Two new high school football coaches are welcomed to Gainesville

Two schools will have different head coaches heading into the 2020-21 football season — Gainesville High School and Eastside High School.

From Gator to Hurricane

Former Florida Gator DB Dock Pollard was named the new coach of Gainesville in January after six seasons at Santa Fe (head coach last two years). Pollard built an impressive resume at Santa Fe, leading the Raiders to the 5A state playoffs in 2018. He was hired after the program let go of coach and former Gator Patrick Miller. Miller coached for two seasons bringing in a 10-11 record. This is now the seventh head coaching switch for the Hurricanes since 2004.

Dock Pollard has been named new football coach at Gainesville High, according to athletic director Cindy Boulware
“We are impressed with his vision for the future of our program. He will start full time at GHS on Monday.”
Former Gator was head coach at Santa Fe previous 2 seasons

— Larry Savage (@SunPreps) January 24, 2020

Gainesville High athletic director Cindy Boulware spoke to the Gainesville Sun and she talked about how they chose Pollard over the other 50 applicants.

“I liked his type of commitment he wants for the young men. He’s driven. He is a former Gator player, and has worked with a lot of seasoned veterans, like coach Steve Spurrier. I think it will be a good thing to move us into the 2020s,” said Boulware in her interview.

G-Man mindset

Pollard was a part of the coaching staff for Gainesville in the early 2000s and understand what it is to be a G-Man. He explains how a G-Man sees himself through any issue and goes hard in everything he does. He instilled that into his new team in their first meeting. Pollard plans for the team to hit the weight room for conditioning quickly this offseason. He understands the level of pride Gainesville High has in the community and looks forward to the opportunity to lead the Canes into a strong season.

Bobcat Goes Ram

This past week, Eastside High announced Alexander Deleon will now be head coach of the Rams. Deleon transferred from Buchholz High where he was an OC and assistant coach for four years.  In his first season he helped the Bobcats go 10-2.

Deleon spoke to Steve Russell today in ‘Sports Scene’ where he said he understands the standard Eastside has. He remembers that same standard from playing against them years ago when he attended Belleview. Here’s what he had to say when asked about his core values for coaching and his thoughts on the recent trend of student transferring:

Continuing the tradition of achievement

Deleon replaces former Eastside head coach Cedderick Daniels. Daniels stepped down from the program in December after four seasons. Although the Rams only reached the playoffs once in that four-year span (2017), Daniels is proud of the academic and collegiate success he reached with the players.

“To this date, 30 players have signed to go play some sort of college football with more to come in the next couple of months. When I took over the program in 2015 our team GPA was under a 2.0.  I am proud to say that to this date our GPA is 2.8,” said Daniels in a Gainesville Sun interview in December.

Daniels announced his resignation in a Facebook post Dec. 21 where he called it the hardest thing he’s ever done. He closed his post with statement:

“Eastside will go forever have a special place in my heart.”