Bears Football Looks Forward to New District, New Players, and More Staff

Central

Team Overview:
Head Coach: Jim Pusateri • Previous Season Record: 2-8 (1-3 District) • ’22– ’23 Season Record: 5-5 Stadium: Bears Den

Coming into his fourth season at the helm of the Navy and Silver, Coach Pusateri is “extremely excited” about the outlook for 2024. Like all coaches at this time of year, Central’s staff is optimistic about their prospects. Regardless of past struggles, every squad has a chance to surprise. “We are Central, and we are in pursuit of better,” said Pusateri.

A point of excitement for Pusateri and company is that they will finally feature a full coaching staff for the first time since he arrived on campus over three years ago. Much like the Eagles, the Bears will also be debuting in a new district this season. Flipping from 2S District 11 to 3A District 7, the head coach feels anyone can win and be competitive with this group of teams.

The Bears also sport an “extremely young” group of players with only 8 seniors, 12 juniors, 31 sophomores, and 20 freshmen (with potentially 20-25 more). Coach Pusateri is looking forward to seeing what the newest additions to the roster can do, as they look “pretty talented.” This will allow them to foot a full JV team and schedule, too, which should help build depth moving forward.

His staff will hope the players who are now veterans in the system can work with the freshmen to help reverse Central’s fortunes, as the Bears have gone a combined 7-24 over the last three seasons. “Our biggest focus, in my mind, is we need to play together as a team, come together as a team. I think in the past couple years, we have been trying to get that culture. We had a lot of individuals. So, this year’s team really starting to come together in the weightroom in the offseason […] We need to play as a team, and everything else will take care of itself.”

The players in attendance at the North Suncoast Media Day echoed their head coach’s sentiment of togetherness. While the coaches do not have any teams circled on their schedule, the players were in lockstep on their answer of which team they are most excited to play: Hernando. The Bears’ week six home tilt versus the Leopards could be important in showing the growth of the team at the mid-point of the season.

Below are Coach Pusateri’s answers to the questions posed to him by the Sun on Friday:

How do you feel [the coaching staff] is going to be able to affect the team moving forward?
“Well, I think one of our areas that we really need to improve on is technique. Having individual coaches in each position is going to help with that greatly. So, I think that’s where we’ll see the biggest improvement.”

What does working more together as a team look like as far as from the day-to-day?
“One is the weight room, obviously. The offseason workouts. Coming together, bonding together. I think the other thing we have in the past we’ve had a couple of individuals who maybe most of the players looked up to. This year, it’s kind of just a unit. I think, in the long run, that will help us out on that point. As far as offseason things, unfortunately we didn’t do any 7on-7 this year. We want to do a couple of team events before things wind up here, but we’re working on them.”

Going into this new district, are there any teams you are excited to face? How are you feeling about the schedule?
“Well, for me it’s probably the kickoff classic to see if we got better. It’s one game at a time. It really is. I mean, there’s not one. It don’t have anybody circled on the schedule. Obviously, we played the Battle of Hexam trophy with Weeki. That’s kind of a rivalry game. We haven’t played Hernando in a little bit, so that’s kind of exciting. […] I’m saying it’s a competitive district. You’re basing that on last year. As I tell these guys, last year means absolutely nothing. So, who knows. You can have an 0-9 team that goes 9-0 the next year. I’ve experienced a few different times. It’s pretty much there. I’m not going to tell you we got somebody marked on the schedule and that’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about getting better in the golf game.”

Bears 2024 Schedule
8/30 @ Interlachen at 7:30 p.m.
9/6 vs. Anclote at 7:30 p.m.
9/13 vs. Weeki Wachee at 7:30 p.m.
9/20 vs. Umatilla at 7:30 p.m.
9/27 vs. Hernando at 7:30 p.m.
10/4 vs. New Smyrna Beach at 7:30 p.m.
10/11 vs. Crystal River at 7:00 p.m.
10/18 @ Citrus at 7:30 p.m.
10/25 @ Tenoroc at 7:30 p.m.