TAMPA, FLORIDA- Being a high school football head coach is difficult already in today’s day in age.

Now throw in an additional head coaching job to your list of duties throughout the school year.

For several head coaches throughout the state of Florida, that will very well be the case this 2025 high school girsl flag football season.

Riverdale’s Kendoll Gibson was coaching up his Raiders at Saturday’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers Preseason Classic at the AdventHealth Center and is also coming off a 2024 campaign in which he led the boys 11-on-11 tackle team to the Class 5A, Region 3 final.

The Raiders’ boys went 10-3 under his watch and now Gibson turns his attention to girls flag football, as he’s coming off a season in which he led Riverdale to a district crown last spring.

Gibson points out that there’s less pressure for the girls when it comes to football because everything is still practically new when it comes to flag down in Lee County, which had their first season in 2023-2024.

“I tell (the girls) joking around that they’re smarter than the boys,” Gibson said when comparing the differences between coaching the boys versus the girls.

“On a serious note, there’s less pressure for them. It’s a new game for them. So it’s not a game that’s been around for a long time from where we’re from. So the thing I’ve seen is (the girls) are listening to every single thing we tell them. The boys tend to question things because they have Pop Warner coaches and coaches all throughout their lives. the girls do what we tell them to do.”

Another coach that’s pulling double-duty this fall comes from Mid-Central Florida in first-year Dunnellon head coach JB Bynum, who was named the Tigers’ head football coach back in late January.

Bynum, who also graduated from Dunnellon, has plenty experience coaching both tackle and girls flag football during his time at Ocala Trinity Catholic. Now settling into his new role as head coach at Dunnellon, Bynum already knew he’d be leading the girls flag football team heading into the season ever before taking the Tigers’ job.

“I was already obligated for girls flag and being that I have so much experience with (flag football) coming over from Trinity Catholic, it’s not that hard of a transition from that,” Bynum said.

“It’s been getting all my football, football stuff in line so I’m able to get my free window in order to get the girls coached up and get their program back rolling. It’s all about Dunnellon for me. I’m a Dunnellon guy, I want us to competitive and be good in every sport we that we play at the school.”

One varsity 11-on-11 coach that’s tackling girls football head on for the first time is Gulf’s Sean Eperjesi, who will guide the Buccaneers’ inuagural team onto the field this spring.

Eperjesi, who is a graduate of Robinson, had his Gulf team take on defending Class 1A state champion Robinson first in the Buccaneers Preseason Classic.

Though the Buccaneers fell 35-0 to the Knights, Eperjesi wanted his team to see what a state championship-level program looks like as Gulf heads into the season, the first-ever in Pasco County history.

Eperjesi, who has led Gulf to multiple playoff appearances in high school football, now takes on the challenge of leading his Buccaneers to a winning culture in a different variation of the sport. Getting to experience the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Preseason Classic, which featured over 110 teams from around the state, Eperjesi stated was an incredible experience for himself and his girls.

“Playing at the Buccaneers’ facility, the birth place of Tampa Tom (Brady), was such an electrifying experience,” Eperjesi said about taking part in the Buccaneers’ Preseason Classic. “Just seeing the excitement in the girls from all over the area and the support they are getting for easily one of the fastest growing sports in the state. Just simply incredible.”

With several other teams throughout the state also seeing 11-man head coaches carry on the task of leading multiple football programs, it speaks to the excitement behind the level of high school girls flag football in the Sunshine State.

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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi