Akron Public Schools announced Wednesday that Sonil Haslam has been named the North football coach.
Members of the APS Board of Education approved the hiring of Haslam, 40, on Monday at a regular meeting.
“Coach Haslam has coached for over 20 years at a variety of Akron-area public and private schools, most recently working as assistant head coach in 2015 at Firestone High School,” APS Athletic Director Joe Vassalotti said. “He has been employed for the past 12 years at Akron’s YMCA Phoenix School, where he is the Transition Coordinator.”
Haslam worked under coach Eric Mitchell at Firestone last year.
“I want to work hard for the North High School community, APS, and the young adults at North to give them a program that everyone can be proud of,” Haslam said. “I feel like this, the city is the same with the same kind of kids. One important aspect is they need to trust adults. Relationship building is important. I will be there every day to advocate for the kids and so will my assistant coaches. … We want to make leaders out of these guys.”
Prior to one year at Firestone, Haslam worked as an assistant for two years at East with Marques Hayes, for six years at Archbishop Hoban with Ralph Orsini, for two years at Kenmore with Tony Grimes, for four years at St. Vincent-St. Mary with Jay Brophy and Keith Wakefield and for seven years at East with Mike Kossuth and Cornelius Parsons.
“I have been fortunate to work with a lot of good head coaches,” said Haslam, who also worked on staffs that included Mark Murphy, Frank Stams, Ricky Powers and Tim Flossie as assistants.
Powers is currently Buchtel’s coach. Flossie served as a longtime coach with stints at Central-Hower, Buchtel, Barberton and Firestone.
Haslam said there “must be a level of accountability” for his players.
Haslam is a graduate of East High School (1994) and the University of Akron (2003). He played high school football and tossed the shot put and discus in track and field. He earned two varsity letters as a defensive tackle under Kossuth’s tutelage.
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.
