When a member of your coaching staff steals from the program SMH

[Longtime Observer]

This is one of the more embarrassing situations I can recall. Lakeland's football program had been experiencing the loss/theft of football equipment over a stretch of time this spring, and was trying to get to the bottom of it all.  It turns out the culprit was apparently the newly named offensive line coach. The coach is now behind bars and has been terminated. The coach played at Lakeland, graduating (perhaps) in 2020. He did not complete college and instead worked as a janitor at the school by day, while helping out with the JV program initially. He joined the varsity staff (I think) last season and appeared to be promoted to the OL coach for this season. He's only 23 years old, and working as a janitor obviously means he was very far from wealthy. But, this is a HUGE embarrassment not only for Yarde, but for the Lakeland program. 

Personally, I lean towards the theory that this is another indictment of the post-Bill Castle staff. The 2023 season saw embarrassment in the form of a brawl with lowly Kathleen that led to mass suspensions for the playoffs. The team did manage to win the state title, but did not have to beat a true blueblood like STA to win it. The 2024 season saw embarrassment in the form of obviously poorly coordinated offense. Those who know football even somewhat, and who watched Lakeland's offense a good bit, recognized that the offense's problems had much more to do with scheming and play-calling than sheer lack of talent. And already in 2025 they apparently had to go with a 23 year-old janitor to coach a very important position group. And that coach is now on jail and terminated.

As both an alum and fan, I hope like heck they are regrouping and gearing up to have a great season which proves the skpetics wrong. But, I'm too old to refuse to be honest about what I see from afar. I'm not an "insider", as I've lived on the west coast for two decades. I can't say for sure what the status of the program really is. 

Article on the arrest

[Perspective]

Most shocking part of the story is that there are 7 people in Tampa that wanted a used Lakeland helmet.  

All kidding aside, this is a very sad story. 

[PinellasFB]

How TF did he think he was going to get away with 37 helmets missing?  I mean maybe a couple wouldn't be noticed but a whole JV team's worth of helmets is unmistakably missing.  Only drug addiction can make somebody steal like this.  

[THAT S--T WAS FUNNY]

This crime is directly correlated to the low coaching pay in the state of Forida. Pay the coaches more and they won't steal their own s--t. LOL

[Longtime Observer]

On 5/7/2025 at 8:25 PM, THAT S--T WAS FUNNY said:

This crime is directly correlated to the low coaching pay in the state of Forida. Pay the coaches more and they won't steal their own s--t. LOL

You can include that in the discussion, but obviously it does nothing to justify what the guy did.

I'm wondering what you all think this may mean in regards to both the staff and the team. On one hand, he was only 23 and just recently named as a meaningful member of the staff. So, maybe an easy replacement. On the other hand, the players and coaches had to have a certain degree of trust of and expectations for him. Might some/many have second thoughts about their involvement in the program? Might this be, as I speculated above, an indictment of the program as a whole? I'm not really familiar with any other situations quite like this. Is it a big deal for the near term future of the program? Or will it mostly just be a matter of Lakeland being the butt of some jokes a la "Free Shoes U"?

[THAT S--T WAS FUNNY]

I was joking. Heck I even put LOL at the end.