Mercer, Emmendorfer join Central coaching staff as assistants
Central Dutch Athletics
PELLA—A pair of assistant coaches with NCAA Division III backgrounds are the newest additions to the Central College football and baseball staffs.
Former Centre College (Ky.) assistant Austin Mercer will coach cornerbacks for the Dutch while Logan Emendorfer is leaving Grinnell College to coach Central’s wide receivers and also serve as an assistant on the baseball squad. They replace football assistant Cody Baethke and football/baseball assistant Spencer Gritsch, who left the college for new positions elsewhere.
Mercer was a two-time letterwinner for the powerhouse University of Mount Union (Ohio) where he played wide receiver and safety while also competing on special teams. He was a member of Mount Union’s 2012 Division III championship squad. A Jeffersonville, Ohio native, he was wide receivers coach at Millikin University (Ill.) for one season before spending a year as receivers coach at Centre.
Emendorfer served as team captain at the University of Wis.-Platteville. He was an assistant at Wis.-Platteville for one year, then coached for a season at Marian University (Wis.) before a brief stint at Grinnell College. He was an all-state quarterback at Platteville (Wis.) High School.
Baseball coach Matt Schirm said Emendorfer will work with the team’s hitters, along with other duties.
“Logan was a really good high school baseball player,” he said. “But the thing I am most excited about is that he is passionate about coaching. He’s got a lot of good background knowledge and will develop good relationships with our guys.”
Football coach Jeff McMartin is enthused about the additions to his staff.
“We feel like we’ve hired two bright, young coaches and we’re excited about both of them,” he said. “I think they complement our staff really well and they complement each other really well. They have proven backgrounds, coming from successful programs as players. They’ve worked for some good people at some good institutions. We feel like they can help us as we go through the year coaching players on the field, strategizing and creating game plans in the conference room, and we feel like they’re going be huge assets out on the road in recruiting.”
Central is the fourth-winningest college football program in the U.S. since 1975 and has captured 30 Iowa Conference championships along with 20 Division III playoff berths. The Dutch are coming off a 7-3 campaign and open the 2018 season Sept. 1 at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (Minn.).
