Coach Bios
Ed Boardman is entering his 17th year as the Head Coach for Boys and Girls Cross-Country at Carlisle High School. He took over the program in the late summer of 2006 and worked very hard to fix a program that was in freefall over the previous 2 seasons.
He spent the 4 years prior coaching alongside Olympic marathoner, Steve Spence, as the long distance coach at Shippensburg University during Spring Track seasons and a volunteer assistant to Spence during Fall XC seasons (2001-2005). Originally from Chambersburg, he was a team captain of both cross-country (1995) and track (1996) while leading his team to a Mid-Penn Conference Track & Field Championship. He was a top five runner on one of the finest teams in school history in 1994 when the Trojans were 7th at States running sub-17min on multiple occasions.
He attended Shippensburg University, and was a varsity athlete throughout his four years of undergraduate study and served as a captain for both the cross-country and track & field teams for the 1999-2000 season. During his four seasons of coaching at the collegiate level after graduation, his athletes claimed 22 PSAC places, including 5 individual championships. He has coached one All-American (Kelly Stewart's 35:34 in the 10k placed 4th at NCAAs in 2004) and one Academic All-American.
The highlight of his first year at Carlisle High School was guiding Marie Lamparter to an 8th place finish at the Pennsylvania State Meet in 2006. In 2008 he was proud to coach his first individual District III Champion, Kyle Hurston. 2013 was marked by Carlisle XC’s first Mid-Penn title since the 1990s as that boys’ team went on to place 6th at the PIAA Championships led by Zach Brehm. In 2014, it was the Lady Herd who finally brought home an elusive District III XC Championship to Carlisle for the first time this millennium.
2016 re-wrote the record books as the Carlisle Boys XC team made history with a 2nd place podium finish at States for the first time in school history. The year was highlighted by our first individual XC State Champion, Noah Affolder, and of course Mid-Penn and District III team titles in the process.
2019 was the girls’ year to shine as Sophia Toti led the XC team to a District III Championship in a year in which four District III teams finished in the Top 10 at STATES! Sophia also became Coach Boardman’s first girl to claim an individual District III Championship as well, and she went on to place 4th at States.
Also the Head Coach for the Boys’ and Girls’ Track & Field teams here in Carlisle, Boardman’s programs have captured 8 District III Team Championships since 2011! This constitutes 8 of the 9 District III team titles Carlisle Athletics have won in any sport over the past 20+ years.
Always looking to the future, the past decade has been fantastic, but Boardman is always looking for growth and improvement.
He works full-time for the Department of Defense in Mechanicsburg, Pa., where he is employed as a Financial Management Analyst. He holds a Master's of Business Administration from Shippensburg University and lives with his family in Shippensburg (Britton-17, Kylee-15, Braden-11, and Ryan-10)
- Mid-Penn XC Commonwealth Division Champions: BOYS: ‘13, ‘16, ‘17, ’18, ‘19, ‘20, ‘21
- Mid-Penn XC Commonwealth Division Champions: GIRLS: ’17, ’18, and ‘19
- District III XC Champions: BOYS: 2016
- District III XC Champions: GIRLS: 2014 and 2019
- Pennsylvania State XC Championships Qualifying teams BOYS: ‘07, ‘08, ‘13, ‘14, ‘15, ‘16, ‘17, and ‘18
- Pennsylvania State XC Championships Qualifying teams GIRLS: ‘07, ‘12, ‘14, ‘15, ’16, and ‘19
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April Schlusser enters her fourth season on the Carlisle High School cross country coaching staff as a 2011 alumna of the program. Schlusser earned four varsity letters in cross country and three in track and field and competed in three PIAA state cross country championships and one PIAA state track and field championship while competing for the Thundering Herd under Coach Boardman. She continued her running career at Shippensburg University under Olympian Steve Spence. While at Shippensburg, Schlusser competed in three NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships and four NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships with the Raiders. As a junior, Schlusser was SU’s No. 1 runner at the NCAA Championships. In her freshman season, she was the number 5 runner at nationals for an SU squad that placed ninth overall after winning both PSAC and Atlantic Region titles and was named the 2011 PSAC Cross Country Rookie of the Year.
On the track, Schlusser was a 6-time PSAC place-winner with SU relays – winning two conference championships by running on SU’s 4x800-meter squads during her senior indoor and outdoor seasons. Schlusser also had a hand in three other PSAC place-winning 4x8 relays and one distance medley relay. Schlusser was a part of nine PSAC championship teams in all during her tenure; two in cross-country, three in indoor track & field, and swept the outdoor track & field championships all four years.
Since joining the coaching staff, she has seen the boys’ team capture the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division title in 2019, 2020 and 2021. She also saw the girls’ team win the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division title and the PIAA District III title in 2019 which also earned them a PIAA state championship berth.
Schlusser currently works for the Naval Support Activity in Mechanicsburg as a contract specialist. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing with a minor in psychology from Shippensburg in May 2015 and went on to earn her MBA at Shippensburg in May 2016.
D.J. Rodkey, entering his third year on the Thundering Herd coaching staff and fourth year as a cross country coach, is a Computer Systems Networking teacher at Carlisle High School. Prior to joining Carlisle, Coach Rodkey was the head cross country coach at Blairsville High School and an assistant varsity track & field coach at Saltsburg High School. Rodkey has worked with multiple state qualifiers at Saltsburg, including a 2018 state medalist. He has also had the privilege to be around some of Indiana County's hall of fame athletes and coaches including Angel Piccirillo and Rick Foust. He has also worked with several successful head coaches including Michael Gentile (Homer-Center), Melissa Milanak (Saltsburg), Chris Matava (United), and Matt Rodkey (Homer-Center), his father.
Coach Rodkey has served as a PIAA Official for basketball, cross country, and track & field since the 2015-16 school year. Rodkey is a 2015 graduate of United High School and a 2018 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Rodkey operates Carlisle’s “XC Lite” program in addition to assisting the JV and varsity teams. Coach Rodkey is also the founding advisor of Carlisle Esports where he serves as the General Manager. Additionally, he serves as an Assistant Varsity Track & Field Coach and Head 7th Grade Girls Basketball Coach.
T.Y. Chandler enters his second season on the Thundering Herd cross country coaching staff after nearly two years off serving in the Air National Guard. Coach T.Y. attend Carlisle High School until his junior year when he moved to Virginia Beach, VA graduating from Tallwood High School. He was a mid distance runner and a sprinter, and he qualified for the New Balance Nationals in the sprint medley during his senior year. He also competed at the AAU junior Olympics in the 1500m. Coach T.Y. has two little girls named Avan and June, and he is currently working in the school district as a food unit lead at Mt. Holly Elementary School.