Marcella Bolha
Jumps Coach
Sixth Season
Youngstown State, 1999

Bolha's Scoring Jumpers at Horizon League Championships

    Marcella Bolha, a former three-time track MVP at Youngstown State, enters her sixth season as the jumps coach for the Penguins.
    In her previous five years, the Penguins have won four individual conference crowns in jumping events, and two student-athletes have earned specialty awards at the Horizon League Championships.
    Last year Alisha Anthony burst onto the league scene by being named Field Newcomer of the Year at the indoor championship meet. She won the long jump with a distance of 19-1 1/2, which was the fourth-longest winning mark in league history.
    Anthony, who set the Ohio high school record at the Division III state championship meet as a junior, also ranks third in school history by less than two inches in the indoor long jump behind Lissette Alamo and Bolha.
    In the 2005 season Bolha helped Carly Youlton experience similar success in her first season. Youlton was named the Field Performer of the Meet by winning the long jump and triple jump at the indoor league championship meet. She then went on to set two school records at the outdoor met and placed second in the triple jump and third in the long jump.
    Marty Vieth became Bolha's first men's champion in 2006 when he won the high jump at the Horizon League Outdoor Championships.
    In total, Bolha has had 55 scorers at Horizon League meets in her five years.
    The best group effort came at the 2005 Horizon League Indoor Championships when Bolha had five jumpers finish in the top six. In addition to Youlton's titles in the long jump and triple jump, Yandeh Joh finished second in the triple jump, Nikki Hooper placed second in the triple jump and Estee Rogers was sixth in the high jump.  
    Bolha, formerly Scaife, came to YSU from Xenia High School and made an immediate impact being named the Mid-Contintent Conference Newcomer of the Year in 1995. At YSU, she led the Penguins to two conference championships while setting the school record in the outdoor 4x400-meter relay and the long jump in both indoor and outdoor.
    After graduating from Youngstown State in the spring of 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice, Bolha moved to Lakewood, Ohio and coached middle school track for two years as well as working as a personal trainer, substitute teacher and child care director.
    Bolha currently resides in Youngstown with her husband Bernard, the varsity boys basketball coach at Howland High School.