Huge News coming out of Daytona Beach as State Champion Mainland HC Travis Roland is headed to Camden County (GA).

Right off of claiming history by bringing a State Championship title back to his alma mater in Daytona Beach, Mainland Head Coach has decided to coach in Georgia for the upcoming 2024 season.

Roland was recently named Head Football Coach of Camden County in Kingsland, Georgia. Roland will succeed former head coach Jeff Herron, who coached the Wildcats to three state championships. Herron stepped down after a 10-4 season in 2023 as the Wildcats made it to Georgia's Class AAAAAAA Region 1 semifinals.

Travis Roland is a Mainland Buccaneers Icon. Roland has won a title for Mainland as both a player and Head Coach. Under John Maronto, Roland led Mainland to the 2003 State Championship, the undisputed defensive leader with a whopping 217 tackles. Years later, Roland would be recognized by the Daytona Beach News-Journal as one of Volusia/Flagler Top 25 Players of All-Time.

Roland led the Buccaneers to back-to-back State Final appearances. In the Bucs' first state final appearance, 19 years since he won as a player, the Bucs came up short versus an undefeated Lake Wales team, losing by 2 points. With the sting and vengeance of reconciliation, Roland led his Bucs back to the promised land, this time to taste the sweet honey of victory as his Bucs edged St. Augustine for an exhilarating 21-19 win to claim the Class 3S State Championship.

Roland is 30-10 as Head Coach of the Bucs, with a state championship win in back-to-back state final appearances.

Roland is not an oddity, more of a calamity for the state of Florida.

It's now a well-known issue regarding coaching pay in the State of Florida. In the nation's most fertile recruiting ground producing a huge chunk of the players to later play and contribute to major college programs, Head Coaches are paid a small seasonal stipend, paltry peanuts compared to other states like Georgia and Texas, to name a few, that put major capital and resources into their football programs resources and coaching compensation.

Several state championship head coaches have decided to take care of family by choosing for a lucrative out-of-state coaching opportunity. Apopka State Championship Head Coach Rick Darlington, Madison County State Championship Head Coach Mike Coe, and are a few state championship head coaches to come to mind that went to Georgia after establishing a formidable annual state power. (Darlington ultimately returned to become current Head Coach of DeLand High School).

With the looming NIL legislation for high players in the state of Florida, Florida should enact methods to properly compensate coaches. Great coaches are leaving the state as a calamity of non-enacted methods to properly compensate public high school coaches. Florida is a football factory. And coaches fine-tune these players into young men of substance and in many cases day one contributors of major collegiate football programs.