Derrick Bumpers steps down as Windermere High football coach

Derrick Bumpers, who took over the football program at Windermere High School back in February, has stepped down.

In a phone interview Monday, June 6 — the official first day of summer workouts for teams around the county — Bumpers said that there were multiple factors that went into the tough decision. 

Issues of bureaucratic red tape on the part of the Orange County Public Schools system prevented him from bringing on his coaches in a timely manner, while concerns regarding the handling of COVID-19 also troubled him, he said. None of this, he emphasized, was the fault of the school’s athletic director, Russell Williams; Windermere High Principal Douglas Guthrie; or Doug Patterson, OCPS senior administrator for athletics and activities.

“It’s July, and I have a couple guys I’ve been trying to get hired since February,” Bumpers said. “In Alabama and Georgia — I’ve coached in both of those states — I’ve seen what it ideally should look like. Sometimes you just can’t wrap your brain around why it’s like this. Coach Williams and Mr. Guthrie, they do what they can with what they have, and then when it gets past them and Patterson it — I guess — just runs into a brick wall.”

The issues of coaching in Florida — from staffing to salary to operations — is well known. It’s why some coaches, like Rick Darlington — who left Apopka to coach high school in Alabama — leave the state for greener pastures. 

Beyond the issue of staffing, Bumpers’ other complaint was in regards to how governing bodies have been dealing with the ongoing pandemic and its effects on football. Bumpers, who made the move to Windermere from South Walton High School, originally joined the program a month before COVID-19 began to throw the sports world — and the world at large — into chaos. 

Since then, the National Federation of State High School Associations has put out guidelines that would completely change the way football practices are held, including no player contact and no exchanging of the football. But more than anything, it comes down to the health aspect of it, Bumpers said.

“The coaches (are) working for free in the summer, and with this COVID-19 thing it’s like your coaches are being asked to go out there and coach, and you’re doing it for free and you’re putting your life at risk, the kids’ lives at risk and families at risk because that stuff is hitting home,” Bumpers said. “The plan that was created, I don’t know if any coaches were involved in that decision.

“For me, as a coach, I value the opinion of my coaches and of the players,” he said. “There’s just some things you can’t compromise on when you’re trying to build a program the right way. There was no argument at all from Williams or Guthrie. I was just put in a place where I had to make a decision — ‘Well, what’s going to be the best for the program?’” 

The decision, ultimately, was to step away from the program. Despite being unsure of what happens next for himself, Bumpers’ conscience is clear and he hopes that change — in both operations and in the handling of COVID-19 — will arrive sooner than later.

“For me, it’s more of a test of making sure you do what’s right, you listen to your spirit and sometimes you have to be still and just listen to where your heart and spirit are leading you,” Bumpers said. “I don’t have a job lined up … sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward.

“My hope is that … somebody who makes these decisions will maybe reach out to the coaches or administrators or athletic directors and listen to them and make change,” he said. “This is a world now that is going through change, and if we don’t change, then we fall by the wayside.”