Heugh is Storch’s successor at Troy Athens
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
TROY — Todd Heugh is coming home.
The Troy Athens graduate has officially been named the successor for retired Athens soccer coach Tim Storch, who left in June after 30 schools years as both a teacher and soccer coach at the school.
Storch is the only soccer coach the school has ever known until now.
“It’s a great opportunity,” admitted Heugh, who has coached for some 15 years in the area, both at the high school and club level. “Anytime you have a chance to come back to your alma mater and replace a legend like Tim Storch, it’s a great opportunity.
“Tim Storch’s teams were always competitive, very organized and disciplined,” continued Huegh. “It’s an honor to take over (for him). Playing for him at one time, I learned a lot from him.”
Heugh was awarded the boys soccer head coach position at Athens in late June and granted the girls job in late July. He has spent the summer following his boys team in the Rochester Area Summer League and is getting reacquainted with some of the players.
Heugh, who has not coached high school boys soccer since 2005, teaches at Larson Middle School in Troy and has had several current and former Athens players in class.
Heugh is a 1990 graduate of Athens, playing on the school’s 1989 Class A state championship team that defeated Plymouth Salem 1-0 in the title game and the 1988 Final Four squad, which lost to Birmingham Brother Rice (2-0) in the semifinals. He later played at Division I Eastern Michigan University in the early 90s.
Heugh began coaching at the high school level back in 1996 as a junior-varsity boys soccer coach at Troy High School, where he remained through the 1999 season.
He gained his first varsity coach job at Rochester High School, leading the Falcons boys program from 2000-2006. His teams won four straight OAA Division I league titles from 2002-2005 and district crowns in both 2002 and 2005. His 2002 squad also captured the first regional title in school history and eventually won the Division 1 state championship with a 1-0 triumph over Plymouth Salem in the title match.
Heugh took over the girls soccer program at Rochester in 2000, with his teams consistently in the top-20 for most of those years. Rochester won four districts under Heugh and finished as the 2007 state runner-up that season, spending most of that campaign ranked No. 1 in the state and in the top 25 nationally.
His girls teams also reached the regional finals in 2002, 2004 and 2005. He resigned in late June from his post at Rochester as the winningest girls coach in school history, surpassing Paul Larkin (1991-97).
Storch, who had over 900 wins at Athens combining the boys and girls teams with dozens of league, district, regional and state championships, is thrilled to see one of his own take over the program he founded in 1981.
“After I announced that I was retiring, I gave recommendations for three people who had close ties to the Athens program as either former players or coaches that I felt would be a good fit,” said Storch from his Alpena, Mich., home. “Todd has been very successful as a coach and he teaches in Troy. A lot of the kids already know him and he knows some of them. He’s also been very successful coaching in the area. His (high school and club) teams have done very well.”
Heugh has also coached club soccer since the 1990s and currently coaches several teams in the Vardar system. His final game at Rochester in June was a 1-0 setback to Athens in the direct finals, leaving the sophomore-heavy Falcons with a 12-6-2 record.
Athens’ boys team is expected to be a frontrunner in the OAA Red Division this year and a likely top 10 team in the state with several key players and prospects returning.
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Category: Editor's Column, High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps, Rochester, Troy Athens
