Hattemer is a former Eastern assistant football coach and administrator, as well as a coach and athletic director at Columbia Basin College. He hired Dick Zornes as football coach at CBC in 1977, then came with Zornes to Eastern in 1979. They coached together for 12 more seasons until Hattemer retired following the 1990 season. In all, Hattemer helped coach Eastern to a 70-53 (.569) record during the school’s rise from NAIA to NCAA Division II to NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (then known as Division I-AA). Including his years at CBC, teams he coached were 137-81-6. Eastern’s 1985 team finished 9-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs following a 42-38 first-round victory over Idaho. He was the offensive line coach of eventual NFL standouts Ed Simmons and Kevin Sargent, as well as several others who played professional football. Simmons, Sargent, John Tighe and Jeff Mickel were coached by Hattemer and earned All-America honors – a tradition of talented offensive linemen in FCS that has continued to this day. Although Eastern didn’t become a Big Sky Conference member until 1987, six Eagle offensive linemen earned nine different All-Big Sky honors under Hattemer (Sargent, Mickel, Peder Thorstenson, Tim Trout, Charles Spencer, Mino Pele), plus two tight ends combined for three honors (Tony Lenseigne, Brook Aldrich). Zornes, Simmons and Sargent are all members of EWU’s Hall of Fame, as well as the 1985 football team that Hattemer helped coach. Besides his duties coaching and managing finances for the football program, he also held other administrative and marketing duties as an assistant athletic director. Beyond that, he continued to help coach and provide player evaluations at EWU summer football camps through 2010. Born Oct. 10, 1938, in Spokane, Hattemer was raised in Lacrosse, Wash., and graduated from Lacrosse High School in 1956. He graduated in 1960 from the University of Idaho, where he played football, basketball and baseball. He received All-West Coast honors in baseball as a senior. He received his first teaching job at Othello High School where he was the football and baseball coach, and assistant basketball coach, for more than six years. His baseball teams compiled a 54-16 record. He moved to CBC as assistant football, basketball, baseball, track & field and tennis coach in 1967. After earning his master’s degree at Idaho in 1961, he became the CBC Athletic Director while continuing as assistant football and basketball coach, as well as secretary-treasurer of the CBC Booster Club. In 1983, Hattemer was named to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges Roll of Honor. He also received the “Gold Helmet” Award at the 1992 Washington State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame Induction. Hattemer’s wife of 51 years, Joan, passed away on July 14, 2012. Their daughter, Laurie, played for the Eastern women’s basketball team from 1987-89. They had a second daughter, Renee (Hoke). Their son, Lance, was a non-lettering squad member as a quarterback for Eastern in 1998 and 1999. Lance punted four times for a 37.5 average on Sep 2, 1999, versus his father’s alma mater, Idaho.
