I was lucky enough to catch Palm Harbor University High School Head Coach Matt Lepain yesterday as he gets himself and his program geared up for the 2012 spring season that’s just around the corner. Not only did the Hurricanes make the playoffs for the first time in school history winning their first rd. game on the road at Port St. Lucie Centennial last season, they were a missed extra point from taking regional finalists East Lake into OT for the district championship.
Lepain, the former longtime DC at Largo High School is trying to reconfigure that same approach to get the ‘Canes ready for their first season without some of their most-heralded players in Billy Pavlock, Hunter Beam and Ryan Myers just to name a few. That was last year though and this year is now in full view. Here now is that conversation Coach Lepain and I had as we build-up to the May 1st beginning.
How is the offseason been thus far?
“Offseason is going really well. We’ve got about 65-70 kids in the weight room. We’re running double sessions out here and we are really working our tails off trying to get stronger. Everybody’s working and it’s really nice to see some growth (out of some them.)”
How do you keep the momentum going forward on the strength of the first playoff appearance (and win) in school history?
“Yeah that’s basically what happened at the end of the season. The kids came to me right after the end of the East Lake game in the playoffs and asked, “when does the offseason start?” and I said, “Next week.” We went straight into the weight room as quickly as we possibly could and the kids have responded unbelievably. The players are on board. They’re buying in.”
What’s the trick or secret that you’re using to foster the new leaders that will have to step up in the absence of guys like Billy (Pavlock) and Hunter (Beam)?
“Well one of the reasons why I wanted to get such a head start on this season is that one of my coaches came up with a rather disturbing stat and that is we are expected to return only 2% of our offense from last season. So everything is going to start from scratch. Everybody talks about Pavlock and Beam, but the guy I’m missing the most is Ryan Meyers; just for the simple fact that we don’t have a tailback that can get the ball 25-30-35 times a game yet. Billy and Hunter got us the big plays, but that guy (Myers) was the beef. He was able to grind things out for us and keep our offense on the field. We’re gonna be doing the Moneyball thing where instead of one guy carrying the load, we’ll see if three guys can get it done for us”.
What’s been the biggest adjustment made coming from Largo to PHU?
“Well at Largo I was the defensive coordinator so I didn’t have to deal with all the other stuff that comes along with it. If I had something that needed attention I would just go to Coach (Rick) Rodriguez with it. It’s a little bit different, but the football (routine) is the same. I really don’t do anything different though (speaking schematically either). I may have to disguise a few things here and there, but otherwise it is just football. That’s the same. There may be some “different” things, but the fundamentals are going to require perfection in order to execute properly.”
How about the “easiest” part of the transition to PHUH from Largo?
One thing I’m fortunate enough to have here with my staff is that it’s kind of like a self-ran machine. It really allows me to free up the time to do things I need to get done as a whole. I’ve got three or four offensive coaches where I don’t even have to worry about the offense; at all. I have two really good defensive assistants that are starting to pick up what I do and are really starting to come along as coaches and I’m kinda thinking of myself as the mad scientist right now. I’m trying to reinvent things and tweak things and put the all the pieces together. I have a bunch of kids around that we can do different things out of formations and if something doesn’t work, we can go back and fix it.
How do you change the stigma of a soccer/volleyball school into a football school?
I think it’s always going to be that way here to be honest, because those teams aren’t going to stop winning. Do I ever feel like I’m going to be a high school powerhouse here? You never know. That’s the beauty of high school football though. I don’t know what I’m going to have (with regards to football.) I get what I get now, but that also allows me to be more creative as a coach. It allows the coaches to be more creative. The thing I like hearing (about my teams) is when another person says that team is well coached and can play football. We may not always win, but you’re going to feel it at the end of the night. You may kick my butt in a fight, but when the fights’ over you’re gonna know you’ve been in one. That’s all I preach to them. As much as we can do that, then we’ll have a chance to win every time we play.”
Have you noticed a change in the level of expectations from the parents, administration, and kids themselves?
“I’ve got parents that think we’re going to win a state championship in the next three years.” (Editor’s note: I’m hearing the Drew Rosenhaus voice in my head say, “Next Question.” Moving on…)
How do you feel about the success that the north county teams vs. the south county teams in terms of team performance?
I’ve been in both facets. I’ve been at situations where I don’t know who is playing from one week to the next, and even here I have to worry about eligibility although obviously not as much, but I still do. At Largo, we had the same coaching staff for 8 or 9 years. I’m very fortunate here at Palm Harbor that I’ve got guys that want to stick around and coach here. There are many situations where the examples like St. Pete and Lakewood aren’t the norm. Most schools can’t get their staffs on campus. At the end of the day I think it’s the stability, the consistency and the familiarity between the staff and the players coming up through the system too.