How do you build a high school football program from scratch? Where do you begin?

JJ Everage asked himself the same question earlier this year, when he moved from a tradition- grizzled program at Lely High School to the newest: Aubrey Rogers High School on the northern edge of Collier County.

With four head-coaching stops since 2000 and almost 30 years in the game, Everage knows all about starting over. But none of his previous ventures prepared him for what lay ahead at Aubrey Rogers.

“This is the first time I have ever opened a school,” the coach said as the Aubrey Rogers freshmen put up a good fight against a Collier County program in the background.

“I liken it to taking over a faltering program, which I do have some experience with. You [must] start over, rebuild the culture and let them know your expectations. You set the tone overall. I have had that experience before, so I was ready for that challenge—to teach my methods, training, culture.”

Delivering all those messages aren’t easy, and they don’t come all at once. And they certainly resonate differently with a group of athletes who might as well be wearing “Hi, my name is …” stickers on their practice uniforms.

To start with, the Patriots weren’t able to use their own stadium— a 4,000-seat jewel emblazoned in red, white and blue with home seating from end zone to end zone—until three weeks before the season began. So their summer workouts and conditioning were at nearby Gulf Coast High School, with players and coaches alike operating out of the trunks of their cars to breathe life into their new program.

Even after Everage’s Patriots were able to test their shiny new artificial-turf home, athletes and coaches were still dodging construction trucks and workers—and couldn’t so much as cast an eyeball on their own locker room for another three weeks, and until after school itself started on Aug. 10.

But where they practiced and conditioned wasn’t the biggest challenge for Everage and his coaching staff. Not by a long shot.

“Literally, you start where we did: teaching them the game of football from the simplest point,” Everage said with a chuckle. “We had to teach kids how to hold the football, throw it, how to block. How to square up for a tackle. It was truly fundamental at the purest form. A lot of these kids haven’t even watched the game up close, so we are basically teaching them how to play it—the rules, everything.”

With a 40-player roster that is more than 90% filled with underclassmen, learning each other’s names was just as important as learning the new playbook. Only six seniors dot the roster, which means plenty of room for growth.