Central District Football Coaches Association announces four new members for hall of fame
Four coaches who combined for more than a century with central Ohio high school football teams will be inducted into the Central District Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the organization announced Friday.
Steve Hale, who won 154 games in 20 seasons as the first coach at Olentangy Liberty, is among the inductees less than a year after retiring last March. Hale, who also led the programs at Shelby (1997-98) and Groveport (1999-2000), won three regional titles with Liberty.
Pete Diehl, Phil Koppel and Scott Wetzel round out this year’s class, which will be honored March 7 at Plank’s Café & Pizzeria in German Village.
Diehl’s 54 years in central Ohio football included a head coaching stint at Briggs (1981-88) and time as an assistant at 12 schools in the City League and OCC and at Licking Heights.
Koppel started as an assistant at Upper Arlington (1969-73) before taking over at Duncan Falls Philo in 1973. He went to Gahanna Lincoln in 1975 and was an assistant for two years before becoming head coach for nine.
Koppel twice was named district and state Coach of the Year.
Wetzel led Big Walnut to the Division III state championship in 2007 and went 150-88 as head coach with Buckeye Valley (1992-96), Big Walnut (1998-2008), Westerville North (2016-17) and Delaware Hayes (2018-21). Wetzel also was an assistant at Dublin Scioto in 1997 and Big Walnut from 2010-15.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central District football coaches announce hall of fame class of 2024
