The 2025-26 school year is underway and there were many personnel changes in our public schools’ athletic programs as new leadership takes over at Osceola, Tohopekaliga and Harmony; while almost all schools report at least one new head coach for the coming year.
At Harmony, highly successful Athletic Director Dan Kerr stepped down last spring and was replaced on an interim basis by Randy Schafer. This week the school announced Joey James has been selected as the permanent AD.
James spent the last 24 years coaching college basketball, most recently at Florida Tech. Although he has a master’s degree in athletic administration and said he always wanted to be an AD, he said he got caught up in “his love for coaching college basketball” and never pursued athletic administration duties prior to applying for the Harmony position.
“That changed with NIL and the portal,” he said. “The college game has changed so much because of those things, I decided it was time for a change.”
James says he looks forward to maintaining the overall success that the Longhorns program has achieved over the years. “I understand the rivalry we have with St. Cloud and the other county schools and look forward to supporting our coaches and athletes in any way possible.”
Unlike other schools, Harmony had no head coach openings come up this summer which made his transition to administration a little easier. James is the older brother of long-time Gateway Athletic Director and former basketball coach Travis James.
As the long-time AD and head basketball coach of the Panthers, Travis James was told last month that he had to relinquish one of the roles to align with a county policy that prohibited a person from occupying dual roles of athletic director and head coach.
Travis James decided to remain as AD and his first hire in the singular role was to name his basketball replacement. He hired former Cypress Creek head coach Joe Roy as head coach last month. He added that he was still searching for a girls’ soccer and boys’ volleyball head coach.
At Osceola, Jerry Gallman has replaced Rick Tribit as Athletics Director. Gallman then promoted assistant Jesus Cervantes to head wrestling coach to replace Tribit, who served in a dual role. Jacob Grenus takes over the Osceola baseball program from Nikko Martell, and John Wall has been named girls basketball coach. Cervantes and Grenus were long-time assistants at Osceola before their promotion; while Wall comes from Ava Maria University in South Florida and had success at the high school level in South Carolina. Grenus played for the Kowboys under Scott Birchler.
Celebration Athletics Director Chad Boudreaux had a busy summer finding several head coaches. Michelle Pavini and Ken Gibbs will coach the girls and boys swimming teams; Patricia Colon takes over girls’ cross country and Gerardo Dorta will handle the boys’ side. Boudreaux is still interviewing candidates for Celebration’s highly successful boys’ soccer program.
St. Cloud Athletics Director Bryan Smart announced volleyball coach Travis Foster left the coaching ranks as girls volleyball coach to join the United States Coast Guard. He will be replaced by William O’Boyle.
Crisipin Johnson, a long-time assistant AD at Tohopekaliga, took over as interim athletics director when Don Simon returned to Harmony and was later named to post permanently. He had several new head coaching positions to fill over the summer and stayed “in-house” for all of them.
Donald Torey, who served as head coach of the Tigers junior varsity soccer team, moves up to head coach—replacing Aston Baptiste. Boys’ volleyball coach Carlos Diaz will now also coach the girls team; while Javarius “Jay” Magee, a former standout catcher for the Tigers and an assistant baseball coach last season, replaces Armando Perez as head coach.
“After doing a great job with our junior varsity program last year, we’re excited to name Jay our head varsity coach,” Johnson said. “He brings an incredible amount of energy and tradition to our program.”
Over at Poinciana, Athletics Director Tiffany King has named Andrew Nation as the new boys’ and girls’ volleyball coach.
