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Coach decides to give up the sport to focus on football.
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 28, 2002
Mike DeGennaro, the Sunshine Athletic Conference's coach of the year after guiding River Ridge to an SAC title in January, resigned last week so he can focus on his job as football coach.
"When I originally took the job five years ago, I was only supposed to do it for one year, but I got to liking it and liked the kids and kept going," DeGennaro said. "I'm always going to like the kids, but it's just too much. I've shortchanged wrestling because of football, and it goes the other way, too."
DeGennaro's senior-laden team went undefeated at the conference tournament. Seniors Joey Mayo, John Gilmore, Tommy Parente and J.T. Heckler won SAC titles. Despite his success, the 33-year-old said the overlapping schedules of football and wrestling have kept him from giving either sport the time it warrants.
"All the other schools have been going to wrestling tournaments, but I just got out of spring football," DeGennaro said. "I'm still going to push my football players to wrestle because it's a good thing for them."
When he was honored as the Times Pasco County Wrestling Coach of the Year in March, he deflected the praise to assistants Dave Spicer and Fred Tucker. DeGennaro said he wouldn't have had the teams he had without their efforts but didn't think either would succeed him.
"They both do a great job, but neither one would like the head job," he said. "So whoever comes in here really has a good base. We've got about 18 wrestlers coming back between the varsity and junior varsity, and he's getting two assistants who know the kids and are great to work with. It's a good situation for someone who has more time for it."
Athletic director Jack Homko said he talked with DeGennaro about the demands of not only football and wrestling, but girls weightlifting, which he coaches in the spring, and said he supports the decision from a less-is-more perspective.
"I believe it's something he needed to do," Homko said. "He never really had any down time, and I told him he needed to get rid of something, and football is the biggest sport."
Homko said DeGennaro's position has not been posted yet, and since teachers will be done for the summer this week, he said it would likely be closer to fall before the position is filled.
Homko also has an opening in girls golf. Jan Obara coached most of last season before an undisclosed medical problem brought boys coach Ron Spriggs in for the postseason. Her position will also likely be filled over the summer. Homko will bring in applicants this week for the Knights' boys soccer job, vacated when Concepcion Ledezma took a job at Plantation American Heritage in April.