By Ryleigh Watson/
A new season isn’t the only exciting thing in store for the Yellow Jacket football team. This season a new head coach takes the lead at HPU. Kevin Bachtel, head football coach and previous defensive coordinator, took the position on December 17, 2022.
Bachtel said when he was offered the position there was no thought other than “Absolutely yes!” Although most people would think that going from one position, only being in charge of a certain part of the team, to being the head of the whole football team would be hard or at least nerve racking, but not for Bachtel.
“It was easy. I knew all the guys that were here, but it was challenging because I had to hire staff, but transitioning was easy overall,” said Bachtel.
Becoming head coach wasn’t hard for Bachtel, as he had already been one for a high school.
“I had always been intrigued by being a college head coach,” Bachtel said.
With Bachtel previously serving as defensive coordinator, it didn’t take much for the athletes to see that Bachtel was going to change the program.
Samuel Sims, senior wide receiver, and kinesiology and psychology major from Austin said that he thought it was going to be a change.
“I didn’t know at first in what way, but I could assume that it was going to be a change for the better,” Sims added.
Sims, a member of the team’s leadership council, was on a Zoom call with Jason Bachtel (former head coach) when he announced that he would be leaving and Kevin Bachtel would be taking his place. That helped orient him to the new coaching leadership and set his mind on the next season.
“I think this season will go great,” said Sims. “We are a lot more family oriented and everyone rallies around him and it makes you work a little harder knowing that he’s got our back.”
Bachtel has two wins under his belt as head coach already, with the Yellow Jackets’ win over George Fox University, 17-3, and most recently HPU’s win over SAGU 42-10. Exciting things are truly in store for HPU football.
Photo of Yellow Jacket staff writer Ryleigh Watson