On April 22, head varsity girls and boys soccer coach, Chris Bolio, was terminated effective immediately. The termination comes after a podcast posted by Caleb Hammer featured Bolio sharing personal life details using a pseudonym.
The video posted on Feb. 24, 2025 has accumulated nearly a million views. A nearly three week investigation was conducted by South administrators, ultimately finding the material cause for termination. South administrators declined to comment.
In a statement written to The Tower, Bolio said, “I honestly planned on finishing my entire coaching career at Grosse Pointe South,” later adding, “I was crushed, coaching these kids was one of my biggest joys and privileges in my life.”
Bolio had been coaching within GPPSS for over seven years, coaching the girls team for the last seven seasons and the boys team for the last two. Bolio had worked alongside coaches Mike Karalla, Shannon Singer and Joseph Cada while coaching at South. Cada has known Bolio for over 10 years and is planning to continue coaching with him in the future.
“It’s frustrating, I think, for everyone involved,” Cada said. “I’m sure it’s frustrating for the administration to deal with. It’s frustrating for the players to deal with coaches. It’s a frustrating time, because no one knew what the outcome would be.”
Due to Bolio’s termination, Karalla, Singer and Cada have been balancing the duties of head coach. The loss of a head coach has had a deep impact on the girls varsity soccer team, as the termination became official halfway through their season.
Savannah Spangler ’25 is a captain of the girls varsity team and says that she and the other captains have had to step up to keep the team encouraged in the absence of Bolio.
“He’s [Bolio] always the one person in the room that is able to get people hyped up and ready for the game,” Spangler said. “He sets a great expectation for the team, of working hard and overall, just being very supportive and encouraging of the girls despite their skill level or any confidence issues that they might have.”
Although South personnel issues are confidential, it is alleged that the termination was due to a portion of the podcast that requires a paid subscription to watch. Sensitive content was discussed in the nearly 20 minute clip.
“He’s [Bolio] an adult,” Spangler said. “He has a personal life. It’s unfortunate the light that he was put in, but that doesn’t reflect his character at all, especially as a coach and the kind of energy he brings to the team.”
This termination does not solely affect the girls soccer program, but the boys as well. Bolio had already chosen senior captains for the boys varsity team for the 2025-2026 school year, including Joey Reid ’26.
“When you have an incoming coach, they [the coach] doesn’t know who are the best JV players or who are the best players at the varsity level,” Reid said. “It’s hard to make those decisions when they’re probably only going to see each player one time for tryouts. There’s definitely a concern about whether they’ll be able to understand us as players.”
The other three coaches involved in the girls soccer program have agreed to stay for the remainder of the season, but it is unclear what the coaching staff will look like for both the girls and boys seasons next year.
“I’d like to apologize to all of my players for unintentionally causing this whole mess,” Bolio said in his statement. “I’d give anything to be back out there with them.”
