Palestine High School athletic director/head football coach Lance Angel announced to his team that he’d be retiring from his position on Tuesday.

Angel had two separate stints leading the Wildcats from 2010-2013 and then returning in 2019.

“I’ve kind of known since the start of the year this would be my last run at it,” Angel said. “After the Christmas break I thought about it just to be sure and I knew this was a good time. We own a home here, we love it here and I’ve got a grandson who is playing football at Boswell, so I want to be able to go and see his games.”

Angel has a career record of 103-86. He served as head coach at Cooper from 2002-2005, Canton from 2006-2009 and he also served as the athletic director for Bryan ISD from 2014-2018. Angel led Cooper to a third round playoff appearance in 2004, he led Canton to the third round of the playoffs in 2006 and he led Palestine to a third round appearance in 2019.

“Palestine is a great job and a great place," he said. "They’ve been good to us and I think whoever gets the job will be walking into a good situation. We have outstanding facilities and a supportive administrative and a community that will support you."

Expect the job to be posted at some point this afternoon and most insiders expect this job will get a good amount of attention across the state.