Most high school football teams play their homecoming game in October, but for newly hired Wildwood Middle High School Football coach Lorenzo Fields, he will have a sort of homecoming game the first game of the season against The Villages High School. Fields, a star quarterback at Wildwood High in the mid-80s, was hired as the school’s head football coach in January of this year. Although this will be his first head coaching job, he’s not new to Wildwood or coaching football.

Fields, a 1985 Wildwood graduate, was an all-state quarterback and led the Wildcats to back-to-back state championship games in 1984 and 1985. Fields earned a football scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University, which at the time was a Division I-AA football powerhouse. Fields went on to have a stellar career at EKU, becoming the starting quarterback in 1987 and leading his team to an undefeated mark and #1 national ranking in 1990 before breaking his leg late in his senior season. The Colonels never recovered after losing Fields and lost the final three games of the regular season. What might have been a National Championship run turned into heartbreak for Fields and his EKU teammates. For his EKU career, Fields threw for 3,719 yards and 31 touchdowns while rushing for 1,418 yards and 20 touchdowns.

(Lorenzo Field during his playing days with Wildwood in the mid-1980s.)

Upon graduating from EKU, Fields returned to Wildwood and was the school’s offensive coordinator in the early 90s but ultimately took a job with the juvenile justice department in 1996. Fields never really relinquished football duties as he continued to train local athletes in his spare time. Ultimately, Fields earned his master’s degree in Educational Leadership in 2006 and served as assistant principal at Hernando High School since 2012.

As with any star player returning as coach, there’s always pressure to succeed just as they did as a player. When asked about his team’s expectations for the 2024 season, Fields was quick to point out that he’s probably putting more pressure on himself than the school’s administration or the community is. Fields stated that the summer turnout for voluntary workouts has been good with the team averaging about 40 kids per day during the month of June. Coming off a 2-7 campaign in 2023, Fields didn’t hesitate when asked what he thought of the team’s win/loss record might be this year. “I feel like we have a realistic shot at a 6-4 and possibly a 7-3 record this season. As long as the kids stay coachable, hungry, and work hard, there’s no reason why we can’t have a successful year,” says coach Fields.

When asked what football means to him personally, Fields said, “Growth… the game helps you to mature as an individual. It helped me to get a college degree which has allowed me to prosper for the rest of my life. I built relationships in college that I am still benefiting from today,” says coach Fields. When asked who were the most influential coaches in his career and what moment in high school was his most memorable, he said, “I think the 1984 state championship game against Port St. Joe solidified me as an all-state quarterback and that was probably my most memorable moment as a high school player. As far as the two most influential coaches of my career, I would have to say Buddy Tomaini, who was my high school coach, and Leon Hart, who was my offensive coordinator at Eastern Kentucky University.”

The community is sure to be excited for the preseason contest against county rival South Sumter on August 16th and Fields said he is excited as well. He is sure to feel some butterflies as he opens the season roaming the sideline on the same field he starred on 40 years ago. But if history is any indicator, success will be in the team’s future.