Veteran football coach Vonada calls it a career

Hernando County’s all-time wins leader led Crystal River to district title

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.

Turns out Bill Vonada had one last turnaround, one last district title left in him. Now it appears after his 20th season as a high school head football coach, his career has come to a close.

On Wednesday, Vonada, 60, announced his retirement after one season as headman at Crystal River, where he led the Pirates to their first district championship since 2007.

“Experienced a few health issues at the beginning of the season, so decided it was time to retire from teaching,” Vonada said. “I considered staying with the coaching position because the school and the players are so awesome, but in the end I felt like it was in the best interest of the team if I stepped aside and enabled them to look for someone who could take them the next step.

“Part of me hated doing it, but no one is above what is in the best interests of the team — especially not the head coach. With the success we had this year and the number of returning starters CR will have, I’m hopeful that we will be able to land an experienced coach who will have a positive impact on both the young men on the team and the community.”

The Pirates went 6-4 this year, as Vonada guided them to the District 3A-7 crown coming off a 2-7 season in 2023.

“It was awesome man. I learned a lot of stuff,” said former Lecanto head coach Wyndell “Chop” Alexander, who joined the Crystal River staff as defensive coordinator this year. “He’s a big-time disciplinarian. The structure that he provided in such a short turnaround was amazing.

“We hadn’t really won anything of significance in a long time and for us to win a district championship, he set that goal early on in the spring and the kids, they totally bought into it.”

Vonada’s time with Crystal River and on the Citrus County football scene was short, but the impact he made in Hernando County runs far deeper.

Posting a career record of 103-98, he holds the all-time mark for coaching wins in that county at 97 combined between Springstead and Hernando. He took over as head coach at Springstead, where he graduated from in 1982, for the second game of the 1998 season and remained in that position until stepping down in 2012.

With the Eagles, he went 80-74 in 15 seasons, leading them to the playoffs four times. His best season there was his last – a reoccurring theme in his career – when the team went 9-2 while capturing their first district title since 1996.

Vonada was replaced there by his defensive coordinator Mike Garofano, who has remained head coach ever since and this season surpassed Vonada as the school’s all-time wins leader.

“He’s been just about everything to my career,” Garofano said. “I was under him for a long time, about 10 years as an assistant. Learned a lot from him, not just about Xs and Os, about character development of young men. Trying to bring them up to become young men of character and productive citizens, brothers, fathers, sons. Make them better people. It’s not just about Xs and Os.

“… He also helped me become a better person. Just having been around him, having coached with him, how to do things the right way. I trust no one more than I trust Coach Vonada. I trust him with my kids, with anything. He’s the most trustworthy and respected person that I’ve ever even come across.”

Vonada’s teams had distinctive calling cards, typically playing clean, efficient and fast games. He implemented a triple option offense at every stop, relying on multiple backs and mobile quarterbacks to chew yards and eat up clock.

That continued when he took over at Hernando in 2014. He stayed there four seasons, going 17-21 and once again leaving after his best season, 7-3 with a district championship in 2017.

Two current head coaches in Hernando County were assistants under Vonada at Hernando, including Weeki Wachee’s Justin Bland and Nature Coast’s Robert Kazmier. It was actually Kazmier who replaced Vonada as head coach at Hernando back in 2018.

“From working with him, I would say his structure, his discipline, the way he does things, that really sets the foundation for success with him,” Kazmier said. “That’s really what sets him apart. He’s just a great man all around.

“… His impact is far and wide in this area, for sure. Most of the coaching staff at Springstead I think played under him at one point or another. You’ve got a lot of his guys still there, bunch of his quarterbacks. His coaching tree is definitely spread out throughout the county.”

After his stint at Hernando, Vonada returned to Springstead as an assistant and had a brief tenure as athletic director at Weeki Wachee. Crystal River hired him as AD in 2023 and he worked as an assistant coach on the short-handed Pirates’ staff.

Eventually he ended up taking over the head coaching role for the football team, a surprise final act that allowed him to surpass 100 wins and earn a district title at a third different school in his last seasons at those schools.

“That’s a really nice way to end but I’m really more happy for the kids that bought in so completely and put in so much hard work,” Vonada said. “It’s a good way to go out but to me it’s more important that it’s a good way for some of those guys to begin. Because there’s just so many great guys coming back next year and hopefully they’re going to use that to springboard into even better things.”

Bill Vonada career year-by-year

Year       School                  Record

1998      Springstead          4-5

1999      Springstead          0-10

2000      Springstead          3-7

2001      Springstead          6-4

2002      Springstead          2-8

2003      Springstead          7-3

2004      Springstead          8-3^

2005      Springstead          8-3^

2006      Springstead          5-5

2007      Springstead          5-5

2008      Springstead          7-3

2009      Springstead          5-5

2010      Springstead          7-5^

2011      Springstead          4-6

2012      Springstead          9-2* (80-74)

2014      Hernando             3-6

2015      Hernando             3-7

2016      Hernando             4-5

2017      Hernando             7-3* (17-21)

2024      Crystal River       6-4*

Total                                    103-98

* Denotes district champion

^ Denotes district runner-up

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