The winless Lyman football team has been outscored 311-6 in five games this season.
But you won’t hear defeat in the voice of first-year head coach Steven Jerry. And you won’t hear him dwell on the fact that Lyman lost more than 10 players to transfers before he arrived.
“We focus on positives of what we are able to do and where we are able to get better,” Jerry said this week.
Much of the conversation surrounding high school football in Florida is dominated by transfers. But as much as people don’t like the freedom players have to jump ship, the fact remains: The transfer era is here to stay unless something is changed.
Orlando-area 2025 High School Football Transfer Tracker
In 2016, state legislators passed a law allowing school choice options, regardless of zone boundaries. The unintended consequence is free agency in high school sports creating huge gaps between the haves and have nots.
More than 200 football players in Central Florida transferred this season.
What is the fallout? Well, Friday night was a clear indication. It’s capitalism at its finest. The rich get richer. The poor get routed.
Lopsided football games are now common. Last Friday’s Week 6 games were the most indicative example of the trend to date.
In the 35 Orlando-area high school games the average margin of victory was 30 points. Twelve games were decided by 40 points or more.
Edgewater showed how completely outmanned Lyman is this year by trouncing the Greyhounds 84-6.
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I called Jerry to find out how he and his players were handling such a demoralizing defeat. Jerry took over the program this summer after former head coach Jermel Jones stepped down in June because of all of the transfers.
“The culture of high school football right now is just not something I want to continue to be a part of,” Jones said.
He isn’t the only one. Jimmy Buckridge at Timber Creek, Jeff Rolson at Apopka and Adam Chappell at East River also left their positions after multiple transfers decimated their rosters.
It’s even more concerning that these lopsided blowouts took place during the week in which district competition began for many schools. Teams are, in theory, supposed to be somewhat evenly matched in districts, based on enrollment counts. So much for theory.
I expected to hear a down-in-the-dumps voice on the other end of the phone when the 54-year-old Jerry answered my call. His Greyhounds (0-5) had not scored a touchdown until Friday night against Edgewater.
What I found was an upbeat guy with everything in the right perspective. It was a breath of fresh air to listen to Jerry. He wasn’t complaining about how his kids lacked effort, or couldn’t execute or were not listening to their coaches.
It was quite the opposite.
Lyman has lost games this season by scores of 75-0, 42-0, 55-0, 55-0 and 84-6. Foes have averaged 62 points against the Greyhounds. But those crushing defeats have not zapped Jerry’s energy.
“After Game 2, we chose for our program to focus on the positive, to focus on the growth,” Jerry said. “We’ve chosen to focus on the fact that we are now moving the football, whereas in Week 1 we weren’t moving the football, and Week 2 we weren’t moving the football. But in Week 3 we started moving the football and our kids were getting better and better and better.”
Jerry, a Lyman alum, returned to the school after a long coaching career at the high school, collegiate and Arena League levels. Last year he was the receivers coach at Savannah State.
Lyman starts seven sophomores on defense and four freshman on offense. The Greyhounds only have seven seniors.
Jerry has chosen to lock in on whatever the Greyhounds have to celebrate, instead of looking at all of the negatives. His attitude is surprisingly upbeat in a situation that could be depressingly miserable.
“We focus on the little successes and keep our kids together and focused on being Greyhounds,” Jerry said. “Kids leave. That’s the way of the world now. That’s what kids see in college football. They see free agency in the NFL. There are a lot of parents who think that’s what football is.
“But for me, football is a teaching tool. It’s about teaching life lessons. You never know. You may be in a situation in life where you lose everything and it’s not your fault. How do you handle that? You can go into a shell and fold up or you can fight, you can swim. You might swallow a lot of water, but you gotta keep living, day-by-day, step-by-step.”
So when Edgewater was lighting up the scoreboard the Greyhounds found reason to celebrate on the other sideline. Trailing 42-0, they scored their first touchdown of the year.
“You would have thought we won the Super Bowl on Friday night when we scored that first touchdown,” Jerry laughed. “It’s one of those things where we search for the positives and we don’t allow them to dwell on the negatives.
“Can it be demoralizing? Of course. And I’ve seen it be demoralizing and I’ve seen kids and coaches literally quit in the middle of the season. They are still out there, but they have quit and it’s a miserable thing with coaches staying on the kids and tearing them down and saying we aren’t good. Result of a football game does not dictate who you are.”
It’s a perspective we could all learn from as we contemplate the current state of this country.
Jerry doesn’t want his players moping around the locker room, thinking about what is going wrong. He will continue to preach the positives and push his belief that the players who come out of Lyman High will be prepared to contribute to society.
“I tell our kids all of the time, ‘Winners and losers are not determined by the score. Winners and losers are determined by how you respond’,” Jerry said. “Yeah, we got beat (84-6), but we’re not out here throwing helmets and we’re not out here throwing punches.
“We are handling our business, giving the best effort that we can and it may not work out for us. But, at the end of the day, we are going to give it our best shot and whatever happens, happens. We may lose a game, but we never fail as long as we learn a lesson.”
Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.
