STEUBENVILLE — After sifting through a stack of resumes and conducting numerous interviews, Catholic Central has selected a new football coach.

Vince Oliver, the school’s athletic director, announced Tuesday that Anthony A. Agresta, an Ohio native, was chosen by a hiring committee of seven individuals and recommended for hire by the panel to Principal Thomas Costello. Agresta also will serve in an administrative position at Central.

Agresta comes to Steubenville from Covington, La., where he served as head football coach for Northlake Christian School. He joined the Northlake staff in 2007 and took over the program in 2009. Agresta also served as the Northlake athletic director.

In his nine years, Agresta guided Northlake Christian to a 63-48 record. His best year came in 2013 when he led the Wolverines to a 10-0 regular season. He guided Northlake to the post-season in eight of his nine years at the helm.

“It is with great excitement that I announce this hire and welcome coach Agresta and his family into the Catholic Central family,” Oliver said. “He brings to us a hard-nosed football mentality based on hard work, discipline and excitement for the game. His former players and colleagues have poured out their love and respect for him both on and off the field.

“There is a high level of coaching knowledge associated with coach Agresta and the committee agreed 100 percent that he is the man to lead us into the future of football at Steubenville Catholic Central. Personally, I am looking forward to working with him to, not only build our high school program, but to also foster and implement his ideas and plans for the elementary and junior high schools.

“There is an air of excitement throughout the Catholic Central community about what is happening and where we are going. All of his comes down to a few simple things and those are doing what is right and what is best for the young men and women of our Catholic school system while honoring our past and striving for a strong tomorrow. Nobody is bigger than Catholic Central and as long as we focus on the foundation and traditions that made her what she is, we can all stand up together and say ‘We Are Central.'”

Agresta attended Baldwin Wallace where he was a four-year letterman in football and received his degree in speech communications with a minor in English Language. He and his wife, Lorrie, have four children, Aaron, Celeste, Micah and Sarah.

He received many accolades during his tenure at Northlake, including being named the New Orleans Metro Area Football Coach of the Year. He was the district coach of the year in 2010 and 2013 and led his teams to the best records in the school’s parish in 2013 and 2014. Many of his players landed scholarships to play at the college level with several moving on to Division I schools.

Agresta began his coaching career at Mayfield High School, located near Cleveland, in 1984. He coached baseball at both Mayfield and Chardon Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin. He also coached basketball at Mayfield, Youngstown Christian and Northlake.

From 2002-2007, he served as principal at Youngstown Christian, now known as Valley Christian. Agresta founded and operated the Father’s Heart Elementary School in Youngstown in 2000 and merged that school with Youngstown Christian in 2002.

Oliver said 21 candidates submitted resumes for the position. The committee conducted numerous phone interviews and three personal interviews. Agresta replaces Steve Daley, who guided the Crusaders for eight seasons. Under Daley, Central made the Ohio playoffs four times and posted a .500 or better record seven straight years.