Cypress Bay football coach stepping down.

Longtime South Florida high school football coach Mark Guandolo has stepped down at Cypress Bay in Weston.

Guandolo, who has spent the last 11 seasons leading the Lightning, amassed 272 wins and two state titles over 31 seasons as a head coach.

“I’ve just been doing this for a long time and thought it was time to step back a little bit and build some relationship with my family again,” Guandolo said. “I’ve just been going hard for 35 years (four as an assistant).”

Guandolo, who will stay at Cypress Bay as a physical education teacher, is not calling the move a retirement and is not eliminating the possibility of a potential return to football later on.

“You never say never. This is all new to me,” Guandolo said. “When you do something for so long and it’s your whole life, you just don’t know.”

Guandolo had an 85-41 record at Cypress Bay and took the Lightning to the 2012 Class 8A state championship game.

“I respect him for what he’s done here at the school, and he will be extraordinarily difficult to replace,” Cypress Bay athletic director Scott Selvidge said. “He put Cypress Bay football on the map. He’s been a fixture in our coaching staff and our Cypress Bay community.”

Before Cypress Bay, Guandolo was 81-13 at Chaminade-Madonna, where he won state titles in 2003 and 2005 and was runner-up in 2002. He was 55-10 at Miami Southridge and 33-11 at Miami Monsignor Pace before that, and coached Miramar for one season.

Taking Southridge to a state title game in 1999, he is one of two coaches in Florida history to take three teams to states (Billy Rolle — Miami Killian, Miami Northwestern, Miami Southridge).

Guandolo has totaled 10 regional championships, 17 district titles and 15 10-win seasons as a head coach, and is a five-time Sun Sentinel Broward Coach of the Year.

Several other Broward County head coaching positions have become open since the end of the season, including Flanagan, Cooper City, Stranahan, Blanche Ely, Dillard and McArthur.

Guandolo