It will be bittersweet this evening as the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees officially accepts the resignation of volleyball coach Morgan Kistler, just one year into her tenure with the Panthers.

“She came in and filled the position last year for us, but has had the opportunity to go to the other side of the mountains and teach in Sheridan,” Powell High School activities director Tim Wormald said Monday. “We are very sorry to see her leave, if I had it my way, she’d stay here. But she’s got family near there, and she’s got a good opportunity, so we wish her all the best.”

This leaves two coaching positions open for Powell athletics as head tennis coach Ray Bieber will be retiring from teaching and coaching at the end of the school year after 30 years in Powell.

“I’ve contacted Joyce Ruward in the administration office to start the process of filling the volleyball position with Morgan’s resignation, as well as the tennis position,” Wormald said. “And the process for that is to post it in the district first, then if nothing comes of that we’ll advertise outside the district, through the paper and various websites.”

Such is the constance of change at the level of prep sports, from the stream of student-athletes continually coming and going, to these periodic coaching changes.

“Obviously you never like to have these openings, but they have to be filled,” Wormald said. “The state of Wyoming is pretty stringent to where coaches have to have a coaching permit, and to have the permit they have to have a care and prevention of athletic injuries class as well as other fundamentals of coaching type classes, as well as experience either as an assistant or by taking a sports specific class.”

Finding replacements may not be easy, but just as the graduation of one student-athlete opens the door for another to make his or her mark, so to is the leaving of a coach the opportunity for another to start their own coaching legacy.