Walla Walla HS Names New Varsity Head Football Coach

A new Varsity head football coach has been named for Walla Walla High School.

 WWHS Freshman coach will take the helm

The Walla Walla School District announced Friday, February 16th, that Justin James, a former WWHS athlete, will take over the program.

James, who graduated from Walla Walla, was a three-sport athlete and has been coaching the Blue Devil freshman team. According to the WWSD:

"James is currently a 5th grade teacher at Sharpstein Elementary and was the Wa-Hi Freshmen Head Football coach this season. He has been a football coach at Wa-Hi since 2009 in a variety of roles, including Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach. James also coached baseball at Wa-Hi for 11 years."

He was one of three candidates for the position. He is hoping to turn around the fortunes of the program, which has not had a winning record since 2019, when the team went 5-5. The team has finished .500 twice in the last 9 years, according to MaxPreps data, but has not finished with a winning record in just over 10 seasons.

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Previous Coach Greg Lupfer went 13-31 during his tenure, the team was 1-9 in 2023 and 0-8 in the Mid-Columbia Conference (MCC).