Shawna Kneale of Colfax lands athletic director job

Shawna Kneale of Colfax was introduced Tuesday night as the new athletic director of Colfax. Kneale takes the job vacated by Scott Randall who was hired for the new combined position at the July 25 Colfax school board meeting and subsequently resigned the job.

Supt. Michael Morgan said Randall resigned the post shortly after he was named for the position. He said Randall, who attended a coaches camp at Yakima the week after he was appointed, submitted his resignation the following week.

Morgan said Kneale was an original top choice of selection committee early in the process. The committee, however, decided to make another call for applicants after some people felt other candidates were out there but had not applied for the job.

Randall applied in the second round call, and his credentials moved him to the top of the list. Randall has served as assistant director of event and facility operations for the WSU athletic department.

In his resignation letter, Randall said he plans to pursue a career in education. He completed studies for a masters degree in teaching this year. Randall graduated from Sehome High School in Bellingham and earned an undergraduate degree from WSU.

Kneale has served as assistant volleyball coach and will continue in that position this fall.

The Colfax AD position opened up when Mike Morgan resigned the post earlier this year in the wake a district committee study which recommended, among other things, that the AD job not be held by a head coach. Morgan opted to remain as football head coach and drop the AD job which he had held for nine years.

The new position combines the district’s athletic director and assistant athletic director positions. Tony Carter served as assistant AD under Mike Morgan and took on the facilities part of the job.

Kneale, the former Shawna Gunn, is a member of the 1989 class at Colfax High School and received a teaching degree from Eastern Washington University. She taught at the pre-school level and was a substitute teacher in LaCrosse and Colfax and later operated a pre-school.

Her husband, Jeff Kneale, served three years on the Colfax school board.

The Kneale’s children are Kindra, who will be a freshman and CHS this year, Jared, a seventh grader and Colton who will be in kindergarten.