Chaminade announces hiring of new varsity football coach

Chaminade announced its new varsity football coach Tuesday (Nov. 13) with former coach Doug Taylor leaving after 16 years coaching the Red Devils.

Antoine Torrey has been promoted to head coach.  Torrey has served Chaminade as an assistant coach and run game coordinator. He also has been the assistant varsity wrestling coach for the past two seasons.

Tom Fernandez, Chaminade’s athletic director, said  Torrey fits the bill in what the school was looking for in a new head coach.

“In considering who our next football coach would be, there were many characteristics that were important. We wanted a great teacher, an individual of high character, a proven winner, a role model for our students, someone who would promote academics, and someone who would build pride in the football program. I believe we have found all of these things and more in Mr. Antoine Torrey,” said Fernandez.

Torrey recently joined the Chaminade faculty at the beginning of the this school year. He is serving as a middle school and high school physical education teacher, the assistant athletic director, an academic support coordinator, assistant varsity wrestling coach and a high school mentor for the O’Donnell House.

Torrey received a bachelor’s degree in Education with and emphasis in kinesiology  from Western State College of Colorado in 1995. He earned his master’s degree in education administration from Lindenwood University in 2010.

Prior to joining Chaminade, Torrey was head coach and offensive coordinator as well as the head wrestling coach at Normandy,  where he wa a physical education teacher from 2005-2011.  He led the turnaround of the 0-9 Vikings in 2005 to 10-3 season in 2010, the best in the 87-year history of the school.

He was named the Demetrius Johnson Charitable Foundation/Anheuser-Busch All Metro Coach of the Year in 2009 and the Suburban East Conference Coach of the Year in 2007-2009.

Torrey. who was born in St. Louis, attended Lindbergh High for one year before his family relocated to Denver, where he finished his schooling. He was a standout at Western State College of Colorado, an all-conference defensive lineman in 1994 as the 8-2 Mountaineers captured the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship.

He comes from a large family of educators. More than a dozen people in his immediate and extended family are in academia. He came back to St. Louis, where a large portion of his family remains in teaching and coaching.

“I want to give back,” he explains. “I was born to serve.”

In his former coaching and teaching roles, he was recognized for his commitment, character and camaraderie. He believes school activities like his football program tap into an individual’s desire to be part of something bigger, to form an allegiance and support a common goal, to achieve.
Taylor is the second most winningest football coach in Chaminade’s history.  The Red Devils finished 4-6 this fall, going 1-3 in the Metro Catholic Conference.

Fernandez thanked Taylor for “taking Chaminade’s football program to a level that most people would never have imagined.” He said Taylor was not only a good coach but someone who was concerned about this athletes on and off the field.

“He was able to do this because he cared deeply about his players and treated them with respect,” Fernandez said.