Nowata High School announced the hiring of a new football coach at noon on Monday at a special schoolboard meeting.

Chris Messner has been tapped as the Ironmen’s new skipper. Messner served as an offensive assistant this past season under former head coach Bob Craig, who resigned earlier this offseason.

Messner comes from high-level football pedigree. He was a five-year offensive lineman at the University of Oklahoma from 2002-2006. Messner was team captain in 2006 as a senior. He also was briefly with the St. Louis Rams in the NFL.

Messner is from Frederick, Oklahoma which is in the extreme Southwest portion of the state. He had a career in firefighting prior to moving into education and coaching. Messner talks about taking the Nowata job.

Since Nowata made the 2A state finals in 2015 the Ironmen program has fallen on tough times. Nowata has just one victory in the past two seasons. The Ironmen have now had five different head coaches since the 2015 seasons.

Matt Hagebusch left after the 2015 season for Claremore-Sequoyah. Corey James was the head coach in 2016 before leaving for a job on the staff at Adair. Jeremy Gray resigned after two games in 2017. Bob Craig was the interim head coach in 2017 and was retained going into 2018.

Despite the turnover, Nowata has a historical excellence in football. One that Messner is quick to point out.

Messner said the first point of emphasis going into this spring will be determining who will be going out for the team. Messner says he wants to begin talking to players and setting team goals as soon as possible.