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'He set the standard': Flagler Palm Coast's Steve DeAugustino retires after 45 years

Under 'Coach D.' the Bulldogs' wrestling team won three consecutive state titles and was runner-up twice.

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Flagler Palm Coast High School opened its doors in 1974. Seven years later, Steve DeAugustino was hired as the school’s new wrestling coach.

This past week, FPC principal Bobby Bossardet announced that DeAugustino is retiring after 45 years at the school as a coach, PE teacher and athletic director. His wrestling teams won three consecutive state championships in 1993, 1994 and 1995, and they were state runners-up in 1989 and 1996.

After coaching for 27 years, he took on a new job in 2007 as the Bulldogs’ athletic director and remained in that role for 16 years. The past three years he was back in the wrestling room as an assistant coach under David Bossardet, one of his many former wrestlers.

Another of his former wrestlers is David’s older brother Bobby, who succeeded DeAugustino as head coach in 2007.

“Coach D. set the standard,” Bobby Bossardet said. “He did things the right way. He had high expectations, he held you accountable and he made sure you had all the support you needed to accomplish your goals.”

DeAugustino said it’s the right time to finally step away from the school that has been a big part of his life for nearly half a century. The program is in good hands with new coach Bryce Carr, he said, and he will have more time to spend with family and do other things.

“As a coach, you’re working 24 hours a day,” DeAugustino said. “Everybody’s got to be on the same page. You got to be there for summer workouts, fall workouts, spring workouts, just keeping them motivated throughout. It’s busy.”

At one point while he was running the wrestling program, DeAugustino was also an assistant football coach and the head softball coach.

“I’ve got the time now to go ahead and get things organized.,” he said. “I’ve got some things going on, some options.”

Most of his contemporaries have retired long ago or moved on from coaching. An exception is New Smyrna Beach wrestling coach Mike Strouse, who became that program’s head coach in 1983, two years after DeAugustino arrived at FPC.

“I’ve respected him and his program forever,” Strouse said. “They were always the team we wanted to beat. To beat Flagler, you know your team is solid.”

DeAugustino has always been more than a coach, said Bobby Bossardet, who won a state title at FPC in 1999.


He wasn’t just a wrestling coach. He was a friend, a father figure. He’d cook you meals, give you rides home. I slept on his couch and baby sat his kids.
— BOBBY BOSSARDET, FPC principal and former state champion wrestler

“He wasn’t just a wrestling coach,” Bobby Bossardet said. “He was a friend, a father figure. He’d cook you meals, give you rides home. I slept on his couch and baby sat his kids.”

That’s just the job, DeAugustino said. 

“It never bothered me. You want to make the athletes as successful as they can be,” he said. “We always talk about academics here first. You’ve got to keep track of those type of things. You want them to be first class.”

David Bossardet, who stepped away from coaching because he is the school district’s safety specialist, said DeAugustino change his life.

“He’s somebody I’ve known since I was 12 years old,” David said. “He’s probably had a bigger influence on my life than anybody.”

Bobby Bossardet joined Seabreeze High School’s wrestling team as a freshman. He said when he saw the level of excellence at FPC, he asked his dad if he could transfer. 

But when DeAugustino started, FPC had no feeder program. They were rolling out wrestling mats in the cafeteria, David Bossardet said.

“I honestly think Coach D. is the greatest high school coach of all time, because the things he accomplished with the resources he had is unheard of,” David said. “He did it by recruiting ninth graders. There was no middle school program.”

DeAugustino and his brother Phil, who now chairs FPC’s guidance department, started a beginner’s program in the mid ’80s at what was then Belle Terre Middle School. The middle school’s principal at the time and now its namesake, Buddy Taylor, was a really big sports fan and was glad to help the program, Steve DeAugustino said.

“Before we could win a state title, we had to win conference, district, then region,” DeAugustino said. “It was like a stepping stone. It sounds easy enough, but we needed the community support we got through the whole process.”

Farris McGee a prominent lawyer in town and Rotary Club member, helped start the Flagler Rotary Invitational in 1987. Two years later, the Bulldogs finished second in the Class 3A state tournament, falling to Hollywood McArthur by just half a point.

As devastating as that loss was at the time, it set the tone for what wss to come, the state’s first three-peat.

“I give the second-place team the credit because they’re the ones that broke the barrier,” DeAugustino said.

And at that point, everyone wanted to join the program, DeAugustino said.

“When Coach D. was in his prime, he was probably more well-known than the superintendent,” David Bossardet said. “Wednesday nights, FPC wrestling was the place to be. That’s how I grew up. I watched my brother wrestle. You can’t emphasize enough the impact he’s had on Flagler County.”

DeAugustino grew up in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He wrestled at the University of Maryland. He comes from a wrestling family. He is a member of the Florida State Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. His father, Steve, uncle Gus and cousin Mark are also Hall of Fame state chapter members.

“He’s one of a kind,” Bobby Bossardet said. “It’s bittersweet, but I know he’ll be around and continue to root for the Bulldogs.”

I’ll help them out anytime they ask me to,” DeAugustino said. “I will be available.” 

 

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