Pleasant Hope Head Coach Jim Apple brought his team together at the end of last football season.
“Their heads fell and they were like ‘oh he is leaving, he’s going back to St. Louis’,” Apple said.
For the past decade, coaches walked in and out the door at Pleasant Hope, so the Pirates were expecting the worst.
“I mean he kind of just comes in like ‘hey I got something to talk to you guys about’ and we all thought he was leaving,” said Pleasant Hope Senior Dayton Altic. “All day we kind of talked about it and he comes in and he’s like ‘hey guys we’re going to varsity’ and there was a room full of excitement. It was awesome.”
“I mean yeah it was just crazy because years prior we lost all of our head coaches,” said Pleasant Hope senior Oliver Ackels. “[Pleasant Hope Assistant Football Coach Scott Wolf] is only one who really stuck with us all of our high school career. We were really nervous thinking that somebody else was going to leave us, but he stuck with us and he gave us a chance and we are really grateful for it.”
Great news for the Pirates, the head coach is staying and the team is moving on from JV to Varsity.
“Varsity is a whole new different animal,” Apple said. “We need to be prepared and that is part of the building process that we are working towards.”
These seniors get one shot at the Friday night lights and they are bought-in to coach Apple’s vision.
“We can all trust him, we are just really glad to be here,” Altic said. “We all love him.”
“Yeah he is just a great foundation builder and he puts himself in front of us,” Ackels said. “He’s there for us, he’s not there for anybody else.”
It all started Friday night against Marionville and Springfield Catholic at the Jamboree.
“We might not get the best of them, but I promise we will do our best,” Altic said.
“I’m just grateful to be playing with the best of the best,” Ackels said. “If I’m out here, I am out here for it.”
“It’s time to learn,” Altic said.
“Time to learn,” Ackels said.
