KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Keystone Heights High School football has named a familiar face to lead the Indians football program with defensive coordinator Steven Reynolds being named to head the program after long-time coach Chuck Dickinson stepped down after the 2022 season.

“I’ve gone from a small school to a big school to now a medium school,” said Reynolds, who has been on the Keystone Heights High School football sidelines the past three years as well as part of the boys weightlifting teams that have won two consecutive state titles. “It’s ironic how life goes full circle for you and you wind up in a place you have always cherished.”

Reynolds, a former head coach at Bradford County High, then Oakleaf High School for four years, left Oakleaf after being replaced by another Bradford County former coach, Derek Chipoletti. Chipoletti and Reynolds both teamed together a second time for two years at St. Johns Country Day School.

“I can’t stress enough the caliber of not just football here at Keystone Heights, but in all the athletes here,” said Reynolds. “What coach Dickinson leaves, as well as Wesley Dicks, who coached before Dickinson, is a core value of working hard, rewarding through toil and hard work, the principles of serving others and being a family type of team. The lasting friendships of Keystone Heights athletes is a big part of all the sports here.”

Reynolds came to Keystone Heights as an offensive coordinator at Bradford under the Chipoletti coaching staff; Neil and Derek, father and son, plus another Oakleaf coaching alum, Dana Arthur, now in Georgia, that rebuilt the very intense rivalry between the two schools.

“I played at Bradford County and have been on this field a hundred times and have always seen great players on this field,” said Reynolds, with three boys and wife Lauren Elizabeth. “Both schools have had great success in a lot of sports in the last few decades.”

Reynolds recalled games against Keystone Heights.

“Kids were always tough here,” said Reynolds, who was part of a 23-8 won loss run (2-8 last year with a massive graduation class) for the Indians with an unbeaten season two years ago and a deep region run. “It was a region driven rivalry.”

Reynolds has not yet completed his coaching staff if any new faces will join him, but emphasized that the coaching staff at Keystone Heights with him under Dickinson was top of the line and he hoped coaches like Lantz Lowery, who has been here as long as coach Dickinson, and young guys like Ken Mudge and Jacob Alvarez.

“Mudge is solid, Alvarez is young and both of those guys are good, young coaches that want to learn the craft,” said Reynolds. In the Indians unbeaten region playoff run on two years ago, with a region semi-final loss to The Villages, Reynolds noted that Keystone Heights’ region football lineup has always been power packed.

“Keystone Heights has always had the toughest region slate when the playoffs got going,” said Reynolds. “Against The Villages, a few plays made a big difference, but the next game would have been Cocoa High. This school has always run into the state’s best teams in our class in the playoffs.”

Reynolds planned on inviting the alum players of the Keystone Heights for the upcoming seasons to add a little bit of the history of the program for the new kids.

“There were players like Jimmy Brumbaugh, Matt Teague, Greg Story all have great stories of their playing days that the kids would marvel at,” said Reynolds. “Jack Taylor was another great one. I’d like to see them to our pregame meals and tell the kids about the history of this place.”

Quarterback Jack Taylor once talked to the Keystone Heights locker room and Reynolds recalled the message.

“He came here and told them that everything he accomplished in his life, everything he has done he owes to the Keystone Heights community,” said Reynolds. “He told them that what they learn here is the first building block to do whatever they want to do in life.”