Rick Darlington accepts coaching job at Florida high school

Enterprise head football coach Rick Darlington has resigned from his position and accepted the head coaching position at DeLand High School in Florida.

Darlington came to Enterprise in 2019 after a very successful 17-year career at Apopka High School in Florida where he went 167-47 and won three state championships. Darlington took over an Enterprise program that had gone 2-8 the previous two years and led the Wildcats to three straight playoff appearances and an Elite 8 berth this past season. His 2021 Enterprise team led the entire state in rushing and third in Class 7A in scoring.

Darlington said that returning to Florida – especially the central Florida area – was like returning home.

“I have two grown kids in central Florida and grandsons there and the draw of being home is just a big deal to me, especially at my age with grandchildren,” Darlington said. “(That) town is where I went to college and most of my life has been lived within 90 minutes of that town. I coached 45 minutes west of there and I coached 45 south of there.”

Darlington said that he took notice of DeLand in 2009 when his Apopka team lost to DeLand in the semifinals of the state playoffs.

“I remember watching the crowd and town and how they were so excited and thought that it could be another Apopka,” Darlington remembered. “I always thought that would be a good job but the timing was never right for me to go there.

“When the thing came up and they called me last week I had to listen. I’ve been friends with the athletic director there for many years and I went to college there, like I said, so I know a lot of people in town. I had to ask myself if in five years from now is it going to be better for me and my family to be back in central Florida or to be here.”

Darlington said he has nothing but positive things to say about the City of Enterprise and his time coaching the Wildcats.

“I can’t say a single bad thing about Enterprise,” he flatly said. “Anything that was promised to me has come through and I love the people here.

“I love the administrators, I love the coaching staff and I love the players. The players play their guts out for us here. There is no bad here. I could easily sit here and coach here for many years. It’s comfortable here but I realize that God doesn’t always want us to be comfortable and I feel like he’s pushing me to go back out to the unknown.”

EHS Principal Stan Sauls issued a statement thanking Darlington for his time at Enterprise.

“We would like to thank Coach Darlington for the past three years and the commitment and dedication to EHS and our student athletes,” he said. “Coach Darlington leaves the EHS football program with a solid foundation and we wish him and his family the best of luck on all future endeavors.”

Sauls said the search for Darlington’s replacement would begin immediately and he hoped to have a replacement in place sooner rather than later. Darlington said that whoever replaces him will have a solid situation that they are walking into.

“It’s the best coaching staff I’ve ever had,” Darlington said. “I think it’s a good time for someone here because we have a lot of good players coming back and a great staff. I think the program has gotten better every year.

“I don’t want people to believe it was in tatters when I got here, either, because it wasn’t. Coach (David) Faulkner had some success here and they had a lot of injuries and things like that they were dealing with. Coach (Jed) Kennedy has aspirations of being a head coach again and I think he would be the frontrunner for the job.”

Darlington said that his goal at DeLand would be the same as everywhere he’s coached.

“I wouldn’t go to a place I feel we couldn’t compete for a state championship,” he said. “I know that is a tall task but that will always be the goal. I don’t even know the state of the program right now, I haven’t talked to the players or coaches there yet, but I think it’s going to be a rebuilding deal, so we can’t set many (short term) goals yet.”