EAST WENATCHEE — After four years as head coach, Tim Davison is leaving the Eastmont volleyball program in much better shape than he found it.

Davison plans to resign soon as the Wildcats’ coach as he and his family gear up to move to the Tri-Cities, where he works as a senior technical editor for Lucas Engineering. In four years at Eastmont, Davison took the Wildcats from a cellar-dweller in the Big Nine to a postseason team in each of his seasons at the helm.

“For the Eastmont program, I’m real pleased with where it is and have high hopes for where it’s going,” Davison said Sunday evening, a day after the team’s season ended in a loss to Wenatchee in the district tournament. “My happy feeling for Eastmont is that we now have a consistent (grade) seven through 12 program. We had 19 players my first year, and this year we had over 60 kids try out.”

Davison, 60, has coached either club or high school volleyball for 34 years, including tenures at Toppenish (17 years in two stints), Selah (three years) and Granger (one year).

Although he had just retired as Eastmont’s assistant superintendent, he stepped in as the Wildcats’ coach in 2006 as a last resort when no one applied for the job that was vacated by Jim Bone. He intended to coach for just one season while grooming a successor, but instead stuck around to lead Eastmont to its most successful season in program history in 2008, when it finished 10-4 in Columbia Basin Big Nine play.

For the last two seasons, he coached his daughter, Suzi Davison, a sophomore at Eastmont. Tim Davison said he was unsure what high school she will attend next year, although it will be in the Tri-Cities. Whichever school gets her will gain the setter with the third-most assists in the CBBN this season.

“I’m very blessed to have had the opportunity to coach my daughter,” Tim Davison said. “We made a good experience out of it, but I think it’s time she had a new voice.”

If he returns to coaching some day, it would probably be with a club team, he said.

“I may take a year off. My wife and I are building a house down here (in the Tri-Cities), and with my job that will take some time.”

Eastmont athletic director Dan White said the district will likely post the coaching position once Davison officially submits his letter of resignation, which Davison said will likely be later this week.

“Right now there isn’t necessarily an obvious successor,” White said.