SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: Lake Buena Vista football team is ready for battle

With a new school comes a new football program. 

This was the case with Lake Buena Vista High school when it opened in 2021 and head football coach Joe Rienzi began to recruit athletes to put together a football team. 

“It’s got its challenges every single day,” he said about starting a program from scratch. “Even still here, in its second year, there’s still challenges with building something from nothing. … It’s great. It’s rewarding when you start seeing things click and you start to see the kids buying in and doing the things that you expect of them. You start to see the kids taking ownership of things and holding their teammates accountable.” 

Last year, about 40 to 45 players who competed in varsity football had never picked up a football in their lives.

“We really spent a lot of time teaching them the entirety of football,” Rienzi said. “Now, they talk to me about the college games they watch or the pro teams that they like to support. They’ve sort of grown over the course of the year in terms of that, which is great.” 

Running back Andres Romero, 17, is one of the players who joined the team last year and had never played football before. 

“I came from Venezuela last year, and I just started watching these guys who definitely got experience, and I tried to do my best,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. I felt scared (because) I’ve never played this sport before. I saw a lot of tackles, a lot of hits, a lot of things. But I’ve been learning about it, and I think I’m doing great.” 

Making history is one of the biggest motivations for the Vipers when it’s time to step onto the football field on Friday nights; the team is looking forward to getting that first school win soon. 

“That’s what has them hungry, and that’s what they are focused on,” Rienzi said. “They want that, and I tell them all the time that they can’t win it for me. They’ve got to win it for themselves, because that’s something that can’t be taken away from them when they look back to this school in 20 years. When they’ve got kids going here, they’ll get to say, ‘Hey, I was part of the team that got the first win ever at that school.’ That’s their motivation, and that’s what’s driving them — especially after last year.” 

Wide receiver Mason Henrichsen, 17, is a transfer from Dr. Phillips — where he played football prior to Lake Buena Vista’s opening in 2021. 

“Being one of the first people to be in the program was kind of weird at first, but you start to get used to it once a lot of kids start to come in and it all starts to feel like a real football team,” he said. “The first win of the school … can come this week or next week. I don’t see a team that is much better than us. … Every week, there’s an opportunity that we could definitely win.”

Building the program has required patience and understanding from both sides — the coaching staff and the players.

“The thing that I would tell them is, ‘Don’t focus on the struggles of the process; we’ve got to focus on the end result,’” Rienzi said. “Essentially, every kid (who) played last year is playing this year again, which is a testament to the hard work they are putting in and their excitement into building the program.”

On the offense, the team is working on fundamentals and utilizing every player to his full potential.

“We are trying to make sure that the kids are involved, that we are fundamentally sound,” Rienzi said. “I tell (them) all the time, there’s two things that you’ve got to do in every football game no matter what: You’ve got to be able to block, and you’ve got to be able to tackle.” 

When it comes to defense, there’s a similar mindset. 

“We want to make sure that the kids are learning the game,” Rienzi said. “They are starting to see what other teams are doing, they are starting to see familiarity, patterns, and so really for us on defense is about being gap sound, is about making sure we are able to know our job every play, because there’s a lot of adjustments on the defensive side of the ball.” 

Slot receiver and safety Tyson Tran, 16, is looking forward to playing with his teammates and having a great season. 

“Creating the program was difficult at first, but now, we are developing more, and we are getting better every day,” he said. “I can help my team by becoming a great leader, pushing everyone and making a difference.”

When it comes to culture, Rienzi is trying to instill a sense of understanding for the small details, as well as having fun and accountability. 

“Some of the biggest things that we like to preach are that details matter — not necessarily football-wise but just in life,” he said. “In school every day, you’ve got to pay attention to details regardless of what you are doing. I am (also) really big on making sure that kids are having fun, and accountability. They’ve got to understand that they are part of something bigger than (them) so accountability is really big on what we are trying to instill and what we are trying to build here.” 

Rienzi has surrounded himself with a coaching staff based on who they are as a person. 

“The biggest thing that I look for when I talk to guys when bringing them over here is, ‘What type of man are you?’” he said. “These kids, a lot of them, look up to coaches as that father figure in their life. So I look for guys that I think these kids are going to be able to talk to, that I think they are going to be able to trust, that I think are going to put their players first.” 

Ultimately, Rienzi wants his players to see the football field as the best classroom on campus. 

“You can teach so many life lessons about overcoming adversity, about how emotions can swing really quickly,” he said. “The biggest things are those life lessons that are hard for kids to sometimes see in different classrooms. … (Football) is a perfect metaphor for what they are going to expect and what they are going to see once they leave (high school). So our job is really to make sure that they are prepared for those situations when they get out, because they’ve experience all that stuff.” 

Already this year, the Vipers have showed improvement over their inaugural 2021-22 season. Although they sit at 0-2, both games were competitive, with the Vipers losing a close one, 27-20 against Gateway (1-0) Aug. 26, followed by a 28-13 loss to Cypress Creek (2-0) Sept. 2. 

Looking forward, the team is ready to host Freedom (1-1) at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9. 

“Last year, I would hesitate to call games rivalry games; I say that those things tend to take time,” Rienzi said. “But I will say that most of our kids last year — whether they were players or students from campus — came from Freedom  and so that sort of developed into the game that everybody is looking forward to the most really quickly. And it’s exciting to have those games on the schedule, because they are fun. Anything can happen in a game like that — where both the teams are fired up, both the crowds are fired up. … We are just looking forward to a good game between the two teams.”