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RIVERVIEW, FL – The Spoto Spartans football team have seen it’s fair share of change at the top on an annual basis.

Outside of former head coach Dale Caparaso, no other coach in the program’s history has lasted beyond two seasons at the school. Enter new Spoto head coach Keith Chattin, who has come on the scene as one of the more vocal coaches, via social media, and isn’t afraid to speak his mind from time to time.

Spoto finished the 2021 season with a record of 2-8, with the Spartans’ only two wins coming over Robinson and Brandon. Now the Spartans are aiming for a change in not just the win column, but in the culture of a program that has seen four different head coaches since 2016.

“The environment of high school ball is ‘what have you done for me lately’ from the kid and parent standpoint,” Chattin said. “There is no longer a time where a kid is willing to stay at his school for four years and build a program with his neighborhood friends if the team isn't good already. They will go find a spot to play at a new school but on a lot of those occasions the kid finds themselves not playing as much or not fitting the needs of the new school.”

Changing the overall perception of a football program that hasn’t experienced a winning season since 2014, Chattin is tasked with not only the culture change but getting Spoto back into the win column more often on Friday nights. The positive sign of that is the numbers during off-season workouts, with the Spartans averaging 50 kids every day.

Spoto will be playing in a new Class 3-Metro, District 6 which includes neighboring East Bay, Bloomingdale and Lennard. Spoto has a slew of athletes on the roster including running back safety Corri Ponder, wide receiver/defensive back Jabari Judge, quarterback Z'orey Cotton, running back/linebacker Jaylen Oliver, right guard/defensive tackle Jonathan Rodriguez and linebacker Takoki Brown.

“When we got here about five months ago we challenged them to be different from the perception of Spoto,” Chattin said. “We asked them to buy into what we were asking of them and to buy into each other and commit to the work that is required of them to be a good football program. They have done that and have been consistent this summer with averaging over 50 kids every day.

“They just wanted and asked for coaches to care and to stay and be consistent and that is what we have given to them. The biggest change has been their mindset. They have attacked the weight room and the conditioning aspect. Their approach to the volume of work in the summer has been extremely positive and they have bonded as a team. You always look for the overall growth as a team during the summer and it has definitely happened with this group.”

The spring gave Chattin and his staff the opportunity to evaluate the roster and also work on learning the new schemes on offense and defense. Spoto played Brandon in the spring game and Chattin pointed out that his team showed great effort on both sides of the ball, but has a ways to go before being where he would want it to be.

“We wanted to learn and run a base scheme on both sides of the ball and we accomplished that but the overall takeaway has very little to do with a scoreboard,” Chattin said. “They were playing hard, (but) were they executing the detail of their assignments, were they playing as a cohesive unit? So the overall answer is that we accomplished our objective but we have a ways to go before we are complete.”

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.