Trenton Fills Softball, Boys Basketball Positions

Trenton High School put the finishing touches on its high school coaching assignments for fall and winter sports at a special board of education meeting last week.
Joel Hultman will replace John Cowling as the head of the softball program and Corbin Coe takes over for Jeremy Austin as the head boys’ basketball coach.
Hultman replaces Cowling as the head softball coach after Cowling resigned the post following his promotion to assistant high school principal.
Cowling took over the program in 2012 and guided the Bulldogs to a 154-28 record over seven years as the team’s head coach. He oversaw four district and three conference championships and a run to the state final four that ended with a runner-up finish this past season.
“”Leaving the softball program after being a part of it for the last 14 years was a difficult decision to make,” Cowling said. “I have been fortunate to have coached some incredibly talented, high character individuals who were fun to work with every day. I’m excited to see where Coach Hultman and Coach (Kameron) Cool can take the program in the future.”
Hultman is currently the head baseball coach at Trenton and served as the middle school softball head coach last fall. He was also an assistant coach for the varsity program for part of the season.
“(Hultman) has previous experience as a head softball coach at a stop in Warrensburg, which was important,” Athletic Director Wes Croy said. “We had more than one candidate that would been viable hires, but that fact that he had that experience coupled with the fact that he was with our girls for their postseason run on the bench are what made us feel good about moving him to that position.”
Hultman is excited for the opportunity to work with the most successful athletic program at Trenton in over the past decade.
“I’m excited to get the job and lead the program,” Hultman said. “They have a rich history that, hopefully, we can keep building on. One of my specialties is working on the fundamentals, so we are going to develop talent to go with the talent that is coming back and hopefully have a good team.”
Coe comes to Trenton from King City. He takes over a program that was guided for the past 12 seasons by Austin. Austin is leaving to take over the program at Scotland County – a move that puts him closer to home.
“It was a tough decision for us to decide to move,” Austin said. “We’ve been very happy here and the community has been great, but we have the opportunity right now to go back and take over a program that is five minutes from where my parents live and 15 minutes from where my wife’s parents live. It’s never easy to make changes like this, but right now is the time for us to go back.”
Coe has shown the ability to take over for a long-term coach in the past when he took the reins at Newtown-Harris when long-time Tiger Coach Tim Cool moved on to Chillicothe.
“(Coe) is familiar to this area and familiar with this job and what it entails from when he was at Newtown,” Croy said. “He is still what I would consider a young coach, but one with a ton of basketball coaching experience, which is something we were looking for. He blew us away in the interview. He came in with a plan for our program and what he wanted to do with it. We just felt like with the coaches that we have coming in, he would be a really good fit.”