TheCatCoachesMissesMe said:

Whenever he stepped away in Dec 2006 or Jan 2007 he went to work at a well know local insurance group here. I believe he was their Information Tech guru and I know he had originally helped setup an athletic foundation for all local sports. He didn't entirely quit coaching he helped at the junior high level.

I recall reading the Tampa Tribune's Heartland paper the day he resigned and it was published in the paper he said "I am young enough to come back someday". He kept that promise.

I talked with his old DC and he said he's going to give it a shot once again and come back. Hopefully Jake comes back (if he hasn't already, I thought I seen him out there cannot remember) as Dale and Steve are still there..

They all been in the loop the whole time just in the background and lower levels.

Now if only Desoto can get back into shape & straighten out it may get fun once again. I miss the fun of those days.

Let's see what happens...

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That sounds great, two great old programs coming back. Again happy for you and hope they get it rolling like the old days.

Where is the game going to be played this year? I saw Cardinal Mooney play at Desoto about 25 years ago but I’ve never been to a game at Hardee (dated a girl from Hardee for a while 🙂).

BTW I believe Coach Kemp was a great Coach. I had nothing but respect with what he did here. He had issues with certain ppl stirring up players causing them to go elsewhere. Kemp got the Ad position and felt trying to do both jobs would be too much so he stepped down. I don't blame him being a football coach takes too much away from family and they are under paid. I will tell anybody if I had become superintendent all coaches would be paid well. I would show the board and ppl in the county what coaches in Georgia gets paid which is crazy good. Coaches are more than coaches to a lot of young men. Coaches are like drill instructors in the military, you never forget them.

Silver King said:

Happy for you. What's he been or where has he been since? Because today's high school football athlete in the era of free agency and government intervention, with NIL looming large in high school, is a different breed.

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Whenever he stepped away in Dec 2006 or Jan 2007 he went to work at a well know local insurance group here. I believe he was their Information Tech guru and I know he had originally helped setup an athletic foundation for all local sports. He didn't entirely quit coaching he helped at the junior high level.

I recall reading the Tampa Tribune's Heartland paper the day he resigned and it was published in the paper he said "I am young enough to come back someday". He kept that promise.

I talked with his old DC and he said he's going to give it a shot once again and come back. Hopefully Jake comes back (if he hasn't already, I thought I seen him out there cannot remember) as Dale and Steve are still there..

They all been in the loop the whole time just in the background and lower levels.

Now if only Desoto can get back into shape & straighten out it may get fun once again. I miss the fun of those days.

Let's see what happens...

Good luck; you know how I feel. I always marvel at the skills Manatee puts out consistently. But you have to have that OL / DL to get the most out of them when it counts.

Manatee (and others) have had teams loaded before, good enough to breeze through the playoffs. But in those three games, from the Regional Final on, teams begin to encounter similar skills and speed. Then, a vast majority of the time, they run-up against a team that has enough dominant OL/DL to be the difference.

I think most coaches would say it's much easier to find an elite WR or RB than find a couple of dominating OLs.
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Happy for you. What's he been or where has he been since? Because today's high school football athlete in the era of free agency and government intervention, with NIL looming large in high school, is a different breed.

gatorman001 said:

Can we expect regular reports on the spring practices, and regular season games?

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Many here in Hardee are thrilled about this exciting news! Derren Bryan was previously Hardee's head football coach from 2000-2006, he has the highest winning percentage of any head coach in the entire history of Hardee's football program, he also has the second most overall wins of any head coach in our program's history, only Bob Martin (1978-1995) has more overall wins than Derren Bryan. Hardee is one of the oldest high school football programs in the entire state, Hardee first started playing football in 1909 (when we were known as Wauchula HS back then) and has been playing DeSoto continuously every single year since 1921 which was recognized as Florida's oldest continuous high school football rivalry back in 1984 by both Governor Bob Graham and the FHSAA, so having the highest winning percentage of any head coach and the second most overall wins of any head coach in the long history of Hardee's football program shows how great of a coach Derren Bryan is.

Pretty Stout, glad the Tarps aren't on it this season.