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Greencastle girls soccer coach Greg Cole resigns


In the end, it wasn't a hard decision for Greg Cole to make.

Cole, who had coached a successful Greencastle-Antrim girls soccer program for eight seasons, handed in his resignation letter on Tuesday simply because he decided family has to come first.

"My youngest daughter (Brianna) will be an incoming freshman next fall at James Buchanan," Cole said, "and I had promised her that if she decided to play soccer in high school, then I wouldn't miss it. She told me recently that she did want to play. I just want to be a dad in the stands watching her play."

An older daughter, Amanda, was a cross country runner at JB and Cole had missed much of her season because of coaching.

He still plans to coach a U-15 CPYSL team in Greencastle in the spring, but the fall will be a whole new experience.

"I told my wife that I started coaching when my oldest daughter was 4," Cole said, "so I've been doing it for 19 years in the fall season. Now I won't be coaching anything then, so it'll be like turning the page."

But he will have pages of good things to remember about his days at Greencastle.

The 2013 team won a Mid Penn Colonial Division championship, went 17-3, and won a District 3 playoff game.

"What I remember about that year was that because of rain outs and rescheduled games, we had to play eight games in 11 days and we went 8-0," Cole said. "That was a sign of character for the team. They were good and knew it; not arrogant or cocky, just confident."

In 2014, the Blue Devils did not win another Colonial crown, going 16-5-1, but the postseason was special. G-A went 4-0 in district play, did not allow a goal, and earned a District 3 Class AAA title by edging Conrad Weiser 1-0 in the final.

Cole said, "I'll remember the team chemistry of that year. We were not gelling off the field at first, but the girls put it all aside when it was game time.

"In the district final, when Allyssa (Denkovich) scored that goal, I didn't think it would hold up. They had that one girl (Hannah Racis) who was really good and she had three 1-on-1's against (goalkeeper) Jenay (Faulkner) and Jenay guessed right all three times. The moons were aligned just right for that."

The Blue Devils also won a first-round PIAA game at Chambersburg, at which a large crowd cheered them on.

"It was nice to have our first state playoff game 15 miles up the road," Cole said.

Asked what he will miss the most, Cole said, "Interacting with the kids who really wanted to be coached - the ones who knew that hard work would really benefit them."

Now he'll get a chance to see games unfold from the stands instead of on the field.

Greg Cole by the numbers

8: Seasons coaching at Greencastle

89-53-7: Record

.621: Winning percentage

2: Mid Penn Colonial Division titles

1: District 3 Class AAA crown

6: District 3 appearances

1: PIAA appearance