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Chargers promote Brian Worrell to head football coach

Posted: Mar 6th 2018 By: Barry Lewis

Editor's Note: Brian Worrell is the real name of pro wrestler Brian Lakewood

Memorial promoted Brian Worrell to head football coach Monday.

Worrell, 41, was the Chargers’ special-teams coordinator in 2017 and has been the Chargers’ defensive backs coach the past seven years. This will be his first high school football head coaching job.

“It’s a big deal to me,” Worrell said. “I love the Memorial football program, kids and administration. I’ve been waiting for my opportunity and my time has come. I’m ready to get to work.”

Worrell was an assistant at Edison from 2003-09 and a head coach/athletic director at Nimitz Middle School before arriving at Memorial.

“We think he will do a great job,” Memorial athletic director Mark Dover said. “He knows Tulsa Public Schools, has a passion for football and for Memorial. He knows our culture and tradition that we’ve created in the past and it will continue under his leadership.”

Worrell also has been the Memorial head golf coach since 2015. He is a graduate of Hale High School and Bethany College (Kansas), where he was a starting strong safety from 1996-98. At Hale, he was selected to play in the 1995 Tulsa Bowl all-star football game.

Worrell succeeds Ryan Reed, who resigned in January after leading the Chargers to a 26-24 record and two Class 5A playoff berths over the past five seasons.

Memorial had four consecutive winning seasons from 2012-15 after not having any since 1989. The Chargers, however, fell to 4-5 in ‘16 and 2-7 in ‘17.

”Our offense will be similar with some differences and will be based around our personnel,” Worrell said. “Memorial is a great place to be and I’m very excited.”