New OCPS school lands TFA football coach; 12 others make changes

Leroy Kinard did not stray far from the Orlando area high school football scene despite being sidelined for the first time in more than two decades.

An Oakland, Fla., native and West Orange graduate, Kinard found camaraderie among coaching peers after his tenure at The First Academy unceremoniously ended while on vacation in June.

“You don’t realize how many people genuinely care for you or are concerned for you until a time like that,” Kinard said. “With the coaches that were willing to help, it kind of lifted my spirits.”

Kinard was welcomed at practices by Cameron Duke at Edgewater, Elijah Williams at Jones, Geno Thompson at West Orange and John Brantley at Ocala Trinity Catholic.

He also heeded the advice of Rick Darlington at DeLand, Mike Kruczek at The Master’s Academy, Dennis Thomas at Horizon, and even Jeff Conaway and Steven Moffett, his replacements at TFA.

Moffett, a former Winter Park and UCF quarterback, led Leesburg to a 10-2 record in his only season before joining the Royals in December as an offensive coordinator and associate head coach.

“I used this past year to go to a lot of practices, talk to a lot of people and soak up as much information as I can,” Kinard said.

Those interactions have Kinard feeling well-equipped when it comes to starting a program from scratch after being named the inaugural head coach at Innovation High in east Orange County.

Innovation opens this fall with no senior class as a relief school for Lake Nona.

“The change has been beneficial for both parties,” Kinard said of TFA. “The First Academy has been good. They’ve done some things that have been very helpful and very thoughtful for me and my family, and I do appreciate it.”

Kinard, who played collegiately at Liberty, is entering unfamiliar territory in the public school ranks.

Upon returning to the area in 2001 and working as an assistant for four years at TFA and two more at Trinity Prep under Dale Salapa, Kinard spent the next 16 seasons as TFA’s head coach. He led the Royals to 13 playoff appearances and a 126-51 record.

“It’s going to be a big shift,” Kinard said. “There were a couple of jobs I was up for, and when I honestly thought about it I actually felt this was the best fit for me.

“Starting a new program and giving myself a challenge might be exactly what I need right now,” he said. “That was one of the big sells, because I don’t have to go in and change anyone else’s culture.”

Horizon’s Thomas, who is 14-16 with the Hawks since the program debuted in 2021, has been especially helpful.

“We talked about some of the pitfalls and some of the things that he would do differently, like with the equipment and the weight room,” Kinard said. “The thing I learned throughout this whole process is that with these coaches, it’s like a fraternity. There were a lot of people that were really willing to help with whatever I needed.”

Local connections

Of the Orlando area’s 12 head football coaching vacancies since the end of last season, only three of those schools had the same coach in place for at least four years.

Former Apopka and Bethune-Cookman player Dazzie Morris replaces Shaun Lorenzano at Lake Howell. Lorenzano, who previously coached at Cypress Creek, left the Silverhawks in December for a higher-paying job at Fort Dorchester in North Charleston, S.C.

“The past six years at Lake Howell High School have been a great experience for me and my family. The relationships we have built will last forever,” Lorenzano stated in a social media post. “Family is everything. I have to put the security and well-being of my family first. This is a bittersweet time. Leaving Lake Howell is a hard decision and one I do not take lightly.”

Morris has experience as a college assistant at Albany State, Webber International, Methodist University, Bethune-Cookman and Fort Valley State. He joins Lake Howell after serving as offensive coordinator at DeLand.

Former Bethune-Cookman player Taron Mallard also landed a head job this month when he was selected to replace Randy Beeken at Kissimmee Poinciana. Beeken was pushed out after going 20-29 in five seasons with the Eagles, who play as an independent.

Mallard won a state basketball championship at Poinciana as a senior in 2016 before going on to play tight end in college. He has worked as a football assistant at the school in various roles over the past three seasons.

Doug Gabriel and Joe Burnett, local prep products and former UCF standouts who played professionally, take over programs that have reached the postseason in recent years.

Gabriel, a Dr. Phillips grad who played wide receiver in the NFL, replaced Jeremiah Rodriguez-Schwartz this month at Wekiva.

Gabriel spent last season as an assistant at The Master’s Academy, which won the Sunshine State Athletic Association championship. He briefly held head coaching positions at East River (2014-15), Kissimmee Liberty (’17) and most recently Cypress Creek, where he led the Bears to a 6-4 record in ’22.

Burnett returns home to Eustis, where Frank Scott went 22-17 over the past four years. Scott, who played at Evans in the late 1990s, took over for Moffett at Leesburg shortly after the season ended. He also went 8-12 as Mount Dora head coach from 2018-19.

“This means everything to me. It’s full circle,” said Burnett, who graduated from Eustis in 2005 and became an all-star in the Canadian Football League. “I was born and raised here and have been around this program since I was in middle school.

“This is the platform I need to give some of the knowledge and experience I have back into the youth,” he said.

Everchanging

While the current number of football coaching changes is slightly lower than in the past few years, all corners of the Orlando Sentinel coverage area have been impacted this offseason.

Former Lake Brantley and Freedom assistant Greg Miller returned to the state last month as the new coach at Pine Ridge of Deltona. Miller, who opened Windermere High’s program in 2017 and was head coach at New Port Richey River Ridge in ’22, coached defensive backs at South Gwinnett in Georgia last year.

Eric Poyner was let go by Pine Ridge despite improving on an 0-10 debut season by going 3-6 in his second year with the Panthers.

East River and Celebration tabbed local assistants to fill their vacancies.

Adam Chappell joins East River after working as an offensive assistant at Edgewater and previously coaching at Lake Mary and New Smyrna Beach. He steps in for Antonio Hernandez, who was hired just before the start of the ’23 season and finished 2-8 with the Falcons.

Former Lake Buena Vista and Windermere High defensive coordinator Jed Ebersole replaces Jeremy Palmer at Celebration following back-to-back 1-9 seasons.

Orange County Public Schools told the Sentinel late Monday that interviews were done for openings at Cypress Creek and Orlando University and that candidates there “have entered the vetting process.”

Cypress Creek is looking for its fourth head coach in as many years and its sixth coach since 2018. Raul Gomez, an ’02 Cypress Creek grad, stated on social media in December that he was “let go over the phone” after the Bears finished 0-10.

University is set to bring in its sixth coach since ’17. Mark Barrett went 4-16 with the Cougars the past two years.

Oak Ridge is scheduled to hold interviews this week to find a replacement for Andrew Anderson, a former Pioneers and Jones defensive assistant under Elijah Williams.

Anderson, who resigned earlier this month after going 4-5 in his only season, told the Sentinel that his vision did not match with that of the school’s new administration.

“The principal and athletic director who hired me got moved in the summer; two weeks right before the season,” Anderson said. “So all of the agreements and promises I had with the previous administration were pretty much off the table. We didn’t see eye-to-eye.”

Windermere Prep is looking to fill a void left by Brian Simmons, who went 11-16 in three years with the Lakers.

Simmons, who stepped down at the end of the season, said in early January that he had not ruled out staying involved with the program in some capacity.

This article originally appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email J.C. Carnahan at jcarnahan@orlandosentinel.com.