Crystal River’s Vonada leads third different school to district title

Pirates complete turnaround in first year under head coach

Crystal River head coach Bill Vonada talks with his offense during a timeout in an Oct. 4, 2024 home game against The Villages. / Chris Bernhardt Jr.

When the job of Crystal River High head football coach came open last year, Bill Vonada didn’t turn in an application. Instead he delivered a letter of resignation.

Six seasons had come and gone since his last as a headman, and the all-time leader in coaching victories for Hernando County wasn’t inclined to change that.

He had come to Crystal River only a few months earlier as the new athletic director and also helped out the football team as an assistant coach. After a 2-7 season, the school decided it was time for a change.

“When the position opened I actually had turned in a letter saying, ‘Look, I’ll retire,’” Vonada said. “Some ideas for how to move forward, I’ll retire and then that way they’ll have two positions open for the new coach that’s coming in.”

Rather than take him up on that offer, the school began selling him on traveling a different path. Just before Christmas, Vonada was announced as the choice to take the reigns.

Flash forward to Oct. 25, in the aftermath of the Pirates’ 35-0 victory over Citrus. The program that hadn’t posted a winning season since 2018 celebrated its first district title since 2007.

“I wanted someone to coach the kids that loved the kids,” Vonada said. “… I didn’t think I’d be here. If you were to ask me a year ago where I thought I’d be, I really thought I’d be out of education and maybe working for my church or something like that.

“I guess there were other plans and I’m happy I’m here. I’m happy I got to be a part of this because this is a great group of kids.”

Though Vonada is loathe to speak about his own coaching accomplishments, his 20th season as a head coach has yielded some historic milestones. He captured his 100th career win when the Pirates defeated Hernando on Sept. 13, in what was considered an upset at the time of the District 3A-7 preseason favorite.

“It’s not about me,” Vonada said after earning the 100th victory. “I’m just blessed to have been supported a lot and able to stick through some tough times, and some areas where I’ve taken over a couple times where it’s been a process putting it back in the right direction. I’m just very fortunate to have some kids that have really made it fun.

“The kids this year have been the only reason I climb in the car each morning. I really didn’t care about that (100th win). To me the victory was about seeing the enjoyment of the kids and them understanding what it meant for them to do that when nobody had given them much of a shot. That was more important to me than any milestone victory, anything like that.”

In beating the Leopards, Crystal River positioned itself to finish first in 3A-7 and followed through with wins over Central, Weeki Wachee and Citrus.

Vonada has now won a district championship as a head coach at three different schools. He spent his first 15 seasons at Springstead from 1998-2012, compiling an 80-74 record and winning the district in his final year.

He took a year off and then accepted the head coaching job at Hernando High. He stayed there for four seasons, going 17-21 and again leading the team to a district title in his last year.

Crystal River finished the regular season at 6-3 to push his career record to 103-98. This is the sixth time he has taken a team to the regional playoffs.

“So proud of the guys. So many obstacles to overcome and I don’t even want to start listing them,” Vonada said following the district title clinching. “We talked since the spring, one of the biggest things that we said we needed to do, that men do, is finish.

“You’re going to face adversity in life. The Good Book doesn’t say if the storms come, the Good Book says when the storms come. Because we all know storms, ironically, are going to come in life. We faced a lot of them in many different forms. But our kids, from the first day I came here, you could see they were hungry. You could see they appreciated being coached. They don’t always enjoy it, but they appreciate it. This is a group of guys I’m in love with.”

---

Follow SBLive Florida throughout the 2024 high school football season for Live Updates, the most up to date Schedules & Scores and complete coverage from the preseason through the state championships!

Be sure to Bookmark High School on SI for all of the latest high school football news.

Download the SBLive App

To get live updates on your phone - as well as follow your favorite teams and top games - you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App| Download Android App