Jon Kitna

Jon Kelly Kitna (born September 21, 1972) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Central Washington Wildcats and was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 1996. He is currently the head football coach at Lakota East High School. Kitna was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Concordia Lutheran School, before transferring to Lincoln High School after his freshman season. He lettered in football, basketball and baseball. He enrolled at Central Washington University. He walked on to the football team and was named the starter at quarterback as a true freshman over Beau Baldwin. He passed for 1,964 yards. As a sophomore, he posted 3,241 yards. He had 6 touchdown passes against Pacific Lutheran University. As a junior, he registered 2,532 passing yards. He passed for 456 yards and 7 touchdowns against Pacific Lutheran University. As a senior, he started 14 games, tallying 4,616 passing yards (NAIA Division II record) on 364-of-576 completions (63.1%), 42 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, while leading the Wildcats to the NAIA Football National Championship. He surpassed 300 passing yards in 8 contests. He had 455 passing yards and 4 touchdowns against Western Washington University. He passed for 454 yards against Whitworth University. Kitna finished his college career with 43 games played, 911-of-1,550 completions (58.8%), 12,353 passing yards, 99 touchdowns and 59 interceptions. He set the NAIA record for career total offense with 12,907 yards. He had 17 games with over 300 passing yards. In 2006, he was inducted into the Central Washington University Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2014, he was inducted into the Pacific Northwest Football Hall of Fame. Believing that his football career was over after the NAIA championship, Kitna finished his math education degree at Central Washington and began applying for high-school coaching jobs.