Wolverines.

Coach Becker also worked with Mike Brown at Highline as a JV defensive coordinator and later as varsity defensive coordinator under Juan Cotto.

When the Evergreen job became available last spring, amid a scandal last year over a volunteer, Becker applied for the job.

The Highline School District picked the Central Washington University grad as head coach in early August. Besides Pettit, working with Coach Becker will be coaches Victor Tuli and Erik Heineman.

"I've lived in the community for many years", Becker noted. "I watched the once proud Evergreen team get crippled by negative incidents so I applied for the job to help the team. It wasn't fair what happened to the kids and we think they deserve better."

The ailing program has a chance to show the league what they can do with 35 student athletes turning out for practice last week. Coach Becker gets his chance too as he comes from a long line of athletes dating back to the 1904 University of Washington Huskies where great-granddads Frank Wilt and Billy Hill gained fame.

Evergreen went 9-2 in 2007 with Senio Kelemete, before sliding to 1-7 last year in the Seamount League, which is split for this season into 2A and 3A divisions. Evergreen will play against Foster, Lindbergh and Renton in 2A games and against Highline, Hazen and JFK in the 3A games.

Tyee was dropped from the schedule by the district this year. Evergreen's first game is Saturday, Sept. 4 at Highline Stadium against Hazen. Game time is 1:30 p.m.

Some of the athletes attempting to make the roster for 2010 are Demetris Bland, NeuAndre Kemp, Caleb Faletogo, Maile Taufa, Aries Faletogo, Misi Tuitoelau, Jack Huyhn, Mallo Cigarrroa, Javon Lawson, Jamari Smith, Andre Marticio, Daniel Netere, Huy Huynh, David Ordenana, Jack Driskell, Victor Sisavath and Ricky Cardenas.