There’s a new attraction coming to beautiful Altamonte Springs, and it’s coming with some hardware.
Lake Brantley High School will be bringing on former Master’s Academy head coach Garrett Kruczek for the same role, and the city is buzzing with excitement to welcome coach Kruz, who is fresh off back-to-back SSAA state championships in his only 2 seasons with the Eagles. He will be familiar with Brantley’s rich culture and tradition, as he played against the Patriots during his time as the quarterback at Lake Howell High School in 2010-2013 where he was one of the better signal callers in recent Silverhawk history. The 29-year-old will take over the reins at Brantley while being the youngest Head Coach in the Central Florida region.
The move is intriguing for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps the most compelling piece of this puzzle will be the Patriots running a new offense that isn’t the legendary triple-option offense, which has been one of the most successful and storied offenses in central Florida for 40 years.
The hype surrounding the hire is already accumulating and for good reason, considering how electric and dynamic Master’s offense has been during his dominant stretch the last two seasons. The Eagles coaching staff as a whole was quietly assembled as one of the most experienced and respected groups in the area, and many coaches will follow Kruz to Lake Brantley including his father Mike Kruczek, who is very well-known and respected in the Orlando area as he served on UCF’s staff for over a decade and even spent some time as the Arizona Cardinals Offensive Coordinator in 2006.
Averaging 45 points a game the last two seasons, Coach Kruczek’s efficient and potent offense has been one of the highest-volume scoring teams in the area in the last two years. A major reason for that is rising class of 2028 superstar quarterback Jackson Stecher, who has been unbelievable since becoming the starter in 2023 as an 8th grader where he led Master’s to their first state title since 2020.
Stecher has division one offers already including UCF, USF, Samford, and Robert Morris, with a bevy of other schools heavily interested in the fantastic freshman. Stecher plays like a Josh Allen-type quarterback, possessing a rocket launcher of an arm paired with very underrated athleticism, which he showcases often by picking up long chunk plays with his feet and laying his shoulder into smaller defenders in his way. In his second season at Masters and first as the day one starter, he continued his campaign towards being one of the best players in Florida, regardless of classification, where he amassed over 3000 total yards with 40 touchdowns and just two interceptions. His growth, maturity, and trust in the Kruczek offense were critical as the Eagles cruised to a second straight championship.
Already with two years of experience running Coach Kruz’s dynamic offense, the young gunslinger is ready for more, given the new opportunity to play on a bigger stage with much higher competition.
“I’m feeling great about it. Especially being able to continue to learn from the Kruczek’s. The thing I’m looking forward to most is playing against Lake Mary and Seminole.”
Lake Brantley and the community around the football program are itching to get back into the mix of the best team in Seminole County, after a slight downtime for a group who is used to being a playoff-caliber team year in and year out.
Perhaps the juiciest storyline of all of this is now a jam-packed group of teams filled to the brim with high-octane offenses in 7A’s District 3, which consists of Lake Brantley, Hagerty, and the two big dogs of Seminole County Lake Mary and Seminole. One district now holds 3 of the top quarterbacks in perhaps the entire state of Florida as Stecher will join Illinois commit Mike Clayton and Notre Dame commit Noah Grubbs next season with some big-time matchups on the horizon.
Lake Mary and Lake Brantley share a 40+ year rivalry that has featured some all-time classic shootouts in the past but has been a little lopsided as of late. The Rams have a massive championship clash looming against Venice in the 7A state title game on Friday, as Noah Grubbs looks to stamp himself as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the central Florida region. Now, the Patriots will possess some newly found firepower on offense, with Stecher bringing two State Championship rings of his own, setting the stage for a must-see matchup between a couple of the top 2026 and 2028 quarterbacks in the entire country next season.
With the 2024 campaign wrapping up and how quick the turnaround time is now for teams looking to the off-season and spring to drastically improve, the Patriots just injected a supreme amount of talent, experience, and championship pedigree into a program dying to get back not just to the top of Seminole county, but back to the elite weight class of the Sunshine State’s best programs.