Ed Niehl

Ed Niehl, born March 5, 1924 in Pittsburgh, Penn., got in on the ground floor of Bethel School District athletics, and he helped set the tone for decades of the district’s successful sports teams.

Niehl graduated in 1951 from Washington State College, where he played football from 1946-48. While finishing up his degree in early 1951, Niehl signed his first contract with the newly consolidated Bethel School District. His first task, as football and baseball coach, was to bring together the athletes from Kapowsin and Roy high schools, which were 18 miles apart, into one competitive team. Niehl drove the bus that brought the athletes from Kapowsin to Roy for practices. They rented Cheney Stadium, then located at 38th and Lawrence streets, for football games, and used Breseman Park, which is now the Lake Spanaway Golf Course, for baseball.

In the fall of 1952, when Bethel High School opened and brought the students to one building, Niehl served as a shop teacher and as head football coach. Fields at the school were still mostly unusable for competition, so the team again used Cheney Stadium and Breseman Park for games. Needing money to improve field conditions, Niehl formed the first Bethel Booster Club in 1954. Agriculture and shop teacher Robert Anderson and his students surveyed and planted a football field. Money raised built concession stands, ticket booths, a cinder track, bleachers and other improvements.

On the gridiron itself, Niehl built a powerhouse. In 1955, the Bethel football team outscored their opponents 146-0, winning six games and tying two in the West Central League. The 1957 gridiron squad outscored their WCL opponents 201-19 in rolling to the league title. The following year, Bethel went 7-0, scoring 190 points and allowing just 10. The Associated Press sports writers gave Bethel the nod as the best Class A team in the state.

Niehl was football head coach for 15 years and baseball head coach for four years at Bethel. He also served as a basketball assistant for three years. In 1956 he became Bethel’s athletic director in addition to his classroom teaching and coaching. He remained athletic director until his retirement in June 1981.