Jul. 9—Pope’s baseball program didn’t have to look far for its new head coach.
In fact, it only had to have him move over one seat.
The Greyhounds promoted assistant coach Chris Turco to become the new leader of the baseball team, taking over for recently retired, and founder of the program as it is today, Jeff Rowland.
“The fact that I got to play and work with him, it’s and honor (to take over the program),” Turco said. “He was really excited to leave it in the hands of the alumni.”
Turco was part of the four state championships and other deep playoff runs over the last decade-plus. The program is coming off a season in which it went 29-12, which included another trip to the final four and a playoff series victory over Buford, which was the No. 1 team in the country by many of the high school baseball polls. While he was hesitant to guarantee anything, he said taking over for Rowland in some ways is like players taking over for those who came in front of them.
“At Pope we like to embrace expectations,” Turco said. “Yes, I have big shoes to fill, but the key is to focus on the task at hand.”
Athletic director Josh Mathews said while the decision to promote Turco may appear to have been an easy one, it was Turco’s vision for what’s next that proved he was the right choice.
“He gave a good picture of what he is going to offer as the baseball coach,” Mathews said. “He shared his vision. It’s a built in challenge for anyone — how do I make something that is really, really good even better.”
While Turco has already had great success with the baseball program, he has been equally as successful as the head coach of the Lady Greyhounds softball team. In 14 years as softball coach, he won more than 330 games, won two state titles and was state runner-up three times. Unfortunately, he said he felt he would not be able to give his full attention to both jobs and do them right as he considers it to be a 24/7 position, so he stepped down from his softball post.
“Telling the players I wasn’t going to be their coach any more was much tougher than I ever expected it to be,” he said. “It’s the toughest thing I’ve had to do professionally.”
However, like the baseball team, the softball team didn’t have to look far for its next head coach either. Assistant coach Ellie Viland has taken the reigns and will get her first chance as a head coach this fall. Viland played shortstop for Turco six seasons ago before heading to Georgia get her degree in education. She returned and has served as an assistant since.
“I can’t think of a better person to take over the softball program,” Mathews said.