TRAVERSE CITY — Jerry Angers and Joe Forlenza faced off on the football field many times.
Now, they’ll share the same room. Or hall, that is.
Both longtime area football coaches earned induction into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. They’ll be inducted June 19 at the association’s yearly banquet at the Westin Southfield Detroit in Southfield, along with 12 other coaches from around the state.
The two have a combined 69 years of coach and over 500 victories between them.
“He was very aggressive and you knew the kids came to play when you’d play against Joe Forlenza’s defense,” Angers said. “Very good assignment football. You knew you had to out-scheme him because you knew he’d coach his kids up to outplay you.”
“It’s always about the kid and what’s around you,” Angers said. “This tells me I had a lot of great supporters around me — coaches, administrators and of course great players. … Where they end up after football is the prize.”
Angers played at Bay City Handy and coached at his alma mater for a season while playing for Delta College before walking on at Ferris State. After college, he coached a season at Royal Oak Shrine in 1986 before temporarily leaving coaching to work in construction and at Ford. A chance meeting and lone car ride with legendary coach Al Fracassa led to Fracassa telling Angers to get back into coaching.
Angers coached the 1994-95 seasons at Waterford Kettering before joining Traverse City Central’s staff in 1996. When Traverse City Central split into Central and West in 1997, Angers went to West, coaching the Titans from 1997-2007, mostly as defensive coordinator.
He joined Glen Lake’s staff in 2008 and was head coach within a year, leading the Lakers to two state championship appearances before stepping down in 2021. While at Glen Lake, the Lakers earned the Spicer Award for team volunteer work six times, were academic all-state eight times and honorable mention academic another five.
Forlenza started coaching at his alma mater as well, as an assistant at Flint Powers in 1986. He was Traverse City St. Francis’ junior varsity coach from 1987-93 before joining Traverse City Central from 1994-99, where he’d coach for one season alongside Angers.
“It’s kind of cool to go in with somebody you know,” Forlenza said. “I don’t really know the other guys. It’ll be fun to have somebody else you know there as well.”
He returned to St. Francis as defensive coordinator from 2001-17, coached back at TC Central from 2019-21, including as defensive coordinator for a year, and has coached defensive line for the Gladiators since 2022.
“I didn’t even know an assistant coach could get int he Hall of Fame,” Forlenza said. “When I got the call, I was taken aback.”
The Central Michigan University grad retired from teaching history in 2025 after 38 years.
“We butted head a bunch, in a good way,” Forlenza said of Angers. “It was always going to be a physical game, that’s for sure. And you knew they were going to be prepared. His teams might not have been the biggest, but they played like it.”