Coaching changes coming for county schools — see who, where

As is usually the case, there will be plenty of new faces patrolling the sidelines of our local high schools’ athletic fields, courts, and pools as the 2023-24 school year begins in a few short weeks.

With football front-andcenter, two of the county’s eight public schools will have new head coaches in place as Don Simon stepped down at Harmony last spring and Liberty parted ways with Antony Smith after one season.

Simon, who became the new Athletics Director at Tohopekaliga, was replaced by his former defensive coordinator and long-time assistant Nick Lippert also serves as the school’s weightlifting coach. Former Dr. Phillips star Dee Hart, who played two years at Alabama and excelled in one year at Colorado before a brief stint in the NFL, will attempt to get the Chargers back on track after the team suffered a winless season last year.

This is the first head head coaching job for Lippert, an assistant under Simon in North Carolina, and moved with him to Harmony seven years ago to continue in that role. It is also the only head coaching change that is being made at Harmony – which won its third consecutive OBC All-Sports Team Trophy and its 11th since the school opened in 2004.

“We have been blessed with a lot of stability at Harmony with head coaches that do a great job,” HHS Athletic Director Dan Kerr said. “Other than that move, all of our head coaches are returning for the coming year.”

At St. Cloud, athletics director Bryan Smart said he has begun a search to replace long-time boys and girls golf coach Jim Endicott, who steps away after six seasons for personal reasons. A highly-decorated and well-respected teaching pro, Endicott saw both his boys and girls teams win OBC and district titles last year and both ended up advancing to the state championship tournament – the first time in county history that a both the boys and girls teams from the same school made it to the state championship in the same year.

Under Endicott, the boys’ squad has won six straight OBC county championships; the girls have won four a row. His 2022-23 girls team had the highest GPA of any varsity sports team in Osceola County. In addition to numerous PGA regional and sectional awards for teaching and youth player development, Endicott was also listed as one of the top 25 teaching professionals by Golf Tips Magazine.

One change being made that was not a mutual decision came at Tohopekaliga, where Eric Capestany was told late in the spring by school administrators that his girls and boys volleyball coaching contract was not being renewed.

Capestany was named girls head coach when the school opened in 2018 and went 57-35 in five seasons as head coach. That mark included a 38-11 record in the last two years, including a 22-3 mark and the school’s first Orange Belt Conference championship in 2022. He was 42-36 overall as the boys’ volleyball coach, including a 29-18 record in the last two seasons.

“To be totally truthful, I was taken aback when they told me my teaching contract would be renewed but my coaching contract was not,” Capestany said. “I was called into a meeting without my athletic director being present and wasn’t really given a concrete reason for the decision. Instead, I was just told I wasn’t fitting into the culture they were trying to build at the school.”

Simon, who was not part of decision and did not take over the athletic directors role at Tohopekaliga until July 1, said the search for a new head coach was “on-going” and Capestany’s assistant Joel Gray would be serving as interim head coach.

Meanwhile at Osceola High, athletics director Rick Tribit said he was busy trying to fill several positions, including new boys and girls golf, swimming and tennis coaches. Tribit added that depending on whether the new swimming coaches serve dual roles, he may also be looking to hire a new water polo coach.

Poinciana’s Tiffany King said all head coaches were returning for the fall, but she anticipated hiring new coaches for girls’ basketball and flag football. Richie Sanchez-Morales, the former head coach of boys’ volleyball, would return to that position next spring, replacing Miguel Cortes.

In other news, construction work on St. Cloud’s new turf football/all-purpose field commenced last week. Athletic Director Bryan Smart said he remained hopeful the project would be done in time for St. Cloud’s final home football game against Harmony on Nov. 3 but the school would most likely play all its home games at Austin Tindall Sports Complex this season.

“It would be great to play our first game on the new field against our biggest rivals in Harmony,” Smart said. “But obviously we are at the mercy of how fast the construction process lasts.”