Have you checked out the classified sections lately? Doesn’t it seem like there are a lot of high school head football coaching jobs that need to be filled?
The answer to that rhetorical question would be an emphatic yes in both Hernando and Citrus counties. Of the four schools in Citrus (one private and three public) and the five public schools in Hernando, a total of six schools will have a new head coach on the sidelines come fall 2014.
The latest coaching change came Monday when Citrus High School announced that Coach Rayburn Greene would be leaving. It was a decision that shocked Hurricanes athletic director Larry Bishop and many in the Citrus community. Greene led Citrus to an impressive 9-2 season this fall and the school’s first playoff appearance in seven years. It was 2007 when the Hurricanes last tasted the second season before this year.
Citrus could have had some momentum going into next year yet surprisingly Greene decided to move on. Well, actually go back to where he started. Greene takes his coaching ability to Class 1A Seven Rivers Christian in Lecanto, the school he coached prior to Citrus. He replaces Dave Iwaniec, whose Warriors squad went winless this past season. Greene was Seven Rivers’ first ever head coach when the Warrior program first started.
Across town, 11 days before Greene’s stunning announcement, McKinley Rolle resigned as the head coach of the Lecanto Panthers after three seasons. The Panthers, who chose play as an independent, went 2-8 this past fall. Things were looking good in 2012 for the then 28-year old head coach. Rolle’s Panthers put together a 5-5 record, one of the best in school history. The momentum carried over to the beginning of the 2013 campaign but after winning their first two ball games, Lecanto ended the season on an eight-game losing streak.
The coaching carousel actually got sent in motion by Citrus’ neighboring county, Hernando in early November. Brooksville Central administrators and Bears head coach Mike Einsphar agreed to part ways. The last time Central won a football game under Einsphar was Sept. 7, 2012. Einsphar ended his tenure on a 17-game losing streak and won just four games in four years at Central.
The Einsphar resignation was official on Nov. 6. Six days later, a second head football coach in Hernando County handed in his resignation papers. It would be the first of two resignations in a span of just four days.
After three years of patrolling the sidelines as head coach, Nature Coast skipper Charles Liggett decided to hang it up. The announcement came on Nov. 12. The Sharks ended the 2013 campaign below.500 for the first time since 2005. A four-game losing streak, three to district opponents, in the middle of the season kept Nature Coast out of the playoffs. Liggett hangs it up after spending a decade in some coaching capacity for the Sharks. Nature Coast’s record under Liggett was 16-14.
Some eight miles up the road from the Nature Coast campus four days later, Hernando head football coach Dwayne Mobley told Hernando High officials he was done coaching the Leopards. Mobley, a graduate of Hernando, had completed just his second year as head coach. Hernando was 9-12 the last two years. They made the playoffs in 2012 with a 6-5 record but this year only had a 3-win season.
The reason for each coach resignation was different. No one can argue except for Greene that his team exceeded expectations this fall. The combined 2013 record of the six coaches that stepped down, which includes Iwaniec’s at Seven Rivers, was 18-42. Greene’s record of 9-2 was the only one above.500. It was his choice though to leave Citrus and go back to Seven Rivers. Liggett (16-14) alone with Greene (24-19) had winning record during their tenures; the other four did not. The combined record of the six coaches during their respective tenures was 65-118.
In Citrus county, the lone head coach to stay on board is Crystal River’s Nate Varnadore. His Pirates went 3-7 this season. In Hernando, Mike Garofano’s Springstead Eagles carried the county flag with pride, posting a 9-1 record as well as a first round playoff win over Greene’s Citrus squad. Mark Lee, the head man at Weeki Wachee, is the other Hernando county coach that will return in 2014. His Hornets went 3-7 this season.
The hiring period will start to get hot between the state championships games (Dec. 7 and Dec. 14) and the new year. In that two to three week period school administrators at Citrus, Lecanto, Central, Hernando and Nature Coast will hope to have dialogue with potential head coaching candidates and possible make hires.