MIA Hires New Football Coach

Marco Island Academy didn’t have to look far when hiring their new head football coach. They just had to look to their top-notch volleyball program.

While MIA fans know Rich Costante as the assistant volleyball coach, he is known county-wide as a softball coach, where he was twice selected as the district coach of the year. Costante downplays the awards.

"I'll be honest,” Costante said, "when you win district coach of the year, it's not anything you do as a coach. It's what your players do on the field. Coaching is just a title. The kids on the field either win or lose the game. I was blessed when I was at Lely, I had some amazing players, amazing families. Amazing players that did amazing things. We had a lot of success, and with success comes awards. I've been lucky in softball, that's the sport I have the most head coaching experience in."

Costante was also an assistant football coach at Lely under Culmer St. Jean and Fritz Jacques.

"I've been coaching football since 1998,” Costante said. "I'm from Chicago. I coached at the high school I attended for many years. Then I moved down here in 2014. I was the head softball coach at Lely, and I also coached with Culmer in football. And then when Fritz took over the program, I coached with him. So, I was on staff for a couple seasons with Culmer and Fritz, and those are great guys. I am very grateful for having that opportunity. They were amazing coaches. They ran a great program."

Though MIA is on a 2-39 streak, Costante is optimistic.

"I'm obviously excited,” Costante said. “There's a great group of boys there who have a lot of knowledge. There’s good numbers coming back. It's a program that is ready to take the next step. And I'm excited to be the one that has the ability to lead them into the battle on Friday nights.”

MIA athletic director Jerry Miller is happy to welcome Costante into the fold.

“Rich is very excited about the future of MIA football and will bring a lot of energy to the program,” Miller said. "He is extremely organized and has an extensive coaching background in football, softball, and volleyball. He is a great fit for MIA, and I look forward to seeing his success with the program.”

Miller will miss outgoing coach Lew Montgomery, who broke a 36-game losing streak for the Rays two seasons ago.

"Coach Montgomery put his heart and soul into Manta Ray football,” Miller said. "Under his leadership, the kids tasted victory and enjoyed some very competitive games. His players’ past and present really appreciate him, as do I. Having laid that foundation for Coach Costante, he now gets to enjoy being a football dad. I am both grateful and happy for him.”

Costante has a solid schedule set for next year, but he’s not closing the door to adding a game or two.

"It's pretty much done,” Costante said. “But if a team were to come to us and want to play, we have a couple open slots still, but for the most part, the schedule is set. As of right now, we have four home games and three away games. It's a pretty good schedule."

Costante’s daughter, Madison Stolinas, is captain of the volleyball team. Costante has no regrets about stepping away from coaching his daughter.

"I am fully committed to being the head football coach,” he said. "I've wanted to be the head football coach for a while. I've been watching and eyeing the program. Lew did an amazing job. Never in a million years did I think I would have the opportunity this soon here at MIA. But when the opportunity came up, I put my hat in the ring and I am fully committed to being the head football coach and watching my daughter play her last season of volleyball and being a volleyball dad."

And he’s sure his sister-in-law Alyssa Stolinas will do just fine without him.

"The girls buy in,” he said. “Alyssa has blossomed as a coach over these last seven years. I've seen it firsthand. I've been with her every step of the way as a supporter and then the last couple years as a coach with her. She runs an amazing program. She’s going to be fine. Obviously, anything she needs, I will help out where I can. But she's got it. She’s, in my opinion, one of the best volleyball coaches in the area."

Costante won’t be scheduling a spring game this year but is looking forward to getting his team on the field in a couple of weeks.

“We're not going to do a spring game or anything like that,” he said. "We're just going to basically get out there and work the kids out. We're going to start with our first day. We're going to do what's called a Manta Ray combine, where we're going to test them in four different strength liftings and four different speed and agility areas. We're going to get benchmarks on them in eight different metrics. That will give us a foundation for our off-season lifting program and our agility and speed program. Then the rest of the spring we're going to be working on installing running drills, position-specific drills, installing our offense and defense. I don't think we'll get to the point where we're doing a full blue-on-blue scrimmage or anything like that. That's probably going to wait till closer to August 15. But we're definitely going to be installing stuff and trying to hit the ground running here. Our first game is against Jordan Christian Prep, and that's our focus. Our focus is to be ready to take the field at Winterberry Park against Jordan Christian and come out and start the season 1-0. That's the plan."