Southeast High hires former Palmetto baseball coach, SCF player Joe Collis as next athletic director

Southeast High has a new athletic director.

Manatee County supervisor of athletics Jason Montgomery told the Bradenton Herald via text message Wednesday that Sarasota Military Academy’s Joe Collis is Southeast’s new athletic director.

“There’s a lot of history there,” Collis said. “Coach (Paul) Maechtle did a lot of really good things when he was there and it’s an opportunity for me to come home and be back in Bradenton, Florida. It was the right time for me.”

Collis is a former Palmetto High head baseball coach and assistant baseball coach at State College of Florida.

Collis played two seasons at SCF when it was known as Manatee Community College, helping the baseball program reach the 1994 JUCO World Series, where they finished sixth in the nation.

Collis finished his playing career for NAIA program Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga. after his playing career, Collis stayed at Brewton-Parker as a graduate assistant. From there, he returned to Manatee County as an assistant baseball coach at Lakewood Ranch High and Braden River High prior to becoming Palmetto’s head coach for three years.

Since his time with the Tigers, Collis, who served four years in the United States Coast Guard, became an assistant athletic director at Sarasota Military Academy and then SMA’s athletic director after earning his Master’s degree in athletic administration from Western Kentucky.

Collis’ hiring ends a short search, which began about 1 1/2 weeks ago after athletic director Allie Turley resigned.

Collis, whose official start date with the Noles is Oct. 30, is the third Southeast AD in the past six months.

Previous AD Daniel Bradshaw resigned after 3 1/2 years – 13 total years with the Seminoles – to take an out-of-state job in May. Turley was later in the summer.

Despite the athletic director shuffling during the past several months, Southeast’s football program is off to a fast start.

The Seminoles are 5-0 and can put themselves in position to clinch the Class 5A-District 11 title this week with a victory at Wauchula Hardee and a loss by Sarasota Booker. A Booker win means Southeast can clinch next week, if the Noles defeat Hardee this week.

“I’m looking forward to working with all the coaches in all of the sports,” Collis said. “Yes, I was a baseball guy growing up and in college that’s the way I got into college. But I’m not just a one-sport guy. I’m here for all the athletes. ... I want not just one individual team do well. I want to see the entire program do well. I think Coach Maechtle did a real good job of that back in the day when he was there, and if I can do half the job that he did, I’ll be doing pretty good.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Southeast High hires former Palmetto baseball coach, SCF player Joe Collis as next athletic director."