Tom Coombe will add another title to his name with a familiar ring, athletic director.
In addition to the Ely School District, Coombe will also be the AD for the Vermilion campus of Minnesota North College.
Coombe joined the college in that role this month and will oversee football, volleyball, trap shooting, men’s and women’s basketball plus baseball and softball.
He will replace Aaron Bender who held the position for the past four years.
Coombe, 56, will scale back his work at the Ely Echo, where he has been the editor for the last 30 years and a full-time employee since 1993. He started with the Echo as a part-time sports reporter in 1985.
“The timing for this was actually pretty good with Harmony Fisher coming on board,” said Ely Echo publisher Nick Wognum. “Tom will still be doing sports, writing opinion pieces and helping out with podcasts so we’re thankful for that.”
Wognum said Fisher will be promoted to editor as part of the transition.
“Harmony has been doing a fantastic job. She worked for us last year and then returned after she graduated from Harvard,” said Wognum. “She didn’t miss a beat and really has been busy covering news stories from around the Ely area.”
For Coombe, the additional AD work is already lining up with what he does for ISD 696.
“The two complement each other very well. I’m hiring volleyball game workers and now I’ve got a pool of workers that I can plug into both. I think it’d be very helpful in that regard,” he said.
Covering sports for the Ely Echo and being an athletic director for two institutions fits right in with Coombe’s love for sports. He’s also the baseball coach at Vermilion and the Ely Legion baseball team head coach, and this summer coached Ely to the state tournament and was inducted into the Minnesota Legion Baseball Hall of Fame.
“For everything I’ve done in terms of coaching baseball, doing AD work at the high school, it just seemed like a very good fit with what I was already doing,” said Coombe.
“I still like what I do here at the Echo. It’s natural just to keep doing that and hopefully have some time to do some other things as time allows,” said Coombe. “It’s kind of the next phase of my working life.
“And, my daughter Macy is in swimming and probably going to be involved in other sports as well. I think hopefully this will give me a chance to see more of her events as well and step back at least a little bit from work.”
