LUTZ – Steinbrenner football coach Floyd Graham and his wife, volleyball coach Jennifer Graham, resigned June 5, to focus on their family out of state.
The Warriors’ only football coach in the program’s three year history said the two are moving back to Wetumpka, Alabama to care for Floyd’s mother and maternal grandfather. Both of whom are battling cancer.
“I’ve been going back and forth, and I mean literally driving back and forth, 10 to 15 times this past year,” Floyd told the Tampa Bay Times.
In three seasons at the helm, Floyd was 15-14-1, including a 7-3 mark last season. He said there was no other option than to be with his family in its time of need.
“The thing that really kind of made up my mind that I needed to start looking at it was last year’s Freedom game. My mother was going through her second surgery and I was coaching a football game,” Floyd told the Times.
Jennifer served on the Steinbrenner volleyball team as an assistant in its first two seasons, before being named the successor to former coach Staci Elias in 2011. She led the team to its third straight district championship, the Class 7A regional semifinals and a program best 24-6 overall record. She was also head coach of the flag football team in 2010.
Athletic director Eddie Henderson said there is no timetable for the hiring of replacements and added both coaches will be sincerely missed
”They were both doing a wonderful job here and it’s a big loss for both teams,” Henderson told the Tampa Tribune. ”Academically and athletically, their teams were always on the upswing.”
Jeff Odom / Special to The Oracle
If 7-3 isn’t good, you’re clueless. It was the best record any second year varsity program has ever had in Hillsborough County history.
maybe the football team will do good this season with Graham being gone