New Head Coach Set To Lead Lancaster Football Team
By: Nick Viland
Posted on:
LANCASTER, Ohio (WOUB) – Rob Carpenter stepped down from the Lancaster Golden Gales football team and ended a 23-season career of being head coach for the high school.
The man now set to lead the Golden Gales is a former assistant coach from 2010-2012, Bryan Schnoover. Following that time, he served as head coach at Groveport for seven seasons and has now returned to take the helm at Lancaster.
Schnoover said that Carpenter is someone he looks up to and hopes to be able to fill his shoes.
“Coach Carpenter’s a legend. He is Lancaster football. He is blue and gold,” Schnoover said. “He is the representation of what this team is and always will be and that’s a hard-nosed energy guy who’s team first, kid first and just trying to carry that on and build off it in my own way a little bit.”
Schnoover was able to take Groveport to a 10-3 record in 2019 and took home a share of the Ohio Capital Conference-Capital Division, which was the first league championship in 37 years.
The impact Schnoover is having on summer practices is already noticeable and players are already buying into his program.
“Everyone has a lot more pride for Lancaster football. Everyone’s playing harder, faster. Everyone’s trying to grow instead of just getting through practice,” Lancaster running back Nasir Robinson said. “Everyone’s putting 100% throughout the whole practice, so that’s the biggest impact he has so far.”
Lancaster middle linebacker Ajay Locke has seen a shift in energy and said that Schnoover has a strict policy for whenever the energy isn’t there.
“When (Schnoover) walks into a room and it’s quiet, he walks out and walks back in and goes, ‘I need to hear something,’” Locke said. “So, whenever he walks into a room we’re always clapping. It’s just a ton of energy that he brings whether he brings it himself or we feed it off of him.”
The Golden Gales hope to keep the energy rolling through the summer and into their first game against Pickerington North on Aug. 20.