Tomlin Succeeds Kelly At Helm Of Boys Soccer
A local resident who has been around the game of soccer for a long time was named the new head coach of the Rockbridge County High School boys soccer team last week.
Jeff Tomlin, formerly the head coach of the RC girls’ junior varsity team and assistant coach for the girls’ varsity team, was tabbed for the role, replacing Michael Kelly, who resigned for undisclosed reasons on Monday of last week.
Tomlin, 24, coached his first game as the RC boys’ bench boss on Friday night, a 2-1 road loss to Valley District rival William Monroe.
Praising Tomlin, RC athletic director Adam Haynes said, “Jeff’s got a really good soccer background… His goal was to be a head coach, and because of the success and the growth that he’s had with the girls’ JV team, when Coach Kelly resigned, I asked if he would take the position.”
In one year under Kelly, the Wildcats went 2-14-0 overall and 2-10-0 in the Valley District last year.
Kelly said he “fully supports” Tomlin as the head coach and will continue to support the team from the stands. “You’ll find me at every game, watching with a smile,” he said.
RC athletic director Adam Haynes said he saw a lot of positive things in Kelly’s time at RC. “I appreciate Coach Kelly’s efforts over the last year,” said Haynes.
Tomlin, serving as an assistant varsity girls soccer coach under Danny Wheeler last year, worked mostly with goalkeepers and helped the Wildcats have their best season in six years, going 8-9-0 overall and 6-6-0 in the district, ending the season with a loss to Class 3 state runner-up Western Albemarle in the Region 3C quarterfinals.
Tomlin was also an assistant coach for the RC girls’ team in the spring 2023 season. Prior to his time with the Wildcats, he was an assistant coach for the Turner Ashby High School boys soccer team from 2021-22.
In addition to high school coaching, Tomlin has experience coaching at the college level. He’s been an assistant coach for the Southern Virginia University men’s team for the last two years, working as the goalkeeper coach, under head coach Payden Pemberton. “Payden has helped me grow tremendously,” said Tomlin, who said he’s also learned a lot from SVU women’s soccer head coach Rob Dahl.
Tomlin graduated from Parry McCluer High School in 2018 before attending SVU, where she graduated from SVU in the fall of 2022, majoring in English and liberal arts. He played soccer as a defender for both schools and was also a goalkeeper at SVU, playing for John Butler and Chuck Rice at PM and for Jan-Willem Boer at SVU.
Outside of high school and college coaching, Tomlin helped coach the United Premier Soccer League in Lynchburg last spring.
In addition to coaching, Tomlin works in real estate in Buena Vista and has been a freelance sports reporter for The News-Gazette since the fall of 2022.
Tomlin is getting together a coaching staff. One of his assistant coaches is Bright Frimpong, who helped coach the team last year. He also brings along Mark Roeder, who’s served as a volunteer assistant men’s soccer coach at Washington and Lee University.
Looking forward to working with the boys’ team, Tomlin said he is optimistic the team will improve. “We’re going to try to be competitive in the district,” he said. Tomlin noted that his experience coaching at Turner Ashby will help him guide the Wildcats in district games.
“I think the strength of our team this year is going to be the defense,” added Tomlin. “We have a lot of really talented defenders.”
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