A new football coach for Poinciana High School is getting close.
Activities Director Dana Dodson said, “We may know something [this] week.”
The Eagles have been scouring the nation to replace Joe Anagnostis, 34, who quit in December after 19 consecutive losses during a two-year, 1-19 stay. He will be a receivers coach at Orlando Boone.
Poinciana Principal Mike Brizendine said he had hoped to have the vacancy plugged by Jan. 6 ahead of the second semester.
Anagnostis had a short honeymoon with the Eagles. After Mike Cullison left to be Olympia’s coach in 2001, he butted heads with athletes resistant to his system and philosophy.
“I’ve told my kids to do what the new guy says,” Anagnostis said. “That’s a battle they’re not going to win, but one that I walked into. It’s a difficult situation trying to convince kids to buy into a program they’re not familiar with, but I’m encouraging them to buy into the next coach’s program immediately.”
Transportation issues are another peeve. Anagnostis said players who have cars often had to work part-time jobs to cover expenses. Those without cars often had no way to get to workouts, especially in the summer.
Poinciana has had six coaches and only one winning season (2000) since it began varsity competition in 1993.
Celebration likely will cut Poinciana’s enrollment of nearly 2,900 students by 1,000 when a new campus opens this fall. Because head counts in grades 10-12 determine classifications, Poinciana had dropped from Class 5A to 4A, but realignment put it into District 8 with Lake Region, Haines City, Auburndale, Lake Gibson, George Jenkins and Winter Haven.
SWITCH CREATES LAKE RIVALRIES
After losing half its student body to East Ridge last fall, South Lake’s football program received a needed reclassification by the Florida High School Activities Association, moving from Class 5A to 3A. But the Eagles later had a petition approved to move up to 4A.
By doing so, the Eagles escaped some big travel expenses for district foes and created two natural district rivalries.
“If we stayed at 3A, our closest district competition would have been a 45-mile trip [to Lecanto],” South Lake Athletic Director Kelly Meredith said. “Now our closest is 6 miles [East Ridge], and we have Leesburg at less than 20 miles away. We will only have one long trip every year, either to Brooksville Central [60 miles] or to [Spring Hill] Springstead [75 miles].”
By moving into the same district as East Ridge, what originally was scheduled as a season-opening game between the two schools has now been moved to Oct. 17 at East Ridge.
“With South Lake being in our district, it will make it a little more interesting,” East Ridge Athletic Director Mike Boyack said. “Of course, it means to go to the playoffs, it is one more game that you are going to have to win. But, what was going to be an interesting season-opening game, now becomes an interesting district game on Oct. 17 that may have a playoff berth riding on the outcome.”
East Ridge filled its vacancy for a season-opening game with a home contest against Celebration, which will field a football team for the first time in the fall.
TIME TO CHILI OUT
The next big fund-raiser for the South Lake Athletic Booster Club will be Feb. 28, when the boosters host a chili cook-off during the Pig-on-the-Pond Festival in Clermont.
