[email protected] Sean McIntyre was named Creekside’s football coach on Thursday. McIntyre, 34, has spent 12 years as a high school assistant coach. As a coordinator at Palm Bay Bayside, Mandarin and St. Augustine his teams won four district titles and won eight playoff games.
Sean McIntyre was named the third football coach in the nine-year history of Creekside High School.
Athletic director Guy Harris introduced McIntyre, the St. Augustine High offensive coordinator, on Thursday evening.
“My wife [Maegan] and I are extremely excited to get to know these kids,” McIntyre said. “To get to know their heart, get to know what drives them and what fuels them. That’s why we are in this business, because of the kids. … There is a lot of school spirit here. When those people see how hard these kids are going to play and how hard they are going to play the game of football, it’s going to be something that makes them proud.
“We’re excited to get to know these kids, develop them and develop them, because they are going to be husbands, fathers and leaders in the next 10 to 15 years.”
McIntyre has spent a dozen years coaching at the varsity level, but this will be his first head coaching position.
St. Augustine, Mandarin and Palm Bay Bayside have won a combined four district titles and eight playoff games with McItyre serving in a coordinator capacity. As a defensive coordinator at Bayside the Bears won a pair of district titles and four playoff games in four seasons.
In addition to the 2016 season at St. Augustine, McIntyre spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Mandarin under Brian Braddock. During that four-year run together, their teams won 35 games and advanced to the regional finals twice.
“We were looking for someone who possessed great leadership, someone who experienced success and been a part of a successful program,” Harris said. “We were looking for someone with knowledge of both sides of the football, particularly offensively.”
Coaching under Braddock for four years was an admitted thrill, McIntyre said, but what may have set the 2016 season apart for the 34-year-old coach was the opportunity to work with his father-in-law, St. Augustine safeties coach Jim Mathisen.
“It was an unbelievable experience,” McIntyre said. “It was why going to St. Augustine felt so right, because it was an experience that might not happen again. I knew it was going to be a limited amount of time. It made leaving St. Augustine hard, because I knew the relationships with the coaches that I have, including Dad. The toughest thing about leaving St. Augustine was those coaches and those kids and how everything meshed and gelled. I’m going to miss my time there, but I’m extremely excited about this opportunity.”
Mathisen is not the only coaching mentor of McIntyre’s. Creekside’s new football coach said Braddock, former St. Augustine head coach Joey Wiles and his late father, Tom McIntyre, were all coaching mentors.
Tom McIntyre was an institution at Melbourne High during the 1980s, and early ‘90s. The school’s football stadium is named after him.
Wiles, who is now the assistant athletic director for development at Flagler College, also coached at Melbourne. The longtime St. Augustine coach was one of three people on the Creekside interview committee with Michelle Clark and Patriot Oaks Academy principal Emily Harrison.
Harris said the school gathered a parent focus group to help whittle down the more than 100 applicants. The Creekside athletic director had a deep appreciation and understanding of what will be ahead of McIntyre, in no small part because he assumed the head coaching position on an interim basis from Jeff Schaum in October.
“I never would have imagined coaching football after being away for so long,” Harris said Thursday. “I learned a lot about the kids, the program and the coaching staff. It certainly helped me going through the process of the next football coach at Creekside High School.”
Creekside finished 0-9 this season. The Knights, who are in District 3-7A along with Bartram Trail, Gainesville Buchholz, Oakleaf and Fleming Island, have tied a St. Johns County record with 22 consecutive losses.
While the challenge may be daunting, McIntyre said he is ready for it. He said he will bring an attitude his late father instilled in him:
“That’s part of growing up,” McIntyre said. “These kids are going to learn: they are not always going to get what they want, but they are going to get what is best for our team, our program, our school and our community.”
