KEARNEY, Neb. — Brad Archer is set to retire from coaching baseball after being involved in the Kearney baseball scene for 42 years.

Archer and Kearney High School made the announcement on Monday. He started coaching in 1981 as an assistant with the senior legion team. A year later, he started a 26-year tenure as the head coach of the legion “midgets” level team. Archer became head coach of the seniors Runza Post 52 team in 2010.

On Monday, he joined the Doug & Daddy Show on ESPN Tri-Cities.

“I’m going to be 63 come this August, so age is starting to get up there a little bit, had some surgeries and those types of thing. The opportunity is here and this is probably as good of a time as any," Archer said. "I also wanted to be fair to the administration to give them plenty of time to move forward on whatever they decide to do as well.”

Archer is the only baseball coach in Kearney High history. He was head coach when the Bearcats started their program in 2019. He will still coach through this season and the summer Legion season.