High School Football: What we learned during the 2025 North Central Florida Media Day

Media day gave Marion County high school football teams and players a chance to address fans ahead of the 2025 Florida high school football season.

With the coaching carousel as active as ever, Trinity Catholic head coach Clinton Hart, West Port head coach Adrian Nunn and Dunnellon's JB Bynum made their media day debuts. Forest head coach John Brantley joins the coaching shakeup.

With several new faces in new places, we have plenty of notes to cover from the North Central Florida media day. Here's the skinny on each team that was present:

Dunnellon — Losing 26

The Tigers graduated 26 seniors last year. At least 12 of them were starters during the 2024 high school football season, and seven of them went on to play college football, including the 2024 Star Banner Football Player of the Year Sean Martin.

The first call of order for the current Tigers was building their brotherhood back. They've done that with hours in the gym.

The second call was leadership. Dylan Curry, LJ Woods and Elijah Townes seem to be the taking the reins in that regard.

Forest — Numbers

You can never have too much depth in football. It’s a long high school football season, and players inevitably get banged up or injured. Having several players at key positions is the best way to quell any worries.

The Wildcats definitely have security on the field with over 100 student athletes checking in for summer workouts. The presence of head coach John Brantley opened the flood gates. With tryouts starting next, varsity rosters will be finalized soon. That leaves Brantley and his staff with upwards of 13 11-player personnel groups.

North Marion — Finding the OL rotation

Coach Jeremiah Gates spoke of a secondary unit filled with experience, a talented wider receiver room and a veteran quarterback. Those are the great ingredients for a successful team. They just need one more ingredient: the right combination of offensive linemen.

Tryouts may bring a transfer or talented freshman into the offensive line room, but as it stands, the Wolf Pack return two starters. The Colts have less than three weeks to fill pivotal roles.

Lake Weir — Using the chip their shoulder

The Hurricanes are just as aware of the talent on their roster as they are aware of the rising level of competition in the Sunshine State Athletic Association. Whether you’re speaking with head coach Jason Roberts and his staff or the players, they have a deep-seated belief they can climb to the top of the SSAA mountain again.

There are still those mumbles of doubt after a solid postseason run last year. Judging by the tone in the room, that won’t be enough to make Lake Weir doubt itself.

Trinity Catholic — The big showdown

The poise and discipline of Celtics head coach Clinton Hart was present throughout his first North Central Florida media day. Then, host Mike Reno set the table ablaze for 75 seconds when he asked the players to which game they're most looking forward. The five panelists said the same thing: Forest High School.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call bulletin-board material. Kickoff for the Week 3 matchup is Friday, Sept. 5.

Vanguard — Depth

The Knights have another depth issue. With many of their best players still considered underclassmen, the logjam at several positions like safety, wide receiver and linebacker may be around for seasons to come.

That’s not an uncommon occurrence for the Knights, it just means they have to be creative — which means putting your best athletes at their secondary positions. There may be no bigger example than James Bethea playing corner last season or Fred Gaskins playing quarterback throughout his high school tenure.

West Port — Road Warriors

The Wolf Pack are on the second contract year of a tough 7A schedule. The first four games of the season will take place on their home field, but then they're on the road for a month straight to end the regular season.

That much time away from home can be hard on any team, let alone a rebuilding team under a first-year head coach.

"We're built for it; its 7A football," Nunn said. "As far as the schedule, it is what it is. We just show up Friday night ready to play. Those last four weeks are going to be tough, but we'll be ready for it."

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: What we learned from Marion County high school football teams at Media Day