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Buzzer sounds on 23 years as coach
By BRANT JAMES, Times Staff Writer SPRING HILL -- Bob Levija, the creator and lone head coach of the winningest high school sports program in Hernando County history, has retired from his post as Springstead wrestling coach. Levija, 50, will remain the school's athletic director. His wrestling teams compiled a 318-30-1 record, 14 conference, 17 district and six region titles and produced seven individual state champions in 23 seasons. "With the AD job, it just got to be too much," Levija said. "I couldn't give wrestling 100 percent. "I wanted last year to be my last, but I wanted to find somebody good to take over the program." Levija picked Roy Reyes, 27, a 1993 Central High graduate, over about 10 other candidates. Levija said his longtime assistant, Chris Soto, did not apply, but Reyes said any former Eagles coach is welcome on his staff. "Wrestling at Springstead is a family," Reyes said. "I'd like kids to feel a lot of the same traditions and faces are sticking around. I'm not Coach Levija. I'm not pretending to be him. I'll have my style and my personality and I hope to instill that in the kids." Reyes was a Class 3A state runnerup in the 145-pound class his senior season at Central. Reyes, who will teach health and physical education, attended Pensacola Christian College and coached at North Florida Christian School in Tallahassee for one year and Providence School in Jacksonville for two. "I talked to numerous people, and he looks like a great fit," Levija said. "He's a good Christian kid, he works hard, he's knowledgeable." He won't, Levija promises, have any intrusions. "I want someone to take over the program," he said. "No one will look over his shoulder. I don't want it. I don't want anybody to fill my shoes. I want him to fill his own." Former Central High wrestling coach Alan Solomon said Reyes was a hard worker when he coached him. "He had a good solid background," Solomon said. "He was somebody who continually worked, and we stayed after practice a lot. I had to tell him and his brother (James) I had another life and I'd have to throw them out." Reyes said his philosophy is much the same as Levija's. "Giving your all. Building relationships," Reyes said. "Success comes not by winning matches but by having impact on kids' lives. I don't want them to see me as just the wrestling coach. Maybe I can mentor them and help them out. "I'm not going to lie and say I'm not thinking about winning certain titles. I know the tradition. We were never able to beat Springstead when I was at Central, and that was because of the way things were run over here." Levija admitted he was especially meticulous in his search, considering he had proposed starting a wrestling program at Springstead in the late 1970s, and helped start the program with an old borrowed mat from Saint Leo University. Reyes' interview included two nights spent at Levija's Spring Hill home. Levija, who evolved into a more quiet force in his later coaching years, expected much from the beginning. When asked by a reporter in 1981 whether the Eagles' break-even record was acceptable for a first-year team, he responded: "To everyone else it is." Springstead's program has since grown into a local juggernaut and a state power. "I think we put Springstead on the map," Levija said. Brandon's Russ Cozart (320) and Countryside's Dave Frayer (301) are the only active coaches in Tampa Bay with 300 or more wins. "I feel bad for the state of Florida and for the Springstead community," Cozart said. "They're losing a great coach. You don't stay in one community, be a great coach and do what he's done in that area without missing a coach." The trademark of Levija's program was a belief that complete dedication and unceasing work created an irresistible force. With the help of youth coaches such as Soto and volunteers such as Ralph DeCristofaro, T.D. Talbott, and Louis Kachiroubas Sr., boys began wrestling year-round as toddlers in the Eagles training room, bought into the system and stayed through high school and beyond. Former wrestlers are regulars at Eagles matches. "He was the best coach I ever had," said Gerard DeCristofaro, a state champion who will be a sophomore at Campbell University this fall. "I matured as a teenager to a man with him. He was like a second father to me." There have also been critics. Coaches have grumbled that the program could not have been so successful unless all those summer practices were mandatory. In 1988, a group of parents alleged Levija's wrestlers were cutting weight in an unhealthy manner after several of them developed blood-poisoning or prolonged colds. Levija rarely comments on what he considers negative, and isn't viewing his resignation that way. "It hurts to give it up," he said. "But it's not like I'm never going to go to a match anymore." -- Staff writer Mike Readling contributed to this report.
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