ZEPHYRHILLS – There are many attributions to the saying, but paraphrasing it goes a little something like this–“if you don’t know where you’ve been, you won’t know where you’re going.” Zephyrhills Bulldogs Football is Zephyrhills. It defines the city much like other teams scattered in small towns up and down the peninsula define their own communities.

We can lose our sense of community easily amongst the rat race and hustle-and-bustle of the city. The concrete clouds our senses to what’s still alive and well and what brings us back full-circle to what made us laugh, cry and want to fight someone for speaking ill about it. Even though it carried its own functionally-dysfunctional baggage with it, if you grew up in a small town and all you had was football–or better yet you had just one school–you went to the mat for your colors, and your teams. For better, or for worse.

Zephyrhills Head Coach Reggie Roberts is in his sixth season leading the Bulldogs, but his entire life he’s been a Bulldog. He grew up there, played for the ‘Dogs, and now he’s serving the community in more than just one way. Roberts was a Homicide Detective in Orange County before learning of the position opening and leaned on his intense Faith to guide him back to a place that even with its warts, it was a place that was the next best thing to Heaven in his mind.

There’s plenty more to his story, and Roberts has seen some things. Some great things–and some not-so-great things. He’s currently on the force for the Zephyrhills Police Department in addition to his duties as coach. Through it all, Roberts wakes up everyday trying to do what he can to impress upon his boys and the elders in the town that watch him impress upon his boys–that things are moving in the right direction and that a family sticks together.

Here now, is Zephyrhills Head Coach Reggie Roberts in his own words.

BCP: Being a Zephyrhills product and having grown up in the city, tell us about the journey and what it’s like to be a part of the family on a Friday Night in Zephyrhills–the culture of Bulldog Football if you will. 
RR: “First of all, I can tell you this–I wouldn’t change it. I think my environment coming from a family where I was the first to go to college–I really didn’t understand it then, I really didn’t know what was going on. There were some “cultural” differences I would say, but we have some great people here that I always say, like when I go to speak at Rotary Club meetings and events with all of the people that encouraged me along the way–whether white or black I got a lot of encouragement along the way; There’s blue-collar workers here and this community and this school represent a true “home” environment. You visit a game here and you see the tailgating that goes on and it really feels like you’re at one of the last true home stadiums left in the state of Florida. Back in my day–everything shut down early on Friday’s for a Zephyrhills football game. I had a lot of support from my parents–my Mom missed two games my entire career and both of them were church events and she was obligated to go–it was a great role for me. I played with a lot of family, so it was awesome–it was awesome; small-town life, small-town football at its finest. 

BCP: It doesn’t matter if it’s about Zephyrhills or not. It’s about Bulldogs football–which, are kinda one-in-the-same.
RR: “You come to one of our away games–even the playoff game last season all the way up in Suwannee, we had just as many fans as they had–if you went over last week to Sunlake, even though it didn’t turn out like we wanted it to, on our side you see the stands full  and you see people standing along the fences. That’s Bulldog Football, and that’s small-town football. They believe in the program, they believe in the boys. It’s just an awesome feeling. This is the only place I’ve ever applied to coach football. 

BCP: Teams that come from the metro areas may have their neighborhood representation, but they don’t understand fully what it’s like to have the ENTIRE city on their backs, don’t they?
RR: They do not. I remember when I played ball, there were only a few programs in Pasco County and they were true community schools at that. I think that contributes to some of the players not really having that commitment to one school anymore because when you go to some of the cities and they have six or seven schools basically in a neighborhood. But the pressure of being the only school in the city like at any given time, when I go down to Barb’s (Restaurant) in town–I’ve got all the old-schoolers down there and they want to do is talk Zephyrhills Football. These annual meetings I go to–every year, sometimes twice a year they call me out to the Rotary (Club) –they want to know what’s going on with the football program–they want to know what’s going on with the kids and who’s going off to college. Some of those programs that don’t have that “community” feel miss out a little bit on having the foundation of having the whole city behind them every week.  

BCP: What’s the message behind putting on the orange and black and representing the Bulldogs? Does it go beyond the actual football game itself?
RR: “I tell the kids all the time, we play not for brick and mortar–we play for flesh and blood. We play for the school and it’s colors–not for the buildings, but for the people in the community that have attended and are attending and working at this school. We play for everybody. I think that’s been part of the reason for our success. We built a foundation. These boys aren’t playing a football game just because the lights are on, and the whistle blows the start–we are playing FOR somebody.

BCP: It’s about family–whether it’s tough love, unconditional love, or love that’s bigger than you can imagine…
RR: “This town is small and generations of players have been through the program. I mean, how many Pickett’s have been through here? How many Roberts’? How many Giles’? How many have been through this program before me? I’ll be flat-out honest with you–I was a Homicide Detective in Orange County, I had no clue I was going to put in for this job. And when it came open I received a phone call from one of my cousins who owned a business in town. He said, “Reg–you ought to do this”–and I started praying about it. A hundred applicants went through this and I just prayed about it some more. I always said when I would come back to Zephyrhills–sometimes I hated coming back to my mom’s house and I’d see dudes selling dope down the street, the question was asked in my mind and I thank God for posing this question–what are you doing about it? You know, you talk about it, you act like you don’t want to see it, but what are you doing about it? I felt like it was time to make the change and that it was supposed to happen.