Upton named Classical boys soccer coach

The Classical High boys soccer team has a new coach.Rob Upton, who coached the junior varsity team for the past three years, has been named head coach, replacing Joe Skahan. Skahan did not reapply after the job was opened earlier this spring.Upton, who teaches history at Lynn Tech, served as an assistant girls basketball coach this year and he was previously a freshman baseball coach at English.”It will be nice to run my own program,” Upton said. “I learned a lot from the coaches I worked under. Now it’s time to take that next step.”Skahan coached the Rams for five years. During that time, his teams made the state tournament four out of the last five years. Last year, Classical won the Northeastern Conference North title and reached the second round of the tournament before losing in a shootout.”I was told the position was opening up. I decided not to reapply,” Skahan said, adding he did not want to step down.Skahan said he had a great time coaching in the program and said he’s proud of the progress the players and the program made during the time he was there.”I’m sure Rob will be great. He was right under us all the time,” Skahan said. “We did what we did. We really cared about all the kids, the progress they made and the progress we made.”Upton said having coached the junior varsity, he’s familiar with the players and what they could do.””I’ve been involved in the program the last three years and I’ve developed a good relationship with these guys,” he said. “This is a program that has a lot of talent and I’m hoping to get the most out of it.”Classical High principal Gene Constantino said Skahan did a nice job with the program and he invited him to reapply. Constantino said Upton impressed him with his organization and the relationship he has with the players.Upton said his goal is to keep the program successful.”It’s a program that has been successful the last few years and it has the talent to stay at that level. I just want to maintain that level and hopefully move past it,” Upton said.