WesternWA notebook: Longtime West Sound icon settles into new role

After 26 seasons as the coach at Central Kitsap, Mark Keel is now a passing-game and special-teams coordinator at Bremerton

After stepping down from both of his positions as the Central Kitsap coach after 26 seasons, and the WSFCA president after eight years, Mark Keel has a new role — passing-game coordinator at Bremerton High School. (Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)

At nearly every level, Mark Keel has been an important figure in football for decades in the state of Washington.

He was first noticed in his one season as a player at Clover Park High School in Lakewood — but really became a big-time recruit after attending Olympic College in Bremerton as a three-sport dynamo.

It was there that the University of Arizona saw the 6-foot-4, 230-pounder play football, and signed him out of junior college. Keel ended up setting receiving records for a tight end with the Wildcats.

As part of his brief NFL-playing career, Keel was a member of the Seattle Seahawks’ strike-shortened season in 1987.