Career opportunity leads Corn to resign as Polk boys soccer coach

Polk County is once again looking for a boys soccer coach.

A good bit of career news meant a difficult decision for Matt Corn, who announced Monday that he is stepping down after one season leading the Wolverines’ program.

Corn recently learned that new opportunities await him with The Cliffs organization, where he is employed. The demands of the new role will leave him little time for coaching, though, hence his decision.

“If everything goes according to the plan set forth by my bosses, then I will move into a new role at the beginning of next year,” Corn said. “This new role will drastically reduce the flexibility I had with my previous role and affect how much availability I will have for the upcoming season.

“I have spoken with an individual that works in this role to see if they thought I would be able to coach and do this new role effectively, and the answer was a hard no.”

A 2002 Polk County graduate and MVP of the Wolverines’ 2001 state championship victory, Corn led Polk County to a 4-15 record in 2022. Polk, though, showed improvement throughout the season and notched a late-season win over a Patton squad that eventually reached the third round of the state 2A playoffs.

Polk County finished fifth in the Mountain Foothills 7 Conference standings and will return all-conference goalkeeper Cade Bright, among others.

“I want to still be a part of the program, but honestly, at this point, I don’t know at what capacity,” Corn said. “It would not be fair to the students to have a coach that isn’t 100 percent committed to them, and I know I would not be able to give them that 100 percent. There are some amazing student-athletes on that team and they deserve nothing but the best.

“This past season was extremely difficult for a number of reasons. But in the end, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I learned more about myself and how to be more compassionate and understanding of others’ needs. I honestly felt like I learned more from the students than I was able to teach them.”

Polk County Schools officials said the search would begin immediately for a new head coach. The district is also now accepting applications for a head football coach at Polk County.