Gateway High School’s Marlin Roberts and South Lake High’s Brad Lord are coaches at different ends of the football spectrum.
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Roberts, in his 18th season as head coach at his Kissimmee school has seen hard times. But this year’s squad has him rejuvenated. A young, talented group came in two years ago, and over the past two seasons the Panthers have been on a mission. Last year they were 5-5 before losing a bowl game to Tohopekaliga. This season they are off to a 4-0 start for the first time in school history — dating to 1985.
Lord entered his fourth year at South Lake about as excited as he has ever been about a season. He talked all summer about having the makings of a team that could win another district championship. The Eagles won their first district title since 2000 last year. But after the first five weeks, South Lake is yet to win a game at 0-4. Still, the excitement in Lord’s voice has not lost any pitch. He’s as positive as ever.
Roberts almost hung it up
The 49-year-old Gateway coach, who has been teaching and coaching at the school for 26 years, says he’d be lying if he did not admit to almost hanging up his coaching whistle a few years ago.
“Oh yeah, a few times, man. I’ve seen some hard times,” Roberts said. “About three years ago, we were 0-10 and like 2-8 for two years before that. It was rough, man. But my wife, she ain’t gonna let me hang it up. But I was coming home drained every day, just drained.”
He said Sharmaine, his wife of 22 years, and his 9-year-old son, Marlin Jr., kept him going.
“Yeah, my son, he loves it,” said Roberts, who also has a 21-year-old daughter Marlowe, who, like her father and mother did, is attending FAMU. “But if I was coming home after school every day, they’d probably make me go and get another job (laughing).”
Now he says he’s “living the dreams”.
“It’s pretty exciting. The student body is really cheering the boys on,” Roberts said of the atmosphere on campus. “I’m having a good time.”
His team has met his expectations, but he won’t get too far ahead of himself.
“There is still a lot of work to do, but overall I’m pretty proud of the kids,” Roberts said. “We’re junior heavy. We’re still young.”
The star of the show is running back Nydrell Thigpen, who plays both ways as the middle linebacker. He has rushed for more than 200 yards in each of the past two games, and Roberts said he cannot think of a player doing that in the history of the school.
Thigpen has 761 yards and seven touchdowns in four games.. He looks more like a linebacker at 6-foot, 200 pounds, but he doesn’t rely solely on power. He has great front-end burst with agility and speed in the open field, and he’s definitely a load to bring down.
“He’s special, and he enjoys it,” Roberts said of Thigpen’s workload, which has him touching the ball 25 times a game. “This dude is just unbelievable with his vision and he’s has some of the best hands of anyone I have ever been around. He’s just a good, dang football player.”
A key for Roberts is keeping the players at Gateway. In this transfer era of high school football, that is not an easy task for many coaches. For Roberts it’s been simple.
“This group that I have now, they all played together since they were in little league and so they have all decided to come here and stay,” said Roberts, who has only lost one player, defensive end Dory Thimote, to Osceola this year. “It most definitely helps, big time. All of these guys, Nydrell, Johnny Reyes, Nate Cadogan, quarterback Aristotle Span, they’ve all played together.”
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Gateway plays at the new Osceola County school, Nova Lakes, on Thursday. Then St. Cloud in a big district game. District matchups with preseason favorite and Lake Nona and Tohopekaliga still to come.
“We’re up to the challenge, but it’s gonna be very tough, especially with Lake Nona. They got a whole lotta dudes over there,” Roberts said. “But we’re gonna see how we measure up.”
He said some don’t believe his squad is as good as its record appears.
“They always overlook us and then you probably have some people who look at our schedule and are saying it’s a weak schedule. But we’re just happy to have some success. That 0-10 season was a bad time in my life, so for us to be having some success, I’m proud of these guys.”
Lord still revved up
South Lake coach Lord is a ball of energy. He loves to talk about his teams. Always positive, always optimistic. He’s been that way at every stop. His prior job was at Foundation Academy, where he turned the Lions into a state contender in Class 2A during his 13 years in charge.
Lord hasn’t lost a step this season. He’s still excited and ready to hit the district schedule with gusto. He built South Lake’s difficult schedule with a purpose. He wanted his team tested, and it has been. Coming off two straight lopsided losses — 42-0 to The First Academy and 42-7 to Bishop Moore — he said he definitely has had to reach another gear in keeping his squad motivated.
“I’m still excited. I can’t wait to see how this team grows up,” Lord said. “I’m competitive. I’m not happy being 0-4. I have to coach them up. We’re gonna learn.”
Lord has had to sift 20 transfer players into his squad, so he has inherited some growing pains.
He also had a couple of players transfer away late in the summer, with cornerbacks JuJu White going to TFA and Rome McKinnond heading to Jones. And defensive tackle Latraverick Anderson Jr. and running back Khristian Gustave both went down with torn ACLs.
But it’s not gloom and doom in Groveland.
“If I played the schedule I played last year we’d be 4-1. I knew I had to amp up our schedule,” Lord said. “With Evans joining our district, we knew we had to be ready to play with teams like that. And when they decided to use MaxPreps as the points system for the playoffs, I said, ‘I’m bulking up everything to win the district,’. But we’re close. We’re starting to figure out what our identity is. I think we’re doing the right thing. District play starts Sept. 25.”
College football update
It was nice to see former Edgewater star running back CJ Baxter finally running down the field last weekend. The former Sentinel Offensive Player of the Year signed with Texas out of high school and had a promising freshman season. He headed into his sophomore year with high expectations as the lead running back for the Longhorns, then disaster struck.
He tore his ACL in preseason camp and missed the entire 2025 season. During the offseason he decided to hit the transfer portal and ended up at Kentucky. On Saturday, he got 19 carries and gained 87 yards with two touchdowns in a victory over Texas A&M.
Also on the college front, former Oviedo star running back DJ Scott is having success. He was ready to sign with Kansas State out of high school, but K-State shunned him at the last minute, pulling his offer. He ended up at North Dakota State and has helped the Bisons to a 4-0 record in the school’s first season at the FBS level. Scott has 225 yards and three touchdowns in the first four games. He had a 42-yard TD run on ESPN late Saturday night in a win over Sacramento State.
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Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.