Columbus East athletics director Pete Huse didn’t have to look far to find a replacement for former boys soccer coach Brad Barber.
On Monday, Huse tabbed assistant coach Josh Gonsior to take over the program. Gonsior has been an assistant with the Olympians the past 10 years.
“I think it makes the choice a lot easier knowing that he’s been embedded in the program since 2010,” Huse said. “He knows the kids, so the kids already respect him. He has that relationship, so I like the fact that he can jump right in. He’s already familiar with how offseason training is, so I do think it’s a lot easier to bring a guy that has earned the respect of the kids. He understands the time commitment, but he also understands where the program is and where we’d like to keep it.”
East is coming off the first state final four appearance in program history. The Olympians won sectional and regional titles before falling to eventual state champion Zionsville 2-1 in the semistate.
“We’ve now been to this spot in the tournament, and we want to feel like we belong there,” Gonsior said. “That’s been the goal each and every year. We want to continue to develop players through our culture and training and hopefully even get to that next level. Being a part of the program for so long and being a part of that growth and seeing the evolution of the program, I wanted to be a part of that growth and be a part of its future.”
Gonsior came to East in 2010 following two years as head coach at Hauser.
“Part of the reason I went to East in the first place was, I graduated from there, and I wanted to grow as a soccer coach,” Gonsior said. “Brad was really good at running training sessions, and I felt that was an area where I needed to grow. I’m glad I had the opportunity to help continue to build the program that Brad has built.”
Gonsior said he had been thinking about applying for the head coaching job all year after Barber mentioned early in the season that he was leaning toward this being his last year.
The Olympians lose three All-State players to graduation, including The Republic Boys Soccer Player of the Year Eric Stiles, but return a few underclassmen who played key roles on this year’s team.
“I think what we’ve developed has been really good,” Gonsior said. “We’re going to try to do some different things to get us to that next level. We have to replace some players from last season. You have some generational players that can’t be replaced in one season. But we have that team concept, and having that ‘next-man-up’ mentality will help us push forward.”
