BSN BREAKING NEWS: SPACE COAST VIPERS ANNOUNCE JAKE OWENS AS NEW HEAD FOOTBALL COACH. 

They say never forget your roots, they are the foundation from which you build your success. 

Jake Owens has built success wherever he’s gone and now he returns to his Brevard County head football coaching roots to try to re-tool a program he once took the FHSAA playoffs. 

On Friday, Space Coast Jr/Sr High Athletic Director Steve Slentz announced that Owens has been hired as the programs new head football coach. 

Owens first tenure as head coach was in 2012 when he took over two games and three weeks into the season. He would go on to win 25 games including a record of 8-4 in 2013. 

Owens would also go on to have winning seasons in 2013 and 2014. His 25 wins are the most by any head coach in Vipers program history. 

Under Owens, his Viper teams would produce wins over programs such as Rockledge, Orlando Jones and they were 3-2 in the Battle For Us1 vs. Titusville. 

Owens would step away following the 2017 season to spend more time with family. 

In the six years since his departure from Space Coast ,the Vipers football program has amassed just 14 wins. The Last four seasons Space Coast is 14-42. 

Owens returned to coaching at Merritt Island where he helped with the offense in 2019 on head coach Hurlie Brown’s staff. He was then named the head coach at Palm Bay in February of 2021 and coached the Pirates for two seasons. 

Taking over one of the County’s storied football programs that went 1-7 prior to his arrival in 2020 and 2-7 in 2019, Owens didn’t try to reinvent the game at Palm Bay, he helped the school get back to its roots and in the process was instrumental in helping to modernize the look, the social media presence and the school’s relationship with the local community and former players. 

This allowed the program to keep its players, win and cultivate a new culture and future moving forward. 

Owens did this by doing things like  bringing in legendary head coach Dan Burke. 

Burke, who retired following the 2018 season would come back to coach on both sides of the football. Owens also got people excited about the upcoming season which didn’t disappoint. 

His team produced a three win turnaround in 2021 and in 2022 the Pirates went 8-4 as Palm Bay reached the regional semifinals of the FHSAA 2S state playoffs. 

Presented with an opportunity to move and coach in a area of the country he’d always dreamed about, Owens stepped down following the 2022 season to accept the head coaching position at Scott High School in Northern Kentucky which was just 11 miles south of Cincinnati.

However and unfortunately just six months into his tenure and three weeks before he was to coach in his first game with his new school he had to resign to return to Brevard for family reasons. 

Owens handled his business and took a teaching job at Space Coast upon his return to Brevard and after the program fired former head coach Cliff Nichols several weeks back, he was approached by Athletic Director Steve Slentz to take the job which Owens thought about and accepted. 

Owens, who has amassed 39 head coaching wins, has coached in Brevard County for over two decades and aside from being the head coach at Space Coast and Palm Bay he also spent time on staffs at Holy Trinity and Merritt Island. 

As a head coach Owens has helped nearly 40 players play collegiately and he’s had 24 players named to the All-Space Coast team. 

The Vipers will play the upcoming season in the Sunshine State Athletic Association but Owens is retooling and reinventing a program he knows can be successful at any level because he’s been there and done it before…….at Space Coast. 

Congratulations on the hire AD Slentz and good luck Coach Owens

This post is sponsored by Gamerz R Us We thank Seth Gibson for his support of youth and prep sports as well as BSN .

9 hours ago, Brcatz said:

Presented with an opportunity to move and coach in a area of the country he’d always dreamed about, Owens stepped down following the 2022 season to accept the head coaching position at Scott High School in Northern Kentucky which was just 11 miles south of Cincinnati.

 

What?

He'd always dreamed of leaving Florida to coach in Taylor Mill? 

I like NKY as much as the next guy, but I'm taking Florida 100/100 times.

32 minutes ago, burreaux said:

What?

He'd always dreamed of leaving Florida to coach in Taylor Mill? 

I like NKY as much as the next guy, but I'm taking Florida 100/100 times.

He was a huge Bengals fan and hosts a podcast about the Bengals. Apparently he used to make several trips a year here in support of that podcast. It makes sense that he might have wanted to move here.

38 minutes ago, rjs4470 said:

He was a huge Bengals fan and hosts a podcast about the Bengals. Apparently he used to make several trips a year here in support of that podcast. It makes sense that he might have wanted to move here.

I can understand that, thank you for sharing. It's too bad it didn't work out, hopefully there's another time, he sounds like a great coach and one that the Scott AD absolutely nailed.

2 hours ago, burreaux said:

I can understand that, thank you for sharing. It's too bad it didn't work out, hopefully there's another time, he sounds like a great coach and one that the Scott AD absolutely nailed.

His wife is from Owenton I believe also

22 hours ago, burreaux said:

What?

He'd always dreamed of leaving Florida to coach in Taylor Mill? 

I like NKY as much as the next guy, but I'm taking Florida 100/100 times.

Not me. No way I would ever live in Florida. 

Congratulations Coach Franklin!!!

How are things going with the new coach?