Thomas Jefferson High School head football coach Jeff Zenisek is bringing a resume that many high school coaches would aspire to have. Few can match his claim to a collegiate national championship.

Zenisek began his coaching career shortly after his playing career ended at Central Washington University. He was a student coach for the Wildcats in the early 1980s. From 1984-86 he was graduate assistant at Washington State University while working on his doctorate.

“I was really over there for coaching,” says Zenisek.

The first paid position he held was at Orcas Island High School, where he coached from 1986-90. In 1990, he would begin the journey to his greatest achievement at Central Washington.

“What got me back into college was Mike Dunbar,” says Zenisek. “I went back to Central as the D-coordinator for him in 1990.”

He would remain the defensive coordinator for two years at Central. He became the head coach in 1992 after Dunbar left for Toledo.

Zenisek credits Dunbar for his organizational skills. Dunbar’s belief in being prepared for games was something Zenisek admired. They modeled their defense after the Don James/Jim Lambright-led Huskies.

When he took over as head coach, Zenisek had one of the best quarterbacks to ever step foot on the campus in Jon Kitna.

“He was a very competitive young man,” says Zenisek. “He was fun to coach and watch. By his senior year he was so poised it was unbelievable. That’s what led him to have as long of a career as he had in the NFL. He was a great young man.”

Some of the other coaches on Zenisek’s staff went on to bigger things later in their careers as well. Greg Olsen was the offensive coordinator of the team, the same position he now holds with the Oakland Raiders. The quarterback’s coach was Beau Baldwin, the current head coach of Eastern Washington.

During the 1995 season, Central Washington actually finished third in the conference. The voters selected them as the last team into the playoffs giving them the 16 seed. They would go on to become national champions that year.

Zenisek believes that the team played as a family that season. In a year where they only played three home games out of 14, he believes that is what kept them together.

That type of unity is what he strives for still with his high school teams.

He would leave Central Washington in 1997 for another job under Dunbar at the University of Northern Iowa. He would leave for Western State Colorado University in 2001. He coached there for five years.

After coaching in Colorado, he decided he was done with coaching and took a break as his daughter went through high school. After her graduation, he got the itch to coach again.

“I took a defensive coordinator job at Mercer Island and realized that this is what I was meant to do,” says Zenisek. “It’s my calling.”

After one season at Mercer Island, he took the Tenino job that he held before coming to Jefferson. It was at Tenino last year where he achieved another first of his coaching career when they won a division title, something he had never accomplished.

Zenisek believes that the team he built at Tenino was due to team unity.

He aims to build the same type of chemistry and success with the Raiders in the coming years.