Altig is the Interim Head Football Coach for North Platte

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - After former Head Coach of the North Platte Bulldogs Football Team, Todd Rice, stepped down from his role, North Platte Public School chose Kurt Altig to stand in as Interim Head Football Coach for the team for the 2022-2023 school year.

Altig will hold the role of coach as the North Platte Public School District goes through the process of advertising for the full-time football coach/teacher position in late fall 2022.

This process gives applicants time to consider the application and hiring process before someone is chosen for the permanent position for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Altig comes with experience. He served as the head coach of the freshman team under Rice and was the Boy’s Sprints coach for the Track and Field Team in the Spring.

During his time coaching at North Platte, Altig has been more of a defense-focused coach, but he is excited about the opportunity to broaden the scope of his coaching as he steps into the role of Head Coach.

“Since I’ve been here I focus more on the defensive side of the ball. Earlier in the other schools, I was at, it was a smaller school so we did both, so I did offense and defense. But, for the last couple years I’ve focused on more of the defensive side, and now coming in as the Head Coach I’ll dabble more on offense and then I’ll be the Defensive Coordinator here as well,” says Altig.

Altig says it’s an honor to be named Head Coach among the likes of Todd Rice and Bob Zohner. And while he is looking to continue to build off of the success of those who came before him, he’s also looking to add a few of his own touches to the team. Last season was a huge year for the Bulldog’s Football Team as they made it to the second round of the playoff while hosting both of those post-season games. Altig says he wants to keep the team moving in that positive direction.

“We want to keep the ship cruising in the same direction. Trying to continue the culture and just play tough, hard, blunt force trauma North Platte Football and you know to take each game day by day and see where that takes us,” explains Altig.

While Altig isn’t new to NPPS or the football staff, there will be some new addition that will be coming aboard underneath him. Ryan Parker from Wayne State will be joining the football coaching staff as the new Strength and Conditioning Coach and Josh McBride will be joining the staff coming all the way from Northern California.

The Bulldogs will kick off the 2022 Season in week zero against Papillion-LaVista South and are looking to continue playing the same gritty football that they always do.

“Each game is a little different. Obviously, that first game early in August we’ve got circled on the calendar and that’s our main focus for right now and then we’ll just go week by week. We do have some tough tests on the schedule this year with Omaha Westside and you know like always with Kearney. So, you know those games will be tough but we’ll just take it week by week and just do what we can and prepare each week and not look ahead too far,” says Altig.

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