Kenard Lang Talks About Being a High School Coach

After excelling at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High and Penn State, Michael Timpson spent nine seasons in the NFL.

Three hundred receptions and more than 4,000 receiving yards later, he retired. That was in 1997.

What did those exploits mean to his players when he took over as Poinciana's football coach this spring? Not much.

"They know what's current," said Timpson, 43. "They know the LaDainian Tomlinsons, the Chad Ochocincos. Those are the current people. I'm too old for them. We're far apart, and that's OK."

Including Timpson, the high school football season will kick off this fall with six former NFL players as head coaches at Central Florida programs. Herkie Walls has coached six seasons at Master's Academy, Kenard Lang is in his third at Jones, and Buck Gurley (Lake Mary Prep), Victor Floyd (Agape Christian) and Elijah Williams (Oak Ridge) are entering their second seasons.

Lang is a year older than Williams and also still interacts with his players. His bigger advantage, he said, is being included on a recent edition of the popular Madden NFL video game, having last played for the Denver Broncos in 2006.

An Evans High graduate, he leans more on being an Orlando native than anything he did on the field.

"I just try to be a coach to them where they can touch me and not feel like they're in a museum," Lang said. "I need to communicate with them and not have a barrier up."

Lonnie Johnson played for the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs for six seasons through 1999 before eventually coaching at Mount Dora Bible for five seasons. He stepped down after last season and will be an assistant at MDB this fall.

"Even if they don't know you, I think it's a gift," he said. "It's never not an asset to your repertoire. I don't think there's any kid that 100 percent believes what an adult says. But the ones that have success realize eventually you know what you're talking about."

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(orlandosentinel.com)