SAM ACKERMAN Sam Ackerman was hired at the School Board’s special meeting April 17th to the position of Allen’s Softball Coach and History teacher.

Ackerman is from Strother originally and has worked at Atoka and Wilson but local sports fans may be familiar with his time at Byng where he helped coach high school basketball and junior high softball. Last season he was the head boys basketball coach at Atoka. Ackerman teaches history and has been in education for 10 years.

“I’m really looking forward to joining Allen. They’ve been really successful recently in multiple sports and have a great schoolwide culture built,” Ackerman said Ackerman coached junior high and was the high school assistant at Wilson under coach Kennedy Jackson and ran the junior high program at Atoka last year under the direction of coach Trevor Cook.

He worked under current Byng head softball coach Markus Carr during his stint with the Lady Pirates’ junior high program.

“All three bring a different look to the game, and I was really lucky to work with and learn from them,” he said.

Ackerman said he’s happy to be back in the coaching ranking in this region.

“I love the Ada area. I can’t think of a better area of high sports across the board. Every school in the area has a tradition of being successful, especially in softball.”

Ackerman replaces current Allen softball coach Shalee Brantley.