After leading Chesapeake High in Baltimore to a 28-16 record and three playoff appearances in four years, coach Mark Junker decided to step down in late May, citing family responsibilities. In his place steps Rocco Bruno, who has spent the last three years as the jayvee head coach at Archbishop Curley High.

Bruno is a Baltimore City native who has spent his entire life in and around the area. He went to high school at Curley and college at nearby Essex Community. After graduation, he spent the next 20 years working for Baltimore Gas & Electric as an engineer.

Eventually, however, Bruno decided to follow his passion for coaching. He began as a rec league coach in Overlea before moving over to Middle River. In total, Bruno spent a decade in the youth leagues before Sean Murphy, the head coach at Curley, brought him on to be his jayvee coach in 2008. Bruno proceeded to build a championship jayvee team in his three years with the Friars.

Evidently that was enough to convince Chesapeake. When Junker resigned this offseason, they gave Bruno a chance to be their next varsity head coach.

MdHigh publisher Dave Lomonico recently spoke with Bruno about his new position. Below is the full question-and-answer transcript from the chat.

I'm very excited. This is a dream I've had for a long time. I've loved high school football all my life. It's just too bad I was only 160 pounds in high school and was a better fit for lacrosse (laughs). But, really, this is just a great opportunity and I can't wait to coach these great young men at Chesapeake.

I just want to thank three people for helping me get here. First there's Joe D' Adamo, who got me involved with lacrosse at Curley and sort of changed my ghetto ways a little bit when I was a kid (laughs). Then there's Sean Murphy, the head coach at Curley, who gave me an opportunity to coach in high school. And finally, I've got to thank Rod McMillion, the athletic director at Chesapeake. He's the one who hired me and believes I can lead his program.

Well, I'll tell you, me and Mr. McMillion really hit it off. And the entire administration seemed to support his decision.

First, they like that I'm a local guy who is from Baltimore City. You see, Chesapeake has a very diverse community with a lot of different types of people. Growing up in the city, I know how to relate to all those people, and I know how the area is.

Then they liked that I've been a coach in the rec leagues and have ties to all the programs. Chesapeake is a magnet school, so you can do a little recruiting here that you can't do at other public schools.

They also thought highly of my tenure at Curley. In my three years as head jayvee coach there we won three championships. I'm a winner, and I plan on continuing to win. The administration liked that.

[Finally], they liked my vision for promoting education and especially the engineering program. That's a real important field at Chesapeake, and it's something I'm familiar with in my own business.

Well, I'll tell you, we are a little behind the eight ball right now. The process took longer then I would have liked and realistically it may hurt us a little in terms of putting the system and philosophy in place.

But thankfully we have some great kids here who have been working hard all offseason. We have a weight room full of kids -- jayvee and varsity -- who are just working their butts off. From what I understand, this is the most kids they've ever had for summer workouts. So we're making up for lost time.

When we had the first parent night, I got right up in front of them and gave it to them straight. I said, 'Nothing comes easy. We're going to be working hard and we're not going to stop until we're satisfied. We're here to win. Me and my coaches have always won and we believe you can win, too.'

That's basically the gist of it. You have to have that winning mind-set all the time. You have to believe you can win.

Well, it's hard to tell at the time because it's just words. Plenty of people say things and you never see them take action. So we'll see how they react when they see the plan go in motion. I'll get a better idea as the offseason goes on and I get to know more of the kids.

I'll tell you, it's going to be a big love fest at Chesapeake. I'm not a yeller; I believe you get more flies with honey then you do with vinegar (laughs).

At some schools, yeah, maybe you can get away with yelling. But you can't do that here. I grew up in the inner-city, so I know how these kids are. They want someone that cares about them and respects them. The kids don't respond well to constant yelling. That's part of the problem that they've had in the past here, people always yelling at them and not always trying to understand them. I'm trying to change that.

Now, there are times when I have to be strict. There are time when kids need a little kick in the rear. But mostly I'm an understanding person.

For a lot of these kids, they don't have a strong support system. So I have to be their mentor; I have be there for them. You have to prove to these kids you're behind them 100 percent for them to respect you.

Then there's a lot that these kids go though that most kids don't. For example, a lot of them can't get rides to practice, so they have to walk here all the way down Eastern Avenue. Sometimes they're late because of that. But I don't get mad at them for being late - a lot of times I'll say, 'Hey, I'm glad you made it.'

Then another example is we had one player whose mother was murdered. That's something that effected our entire program, and the young man in particular. He wasn't here for over three weeks, but I completely understood. In fact, I called him and talked to him; I tried to be there for him. He's got a lot to deal with, but he said he can't wait to get back to football.

