Steinbrenner promotes OC Andres Perez to head football coach

Posted Jul 5, 2012 by Mike Camunas

Updated Jul 5, 2012 at 04:49 PM

Steinbrenner didn’t have to look very far for its new head football coach as the fourth-year school told the Tampa Tribune of the promotion of offensive coordinator Andres Perez to the coaching vacancy Thursday afternoon.

Perez, 30, replaces the man who hired him: Floyd Graham, the school’s first football coach, who, along with his wife and former Warriors volleyball coach, Jennifer, resigned in June to tend to Floyd’s ailing mother and maternal grandfather that are both battling cancer.

“Floyd and I are really, really close — still are,” the Miami native and USF graduate said. “He had no intentions of leaving all season, especially after a very successful year. We’re moving in the right direction, but he really struggled to take care of his family. During the season, he kind of pointed to me and said, ‘You’re taking over this right now,’ so that really prepared me for this position. When he knew he had to leave, it kind of clicked that it was a great opportunity for me and it all kind of came together and I’m prepared to run with it.”

Perez, the Steinbrenner track coach and social studies teacher, helped lead the Warriors to a 7-3 record in 2011, though narrowly missed the playoffs. Prior to that, Perez spent five seasons as the JV football coach and assistant at Hillsborough under veteren coach Earl Garcia.

“I learned a lot under Earl Garcia because it was such a great opportunity for me to have, so I wanted to soak up as much as I could,” Perez said. “He’s always had a great staff and I’ve had such great mentors, both from Earl and Floyd.”

Perez will now head up the task of rebuilding the team’s offensive line from guard to guard, but also returns top offensive players, such as running back Kendall Pearcy (776, 11 TD) and receiver Jake Carroll (186 yards, 3 TD). He also looks to push the program to its first postseason appearance with Steinbrenner’s first original senior class.

“The best the part of this is that it’s been a journey since Day 1,” Perez said. “Seeing these kids grow, and the facitilies grow — we were borrowing knee pads from sickles our first year. Then to get better every year and go 7-3 this (past) year — it shows the confidence and competitive nature coming out. ... Our goal is not to just make playoffs, but to do do some damage there. These are our kids, not transfers from other schools anymore. Finally, we get our seniors and we’re going to make the most of it.”

Correspondent Mike Camunas can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow him on Twitter @MikeCamunasTrib.

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