By Matt Crownover
Chronicle staff

     Three new coaches will lead Tonasket High School teams this season.
     Chris Fields, Laura Temby and Steve Williams will be on the sidelines as first-time high school head coaches.
     Fields coaches the boys’ soccer team in his first venture into the high school ranks.
     Since this is the first year Tonasket has had a boys’ soccer team, Fields and his players will be learning together, he said.
     Fields, who graduated from Oroville High School in 1981 and played basketball, baseball and tennis, has experience as a head coach. He was president of the youth soccer program in Oroville for the past eight years, and coached U-8 to U-15 girls’ teams. He also has experience coaching sixth and seventh grade AAU girls’ basketball teams.
     Fields said he is excited to have the opportunity to coach the boys’ soccer team in its inaugural season.
     “This is an opportunity for me to take on more of a challenge,” he said.
     Fields said he is happy the upperclassmen were given an opportunity to compete.
     “We have nine seniors on this team and it’s very exciting for them to get a chance to play before they graduate,” he said.
     Although this is the first season of the boys’ soccer program, Fields said he and his team have a lot of expectations.
     “We have plenty of goals. I think we can be really good,” he said. “But our main goal is to continue to show growth in the program and build for the years to come.”
     Temby is taking the reins from Allen Godwin as boys and girls’ tennis coach.
     Temby served as an assistant last year and a volunteer in 2006.
     Temby grew up in Tonasket and attended Tonasket High School. After that, she served four years in the Air Force and then earned a nursing degree from Wenatchee Valley College at Omak.
     Aside from her tennis duties, Temby puts in three 12-hour shifts per week at Okanogan-Douglas District Hospital, Brewster, mostly in the labor and delivery department.
     In her first season as head coach, Temby said she expects her teams to do well.
     “I expect them to be very competitive in the league this year,” she said. “There are a couple of teams who aspire to make it to the state tournament and they understand that it takes a lot of hard work and it’s possible if they put the time in.”
     Temby has three sons and a daughter. Her 17-year-old son, Zachary Ferriell, is one of the leaders on the team, she said.
     Temby, who participated in track, tennis, basketball and cross country while a student at Tonasket, said she hopes the athletes on her teams never stop playing tennis.
     “One of my goals is to keep them learning so that when they graduate, they have a sport that they can play for a lifetime,” she said.
     According to Temby, tennis is a popular sport in her family. All four of her kids, her husband, Bill, and her parents play.
     “Tennis in our family ranges from the age of 8 all the way up to the 70s,” she said.
     Williams, who serves as head coach of the baseball team, recently moved to Tonasket from Auburn, where he spent five years on the staff as a pastor at SeaTac Bible Church.
     He was born and raised in Des Moines, and attended Mount Rainer High School for two and a half years before transferring to Seattle Christian. He played football, basketball and baseball in high school.
     Williams and his wife and four children moved to Tonasket to start the Tonasket Bible Church.
     Williams said he foresees a successful season.
     “I’m expecting a pretty good season,” he said. “Our hitting is starting to come around and we’re working hard on our pitching. Overall, I think we’re going to have a pretty decent season.”
     Williams, who coached middle school baseball at Seattle Christian in 1992, said he’s excited about the opportunity to coach older kids.
     “I’ve always wanted to coach high school baseball,” he said. “I have more playing experience than I do coaching experience and I’m excited about the challenge.”
     In his spare time, Williams said he enjoys fishing.