By Andy Villamarzo
Hernando Sun sports reporter
BROOKSVILLE- Changes continue to be made throughout Hernando County in the summer off-season.
According to Nature Coast Technical High School’s athletic department, Brandon Derespiris has been named as the school’s new varsity baseball coach. Derespiris, who is a 2008 Nature Coast Technical graduate, succeeds Frank Vitale who led the Sharks to a record of 7-3 before the pandemic prematurely ended the 2020 season.
Last year, the Sharks hired Derespiris as a physical education teacher, and this year he will serve as a social studies teacher, as he assumes the role of the varsity head baseball coach. This isn’t his first head coaching job and he stated his excitement for returning to his alma mater.
“(I am) excited to have a Nature Coast alumni, who has shown to have a vested interest, return to take over the program,” Nature Coast principal Toni-Ann Noyes said. “His experience as a high school and college player combined with his coaching experiences will serve our student-athletes and the baseball program well.”
Prior to Derespiris coming to Nature Coast, he also was the head varsity baseball coach at Citrus High School from 2017 to 2019. Before becoming a head coach, Derespiris also played at Southeastern University from 2009-2012 and then later served in a recruitment coordinator role at the school after his playing days.
“I am excited to be back on the baseball field at NCT after being away for a while,” Derespiris said. “It is an honor to now coach at my Alma Mater and work with some great student-athletes and staff. I am ready to get to work with these young men and do what I can to help on and off the field.”
Derespiris takes over for Vitale, who was at the helm for Nature Coast’s baseball program for six seasons. In Vitale’s six seasons, he compiled an overall record of 93-48. Vitale’s two best seasons with the Sharks was in 2016 and 2018 in which Nature Coast went 20-5 and 26-5, respectively.
Andy Villamarzo can be reached at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @avillamarzo.
