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© St. Petersburg Times, published April 9, 2002
TAMPA -- After 13 years of coaching in Hillsborough County, Sickles boys basketball coach Derrick Gaines is stepping away from the sidelines.
Gaines resigned as Gryphons coach to become a business manager and driver's education teacher at Middleton High, a new county school that will open this fall.
Gaines, 38, said he aspires to be an administrator and is giving up basketball to concentrate on completing the necessary exams to achieve that goal.
"I'm not coaching at all," Gaines said. "This is a great opportunity for me. And I've always said, you can only do one thing well at a time. It's time if I'm going to do it. I need this opportunity."
Gaines, who compiled a 50-72 record at Sickles the past five years, will be reunited with Middleton principal Henry Washington, who coached Gaines in football at King during the 1980s.
Sickles athletic director Nelson Duarte said the school will begin looking for a coach within the next two weeks.
"He's done a great job with the kids that he worked with and brought out their full potential," Duarte said. "He's a good coach, but more importantly he's a great builder of young men. That's what I look for first."
-- MIKE READLING
TAMPA -- The county's two new high schools opening in the fall, Freedom in the north and Middleton near downtown, will be announcing their coaches in all sports this week.
Middleton principal Henry Washington will announce his coaches at a press conference at Moses White and Sons Barbecue on 7th Avenue in Ybor City at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Freedom principal Richard Bartels will announce his new coaches Friday.
-- SCOTT PURKS