MANSFIELD — Antonio Fletcher’s 15-year apprenticeship ended Tuesday night.

Mansfield Senior’s longtime assistant, Fletcher was approved as Senior High’s new head football coach during Tuesday’s board meeting.

He succeeds Chioke Bradley, who stepped down after last season.

It was Bradley who brought Fletcher on board when the former took over as Senior High’s head coach in 2010. They teamed up to navigate their alma mater through one of the most successful stretches in program history.

Senior High was 103-62 with five Ohio Cardinal Conference championships and nine playoff appearances in Bradley’s 15 seasons in charge, including a state runner-up finish in 2019. He is the program’s all-time winningest coach.

“Chioke brought me in when he first got the job and I worked my way up from coaching the defensive line and calling the defense on the ninth-grade staff, then going to JV and then the varsity staff,” said Fletcher, a 1993 Mansfield Senior graduate. “Chioke and I have been friends for a long time and we have a great rapport. He told me he would be there for me if I needed anything from him.

“I’m glad I’ll be able to lean on him.”

Bradley stepped down in early-December, but Mansfield Senior athletic department officials had to wait until after the school system’s reduction in force was completed before they could move forward with their search.

Fletcher was one of about 15 candidates who originally applied for the job. The position was posted a second time and Fletcher emerged as the clear choice.

“We had a lot of very good candidates, but we needed to look out for the best interest of our student-athletes,” acting co-athletic director Jack Soliday said. “Antonio has been on staff for 15 years.

“The kids know him and he knows the kids.”

Fletcher was among a handful of coaches running the off-season weight lifting and conditioning program during the extended search.

“We’ve had the weight room running, but I’m not going to sit here and say we’re not behind,” Fletcher said. “You can’t really implement anything because you’re not sure who the head coach is going to be and what system they want to run.

“We’re behind, but we’re going to play the hand we were dealt and make up for lost time.”

A busy spring and summer will include taking players to camps all across the state. Bradley began that tradition shortly after he took the job.

“Hitting those camps was a big thing that Chioke liked to do and the kids enjoyed it. It motivated our kids and got them excited about football,” Fletcher said. “We will continue to do that. We’re working on the calendar now.”

A security guard at the high school, Fletcher intends to retain several of the assistant coaches who have been on staff for years. That should ease the transition, he said.

“Continuity is the big thing for these kids. If you bring in someone from the outside, you don’t know if it’s going to work,” Fletcher said. “Chioke and I went to school with a lot of these kids’ moms and dads. That’s important at a place like Senior High.

“These kids understand that we have been through what they are going through.”

Mansfield Senior was 1-9 last fall, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2018. Fletcher said fans shouldn’t expect wholesale changes despite last season’s struggles.

“We don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Out of 15 seasons, we had one bad year,” Fletcher said. “We know the recipe and we know it works.

“We’re just going to tweak some things and get it back to where we were.”

Superintendent and former head coach Stan Jefferson expects nothing less.

“Antonio Fletcher has been a consistent and positive presence on the sidelines for over a decade,” Jefferson said. “He has earned the respect of our student-athletes, families and coaching staff.

“His leadership style reflects the core values of our district and we are excited to see him step into this new role.”