Changing the Game

ramkumar sridhar | sept. 24, 2024 | The fall Supplemental

With the retirement of head football coach Mike Healey after nine years at Stanton College Preparatory School, a new coach has officially taken the reigns. Coach Ryan Carter is a Stanton alumnus who played on the football team as a defensive back and became captain during his senior year in 2012. Coach Carter is now coming to Stanton after coaching at Mandarin High School for one spring and two fall seasons, leading them to two state championships. He now looks forward to replicating that success with the Stanton Blue Devils.  

“Since we [are] in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference, my goal is to get to the second playoff game because that is the one we finish off on,” said Coach Carter. “I would love to make a run at Stanton [because] that is the whole reason I came [back] here. I [would] love to end the season competing in the tier one bracket for the title in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference.” 

 For Coach Carter, going from numerous victories at Mandarin to a team with less achievements can be a demanding task. Multiple obstacles may be present, such as the possibility of low morale after a disappointing season or players not being in good condition for the upcoming season. As of now, Coach Carter has started working with the team, setting two basic goals for his players in the upcoming season. 

“My goals for the upcoming season are [to have at least a 50 percent win percentage and] beat Paxon and Wolfson,” said Coach Carter.

For coaches, switching schools and different athletic programs can bring challenges. One problem is the disparity in sport-oriented students at the school. Different schools can have differing interests in sports among students, which is challenging. An example of this was seen in Coach Healy’s time, where he had profound success at multiple different schools but when arriving at Stanton, was only able to get 18 wins. For Coach Carter, however, it has been a more positive aspect of his experience.

“We have less students involved in sports here, which can be a good [or] bad thing,” said Coach Carter. “For [Stanton], it is a good thing because we have a roster of fifty-three [boys] and over at Mandarin last year, we had a roster of 120. It is also interesting [to see] and coach guys who did not play when they were younger and are for the first time playing football.”

With fewer players at Stanton, it makes it easier for Coach Carter to keep up with and effectively communicate with his players. Coach Carter also used this to his advantage when introducing training methods that have greater benefits for a team with less players since each player can clock in more reps than they would have if there were more athletes.

“We [have] switched over to the progressive load theory, [slowly increasing the workload for each strength training session]. [The players] get 100 percent reps at the end of a four-week cycle,” said Coach Carter. “That, paired with standard running and speedwork, [has] helped a lot.” 

Also, Coach Carter has gained some experience after his first game against Umatilla High School on Aug. 16, 2024, that ended in a 27-14 loss. Coaching the first game came with pressure and started out unsteady. After the loss against Umatilla, Coach Carter believed this team could show signs of improvement during the rest of the season. 

In the game against Umatilla, the Blue Devils had a slow start, being down by 21 to end the first quarter. But later on, after halftime, things started to pick up and Stanton was able to outscore Umatilla 14-6 in the second half. Coach Carter believes this could be a good sign for games to come.

“We came out a little [slow] in the first half, but having a chance to win in the second half was more fitting than if we had come out winning from the start,” said Coach Carter. “When taking over a new program that has [not] had much success, the biggest challenge [can be] teaching the [team] how to win together.” 

After any game, whether it be a win or loss, there are takeaways that can be improved or built upon. Coach Carter feels there are both positive and negative aspects that can be taken from Stanton’s loss against Umatilla. More importantly, he feels the team can easily compete in most if not all their games for the rest of their season. 

“I do not have many negative takeaways other than [the fact] that we need to start faster,” said Coach Carter. “The positive takeaways were that no [one] quit on the team and they [were] not [going] to just lay down. We were down 21-0 at half, and we only gave up one score in the second half, which was just a blown coverage that was a mistake. [Without that], we [had] a chance to send the game to overtime.”

Since the game against Umatilla, Stanton and Coach Carter were able to get their first wins under their belts of the season. They took down Hilliard High School in a tight game 21-20.  Coach Carter and his team were able to fix their mistakes from the previous two losses and put everything together to get their first win.

  Coach Carter brings his mentality of winning and knowledge of various types of training methods from Mandarin to Stanton. At the center of Stanton football, the team has the chance to go far into the Sunshine State Athletic Conference this year and make immense progress in the years to come. The Carter Era at Stanton has just begun and there is much more to come in the rest of this season and in future years.