Royal Palm Beach football coach Bueno to step down

Willie Bueno is leaving the Royal Palm Beach football program after seven seasons, Athletic Director Eric Patterson confirmed Wednesday. The longtime coach, who won three state championships at two schools prior to joining the Wildcats in 2011, cited a desire to spend more time with his family.

“We are fortunate at Royal Palm Beach High School to have had the caliber of coaching that Willie Bueno brings to a staff, and we wish him well,” Patterson said. “With Willie at the helm, we were never out of a ballgame.”

Bueno, who won a state title with Glades Central in 2000 and a pair of state championships with American Heritage in 2007 and 2009, took over a struggling Royal Palm Beach program in January 2011.

The Wildcats fifinished a combined 6-15 in the two seasons before his arrival, and 1-9 the year before. In Bueno’s first season, the Wildcats finished 7-4 and advanced to the Class 7A regional quarterfinals. Royal Palm Beach also made the playoff sin 2014 and 2015 and advanced to the Class 7A regional finals the latter year.

The past two seasons have been a struggle for Royal Palm Beach, which finished a combined 4-15.

Bueno will finish his current teaching assignment through the end of the school year, Patterson said.

Boca names Peterson boys basketball coach: John Peterson no longer needs an interim in front of his name. Boca Raton promoted Peterson to head boys basketball coach Tuesday, a little more than a month after the Bobcats ended the 2017-18 season in the Class 9A regional quarterfinals. Boca Raton was a surprise runner-up in District 10-9A and nearly upset Wellington — a state finalist this season — in the first round of the regional playoffs.

The Bobcats were 17-12 under Peterson, who took over in November after previous coach Max Spinner was suspended. He was let go a month later.