Port St. Lucie football head coach Chris Dent departs for college football job

Port St. Lucie head football coach Chris Dent is taking a job to be the quarterbacks coach at his alma mater Chowan University after seven years leading the Jaguars.

Dent was approached by Chowan's new head coach Paul Johnson after his name was recommended as a potential fit earlier this month. After being offered the position, the 46-year-old former Hawk quarterback couldn't pass up the chance to return to a familiar place.

"(Chowan) has a new head coach and putting together a staff, my name got brought up and (Johnson) threw it out there and asked if I would be interested in interviewing and I thought why not," Dent said. "They wanted me on board."

Dent played quarterback at Chowan from 1995-98 and has been a long-time coach on the Treasure Coast in the last 20 years.

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Previously as an assistant at Port St. Lucie from 2010-14, Dent was the Jaguars head coach from 2016 to this past season where the team posted a 5-5 record.

Last season, the Jaguars won their first district title since 1990 and won seven games which was the most wins for the program since 1991.

Dent's final day at Port St. Lucie will be next Friday and he will head up to Chowan, located in Murfreesboro, North Carolina that weekend as the new staff will be introduced to their players.

Dent's current staff members will help the program transition and take part in workouts as a new coach will be decided on and is hopeful that assistant Vinnie Deaguila will be highly considered to be the next head coach as Dent believes it would be a seamless fit to help stabilize the next wave for the Jaguars.

From the successes on the field to being able to help kids continue their careers at the next level, Dent is proud of what he was able to do at Port St. Lucie with the work put in by the players and coaches all creating a culture of hard work and being a tough team for anyone to play against.

"When you take a job, you always want to leave it in a better place than you took it," Dent said. "We've put kids in college and I think the program is as stable as it has ever been in program history. I think whoever comes in and takes over is in a great situation because we've got a good group of upcoming seniors."

Port St. Lucie's next head coach will be the second new hire for the area after Centennial selected assistant Jacob Turay as their head coach in January.

Bryan Cooney is the high school sports reporter for Treasure Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at bcooney@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Port St. Lucie football head coach departs for college football job