{"id":2948,"date":"2026-04-21T01:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/2948\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:45:13","slug":"poland-seminary-high-school-appoints-new-athletic-director-for-board-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/2948\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland Seminary High School appoints new athletic director for board approval"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

POLAND, Ohio<\/a> (WKBN) \u2013 Poland Local Schools announced on Monday that Nick Blanch has been appointed as the school\u2019s next Athletic Director, pending approval by the Board of Education.<\/p>\n

Blanch, a 1997 graduate of Poland Seminary High School, has served as a teacher at Poland since 2002 and the girls\u2019 head basketball coach since 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick\u2019s dedication to our students and his understanding of what it means to be a Bulldog make him an outstanding choice for this role,\u201d said Dr. Andrew Tommelleo, superintendent of Poland Local Schools. \u201cWe are confident he will continue to build upon the strong tradition of Poland Athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanch will replace Brian Banfield, who served as the Poland athletic director for nearly two decades and helped lead the Bulldogs to numerous league, sectional, district, regional and state-level accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together at Poland and grateful for the support of our student-athletes, coaches, and community,\u201d said Brian Banfield. \u201cI am excited for Nick to take over as Athletic Director and know he will continue to move Poland Athletics forward in a first-class manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanch will assume his new role following official Board approval.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POLAND, Ohio (WKBN) \u2013 Poland Local Schools announced on Monday that Nick Blanch has been appointed as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2420,2421,2422,2419,9,2418],"class_list":["post-2948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-athletic-director","tag-board-approval","tag-brian-banfield","tag-nick-blanch","tag-poland","tag-poland-seminary-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}