n f l
b o i l e r s
to his roots
BY KYLE CHARTERS
KCharters@GoldandBlack.com
M
ike Alstott hasn't yet strapped
a Jeep to his players and
made them pull it around the
Northside Christian parking lot, but
don't think that the thought hasn't
crossed his mind.
The second-year head coach at
Northside Christian in St. Petersburg, Fla., Alstott is trying to build a
program that has not only struggled
to win but to field enough players.
He's attempting to alleviate both
by using the same hard-working
style that he displayed in four years
at Purdue and 12 in the NFL, playing
fullback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But with resources tight at
Northside — enrollment is only
235 in the high school and
120 in the middle — he's
resorted to whatever
means possible to do
so.
"The first thing
he wanted to
do, and he
Alstott shaping youth through coaching
actually got it done, was to build this
Walter Payton Hill, as he called it,"
Northside athletic director Raul Hernandez said, referring to the former
Bears great, who has a slope named
in his honor in Arlington Heights,
where he used to train. "Of course,
Florida is as flat as it comes, so when
Mike came on board, we were in the
process of building a new eight-lane
rubber track, so (we had) a lot of the
excess dirt. Mike wanted to put it
in the back of the school
and create a hill, so
the kids could run
up and down it.
So we've got the
hill back there.
T h a t 's
Tom Campbell
one of the first things he wanted to
establish."
Alstott, of course, has been the
master of economy before; he famously spent the summer before his
senior year pulling his Jeep through
Ross-Ade Stadium's north parking lot, in an effort to build the leg
strength that helped turn him into
an NFL All-Pro and potential Hall of
Famer.
He retired following the 2007
season and settled into semi-retirement from the game he
loves. But football has never
strayed far from his mind,
as he stays involved now
with the public relations
and ticket sales offices for
the Buccaneers.
But it was watching his
son, Griffin, a few years ago
Mike Alstott, who was on campus for the spring game, is entering his second season as the head coach at Northside Christian
High School in St. Petersburg.
Gold & Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 5com
