The guest on today’s USA Football Coach and Coordinator podcast is Tod Creneti, head coach of St. Stephen’s Episcopal High School in Bradenton, Florida. Creneti is in his eighth season at the helm at St. Stephen’s. Creneti has helped the Falcons to their first two state championships in 2016 and 2017. He was also named a state coach of the year after the 2017 season. During his tenure as head coach, Creneti has totaled a 48-28 record in seven full seasons with four straight eight-plus-win seasons. Last year, St. Stephen’s averaged 48.1 points per game while only allowing an average of 7.3 points per game defensively.

Creneti has been in coaching for 27 years since coming out of college. Prior to St. Stephen’s, Creneti worked as a head coach and assistant athletic director at St. Petersburg Catholic High School (Florida) for four seasons. Creneti also has experience at the FCS level with two years at Georgetown University. In college, Creneti played quarterback at NCAA Division III school Gettysburg College (Pennsylvania). Outside of football, Creneti is also the founder of Foundation Coaching, a personal development organization using ideas and lessons from sports and applying them to life. Creneti is also involved with a similar organization called the Positive Coaching Alliance, helping young athletes develop.

On today’s podcast, Creneti and host Keith Grabowski discuss transforming into a winning culture, developing player relationships and running the quick game offense.

Show Notes

1:07 Growing up around football and coaching

2:13 Transition from playing football to coaching

2:59 Lessons learned in coaching journey

4:49 Building a championship-winning program

6:31 Strategies for drawing players to a program

7:55 Showing a positive culture outside of wins and losses

9:24 Guiding coaching staff toward a winning culture

11:27 Best things his coaching staff does for the team

13:13 Philosophy of the quick-game offense

16:39 Adjusting quick-game to the defense

19:15 Quarterback reading the defense and finding the “key defender”

19:54 Adjusting for the ability of your offensive line

21:17 Balancing the run game into a quick passing game

22:47 Helping young coaches invest in player relationships

24:59 Working with Foundation Coaching

27:11 The Winning Edge