Derwin James heard the chatter.

He heard the rumors, the bad things being said about his Haines City football team.

So James did something about it. The Florida State commit did the same thing he always does. He went to work.

James went to work despite the fact the Hornets football team lacked a head coach.

Haines City’s football program may have redefined the term turmoil. The Hornets went the entire summer without a head coach after Coach Ron Johnson was fired just before the team’s spring game against Manatee in May.

New head coach Jake Chapman wasn’t hired until the first day of fall football  practice on Aug. 4. That was more than two months Haines City players endured without a main guy to lead the program.

“Sometimes we just had to go get it being on our own,” James said. “We’re old enough to know how things should go, but really, we’d get a group and go workout. I’d call everyone to tell them, hey let’s go work on what we need to work on.

“We needed a coach, but sometimes, we just had to go do it ourselves.”

That attitude and senior leadership gave Chapman a glimpse of the kind of team he inherited. The former Plantation High assistant didn’t know much about his new team, but he learned real fast the quality and character that filled his roster.

“These kids are something special,” Chapman said. “These kids have a lot of pride in themselves and they looked at everything and they said, you know what, we’re going to stick together as a team.

“And when these seniors did that, that showed me a lot of how much they cared about being here at Haines City.”

Click on the video to see how Haines City and their new head coach are trying to quell the talk about the demise of their program.