Veteran Soccer icon Storch to call it a career at Troy Athens
Tim Storch
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
TROY — Ending weeks of speculation, Tim Storch, the only head soccer coach that Troy Athens has never known, has announced that the 2011 girls season will be his last.
Storch, who came to Athens in 1981 and began the varsity boys soccer program there that August, and the girls program in 1983, released a statement to the media and those around the soccer community and the community of Troy Thursday saying that he recently made it official and would not return in 2011-12 for the boys season.
Repeated phone calls by NOS staff to Storch went unanswered Thursday.
Storch won the coaches association Class A-B state title with the Athens boys in 1981, and has had only two losing seasons with the boys and one with the girls in his stellar career with the Red Hawks, which has included over 400 career wins. He is the all-time winningest coach in Oakland County history, with numerous trips to the state finals and Final Four, plus several league, district and regional titles with both the boys and girls programs.
His last state title came in 2000 with the Athens girls team.
Currently, Athens is ranked seventh in Division 1, winning four straight after a season-opening loss to No. 2 Troy. The Red Hawks are one of the favorites to make another lengthy run in the postseason this season.
Storch, who also teaches history at the school, has coached more than 100 players who have earned scholarships for college soccer, and is a former coach in the Olympic Developmental Program system. He has coached dozens of all-state players, including several that have made the All-State Dream Team or gone on to win Mr. Soccer or Miss Soccer.
In his statement issued Thursday, Storch says his retirement from teaching and coaching at Athens was purely economical, with the teaching profession taking massive cuts around the state and country.
“After more than 30 years at Athens, (my wife) Liz and I have decided to seek out new challenges in Alpena (Michigan), “he said. “This has been a difficult decision to reach for both of us as we love our jobs, our colleagues, and our ‘kids’. However, the current political climate at the federal, state, and local levels have us concerned about the future of education, both our public and private teaching pensions, health insurance coverage, and severance pay. The penalties we would incur by remaining in our current positions are too great, both in the short term and the long term. Since I am turning 55 and Liz is 49, the time to relocate and explore new opportunities is now.”
Storch did not state those opportunities which await in Alpena, where the family owns a summer home.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my years teaching and coaching at Athens and leave with a certain sense of sorrow,” he added in his official release. “I wish to thank all of you for all you have done to make this job so enjoyable.”
Storch will remain on the sidelines through the Red Hawks’ final state tournament game in June. He will step away from teaching at the end of the spring semester in mid-June before permanently relocating to the Alpena area.
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Category: Editor's Column, High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps, Troy Athens
