Bethel Athletics announced Nov. 29 that A.B. Stokes, an assistant coach for two seasons in 2018 and 2019, has been appointed the next head coach of Thresher football.

Stokes becomes the 24th head coach in a program dating back to 1914.

“It’s an honor to welcome Coach Stokes and his family back to Bethel College,” said Bethel Director of Athletics Tony Hoops.

“The impact that he made on Bethel College and [in] establishing the Bethel football program four years ago was profound. Bethel College football is lucky to have a leader with such high integrity.”

“I would like to thank God for this opportunity,” Stokes said. “It is a blessing for myself and where I came from as a young man to be able to lead a college football program.”

Stokes expressed his thanks to Hoops and Bethel President Jon Gering for thinking of him when the position opened, with the departure of Terry Harrison, and for ultimately offering him the opportunity to lead the program.

During his first stint at Bethel, Stokes served as offensive coordinator (2018) and associate head coach/director of recruiting (2019). 

In 2018, the Thresher offense finished the season averaging more than 274 rushing yards per game, the third-most nationally. 

The 2018 team had three All-KCAC 2nd Team players and 13 total All-KCAC award recipients. 

Bethel finished the 2019 season with a record of 8-3, second in the KCAC. 

The Threshers were ranked in the NAIA Top 25 for the first time since 2008, and ended the year as the #24 team in the polls. 

The 2019 Threshers had two NAIA All-Americans, the KCAC Special Teams Player of the Year and six All-KCAC 1st Team players, and recorded 19 total conference awards.

Stokes has spent the last two years at Lincoln Christian School in Tulsa, Okla., as an assistant football coach and head wrestling coach. 

While launching a first-year wrestling program, Stokes also helped the football team achieve a 12-1 record and a state runner-up finish.

With the 2021 season still in play, Lincoln Christian is 12-0 and playing for another trip to the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) 3A Football State Championships.

Before initially joining the Thresher football coaching staff, Stokes spent six years at Larned (Kan.) High School as head football coach and head track and field coach.

He led the Larned Indians past several milestones during his tenure, including ending a 28-year playoff drought and winning back-to-back first-round playoff games for the first time in program history.

From 2003-05, Stokes played for Andy Lambert at Trinity International University, Deerfield, Ill., before following Lambert to Sterling (Kan.) College, where Stokes finished his collegiate football career, 2005-06. Stokes coached receivers for Sterling for three semesters following the conclusion of his playing career.

Stokes said he is “excited to do more than football” with the young men he will be leading – he hopes “to guide and minister to them with hopes they graduate from Bethel College as better men than when they arrived.”

While at Bethel 2018-19, Stokes helped to start the Bethel Worship Center, a Christian Sunday service that drew heavily on student leaders, especially among student-athletes.

Hoops called Stokes “one of the most profound leaders I have ever been around. His ability to impact young people at an elite level will allow him to create a special culture within the program.” 

Stokes takes over a perennial running powerhouse at Bethel. The Threshers have led the country in rushing yards each of the last two seasons. 

The team was nationally ranked for the entirety of the last two seasons, and is coming off back-to-back Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference championships.

Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #15 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges” and #31 in U.S. News & World Report, Best Regional Colleges Midwest, both for 2021-22. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university selected for the American Association of College & Universities’ 2021 Institute on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, and has been named a TRHT Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu

In sports, Bethel competes in the 13-member KCAC and the NAIA. See bethelthreshers.com