Polson athletic director Jay Krantz retires

Polson High School Athletic Director Jay Krantz retired from his position as the Pirates’ athletic director after the 2019 spring season.

The Pirates hired new athletic director Don Toth, who will take over Krantz’s previous duties starting in the 2019-2020 school year.

Krantz worked in the Polson High School District starting in the 1998-1999 school year for twenty-one years and was a resident of Polson for 38 years.

Krantz taught construction technology and drafting and was the head girls and boys basketball coach for the freshmen teams. The only sport he didn’t coach was track.

Krantz allowed new athletic director Don Toth to be a part of the hiring process when appointing the Pirates new head football coach. Krantz said he was hands-off in the process of hiring the new football coach because he wanted Toth and the new athletic administration to be comfortable with the new hire.

Toth hired former Carroll College assistant coach Kaden Glinsmann, who was the secondary and long snappers coach for the Saints. Glinsmann was formerly a part of Mike Van Diest’s staff in Van Diest’s final season with Carroll.

Krantz, who is a well regarding faculty member, and member of the community of Polson, said he felt the time was right to do something differnet.

For the majority of Krantz’s career, he doubled as a coach, and a teacher, being invovled in athletics for the majority of his teaching career.

Krantz, who was the Pirates’ athletic director for the past three seasons, felt his experience allowed him to be successful in helping maintain the tradition of athletic excellence associated with the brand of Polson High School athletics.

“I had a lot of good insight into running the athletic director job,” Krantz told the Leader in a phone interview.

Now Krantz, after several years of serving the community of Polson in multiple capcities said he is ready to move from his position.

“I am going to move onto a different phase of my life now.”