Pasco (Fla.) in search of a new head football coach
Pasco (Fla.) is apparently on the search for another head football coach, according to a job posting by Pasco County Schools on Tuesday morning.
The county’s district school site posted Pasco High School’s head coaching opening for the football team, with the posting as of today, Dec. 2 and opened until Jan. 9, 2026. Pasco, a former Florida high school football state championship program, will be in search of their sixth head football coach since 2019.
According to sources, Tom McHugh is stepping away as the Pirates’ head coach, with an eye towards retirement after completing a 1-year stint in his return to Pasco this past 2025 season. McHugh led the Pirates to a 2-8 record in what looks like his final campaign as a high school football head coach, winning their final two games of the season.
Rivals attempted to reach McHugh by phone on Monday evening, but were unsuccessful.
The Pirates are Pasco County’s lone high school football team to have ever won a state championship back when they defeated Tampa Jesuit for the 1992 Class 3A title, 28-16.
McHugh at the peak of his head coaching tenure at Pasco led the program to the state semifinals in 2008 and 2011. The Pirates were multiple times one game away from reaching the Class 3A/Class 5A state championships after facing Tallahassee Godby and Crawfordville Wakulla, resulting in two narrow losses.
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With McHugh, who was dismissed after the 2018 season, leaving the program, the Pirates have seen the proverbial musical chairs movement at the head coaching position for football.
Pasco has gone through five different head coaches since 2019 (Greg Miller, Fred Hicks, Alphonso Freeney, Jason Stokes) after having only four varsity head coaches from 1989-2018 (McHugh, Dale Caparaso, Ricky Thomas, Perry Brown).
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