ORANGE PARK – With a football coaching resume that includes district titles and region playoff games at Fleming Island, Oakleaf, Williston and Bradford, Derek Chipoletti took his final bow after his Oakleaf High Knights bowed out of the region 1-8A championship game 35-0 to Niceville High in 2014.

St. Johns Country Day School, with two strong seasons a few years ago in the Independent sized schools in Florida, has taken a bit of some lumps the past two years under coach Bill Sellinger; mainly with a lack of team depth and size.

That may all change in 2018 as Chipoletti has agreed to coach the Spartans in August.

“I know they have winning athletics at the school even though they are small with Mike Pickett with the girls soccer and Tom Lucas with the baseball,” said Chipoletti, 40. “I have always said my credo is faith and family first and I think the St. Johns atmosphere is good for that.”

Chipoletti, since leaving football and after leading the Knights to their best season ever in its short history, has been and will continue as a financial advisor at Capital Financial Strategies of Jacksonville.

“I am only on as football coach,” said Chipoletti. “The administration will provide the best of both worlds for me to return to football and maintain my status with Capital Financial Strategies.”

That 2014 Oakleaf team, led by All-American linebacker Shaquille Quarterman, among others, was the culmination of a three-year rebuild of a program filled to the gills with athletic prowess, but unable to get a winning season under their belt.

Chipoletti, in his first two seasons at Oakleaf after leaving Bradford County High School where his father Neal was athletic director after leaving as Fleming Island High head football coach, got seasons of 6-4 and 4-6 before his deep region run which got a 10-0 regular season; a first-time home playoff game followed by two more region playoff games, including the home region final with Niceville.

In his final season, the Knights finished 8-2 with a district loss to Bartram Trail High keeping Oakleaf out of the playoffs.

At Fleming Island, opened in 2003, Neal and Derek Chipoletti got the Golden Eagles to the region final in 2007 in Class 5A.