TAMPA, Fla. - The Tampa Bay Tech Titans have been inching closer and closer to a state title. 

This year’s team might actually win the school’s very first championship. And there has been one man who has been leading the way.

Jayson Roberts has been the Titans head coach since 2011. In the last ten years, his team has made the postseason all but once. This season, Tech has been primed for big things.

“I love it. It’s really all I know,” Roberts said. “All I’ve known since I was six years old is this game.”

That passion spills over to his players. Roberts’ love of the game is infectious. And these Titans have caught it.

“It’s more than just blowing the whistle and just drawing stuff up on the boards,” Roberts said. “Kids learn in so many different ways that we have to be able to communicate it, demonstrate it, show examples and find innovative ways to teach out here just like in the classroom.”

Before he coaches his players on how to cover gaps on defense, Roberts is teaching his biology students about gaps in DNA. Just like he inspires his football players to be great men, in the classroom, Roberts hopes he is inspiring the next great scientist.

“Hopefully I come across and inspire that mind that’s going to come up with that cure for cancer or that next great invention,” he said.

Most high school football coaches aren’t breaking down DNA or cell development. But Roberts is not like most high school coaches. This biology major once dreamed of becoming a doctor.

“And then organic chemistry happened and I said, I like these X’s and O’s better than I like drawing carbon structures,” Roberts said.

The students at Tech are the benefactors of Roberts change of heart. And they benefit because he’s the type who teaches from the heart. 

He coaches from the heart too. 

The Tampa Bay Tech Titans are three wins away from a date in the state championship game. Coach Roberts doesn’t like to look too far ahead, but admits a state title would be special. As special as this job he considers himself lucky to have.

“I still go into the game and I get the butterflies,” he said. “And, you know, it still gets me excited. Friday night is still the best day of the week for me.”