SCHENECTADY — New Union football head coach Jon Poppe was getting ready to hit the road on Thursday — not for a game or a recruiting trip.
“Actually, I’m driving home this afternoon to Massachusetts to hopefully sell a home,” Poppe, a former Harvard assistant, said in his office Thursday morning.
On the job for three months, Poppe has yet to move his wife and 5-year-old daughter from their home in the Boston suburbs. Instead, he makes regular trips on the Massachusetts Turnpike to see his family.
Eventually, they’ll get around to house-hunting in the Capital Region. Meanwhile, Poppe’s focused on his new job.
Hired in January to replace Jeff Behrman, Poppe will get his full team on the field for the first time on Sunday, when the Dutchmen open spring practice on Frank Bailey Field.
“Our first opportunity to really see these guys compete and really working together,” Poppe said. “We’ve done some team-building exercises here last couple of weeks, just to prepare for Sunday, in terms of them hearing our voices in a coaching manner, but I think it’s just excitement now.”
Poppe, 38, spent the past five seasons as secondary and special teams coach at Harvard, his second stint with the Crimson. In between, he worked at Columbia from 2015 to 2017 for former Union head coach Al Bagnoli, who guided the Dutchmen to the Division III national championship game in 1983 and 1989.
Poppe said his relationship with Bagnoli was “instrumental” when the Union job opened up following the departure of Behrman, who left after seven years to become head coach at his alma mater, John Carroll.
“Talking to him and even talking to his wife, Maryellen, who talked to my wife (Anna),” Poppe said. “We still remain close to them. We have a tremendous amount of respect for them and what they’ve done for…
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