Mark Albertine took over the Snohomish High School girls basketball team in its second season of existence and built a perennially strong program, guiding the Panthers to considerable success over the last quarter of the 20th century.
He did so while spending nearly three decades as an assistant football coach, during which Snohomish experienced many of its best seasons on the gridiron.
And when it came time for a second high school in town, Albertine laid the foundation for a well-rounded Glacier Peak athletic program that has achieved ample success since the school opened nearly a decade ago.
Albertine, who has left a lasting mark on both Snohomish and Glacier Peak athletics, is retiring after 41 years in the Snohomish School District. He coached and taught at Snohomish for 28 years before spending the past 13 years in various roles as district and school athletic directors.
“I just felt it was time,” said Albertine, who served as Glacier Peak’s athletic director for the past five years. “I was looking out front and there’s a lot fewer years in front of me than there are behind me, and I want to make the best of it.”
Albertine’s coaching legacy centers on his success in building the Snohomish girls basketball program, which he took over as head coach of in 1976.
He posted a 360-190 career record (.655 winning percentage) in 24 seasons at the helm, guiding the Panthers to 10 state-tournament appearances and four state trophies — including a second-place finish in 1993 and a third-place finish in his swan-song 2000 season.
“He did a great job building up the program,” longtime assistant girls basketball coach Wayne McMaster said. “He got the program going to a point where it was strong.”
Girls high school sports were in their infancy when Albertine began coaching, with the Title IX ruling enacted just a few years earlier. So to combat a lack of basketball experience among his players, Albertine devoted lots of time to developing the fundamentals.
“The girls that we see now, they’re playing a tremendous amount of basketball,” McMaster said. “They’ve got a lot of skills … and they know the game really well. (But) at that time, the girls didn’t have the fundamentals. We really had to work on fundamentals.”
Throughout his career, Albertine emphasized an attention to detail.
“When we would mess up a play, he would blow his whistle and the whole practice would just come to a stop,” said Kirsten Reinhard (formerly Kirsten Brockman), who starred under Albertine from 1997 to 2000 before playing at the University of Washington. “(We had to) reset and start it over. There was no room for slop.
“He really was a teacher,” she added. “His practices were smart, well-run, thought-out, and technique was very important to him.”
In addition to coaching basketball, Albertine served as a Snohomish football assistant for 28 seasons from 1976 to 2003. He began as the sophomore team head coach before moving to varsity secondary coach and later taking over as varsity defensive coordinator.
Albertine brought plenty of football experience to the program, having played collegiately at Grays Harbor College, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Central Washington University.
“(He had) that mentality of doing the little things right and focusing on the things that you can control — making sure that you were fundamentally sound and making sure that you were aligned correctly so that you had a chance to succeed,” said former Snohomish head football coach Mark Perry, who now is the school’s athletic director.
Albertine also was known for the energy he brought to practices.
“He’s a fiery, passionate guy,” said former Snohomish football player Rory Rosenbach, who went on to play for the Air Force Academy and the University of Oregon. “All the guys really enjoyed having him because he was animated. It wasn’t going to be a boring practice. He was going to get after it, talk loud and have some fun. … But we knew we got better at the end of the day.”
Albertine stepped away from coaching in 2004 to become Snohomish’s athletic director, a position that several years later was changed to district athletic director. Albertine stayed on as district athletic director until five years ago, when he accepted a newly created full-time position as Glacier Peak’s athletic director.
As district athletic director when Glacier Peak opened in 2008, Albertine played an important role in establishing a strong Grizzlies athletic program. Glacier Peak’s eight team sports have combined for 33 state-tournament appearances in the school’s first nine years, with each of those sports having reached state at least twice.
“A number of great coaches that he hired … and those decisions that were made early (on) have paid off for that program,” Perry said.
Rosenbach, who was Glacier Peak’s football coach from 2008 to 2015, credited Albertine for his role in the decision to immediately field varsity teams and compete in Wesco during the school’s first year, instead of initially competing at the junior-varsity level or playing an independent schedule.
“He was an advocate of that, (while) there were other people that wanted to do different things,” Rosenbach said. “And he said, ‘No, this is the best way to do it. It will allow our kids to have success the quickest.’ And it worked.”
Albertine also was instrumental in promoting the “One town, two schools” slogan that encouraged the town of Snohomish to embrace the idea of two high schools.
“When you divide a high school that’s been around for 100-plus years into two high schools, there’s a challenge with the community and how they are going to take to that,” Albertine said. “The old guard was concerned that (Snohomish athletics) weren’t going to be as successful as it had been.
“(With one) large high school, you have five kids you can put on the basketball floor at one time,” he added. “If you have two high schools, now you get 10 kids. More kids have opportunities, and that’s the thought process we tried to convey to the townspeople. And they were receptive to it.”
In addition to his coaching and athletic director positions, Albertine spent 14 years teaching special education and another 14 years teaching physical education and health. He also coached Special Olympics for about a decade.
“I really enjoyed that,” Albertine said. “That’s an area that I might look to get into in retirement — to go back and work with the Special Olympics.”
Albertine was described by Reinhard as someone who “genuinely cares about people.” Perry echoed that sentiment.
“He built his career on relationships with people and with kids,” Perry said. “He always was interested in people, their story and building relationships with them.”
And after more than four decades in the district, there is no denying Albertine’s impact on Snohomish and Glacier Peak athletics.
“He shaped a lot of lives and he gave a lot to that community, to that district,” Rosenbach said. “And I know that there are a lot of people who are really grateful to him for that.
“A lot of times you don’t really realize how much you’re going to miss a person until they’re gone. And I think he’s certainly one of those guys who’s been around a long time and done a lot of really good things.”
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