Columbus North has filled its head coaching staff for 2018-19 by hiring two new coaches in the past week.
Matt Joyce, who has coached the past two years at Western Boone, will be the Bull Dog wrestling coach. Tom Pollert, who was a North assistant boys soccer coach from 1997 to 2004, will take over that sport.
Pollert, who had been head coach at Franklin College from 1992-96, has spent most of the past several years coaching at the high school and collegiate level in Massachusetts and Maryland. He returned to Indiana last sumner to coach the Saint Francis Soccer Club and in January, had accepted the girls coaching job at Franklin Central.
“It’s just great to come home,” Pollert said. “It’s really my dream job. It’s such a tradition, and being involved with it before with coach (David) Green, it’s the only job I would have left Franklin Central for.”
Pollert replaces Andy Glover, who recently retired. Chris Morlock, who was assistant under Pollert at Franklin College, and under Glover at North, will stay on as an assistant.
Menawhile, Joyce won’t have nearly as far of a commute to his new wrestling coaching job. He has been commuting more than an hour one-way from home in Muncie to Western Boone High School near Thorntown the past two years. This summer, he will move to Columbus, where he will be the coach at Columbus North.
Joyce competed his final two years of high school at Southmont after moving from east Texas. He wrestled for two years at Manchester University before, transferring to IUPUI, where he earned a degree in public policy.
Joyce works for the pharmaceutical company Elanco out of Greenfield. He was an assistant wrestling coach at Greenfield-Central for five years before taking the Western Boone job.
Joyce takes over for Justin Cooper, who resigned after leading the Bull Dogs the past two seasons. The Bull Dogs have struggled with numbers the past several years.
“Seeing the kind of atmosphere that they have ideas for, the people that are already involved there, I think they have a lot of pieces to make up a successful program,” Joyce said. “Obviously, I’m going to have to come in and evaluate the true dynamics there, but (being competitive is) the ultimate goal right now.”
Joyce will hold a callout meeting at 6 p.m. today in North’s athletic conference room. The meeting is for all incoming freshman and returning wrestlers and their parents. If wrestlers or parents need to reach Joyce before then, send an e-mail to coachmjoyce@gmail.com.
Pollert will hold a callout meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria for all interested boys soccer players and their parents.
Olympian earns call-back
Columbus East sophomore high jumper Emily Stoughton has earned a call-back to the June 1 Girls Track and Field State Finals.
Stoughton finished fourth in Tuesday’s Shelbyville Regional with a leap of 5 feet, 3 inches, but was among the three next-best jumpers who weren’t in the top three in their respective regional.
Stoughton joins Columbus North sophomore Sami Heathcote, who won the pole vault at 10-2, as state qualifiers from Columbus. Edinburgh junior Taylor Tatlock qualified out of the Shelbyville Regional after finishing fourth in the discus (125-11) while reaching the state standard.
Jennings County junior Kayla Truesdell will return to state after winning the discus (130-5) and finishing second in the shot put (43-8 1/4) in the Bloomington North Regional. Panther freshman Sam Sproles also qualified with a third-place finish in the long jump (16-1 1/4), and Brown County senior Vivien Crimmins won the 100-meter hurdles (15.48 seconds).
North trio seeded first
The three Columbus North boys track athletes who won sectional titles in their respective events are the No. 1 seeds in those events going into tonight’s Franklin Sectional.
Seniors Brigham Kleinhenz in the pole vault, Damon Hunter Jr. in the 100 and Drew Thompson in the 800 all are top seeds. Senior Logan Abbott is seeded second in the discus, and junior Sam Horak is second in the 1,600. Hunter is the No. 3 seed in the 200, and the Bull Dogs are seeded second in the 4×100 relay and fourth in the 4×400 relay.
Columbus East freshman Crase Bergman is the No. 3 seed in the long jump. East senior Zarrien Johnson-Bey and North sophomore Hunter Huser and freshman Preston Terrell all are tied for fourth in the high jump.
The top three in each event from each of the state’s eight regionals and any others meeting the state standard automatically qualify for the June 2 Boys Track and Field State Finals. If those numbers do not reach 27 in an event, the next-best times or distances will be added as call-backs to reach 27 in those events.
New coach holding callout
New Columbus North girls cross-country coach Rick Sluder will hold a callout meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the school cafeteria.
The meeting all students who are interested in learning more about being a member of the North girls cross-country team this fall and their parents.
