COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo’s athletic department will look a little different next year.
The school announced recently that the athletic director position will now be handled by two people, and Zach Tomas and Erin Hume will be responsible for bringing several new coaches to the district.
The decision to split the AD position between Tomas and Hume will hopefully minimize the time each person spends away from their families.
“The job can be consuming,” Tomas said. “This is a way for me to stay involved with the athletic programs at the school and still have time with my family.”
Both Tomas and Hume are married with multiple children.
Hume was taking part in an education leadership program at the school.
He worked closely with C-M High School Principal Todd Jones and C-M Elementary Principal Brian Summy but when the AD opportunity came about, he decided to travel down that administrative path.
Hume has been working toward an administration degree from Viterbo University this year.
“As an educator, you always want to make yourself better. This position presented itself so I decided to go in that direction,” Hume said. “The school wanted to make that position less stressful for one person.”
Tomas and Hume will have a busy start to their tenure as co-athletic directors.
They’ll be responsible for hiring a head girls’ varsity basketball coach, head boys’ varsity basketball coach, head varsity golf coach, a wrestling cheer coach and several other sub-varsity coaching positions in the near future.
Larry Roberts recently resigned from his position as head varsity girls basketball coach after two years.
Also stepping down was JV girls basketball coach Hannah Hagerty.
The boys’ varsity basketball coaching position also is open after Nick Noring’s resignation was accepted recently.
Noring also will no longer be coach of the high school golf programs.
Laurie McGhee resigned from her position as wrestling cheerleading coach.
“The number of openings is pretty normal,” Tomas said. “Coaching contracts don’t pay enough to keep some in the business. It’s hard for some places to keep coaches because the coaching is usually a second job. We don’t do it for the money, and it takes a big commitment.”
Tomas pointed out that BGM, a school in the South Iowa Cedar League, also has co-athletic directors, and it has worked for them.
Tomas coaches cross country in the fall and girls’ track and field in the spring, so he will have more AD duties in the winter.
Hume is the school’s head wrestling coach so his AD duties will be greater in the fall and spring.
Both Tomas and Hume and will share duties in the summer for baseball and softball.
“We’ll communicate well together,” Hume said. “We’ll both do our parts. As long as we communicate, things will run just fine. It will be a great experience for me. Usually when someone makes this kind of move, they have to leave the district they are in. I am fortunate that I get to do this in the district that I am already at.”
Hume said he and Tomas haven’t ironed out all the details of the position yet, but said they both will be involved in the hiring process and both will attend AD meetings.
While the school recently accepted the resignations of several coaches, it also hired Clint Pudenz as an assistant high school wrestling coach and Justin Teed as an assistant high school baseball coach.
Pudenz was previously the junior high wrestling coach, which creates an opening for that position.