Former Apopka head football coach Jeff Rolson says he resigned on May 30 because the transfer portal has made it impossible to maintain the high standards that propelled Apopka’s program into a perennial powerhouse.
Rolson pointed to the departure of 20 players after the spring game as the breaking point that sparked his surprise announcement last week.
“It’s been increasingly more difficult to achieve and maintain the standard that we’ve set in the past, over the last 25 years,” Rolson said in a Monday phone interview. “We’ve just lost a bunch of kids, and it’s hurt us.”
Rolson said the transient nature of the game is evident after every loss.
“After the first-round loss in the playoffs, eight guys left right then,” he said. “Then you get through spring and finish the spring game, and you have a bunch of guys walking out the door. You cannot survive losing 20 kids off a 4-5 team with one of the tougher schedules in central Florida.”
Rolson’s decision to step down came after six seasons at the helm of the Apopka football program, three of which ended in the state championship game. Overall, Rolson amassed a 55-23 record and three seasons of at least 11 wins.
Apopka High School has not announced a replacement yet, but with the fall season approaching, it will need to fill its head coaching vacancy quickly.
Rolson told the Chief the biggest reason he stepped down was that he didn’t see himself being able to help the program be successful in this new era of high school football. He said that he is old school in his coaching approach, and in the age of the transfer portal and programs pandering to players, he doesn’t fit.
Rolson said his mission is to teach his players and the members of his program how to be men. Through toughness, discipline, and accountability, he said he tries to mold young boys into responsible men, better husbands, and better fathers who can face real challenges in life.
“I want them to be mentally tough enough to deal with that adversity and do it the right way,” Rolson said. “What we do now is, ‘Hey, I don’t like what I’m doing,’ or ‘I don’t like what they said,’ or ‘I don’t like how hard I gotta work,’ or ‘I don’t like this, that or the other. I guess I’ll just go over here.’ And that’s teaching people nothing.”
Rolson said his situation became untenable.
“I can’t go out there and coach right now,” he said. “That’s not a good situation for me or the kids. They need a fresh start.”
Rolson said he is his most prominent critic, and anyone who knows him knows that’s true.
“Nobody wants to win more than I do,” Rolson said. “Nobody wants to have a great program more than I do. Nobody wants to see Apopka flourish and have great success and produce men of character like I do. I want that as much or more than anybody else out there. But I’m just not the guy to do that for them right now. And that just became apparent when we got 20 kids leaving. That’s not something you can survive. And obviously, whether they would say that or not, I feel like it reflects on me.”
Rolson said this spring has been about rebuilding and refitting the team. He knew it would be tough, but he was up to the challenge—until the spring game happened.
Apopka fell 31-14 to the Jones Tigers on Friday, May 23. The score tells a different story than the reality of the game, where Apopka showed obvious growth and competed against a very strong program. The Blue Darters moved the football offensively, but that didn’t matter to many players.
Rolson said while other schools and programs can poach Apopka players with promises of scholarships, offers, and state championships, he can’t recruit at all because Apopka can’t enroll new students.
“We’re at capacity, so all we do is lose kids,” he said. “I don’t want to recruit kids anyway. I would want to play and win with Apopka kids. And we just can’t do that anymore right now.”
Rolson said he has a problem with other schools’ promises of grandeur and wouldn’t operate his program like that even if he could.
“I’m not gonna lie to kids,” Rolson said. “I’m not gonna tell them they’re gonna get scholarships. I’m not gonna do those things where I make empty promises that I don’t know I can keep.”
Rolson says the recruiting bothers him because it shouldn’t be that way, but he does not blame the student athletes for trying to control their own destiny.
“I don’t look at the kids and say, it’s a kid problem, it’s a societal and cultural problem,” Rolson said. “I just don’t like the fact that we lose a bunch of kids to programs that have never, and probably will never, have the kind of success that we’ve had, and very mistakenly listen to the promises of scholarships and offers.”
Rolson said the grass is not always greener on the other side but always greener where you water it. No matter where you go, you won’t be successful unless you want to be. You have to work at it every day, and it’s not easy. He said a lot of student athletes now just want to be guaranteed to win without the required effort.
“I think I’m from a time of responsibility and commitment,” Rolson said. “That’s not where we’re at right now. So that’s not what I want to be a part of.”
Rolson said he has no plans to continue coaching elsewhere and will enjoy his off time with fewer responsibilities. He also said that he is not retiring and will continue to work at Apopka High School if there is a place for him in the fall.
Rolson said he is blessed to have been a part of such an important program when he looks back on his time at Apopka, and he relishes the relationships he built.
“I wouldn’t have traded it for the world,” Rolson said. “I wish I could have been better. I wish I could have done more. I have no regrets; I’ll always treasure it and wish them the best of luck.”
