Reported earlier in the school year, the 2018 football season was the last for longtime coach, Drew Altimus. He is also the Athletic Director for Antwerp Local School which he will continue. Altimus led the Archer Football program for 24 years. This past month he passed the torch onto colleague and assistant coach, Jason Hale.
Coach Hale has been a teacher at Antwerp School for five years now. Of those five years, he was also an assistant football coach for the Antwerp Squad. Other coaching experience that Coach Hale has includes one year of track assistant coaching at Antwerp, Head Track coach for the past three seasons, junior high football at Defiance as an assistant, and an assistant Track coach at South Central High School.
The Antwerp Football program will begin a new era with the 2019 season of fresh energy with Hale’s leadership. “Being a young coach, I am honored to get this opportunity and cannot wait to show how much I care about this sport and program through interactions with the athletes and parents,” Coach Hale comments.
Coach Hale comes to Antwerp from Greenwich Ohio where he played high school football at South Central High School. He then went on to play college ball for Ashland University. His experience of the game runs deep and will be able to offer the Antwerp athletes that wisdom of the game.
Hale had this to say when asked about his reaction to this appointment as coach, “I would like to thank the board and the administration for this chance to lead the Antwerp football program. A great tradition has been put down by the previous coach and I cannot wait to build upon what Coach Altimus has built. I look forward to the positive relationships I will build with the team and community in the years to come!”
