MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Note: The video is from August 2022.
The Middletown Area School District announced it has hired Scott Govern as its new football coach.
Govern is a longtime veteran assistant coach with stints at several Central Pennsylvania High Schools, including Gettysburg, Boiling Springs, Spring Grove and Hershey.
The former Lock Haven University standout and Canadian Football League player will be tasked with resurrecting a program that was disbanded for the entire 2022 season after 10 players were charged in a hazing incident.
The fallout resulted in the resignation of former coach Scott Acri and a commitment from the school district to implement a long-term plan to build a culture of positive group interaction and raise awareness surrounding bystander intervention to prevent future acts of hazing.
"I'm looking to shape young men into men of character and provide our student-athletes with leadership skills," Govern said in a statement. "I look forward to taking this program in a new direction and changing our culture and still coming back to the hard-nose football that Middletown has always had."
Govern's hiring was approved by the Middletown School Board Tuesday night.
A four-year starter at Phillipsburg High School who won All-West Jersey honors in 1986, Govern played college football at Lock Haven, where he was an All-American in 1988 and 1989.
He played professionally in the CFL for one season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and spent another seven seasons playing semi-pro ball.
Govern began his coaching career as an outside linebacker coach at Lock Haven in 1990, was a graduate assistant football and strength coach at Glassboro State College (1991-92), and a defensive coordinator at Victor Cullen Academy (1994-95).
He came to Central PA in 1995, spending three seasons as an assistant junior high and varsity coach at Gettysburg. He spent two years as head junior high coach at Boiling Springs and another four seasons as an assistant defensive and offensive line coach with the Bubblers' varsity program, from 2004-08.
His most recent coaching stints were at Spring Grove, where he spent two seasons as an assistant defensive line coach in 2013-14, and three years as the summer coordinator of football operations at Hershey from 2016-18.