It's those kinds of things that are different here, and that's why I have to be more understanding of the players.

Exactly. All you have in life is your word. And I'm giving these kids my word. If you do that, they'll run through a wall for you. If you don't, the kids will shut down on you. I think that's what happened a little bit last year. It's something I'm trying to change.

The key is you have to lead by example. If you tell the kids to do something, you have to do it yourself. So if I tell them practice starts at 4 p.m., well, me and my coaches are going to be here on time or even before then. If you tell a kid to run a route a certain way, you should explain why and help them understand it. If you tell a kid to watch film, well, we as a staff had better have already watched hours of film ourselves.

Most importantly, if I tell a kid I'll be there for them, I actually have to carry through with that. I'll call them to talk about family, grades or anything on their mind. I'll go to their basketball games, their lacrosse games - anything.

Oh man, that's the cornerstone of building the program. I know the local rec league teams and plan on building a real close relationship with them. We're going to get those kids excited about Chesapeake football. We're going to go down there for their games and hand out jerseys; we're going to invite them to stand on the sidelines and watch us play. We want this community involved in Chesapeake football.

You'd think they might be, but they're really not. This year we only lost two kids to grades. And that's out of our entire jayvee and varsity. So that's not too bad.

As coaches, we just want to continue that and make it so everyone is focused in the classroom. We have coaches here who will be monitoring grades, and we're going to be having a study hall, too.

We're telling these kids if they love the game and want to play, they need to take care of their schoolwork first. Education is first and foremost. No matter how far you go in football, you can only play for a few years. You need that education the rest of your life after football ends.

Yeah, sure. I'm giving the boosters plenty of ideas on how to promote the program. They're going to be out in the community drumming up interest. We're going to be having team picnics, fundraisers - all that good stuff to get people feeling good about Chesapeake.

And I [also] changed the mascot look and the design of the helmet. We're going with the Michigan wing on the helmet now. When you come in you have to change something [aesthetic] just to show the program is under new leadership.

Basically, I'm a very aggressive coach who preaches never letting up and playing until there are quadruple zeroes on the clock.

As for a system, when I was at Curley we ran the double wing, but last year we ran the single-wing. I like the single-wing personally; it's straight-at you football. It's a real power style; nothing fancy. I love taking it right to you. If you put that rock in the air too much in high school there's a lot of bad things that can happen. You can win with power football in high school; we've proven that.

Defensively, we'll be multiple. It will change each week depending on what we see on film. One week we could be a base 4-4, the next a base 4-3. We're going to be prepared for each different offense we see.

I'm bringing in some great coaches; I'm surrounding myself with real successful people. They are going to be so important because I'm not a teacher at the school. They're going to have to help keep the kids in line during the school day [as well as] help out in practice and with game planning.

Donnie Pittilo is my offensive coordinator. He's been around football for 15 years and knows how to get the job done. My defensive coordinator is Bob Curren. He's been here at Chesapeake for two years and he's been at Towson, too. So he brings that kind of college-level experience.

Coach Lance Gomries is a math teacher here and a great weight-lifting instructor. Harris Jessup is coming over from Curley with me and will help out the offensive line. And James Fields knows all the kids and will help keep the guys inside the building in line.

[Finally], my head jayvee coach is Del Hunter, who is a police office at Chesapeake and knows all the kids, too..

I have a group of kids who are in great shape and are very athletic. Everyone can move and everyone has speed. We have some linemen here who are lean and mean; they are no big, fat kids at all. So I'm real happy with that.

But what the kids lack right now is confidence. They've been beaten down too many times. So I have to bring them up and make them believe they can win. That may take a little time.

We're going to win the division this year and I'd love to win a state championship eventually. Right now we're flying under the radar, but we're going to surprise some people.

Losing is not an option. We start off the season talking about championships. I've never been apart of a loser, and that's the mantra I'm preaching to these kids. You play like a winner, practice like a winner - everything is about winning.

Honestly, we'd like to do exactly what Eastern Tech is doing. They're one of our rivals, and if we can copy that we'll be in good shape.

I believe we'll be able bring in great kids with my ties to the rec leagues. Then once they get here we'll coach them up and get them to take pride in Chesapeake football. We want a hard-working group of kids who know the fundamentals, who know how to win and want to be part of this program. My basic philosophy is hard working kids who want to win, but also know how to have fun. You have to enjoy the game to play it well.

Besides that, like I said before, you have to get a good education. That really comes first.

Then, also, I want the kids to take pride in their school. I want them to play other sports, join clubs and enjoy their high school years. I don't want them to have any regrets. Because after you get out of high school it's just not as fun.

All in all, the future is bright at Chesapeake. I can guarantee you that.