Beek

According to everyone else. South lake over Durant.

Everyone picking Durant.... I hope they are wrong!

South lake beat Leesburg 52-21. 5 in a row heading into the playoffs. Scored on every possession.

South Lake just clinched 6a district 6 championship tonight! 4-0 in district play! first district championship since 1996!

Updated southlake / horizon 100% to be held monday 10/14 6:00pm

Hard to believe! 1106 days since South Lake Eagles have won a home game. Finally did it tonight by beating Ocala Forrest 38-27, this is the second district win of the season. Beat Davenport 28-7 earlier. Still have Horizon and Minneola to go. But ! This team has come a long way, very young. The future is bright.

Yes, I have. When I used to run single wing, the wedge play, the pile gets stacked up. The kids always want to help move the pile forward. I coach it "make sure there is an opposing jersey behind the runner. Then you can push him". This penalty usually doesn't get called unless the opposing coach complains. That means you are moving the ball on them!

My new team, South Lake H. C. Brad Lord took a very heavy underclassmen squad into Foundation Academy, which personally as a H.C, im 0-2, beat them convincingly 49-14. We only had 36 offensive plays. Q. B. Trey Kelly Rising Sophomore went 7-9, 1 dropped and 1 blocked, 212 yds and 2 Td's, The running backs rushed for 202yds 3 TD's in only 27 carries. Where my old school Poinciana lost to Horizon 20-30. Poinciana only had 33 players on the official roster ( all time low, I had over 60). Cameron Brown Had a great game throwing for 2 TD's and ! rushing TD, (great effort) IMHO Horizon , while being a great program, was down from last year, Also include that 32 didnt play in the first half. (he drove the ball right down the field in his first possession in the 3rd 1/4 and they scored ( not to take away from the efforts of their other running backs, they will be a force to be reckoned with. Horizon is not as good as they were last year (up front only). I am sure the coaches will make corrections and become way better in the fall. At the end of the day, PHS, still needs discipline on defense (too many stupid penalties) and a direction to work for. Yes, I am being super critical, after spending 10 years trying to fix that program, what they (administration) did hurts. Not the new HC. fault, In fact I try to help him any way I can. PHS looks like a team led by a first year head coach who hasnt found his way yet. I truly hope they do. the HC is a great guy, just young and needs a lot of help understanding the ins and outs of HS football. Im not hating, (for the PHS head coach). I just want to see this different direction we are looking for!

4. 10 years of high school coaching experience. Took a perennial 0-10,1-9,2-10 program and rebuilt it from the ground up. I bring stability to the program. I don’t move around. Coming from coaching in a community that has almost no youth football. Being able to teach the game and how to play it safely to the first year player as well as the seasoned player. 5. I know a lot of coaches from being in the high school game for many years. I have built relationships with a lot of coaches at every level. I understand what it takes to coach a football team effectively. How to mix personalities and coaching assets for the betterment of the program. I would interview the past coaching staff to see what they could bring to the table. What they thought about the previous administration. Good and bad and what they thought could be done to improve it. I would also research the program from the outside. See what others thought of it. Its strengths and weaknesses. On and off the field. All of those would be a factor in the staff I would hire. 6. we work 4 days a week in the offseason. I encourage players to participate in other sports. The advantages of being a multi sport athlete help with recruiting as well as work the body in different ways. Not all schools can have 4 day a week workouts because of player culture and outside influences. Would have to study that and see if it could be changed. But no matter what we would still work out physically and mentally with the kids who could participate. And hope that a little peer pressure and raising expectations can increase attendance. 7. fundraising. That totally depends on the schools culture and whether there is a booster club or not. In some schools raising 50k a season is easy. In others raising 5k is an issue. There are so many avenues to fundraising it would be a studied decision based on the aforementioned factors. But we would set lofty goals and strive to achieve them. While trying to always give something back to the players from their efforts in fundraising (cloth etc) 8. 10 years of coaching contacts at the next level. I have built relationships with numerous programs. Not trying to oversell an athlete to a higher program that they can be successful at. In my 9 years at my last school EVERY player who was looking to play at the next lever received an offer. Not necessarily the d1 offer they thought they deserved. But a good fit academically, athletically and financially. there is more that that even. But that’s a quick synopsis of my answers.

I have moved on. That being said. When you put 9 years of your life into something you kinda become attached to it. I’ll still be working there. Have to see it and live it daily. If you truly can’t understand that. It was more than just a job.

I will say this for myself. I am a coach who had to find a way to teach. In my opinion you must be on campus to be an effective head coach. You need to be able to mingle, see the students, recruit the halls. Be there for the students in their time of need. If you are not a teacher or a district employee. How can you be in the halls all day. I teach Auto shop. Im not a college educated educator, who has never been outside the walls. I have seen what reality looks like. I have coached kids from 4years old up. I have dedicated my life to coaching. I really enjoy teaching automotive technology to my students. But the main reason I am there is to be a coach! Unfortunately it also hampers my ability to coach at every school. Only a very few have automotive. But to answer the question originally asked. If I was an AD. What would I look for in a head coach. 1. Why did you leave your previous job? (If this is your first time as a head coach, why do you think you are ready to make that leap. This will involve a whole different set of added questions) (is this an upward career move? Were you fired? why? ) 2. How long were you at your previous job? (do you move around a lot. Can I count on you staying to build/rebuild a program. Or will you be jumping ship for the next latest greatest. Towards your career advancement) 3. What is your vision for this program? (Have you done your research, Do you know the community, do you know the accolades and the pitfalls of the program. Demographics, are these kids you can work with and make successful? ) 4. What do you bring to the table? (What sets you apart from all other applicants, What skills or accolades do you have that would make you the best candidate for the job?) 5. Can you assemble a staff? ( who do you know, what is your plan to put coaches in place. Cannot be just rehire the previous staff. But retaining some or all of them could be a benefit if they are good at what they do! 6. How do you handle off season work outs? (what was the prior participation, can you maintain or improve the participation? How will you achieve that? ) 7. fundraising!, program budget. (if the coach doesn't ask these questions there may be a big problem, As we all know football programs are not funded by districts, What is your plan, past experience and researched goals for the new program. ) 8. Recruiting? ( what have you done, college contacts? how many kids from your previous place obtained scholarships? ) I will continue to edit this post as more thoughts come to mind

So the Poinciana head coach job goes to Tayron Mallard. 25 years old. He was a high school OC for 6 games. This was his first full season as a high school football coach. He volunteered the year before part time. No disrespect to him. But I fail to see how he is ready to take on a high school football program as a head coach. In my humble opinion, the inner workings of a football program go so much deeper than the on field part. He is an alumni and I was told that he knew the kids and that was the reason for his hire. Again, absolutely no disrespect to him. I truly hope he is successful in continuing what I had started.

Can anyone actually tell me what was decided? From what I got was. 7 classes + 1 rural. And all teams are required to play district games. There was no mention of how many weeks. Will it be a 8 game over 9 weeks. And 2 week district playoffs and everyone else is left to scramble to fill in their last 2 games. Or is it 10 games over 11 weeks and districts like now. So if this was supposed to let coaches schedule games. I feel something is still missing. Or I just missed it within all of the cross discussions they were having

Much appreciated. It was a good run cut too short, unfortunately! Like I said people make decisions. I can only comply. I do not hang my head in shame as I still truly feel I did nothing that should have cost me the job. I did fight for my players with administration. I will never back down when it is for the good of the kid. After all thats what its all about.

Im going to be at that game.! looks to be a good one