There is an excitement in the air in Lake County as the 2025 football season rolls in and for good reason. Lake County football is having a resurgence.
In the past 10 years, every FHSAA team in Lake County has hit rock bottom at some point, some more recent than others. Of those eight Lake high schools, there have only been 26 winning seasons put together by all of them since 2015. That’s 26 out of a possibility of 80. A winning percentage of .32 — or should we call it losing percentage? That will get a lot of coaches fired, and it did.
Mount Dora Christian, which is in the Sunshine State Athletic Association, is the one outlier as a member of the Sunshine State Athletic Association. The Bulldogs, who have been coached by Kolby Tackett for five of the past seven seasons, have not had a losing season since 2015 (0-8).
The key for most of the recent success among Lake schools has been continuity in coaches and schools keeping their players at home. Schools have found the right persons to lead their young men and things have become more positive than ever, with far fewer transfers.
“You will get a handful of players moving around here and there, but that’s mainly after coaches leave,” said Mount Dora coach Luke Hutchinson, who is in his fourth season with the Hurricanes. “Coaches being there is a huge part. … we’re all pretty evenly based now.”
Mount Dora coach Luke Hutchinson guided the Hurricanes into the playoffs last season and he will be looking for more of the same in his fourth year at the school. (Chris Hays/Orlando Sentinel)
Not only is keeping coaches around important, but Donnie Burchfield, in his third season at East Ridge, said he has also made sure to build a solid staff to help mentor his players.
“There are a lot of good things happening in Lake County,” said Burchfield. “Sure, there are some who are struggling to keep up with that trend, but if you look at some of the programs that are successful right now, they really went out and put an emphasis on getting really, really good coaches.
“And if you look at these successful programs in Lake County, every school has a coach who has been there at least three to five years.”
This season, six Lake County schools have reason to believe they can qualify for the playoffs, and should that happen, it would be the first time ever.
Five made it last year, including SSAA members Mount Dora Christian (8-3) and Umatilla (6-5), which dropped out of the FHSAA and into the SSAA last year. South Lake (7-4), Mount Dora (8-3) and Leesburg (6-5) qualified for the FHSAA playoffs, and Tavares (7-3) just missed.
“We’re getting better,” said South Lake head coach Brad Lord, who took over an 0-10 team in 2023 and won a district last season. “I think kids are staying in their schools. I know that I have had an average of only three transfers each year.”
Which is an extremely low rate in this day and age of the transfer hysteria. In the Sentinel’s five-county coverage area, which includes Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and only part of Volusia County, nearly 200 football players have changed schools entering this school year.
South Lake coach Brad Lord poses with two of his key players this season, defensive lineman Jesse Barker and running back Malik Holman, at Central Florida Media Day. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
“I think I can speak for all of the Lake County coaches that we are pretty much growing our own kids,” Lord said. “I’ve worked closely with our Pop Warner teams, Luke Hutchinson has a real good team at Mount Dora, East Ridge is good this year, we’re good, Tavares is going to be hard for us.
“There is not an easy game in Lake County this year. We do not have one cakewalk. If we are fortunate to win our games and go to the playoffs, we will be playoff ready.”
Which has ramped up the excitement. Kids have something to play for, like county bragging rights and playoff berths. Lord said he can feel it in the air and the veteran coach, who was at Foundation Academy for 13 seasons and turned the Lions into a perennial 2A power, also said he has the best team he has ever coached.
“I think so, 100 percent. Everybody is excited,” said Lord. “We’re gonna have a packed house on Friday night for the Tavares game. I think we’ll have a packed house for all of our games.”
There are some schools looking at down-turns. Eustis fired coach Darnell Harrison on Monday; Leesburg is rebuilding with a new coach in Kenard Lang; as is Lake Minneola, which has a first-year coach in Abre’ Leggins.
Lake Minneola, when Walter Banks was in charge, ran roughshod over Lake County rivals. From 2017 to 2023, Banks didn’t have a losing season. The Hawks reached 6A state title game in 2020, falling to juggernaut Miami Central 48-0.
Banks and the school had a falling out and he stepped down in 2023. Lake Minneola is on its second head coach in two seasons.
Leesburg enjoyed winning seasons in three of the past four years, but the Yellow Jackets and Lake Minneola saw rosters decimated by an exodus of players to Orlando’s The First Academy.
Gavin Jones enters his third season as Tavares head coach, his second three-year stint with the Bulldogs. He was also head coach from 2009 to 2011. (Chris Hays/Orlando Sentinel)
Gavin Jones is in the third year of his second stint as head coach at Tavares. He led the Bulldogs for three years from 2009 to 2011.
“There is a lot of talent out here in Lake County,” Jones said. “The coaches are doing a good job coaching these kids up. I think the thing that has changed the most is all of the stuff the coaches do now, taking kids to college camps and getting them exposed, and things like that.
“[Coaching continuity] helps a lot because the kids don’t think you’re going to be hollering at them one day and then the next day you’re gonna be gone. It builds some trust with the kids.”
Huge blow for Tavares
Tavares, rolling into the season with high hopes, received horrible news when 4-star prospect Izayia Williams injured his knee in the preseason. The star linebacker, who flipped his commitment from UF to FSU last week, had surgery on Aug. 11 and is out for the season.
“Obviously we didn’t know we were going to lose Zay, but the kids have been working real hard and are still going at it,” Jones said. “They took it pretty hard at first. Zay has been a practice just about every day, supporting the kids and trying to help out any way he can.”
Williams is a defensive standout, but he also stepped in to share running back duties last season, rushing for 423 yards and 6 touchdowns. Now, junior Tumauri Collins will get the brunt of the load. He ran for 706 yards and 16 touchdowns a year ago.
NFL Academy in Orlando
Edgewater, a 65-8 winner over Wekiva in its opener, hosts the NFL Academy Europe on Friday night, on the back-end of a home-and-home agreement. The Eagles traveled to England last year and outscored the Academy 51-45.
EA Sports of Orlando has been instrumental in making the matchups. It will sponsor a pregame event on Friday morning at Edgewater called the Edgewater Campus Takeover. According to EA, they will have Madden Ratings Adjusters on campus, and the entire student body will have an opportunity to receive a Madden rating during a an extended lunch hour by completing the Madden speed, acceleration and jumping skills tests, beginning 11 a.m.
The NFL Academy team will attend UCF’s season opener against Jacksonville State on Thursday night.
Making a move
Bishop Moore (1-0) was originally scheduled to play Orlando Christian Prep (1-0) on Friday night at Austin Tindall Field in Kissimmee, but the game has been moved to Bishop Moore, with a 7 p.m., kickoff.
Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.
