Franklin High School announced Jan. 16 on X, formerly known as Twitter, that varsity football assistant Drew Ambrose has been hired as the program’s next head coach.
He replaces Louis Brown, who retired at the conclusion of the 2025 season after 33 years. Ambrose spent the latter seven years with Brown, starting as quarterback coach the first year and the past six as Brown’s offensive coordinator.
“The program is in a really good place, and I don’t think we need to make a ton of changes,” Ambrose said. “Are there tweaks that I think we could make that will hopefully push us over the top? Yeah, absolutely, but we’ve been really successful for a long time and coach Brown’s a guy that has taught me so much as an assistant under him. I mean, he and I share an office at school, so we’re together every day, all the time. My plan is to try to continue with many of the great things that he has put in place, and just make little tweaks as I see fit to put us over the top.”
We are excited to announce Coach Drew Ambrose as the Head Coach of Franklin Football! We’re excited for the leadership, vision, and passion Coach Ambrose brings to our program. We look forward to him leading our program into the future!
#SaberPride#FranklinFootballpic.twitter.com/j0tTHwAxfd
— The Franklin Sabers (@FranklinSabers) January 16, 2026
Joining the Classic 8 Conference in 2026 will be one of the more immediate challenges for Franklin under Ambrose, but it also brings with it the opportunity to compete against a longtime friend. New Muskego head coach Ryan Lucchesi was hired earlier this month to replace their 18-year program leader, Ken Krause, and has had a longtime relationship with Ambrose.
“We’ve actually in the past talked about trying to team up together to coach, but I think this was always kind of in the back of our minds that we could both end up being head coaches at the same time. It is pretty crazy that it happened at the same time, like the same year,” Ambrose said. “There are things we’re gonna have to do differently to get over the top in that league and get back to Madison. My big thing is really I want to maintain as much of what we’ve been doing as possible, and continue the success that we’ve had.”
Ambrose said the staff will remain largely intact from Brown’s, save for a couple departing members whose family or work situations made moving on now the right decision for them. The new head coach looks back with gratitude at the time shared with Brown, and for the lessons he will now look to employ as he takes the helm.
“He is the face of Franklin. Not just football and not just the high school, but the City of Franklin. This place is not what it is without him, and I’m very thankful that I get to be the one that takes over for him,” Ambrose said. “I know that they’re really big shoes that I have to fill, and it’s not gonna be easy to do what he’s done, but I’m really looking forward to the journey and thankful that they picked me.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Franklin High School hires new head football coach
