By Bob Suttton
Special to The Alamance News
Fritz Hessenthaler will be back on high school football sidelines on game nights after nearly 22 months away.
He’s in his first season as coach at Orange High School in Hills-borough.
Hessenthaler had a largely successful six-season stretch at Southern Alamance before his firing as the 2023 state playoffs were about to begin.
Despite an outpouring of support from many Southern players and community members, he wasn’t reinstated. After a season out of coaching, he applied earlier this year when the Southern position became open again.
That didn’t work out, but he found a landing spot at Orange, where he was hired in June. A few now-former Southern assistant coaches and ex-Cummings coach David Grimm joined his new staff.
So it’s a rush to the beginning of the season. The Panthers face visiting Southeast Alamance on Friday night.
“I’m going to ask them to work harder than they ever have,” Hessenthaler said of his new players. “I’m sure of it.”
Perhaps an expression of an old-school approach, he referred to a handwritten speech when he was introduced to Orange players and parents a couple of months ago.
Wendy Hessenthaler, the coach’s wife, said being away from coaching was difficult for him. Aside from football, he regularly coached his daughters’ travel softball teams, she said.
“I’m just happy to have him doing what he loves,” Wendy Hessenthaler said. “Things happen for a reason.”
Orange went 2-8 last year, marking its fourth consecutive eight-loss season. The Panthers last had a winning season in 2017, when Burlington resident and former Graham assistant coach Van Smith was the head coach.
Orange is anxious to return to winning ways. Hessenthaler left a strong first impression.
“This dude was ready to get to work,” Orange principal Jason Johnson said.
Rising junior Kayden Bradsher, a running back/receiver and safety, said the team’s status looked shaky prior to Hessenthaler’s hiring.
“At the beginning, I was nervous if we were going to have a football team,” Brad-sher said after meeting the new staff members. “There’s definitely a lot of good coaches I know will take care of us.”
Orange and Southern shared the same conference the past two years. The Patriots were champions in Hessenthaler’s final season.
“I see what Coach Fritz did at Southern Alamance and how much they won and blew teams out,” Bradsher said.
The Panthers might need to take big steps to be contenders again. Hessenthaler said changing Orange’s football culture is needed in order for that to happen.
“We’ve got to do it together,” he said.
