Our guest for this week’s ITG Next Florida 4 Questions segment is coach Frank Andrea of the Eagles View Academy Warriors. Coach Andrea serves as the EVA head football coach, a position he has held for the past 10 seasons. The Warriors compete in the Florida Sunshine State Athletic Association, and this past year under Coach Andrea, the advanced to the SSAC Final Four. Read on to learn more about the Warriors program and the past season, as well as what fans should expect from the upcoming 2024 campaign.
Q. Coach Andrea, thank you for agreeing to be our guest for this week’s 4 Questions with the Coach feature. It was great to see you and the team at our Gator Bowl Takeover back at the end of December. It looked like you and your guys had a great time! Let me start off by asking about your career, both now and before you arrived at Eagles View Academy. Has sports, and especially football, always been a central part of your life, and what led you to your position at Eagles View?
A. Thank you, Phil, and thank you for everything your organization does for high school sports. Our parents loved that game with the boys, the excitement they all had, and the hospitality that your organization provided.
I arrived at Eagles View Academy about 11 years ago and had a unique opportunity. I started as a defensive coordinator here that year and became the head football coach the following year. Eagles View is just a fantastic home. I really appreciate the values they stand for.
My career has taken a path through some of the largest high school football programs and some of the smallest schools in the state of Florida. My coaching career started in the early ’80s. I got married to my bride, Donna, of 41 years, and we started having kids. So I took a break in my coaching journey and returned about 20 years ago to start coaching again. My kids had all grown up and started their own careers, but football and baseball have always been part of my life. Since I’ve been a little kid, I just had some great coaches along the way who inspired me to get into this great professional career of coaching kids and doing what’s right.
Probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned and always taught is that your name is all you have in life, and that’s backed up by Proverbs 22:1 – “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be favored is better than silver or gold.” In the past a handshake and a good name was all that was needed. Today, it’s a lot different, but I still want to instill in the kids a knowledge that their name is what was given to them by their family and by their Lord, that this is what they have in life, and to protect it at great lengths.
Q. I mentioned in the introduction that you led your Eagles View football team to a Final Four appearance in the Sunshine State Athletic Association in 2023, when the Warriors won the opening playoff game over Cornerstone Charter before dropping a tough three-point game the following week. How would you sum up last season as far as the goals you and your team wanted to accomplish?
A. It was a hard loss as all we had to do was run out the clock with about 1:34 to go and a four-point lead. We dropped an interception that fell into the hands of their receiver, who ran it in for the go-ahead touchdown with time running out. But those are great games, those memories you’ll have for life, and it builds the character of the young men as well as us coaches.
Sure I would like it to be a different outcome, but it’s like a season of life, every football season. A great book I read called “Season of Life,” by Jeffery Marx, taught me these principles. We talk about how there’s going to be inspirations of marriages, new births, and family celebrations, but unfortunately hard times come as well to families, such as deaths, divorce, and job loss, and that is just what life is about.
We deal with it as a family. That’s probably our biggest goal, to become family and build a relationship with each other. I always tell our players at the end of the season, some of you guys will be standing up in weddings for each other, friends for life. When you fight and you compete in high school football, there’s blood, there’s tears, there’s excitement and there’s disappointment, and we will all share those experiences and build our virtues. It builds them into young successful men. The 2023 season was a success. There is only one champion each year, and everybody else will end with a loss, but we grew a lot as a team and a family, and we look forward to 2024.
Q. Let me ask about the players who have been a part of the Eagles View football team these past couple of years and will be back in 2024. I believe you will have starting quarterback Cameron Brunelle back, along with other key contributors.
A. Finally the fun part, talking about our kids. Our quarterback, Cameron Brunelle, has several offers and is a special kid who works very hard. You can find him on Saturdays at 6Points, a quarterback training complex, along with some of our receivers he brings to work with him. We expect that his senior year will be a fantastic season. We are expecting big things from him and his leadership.
We had five players make First Team All-State at the 4A level, and four of them are returning. We have Marcus Carter, a wide receiver and safety, and Jaycen Lowery, who is currently rated as one of the top kickoff returners in Florida. It’ll be his senior year as well. Caleb Carraway, another receiver/safety, will be in his junior year. On the line, Austin Marsh will be a senior this year. Austin is another All-State First Teamer, and he will anchor our offensive line. Lastly, I couldn’t go without saying the heart of our team has been Leonard Holton. He will be a junior playing multiple roles. He’s a tremendous athlete and will be in the backfield with Cameron and Jaycen.
Q. Speaking of looking ahead, what are some of the areas of your Eagles View football team that you would like to work on this offseason to make the Warriors better before the 2024 season opener rolls around?
A. We have been transitioning from our Single Wing identity and developing our passing game with Cameron Brunelle. The history of our school was that we were an Air Raid team with an offense installed by the late, great coach Ryan Keith. Upon my arrival we switched to the Single Wing for the past nine years. This last year we began using a spread offense with Cameron, and will develop our Air Raid offense this off-season.
Nothing changes in the weight room. We are organically a strong team, and that’s where our discipline comes from. Coach Carlee, who is our weightlifting coach and also coaches the offensive line, has always done a tremendous job. He was my first hire when I got here 10 years ago after I became the head coach. I’m pretty proud of our kids’ weightlifting, as we had one kid podium at second place in the 139lb division, and another kid in the Top-10 at 183lb in the very competitive Florida Weightlifting Championships.
Probably the most unique story that makes me most proud is that our enrollment has been right around 100, give or take a couple of kids. That makes us one of smallest high schools in Florida playing 11-man football. I always get a kick out of hearing coaches tell me how they are a small school with 400-600 kids. I am pretty proud of our kids. I tell them that’s pure “Iron Man football.” When you don’t have the numbers that the other schools have, you have to be organic in strength growth and contrarian with your thought process, building young men for others.
