Each year the Enterprise Newspaper awards “E Prizes” to high school players, coaches and teams in the area that stood out in the past year. Some of the E Prizes awarded are “Male Athlete of the year”, “A Face We’ll Miss” and “Teams to Watch.”

This year Mountlake Terrace football coach Tony Umayam won Coach of the Year. Here is what the Enterprise had to say about Coach Umayam:

This is one of the most difficult categories to determine a winner. Many worthy candidates exist, such as Jackson boys basketball coach Steve Johnson, who guided the Timberwolves to the Class 4A state championship game. Others include Archbishop Murphy girls soccer coach Dick Henderson, who led the Wildcats to the Class 2A title, and Jackson softball coach Mike Moran, whose team lost only one game all season. Meadowdale’s Chad McGuire consistently puts together some of the best boys basketball teams in the state and Mavericks football coach Mark Stewart does the same. Jackson football coach Joel Vincent also is a model of success. Wolfpack cross country and track coach Eric Hruschka leads one of the state’s best cross country and distance running programs. But we’ll go with the underdog this year in Mountlake Terrace’s Tony Umayam. The Hawks’ football program has struggled for years, but under Umayam’s steady leadership, Mountlake Terrace produced a breakthrough season in 2009. The Hawks earned their first state playoff berth. They lost 35-0 to Central Kitsap, but the loss did not diminish the accomplishment. It was the Hawks’ first six-win season in 35 years and the win over Kamiak that clinched the playoff berth was the school’s first over the Knights. We expect there will be more playoff games in Mountlake Terrace’s future. The Enterprise