02/28/2025
To the School, community and most importantly my players(past and present),
I have come to the difficult decision to retire from coaching football. It has been my great honor to coach the young men under our program. I am forever grateful of the opportunity I had and the success and growth we witnessed and fostered with our athletes over the years. I always wanted to start and end at Athens- my alma mater.
We need to end with the reason we started- the athletes; I hope that my ceiling is only the floor for the next coaching staff and their athletes as such we need to honor our athletes and our staff.
A few key stats for my players and Staff- during my tenure as the head coach from 2015-2024- our athletes/staff did the following;
* Won 28 total football games(we were in staff for 9 years(2016-2024) and the previous 9 years (2007-2015) produced only 12 total wins under 6 different head coaches- almost 2.1/2 times more than the prior nine years.
* Longest running single head coach and staff for Athens Football
* Our staff produced 3 total playoff appearances out of the 7 total In school history tracked since 1950.
* First playoff appearance in 17 years
* 1 playoff win
* 1 district appearance
* 65 iron men awarded- these are the best of the best(they never miss a team function, practice(mandatory or not) (for any reason)- you know who you are gentleman.
* 68 all league awards 1st and 2nd team
* 10 all area athletes- this is in competition with Harper, lakeview, Pennfield- all those schools- how awesome for those guys who received that award!
* 2 individual state record breaker football players- most punt returns in a game and season interceptions.
* Over 100 hours of community service as a team
* Fundraised and received sponsorship for equipment we have put in place over the years that remains at the school over $30,000 worth of equipment-blast machine, lineman sled/chute, countless handbags, sleds, tv’s, tablets, whiteboards, hand dummies, 100’s of pod ankle braces, guardian caps for anti-concussion prevention and capes for keeping warm on the sidelines.
There are too many people to thank for all the support and positive encouragement- Thank you all!
To my coaches, thank you for your support and hours of hard work, doing scout, preparing, and planning, sacrificing your work and family to try and change the culture of Athens Football, I am forever indebted to all of you.
To my players, thank you for dedicating your time, your efforts, pain and suffering, surviving my two a days and at times grueling practices. I have enjoyed watching all of you grow and become, husbands, fathers, police officers, high ranking officers, etc., you all are amazing, and I am thankful I got to know you all as I did. I hope in the future as you are pushing through that job, that time in life when it gets tough, whatever difficulty you may be going through and that you will know you always have one more in you, “one more play”, never stop fighting and always stand up for the “good” in life. You are unstoppable and are capable of great things.
Humbly and respectfully,
Coach Kiefer
Athens Head Football Coach (2016-2024)
