Pasco names new Chiawana football coach. He’s ready to ‘get back to what we do well’

Chiawana High School announced its new head football coach to replace Steve Graff, and it’s a familiar face.

Scott Bond, a long-time assistant coach for Graff — first at Pasco High School, and then when Chiawana High School opened — was hired to run the program, one of the top programs in the state.

Bond is a 1992 Pasco High School graduate who played three sports for the Bulldogs.

He was part of an outstanding Bulldogs team in 1990 that lost its first two games of the season, but went on a tear to finish the regular season at 7-2 in John Morgan’s first season as head coach at Pasco High.

Bond was the team’s quarterback.

That 7-2 record included beating eventual state champion Curtis in a non-leaguer. Unfortunately back then, only the top two teams in the Big Nine Conference advanced in the post-season, and it happened that the two teams that beat Pasco were the ones who finished 1-2 in the Big Nine Conference.

That season, the Herald named Pasco the best team in the state to not make the playoffs

Bond could’ve moved on years ago to become a head football coach at a number of different schools. But he chose to stick with Pasco School District schools.

“I’m a Pasco guy,” said Bond. “I’m the epitome of a Pasco kid. We always say that I bleed purple, but now I see blue.”

Purple is a Pasco High color, while blue is a Chiawana color.

When Graff stepped down as the head coach at Chiawana last month, he hoped that Bond would be considered as the next head coach.

Graff had always been fond of saying if he ever got hit by a bus, the team wouldn’t miss a beat because of his assistants.

“All of these guys have been together for years,” he said at the time. “And I’ve turned a lot of stuff over to Scott the last few years.”

Coaching staff for 20 years

Bond said he went to Graff about five years ago, and asked him if he could start doing some of the tasks usually reserved for the head coach.

“I asked for some of the tedious tasks to do, things that need to be done,” said Bond. “Things like ordering equipment, ordering uniforms.”

But Bond agrees with Graff’s feelings about assistant coaches.

“That’s what I expect now. I told the hiring committee ‘When you hire me, the best part is you hire we,’” said Bond. “We’ve got a coaching staff that has been together for 20 years. Honestly, had a number of our assistants stepped down when Steve stepped down, I may not have done this.”

Bond said that one of the things that Chiawana football has always done, is when things get stale and the program is not moving forward, the staff has always gotten together and talked about the good things and bad things that have happened.

“Over the last 20 years, we’ve had what we call a couple of resets,” Bond said. “We write out the good things we’ve done, and what we need to change. Then we determine is lets get back to what has worked for us.”

Bond said he’ll continue to be the team’s offensive coordinator.

“I laugh because I’m able to give out titles,” said Bond. “So I gave assistant Robert Reid the passing game coordinator title last year, and assistant Mike Clayton the running game title. I’ll continue to call the plays, but Robert asked me, ‘What if you’re yelling at the referee?’ I said, ‘Well you guys better be ready to call the play.’”

By hiring Bond, the Chiawana program stays consistent and doesn’t really skip a beat with its off-season training program.

And Bond says why fix something if it isn’t broke.

“Steve has been a mentor to me,” said Bond. “And so has (former assistant coach) Dave Spray. We’ll have kind of another reset. And then let’s get back to what we do well.”