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Rockbridge County High School has hired Michael Kelly as its new head boys soccer coach and has named Scott Youngdahl, formerly the head boys soccer coach, as its head boys tennis coach.
At the Rockbridge County School Board meeting on Tuesday of last week, Rockbridge County Public Schools announced the hiring of Kelly, who has coached the local Rockbridge United Soccer Club for the past few years, as its new head coach. Youngdahl was named the boys tennis coach earlier this fall, replacing Rebekah Butler, a math teacher who stepped down after coaching the Wildcats the last two years because she’ll be going back to school in the spring. Last spring, the Wildcats went 3-11.
Under Youngdahl, who coached the RC boys soccer team for six years, the Wildcats went 2-12-1 last spring.
Explaining why he chose to switch to coaching tennis, Youngdahl, 53, said, “As soon as the tennis coach position opened up, I was interested in that because that was my first sport. We didn’t have that much success in soccer. It’s good to change things up.”
Youngdahl added that, growing up, he and his family all played tennis, and he played tennis for Union High School in Tulsa, Okla. In addition to coaching, Youngdahl, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a Spanish teacher at RC. He lives with his wife, Janet Lee, and their children are graduates of RC. Although Youngdahl hasn’t coached tennis, he said he has spent “thousands of hours” on the court playing.
Kelly, 52, said he was interested in the job as the boys soccer coach because he realized he believes he can help the players improve. For the Rockbridge United Soccer Club, Kelly has mostly worked with the under-12 and under-16 players, and he knows a lot of the Wildcats’ junior varsity players through coaching the club teams.
Growing up, Kelly played soccer as a midfielder and striker for Enloe High School in Raleigh, N.C. He played one year in college while studying abroad in Wales before finishing his college years at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
“As a player, when I was younger, I thought it was all about getting better,” said Kelly. “Now that I’m older, I realized you kind of have to give back a little bit.
“I felt that it was time to help the kids along,” he added. “I want to teach the players to be the best they can be. I want them to have pride in their community. All of the kids will probably not play collegiate soccer. I felt I can better equip them in their ability.”
Kelly said he doesn’t know who his assistant coaches will be yet, but his goals for the Wildcats are “to build a program where they are consistently competitive. You want to make Rockbridge County a very tough place to play.” He added he wants to get the elementary and middle school kids in the area excited to play high school soccer.
Kelly and his wife, Ayesha, who is a surgeon, have lived in Rockbridge County for 10 years. They have two children: Dante, a freshman soccer player, and Morgan, who is in seventh grade.
Excited to have Kelly guide the boys soccer team, RC athletic director Adam Haynes said, “Coach Kelly is a highenergy guy, with a lot of passion for the game of soccer. He has shown to have really good leadership skills and will run the soccer program with great character and integrity. We feel that Coach Kelly is the right person to lead our soccer program here at Rockbridge County High School, and we look forward to witnessing his version of Wildcat soccer.”
