Victory looking for football coach after Kendrick Stewart steps down; Discovery's Paul resigns (2025)

LAKELAND — Victory Christian is looking for a new football coach after Kendrick Stewart recently stepped down following eight seasons as the Storm’s head coach.

“It was a God thing,” Stewart said. “This place has been really good to me, the administrators, the pastors. Everybody stepped up to me open arms and everything. Like I said, it was just a God thing, just kind of telling me my time was up here. I'm just exploring some different options in the Georgia area.”

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Victory Christian athletic director Deron Collins said he had no indication that Stewart was considering stepping down as head coach, especially so close to spring practice.

“It puts us in a bind,” Collins said. “But he is gracious enough as he said he's going to stay and help with spring, so we're gonna name an interim coach off the staff and then he still be in the process of coaching and helping that interim coach through spring.”

Returning: Davenport tabs former Polk County coach to take over football program

Changing Schools: Lake Gibson names Davenport's Jeff George as new head football coach

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The Beginning: Stewart named Victory Christian football coach

Stewart, 38, replaced Tommy Lewis in April of 2017 after Rayburn Greene, the original replacement for Lewis had a change of heart before he started the position. In his eight seasons as head coach, he compiled a 64-32 record and a state runner-up finish in 2019.

“My top memories were from the 2019 season when we went to state and we finally kicked the door down,” Stewart said. “That was our theme, beating University Christian to get to the state championship game.”

Stewart said he doesn’t have anything specifically lined up but plans to stay in coaching. He’s looking remain a head coach but is willing to be an assistant if necessary. If Stewart ends up in Georgia, it won’t be the first time he’s coached in Georgia. He was Victory’s defensive line coach in 2013 before moving to Atlanta for two seasons then returning to Victory.

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A former defensive end at Lakeland, he was on the Dreadnaughts’ 2004 state championship team. Victory assistant coach Chris Griffin was the quarterback on that team, and Stewart also played basketball for Collins at Lakeland. He went on to play college football at Florida State.

Collins said Stewart will be missed but not simply for the success on the field.

“He's done a great job,” he said. “Culturally what he's done here is like none other. The years he's been here as the head coach, we're not even talking about winning and losing right now — It’s about teaching young men to become men, teaching them how to become men, the character piece that’s what we're all about, the Christian piece that we're all about. He’s done an absolute outstanding job developing that. So he's going to be very, very difficult to replace as far as those things are concerned. Then throw on top of his success as a football coach, he's been very, very successful here as well. At other schools that I've been at, it's about the winning and losing because it's a public school. When you get in the private sector, the school really is about being different. He’s been perfect for this scenario. We hate to see him go.”

Collins said the school opened up the position this week and it will close on Sunday. There will be a committee meeting Sunday to through he resumes. Collins said one assistant has expressed interest but has yet to officially reply.

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The school wants to hire a the new coach as soon as possible but doubts he’ll be ready to take over by spring practice. The new coach will be able to hire any assistants he wants.

“We're not locked like a public school is,” Collins said. “We can be creative in our hiring processes so that new coaches have the ability to bring in his coaches that he wants.”

Discovery’s Paul resigns after one season

Discovery became the second school this week in search of a new football coach as Gianni Paul announced he was stepping down after one season.

Paul restarted the program after it shut down for one season and led the Spartans to a 3-7 record.

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In a post on Facebook, Paul called his year at Discovery as “rewarding,” but did not state a specific reason for his decision.

“While this decision wasn’t easy, I believe it’s the right time for me to step back and focus on persona and professional goals,” he wrote. “I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I’ll always root for the continued growth of the Discovery football program.”

With Paul’s departure, there will be seven new head football coaches in Polk County for the fall. The five new hires so far are Jeff George at Lake Gibson, Ryan Mills at Davenport, Kenny Kelly at Kathleen, Jason Smith at All Saints and Davis Stephens at Mulberry.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Victory Christian's Kendrick Stewart, Discovery's Gianni Paul resign