At 42 years of age, and after 19 years in the coaching business, it's as if Troy Akers has found the fountain of youth.

He's been given a second chance, of sorts, and can't hide his excitement about being named Warsaw Community High School's new head football coach.

"To think that the opportunity would present itself again, because it evolved so quickly, I'm really excited," Akers said Monday in a phone conversation. "I feel rejuvinated. I'm very eager to get going."

Akers, who is taking over after the resignation of Phil Jensen, was officially named the Tigers' head coach at the Warsaw School Board meeting Monday evening.

Akers, who was the head coach for three years at Wawasee from 1990-1992, came to Warsaw in 1996 with Jensen and has spent the last eight years as the defensive coordinator.

With Jensen's offense scoring high point totals and Akers' defense giving up very little, Warsaw posted a 40-14 record the past five years and won back-to-back-to-back Northern Lakes Conference championships and took the Tigers to the sectional championship game for the first time in school history.

While at Wawasee, Akers also coached girls track, guiding the Warriors to undefeated regular seasons in his final three years.

For six years at Warsaw he coached the boys track team and guided the Tigers to four straight undefeated regular seasons and a 40-plus meet win streak in the NLC.

His coaching philosophy is that "there's strength in numbers." It certainly worked for him in track, and he believes it's the strength of the group that will make up his first Warsaw football team.

"The first positive about this group will be the numbers," said Akers, who graduated from Elida High School in Lima, Ohio, and then Anderson University. "We had just over 50 guys in grades 10-12 that played last year. We met with the kids grade by grade last week and had 82 kids at the meetings. I've had kids come up to me since then and tell me they want to play football. I'd like to see us continue the type of program we've worked so hard to build. I'm the new head coach, but I'm an old coach, I've been here and I understand the program. I've been a part of developing the program and we want to continue the winning tradition that Coach Jensen built."

Along with his belief in the numbers system, Akers said he wants to work with other WCHS coaches and stress multi-sport athletes and keeping kids involved in positive things.

Akers' first game as Tiger head coach will be against U.S. 30 rival Columbia City. [[In-content Ad]]