Apopka High School’s athletic director, Aaron Crawford, told The Apopka Chief this week that he and Principal Lyle Heinz are close to making a decision on the school’s next head football coach.
On Wednesday, Crawford said the school had a frontrunner in mind for the job and that the administration was waiting for clearance from OCPS.
Crawford answered cryptically when asked if this frontrunner was an inside or outside hire.
“Yes, and yes,” he said in the phone conversation. “He’s an Apopka guy, but we have to get him through the OCPS hiring process.”
Crawford said the frontrunner is a previous state champion with Blue Darter football and would be coming home.
On Thursday morning, Crawford contacted the Chief again to dispel rumors about who the head coach could be. Within an hour, high school sports website On3 reported that Apopka defensive coach Marcus Neeson would be the next head coach, citing an interview with Neeson that morning.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to coach under Rick Darlington and Jeff Rolson,” Neeson told the Chief in a text message midday Thursday. “I started as a Freshman Defensive Coordinator back in 2017 and over the years have worked my way up to Varsity Defensive Coordinator. I know I have big shoes to fill by the legacy and accomplishments that they’ve achieved at Apopka High School.”
In his conversation with the Chief, Crawford declined to give any information on the timeline of the administration’s decision or to confirm the report of Neeson’s hire. He said he and Heinz are still making final decisions.
“We had several good candidates and conducted the first rounds of interviews,” Crawford said. “Mr. Heinz and I will be discussing our best choice [Thursday].”
Crawford said trying to find a good head coach right now is a challenge, because many are stepping down all over the state—often for the same reasons former head coach Jeff Rolson stepped down.
Rolson blamed his departure on the transfer portal and the new age of high school athletics. His abrupt resignation came after a tough loss to Jones High School in the spring game, which led to a slew of transfers. Through the FHSAA transfer portal, Rolson lost 28 players in the span of six months. He lost eight after the end of the team’s 2024 season and then a mass exodus of 20 players after losing 31-14 to the Jones Tigers in the spring game last month.
Crawford said they are doing their best to pick the right guy, but it’s not easy. He and the administration agree that an interim coach may be the best long-term decision for the program, in order to get Apopka through the fast-approaching season.
Crawford went on to say that in the unique current climate of high school sports, it’s hard to find a coach willing to jump head-first into the Apopka football program, especially after all that has happened in the past few weeks.
“June is not a good time to find a football coach,” Crawford said.
The new coach will assume a program that finished 4-6 last year and recently saw the end of an era with the abrupt resignation of Rolson, who spent decades on the Apopka football coaching staff, including the last six years as head coach. The first three of those seasons ended with state championship game appearances.
