Richmond Hill High School hires trio of coaches to take over successful programs

RICHMOND HILL — Kelly Anderson has some big shoes to fill, but based on her background, it should not be a problem.

Anderson is the new girls soccer coach at Richmond Hill High School. She succeeds highly successful Dorothy Biron-Vonglis, who this spring led the Wildcats to the GHSA Class 6A state tournament quarterfinals and was selected the Savannah Morning News' Girls Soccer Coach of the Year.

Biron-Vonglis, who was 37-9 in three seasons including an 18-3 mark this year, left coaching as she is expecting a child in July.

Wildcats baseball: Richmond Hill won region title, broke records as pitcher/shortstop Leighton Finley led the way

Girls lacrosse: 'We put up a heckuva fight': Playoff run shows Richmond Hill team's progress

Anderson was one of three new coaches hired at Richmond Hill, according to assistant athletic director Stacy Bennett. The others were baseball coach Hill Thomas and cheer coach Jillian Yontz.

Of the three, Anderson and Yontz were in-house hires.

Anderson has been at Richmond Hill for the past three years as an assistant varsity coach while also serving as head junior varsity coach. Yountz has been the cheer coach at the middle school for nine years where she started the program.

Thomas is coming to Richmond Hill from Coffee County, where the Georgia graduate has been an assistant coach the past two years while also serving as an assistant coach on the middle school football team. He will coach only baseball at Richmond Hill.

Anderson and her family moved to Richmond Hill three years ago when her husband was transferred to Fort Stewart from Fort Benning. She taught middle school math for seven years in Columbus and is a math teacher at RHHS.

She has an extensive soccer background having played four years of varsity on her high school team in Arizona and for two years on nationally ranked teams at Mesa Community College. She went on to play at the University of Texas-Austin.

Following graduation, Anderson was a community coach at Grand Canyon University before playing on an Olympic development team on the west coast.

“After playing, I knew coaching was the next step for me,” Anderson said. “We had a young team this year and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do in a new region. We’re going to aim high and our goal will be to win the region.

This spring the Wildcats won their first Region2-6A title since 2016. This fall the school will begin play in Region 1-7A, which includes Lowndes County, Valdosta, Camden County and Colquitt County.

Region champion in 2021

In his first head coaching job, Thomas will be taking over a baseball program which is also coming off a region championship and won a school-record 24 games while advancing to the second round of the state playoffs.

The job came open last fall when Scott Strickland resigned one month into the school year. Softball coach Chris Jenkins coached baseball on an interim basis. He was not an applicant for the job.

“I’m excited,” said Thomas, selected from a field of approximately 24 candidates, according to Bennett. “I kept up with their season through Game Changer and social media. I did my homework and was prepared when I interviewed.”

Girls, boys soccer teams: Here are the Savannah Morning News 2022 all-area high school boys and girls soccer teams

Key player: Ethan Fuller, at 5-foot-6, 140 pounds, casts big shadow for region champion Richmond Hill

Thomas graduated from Early County High School and played baseball at Darton College in Albany before transferring to UGA. One of his roommates at Darton was former Glynn Academy player Brandon Sharpe, who encouraged Thomas to apply for the job.

“I was talking to Brandon about the job and he told me I should apply for it,” Thomas said. “He said it was one of the best jobs in the state with a lot of tradition and community support.

“I didn’t think I would have a shot at it but I decided to toss my hat in the ring. I’ve met with the team and that went well — although for a teenager anything new is kind of scary. I’m excited and ready to get to work.”

Yontz was the most logical choice for the cheer job which has flourished under Amy Lewis, who is leaving the area.

A 2008 Richmond Hill graduate who was a competitive cheerleader for four years, Yontz went on to graduate from Georgia, where she cheered on a club competition team.

After graduating from UGA, she was hired as a math teacher at Richmond Hill Middle School and started competition cheer.

“I’ve coached all of the girls on the high school team,” Yontz said. “I know all of them so it’s going to be a smooth transition. It’s not going to be anything new for them or me.

“My goal is for Richmond Hill to be top-five at state consistently. We have the talent to do it. We’ve been top 10 the last two years and I think we only had four or five seniors this year. The talent is there.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Richmond Hill High School hires girls soccer, baseball, cheer coaches