As any head football coach will tell you, having an experienced staff of assistants will most likely make their job easier.
St. Cloud Head Coach Bryan Smart will take that idea to an entirely new level this year. The Bulldogs staff features three members with high school head coaching experience.
Including Smart, his staff features former Liberty Head Coach Brandon Pennington and former St. Cloud and Orlando Colonial Head Coach Mike Short as the defensive and offensive coordinators.
“It somewhat happened by chance but the stars aligned for me this year,” said Smart, who is beginning his eighth year at St. Cloud’s helm. “After graduating almost every starter on offense and defense last year, I knew this was going to be a trying season.
“Through combination of several factors, we were able to get both Brandon and Mike back to our campus and I am elated to be in a position to rely on those two guys for the coming year. They are both great football coaches and great teachers of the game and that is something we are going to need a lot of this season. Combined with the fact that I have worked with both of them in the past, has creates a great comfort level.”
Pennington first arrived at St. Cloud from his native West Virginia prior to the 2015 season. He spent three years at St. Cloud as Smart’s offensive coordinator before fulfilling a lifetime dream of becoming a head coach at Liberty High School. The 2018 Chargers had the best record in school history, 9-2 with a bowl game win.
As spring football wound down this season, Pennington chose to resign at Liberty after securing a St. Cloud teaching job this fall.
“My children were getting older and we are zoned for St. Cloud,” Pennington said. “I really wanted to work at the same school they were going to, so after I made the decision to teach at St. Cloud this year. As it turned out, Bryan had some openings on his staff.”
Smart called Pennington’s football IQ “off the charts.”
“I have learned a lot about football from Brandon over the years and we are great friends on top of it,” he said. “I know he’ll do a great job as our defensive coordinator.”
Short’s return to St. Cloud, where he was head coach in 2011, is a little different. He coached Colonial for three years before moving to Texas for a coaching job.
“Our head wrestling job opened up and Mike is an experienced wrestling coach and wanted to move back home,” Smart said. “I needed an offensive coordinator and fortunately he agreed to take the job. Mike is an incredibly high-energy guy and again has a great football mind. I really owe my entire coaching career to him because he gave me my first opportunity to coach football.”
While a unique situation of having three head coaches on the same staff could provide some tension in the locker room and practice field, Smart believes it will be no issues on his staff.
“First of all, we are all great friends and have mutual respect for each other,” he said. “Secondly, there’s not a lot of ego with any of our coaches. As I see it, Brandon will be head coach of the defense and Mike will be the head coach of our offense. I’m just here to oversee the whole thing and try to stay out of the way and let them do their thing.”
The Bulldogs open their season in the Aug. 20 Kickoff Classic at Celebration before opening the regular season at Osceola a week later in the 98th edition of Florida’s fifth-oldest high school football rivalry.
