Man of many hats: Camp Hill AD Jake June steps in as Lions' head girls soccer coach

Jake June, Camp Hill athletic director and girls soccer head coach.

Camp Hill's Marissa McGuire, Dylan McInroy and Sophie Ceo talk about defending their district girls soccer title and looking for more in 2023.

Throughout the school year, Jake June can be found, most often, under the flat brim of a Camp Hill baseball cap, the interlocking “CH” logo representing his alma mater and the small town that embraces it. Figuratively, June wears many hats as he enters his third full year as the high school’s athletic director, taking on all of the job’s administrative responsibilities. He also teaches during the day and, as an alumnus, looks for ways to connect his experiences as a former Camp Hill student-athlete to the current generation of Lions.

Over the summer, June added another hat, a familiar one, when he took over the Camp Hill girls soccer program, replacing Alex Panuccio, a champion head coach who took an assistant position at Gettysburg College in August after guiding the Lions to a District 3 Class A title in his first season at Camp Hill.

“We’re really happy for Alex,” said June, who hired Panuccio in 2022. “It’s a great fit for him. It’s something he’s very passionate about. He came here, and it was only one year, but he did a great job with these girls that ended with a state run and a district championship, so we wish him nothing but the best.”

June and the Camp Hill administration wanted nothing but the best for the girls soccer program and the young, talented varsity lineup that advanced to the state semifinals last fall. With a short turnaround before the regular season, they needed a quick solution to the coaching vacancy. June had spent six years as the head coach of the Mechanicsburg girls before taking the athletic director job at Camp Hill. The experience, as well as his familiarity with the Camp Hill program and its players, made him a fit for the team’s immediate needs.

“When you go through a coaching search, you really want to find the right person,” he said. “Alex was the right person for the team last year. For us, we felt like it was a little too close to the season, and I know some of those searches can linger, and the girls are wondering who their coach is going to be. We wanted the focus to be on the season and building on the success they had last year.”

A 2007 Camp Hill graduate, June played soccer and basketball for the Lions as a student. He began his coaching career as an assistant on current boys head coach Justin Sheaffer’s staff. His experiences developed his skills as a young professional, and they also called him back to Camp Hill, where he could don the interlocking “CH” cap once again, when the athletic director position became available in 2021.

“I had a great experience in a small town with everything Camp Hill can offer like with friends and community and just that power and pride,” he said, “so to have an opportunity to come back was a no-brainer for me. I really enjoyed my experiences over at Mechanicsburg, but with this opening up at the right time and me being able to find my way back home, coming full circle, it’s been a really great experience.”

June’s six years as the Wildcats’ head coach had culminated with a district title in 2020. The job change forced him to hang up his coach’s hat, one that accrued hours of sweat on the field and lingered for hours after games when coaches tend to comb through every detail of the action, dissecting the decisions that lead to wins and losses.

“It becomes part of your life,” June said.

But the athletic director’s hat brought with it more opportunities to influence the student-athletes’ experience.

“Getting to come here and still get to experience and watch and support all these great teams and kids we have helped fill that hole,” June said. “It’s been very fulfilling for me. I’ve really enjoyed being able to see all teams, support all teams and all of our kids.”

The girls soccer regular season kicked off Friday and Saturday for a slew of Sentinel-area teams. Here are some of the highlights.

Last fall, June watched the Camp Hill girls soccer team put together a 14-8-1 record, capture the program’s third district title and earn its first state tournament win since 2019 behind a core of veteran leaders and an infusion of talented underclassmen, such as then-freshmen Sophia Shaw and Cece Beem, who made immediate contributions up top and in the midfield. The Lions retained most of their roster heading into 2023.

“I felt like I had a good relationship with the girls,” June said, “and they had a good relationship with me. We could keep some familiar faces on the staff, so it was really just about trying to find the smoothest transition so we could try to keep being successful.”

As Camp Hill’s third varsity coach in the last three seasons, June credited the team’s leadership, including junior center back Dylan McInroy, junior forward Della Hawkins and senior goalkeeper Sophie Ceo, with weathering the changes and providing consistency.

“They have such a confidence about who they can be out there, and they have the work ethic to go with it,” June said. “That’s what you want. You want to build a winning culture where the mindset is whoever you line up against, you have a chance to win, and you believe in yourself. This group has that, and I think last year’s run and the district championship was just a reinforcement of that.”

June put on the coaching hat just before the start of the preseason. The team’s leaders, his familiarity with the program and his 10 years of coaching experience helped ease the transition. It also added to his perspective as an athletic director.

“I think it’s huge for the role of an athletic director to be able to put yourself in the shoes of the folks that you work with every day,” he said.

June’s administrative responsibilities remain the same. But with the support from the other Camp Hill coaches, the school board and the community, he feels up to the challenge of wearing his many hats throughout the fall season. For the girls soccer team, the season began with a pair of victories at Boiling Springs Saturday for the Bubblers Soccer Kickoff Tournament title.

“When I’m here, I’m their coach,” he said under his flat-brimmed Camp Hill hat at Siebert Park following a pre-season scrimmage. “It’s coaching hours. Everything else, I feel comfortable will be taken care of, and then during the day, I’ll have the AD hat on and will make sure everything is running smoothly.”

Camp Hill holds a scrimmage against Mechanicsburg on Wednesday evening at Siebert Park, Camp Hill.

Tim Gross is the sports editor at The Sentinel and cumberlink.com. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at: @ByTimGross

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