Logan Haston
When Logan Haston has brought his daughters to softball tournaments in Columbus over the past few years, he and the family became enamored with the city and the area.
So when the Columbus North football job opened four weeks ago, Haston threw his hat in the ring. Tuesday morning, he was announced as the Bull Dogs head coach.
“Every time we kept coming down here, we thought, ‘This place is beautiful. We could see ourselves living here,’” Haston said. “When I got more into the research aspect, we thought this is a great place to raise our kids. We are a huge hiking family, so we’ve ventured over to Brown County and Lake Monroe. We’ve been in the area quite a bit. It was a great fit, not only as a coach, but for our entire family.”
Haston grew up in Avon, the son of a longtime coach, and was an honorable-mention All-State quarterback for the Orioles. He was a captain and two-time All-Conference player and holds 12 passing records at Manchester University.
Following his senior year of high school in 2012, Haston was won a National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete Award. At Manchester, he was a NFF William V. Campbell Trophy semifinalist and an All-State AFCA Good Works team nominee.
“Logan has been around football since he was a little boy, with his father coaching football,” North athletics director Brian Lewis said. “Logan will bring great energy and a great deal of knowledge when it comes to the X’s and O’s of the game. One of the most exciting things to me about Logan is that he is willing to embrace what has been built here and also add his own ideas to the program. I’m excited to have him on board.”
After graduating from Manchester, Haston stayed there for three years, serving as quarterbacks coach, JV offensive coordination and academic coordinator. He spent one year as assistant head coach at Hamilton Southeastern High School and the past two years as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Fishers High School.
“I felt like it was time for me to start pursuing some head coaching opportunities, but I wanted to make sure it was the right fit,” Haston said.
Haston takes over a program that has been at or near the top of Conference Indiana in recent years, only to run up against powerhouse Center Grove teams in the sectional. The Bull Dogs have gone undefeated the past two years in the conference, but have fallen to Class 6A state champion Center Grove teams in the postseason.
“It’s certainly a challenge, and that’s what we’re working toward,” Haston said. “All the teams in our sectional are good ones, but The Red Monster is the big one. We’re just going to do what it takes and play a challenging non-conference schedule, and that’s what you need to do to go up against the top programs. It’s going to make our team better. That’s for sure.”
Haston plans to meet with the coaching staff on Wednesday evening and meet the team at its weight room workout at 9 a.m. Thursday. North’s in-house team camp is next week, and a trip to Indiana University one-day team camps are June 14 and 16.
“The first couple weeks will be pretty crazy, but I’m excited for it,” Haston said. “It will be a good time to come in and share my offensive and defensive and special teams philosophy, and this will be a good time to do that.”
Haston and his wife Jennifer have four kids, including a son who will be a sophomore football player and wrestler. They currently live in Greenfield and are working on finding a place to live in Columbus.
Haston’s teaching and other non-football duties at North will be determined in the near future.
“Columbus North is excited to welcome Logan Haston to our team,” North principal David Clark said. “He has a firm grasp of the game of football. We believe that he will continue our tradition of excellence in the Bull Dog Nation and field a team that gives great effort on the field and in the classroom.”
