Name: Tony Chaves
Nickname: Coach
Position: Head Coach
Contact for Media Inquiry
Age: 56
Birthday: 11/7/62
Birthplace: Taddoussac, Canada
College: Valencia Community College
Experience: 25 year coaching, Pop Warner, High School (OLA), SSFL 2 years Orlando Panthers, PSFL 2 years Orlando Guardians, IWFL 5 years Orlando Mayhem, since 2010 WFA Orlando Anarchy.
High School: Winter Park High School, Orlando, FL
Profession: Commercial Plumbing Project Manager for 13 years at Tharp Plumbing in Orlando. Been plumbing since 1984. I am also the Plumbing Apprenticeship Coordinator for Tharp Plumbing and an NCCER Master Trainer.
Favorite Sports team: Orlando Anarchy, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Hobbies: Football….Building model combat ships and aircraft.
Passions: My kids, my grandkids, and any opportunity that presents itself in which I can help someone improve.
Others sports played: Football, USN, AIMD Cecil Field
How/why you got into football: I was always considered too small to play in high school, joined the Navy in 1979 at a massive 5’6″, 92 lbs. When I returned from my first cruise over a year and half later I was 5’10”, 170 lbs and could finally pad up.
I hung up the cleats until my son was old enough to play Pop Warner and got talked into assisting to coach…. it’s all history after that. There was a time (much to my wife’s chagrin) when I was coaching Pop Warner, Women’s football, and high school football almost simultaneously.
Pets: I have 2 dogs, a Shiba Inu named Loki and a Pit Bull named Chance.
Two Truths and a LIE:
— I am a certified softy.
— My players are my kids.
— That which I love, I defend fiercely.
Brief Bio:
I have been blessed with a wonderful wife of 35 years who should be canonized for sainthood, as well as rewarded for not suffocating me in my sleep with a pillow whilst dealing with a mad man. Three wonderful children who have filled my life with joy, pride, and amazement. I always believed sports were the way to keep my kids focused, in shape, and as a forum to teach life lessons. So my kids played every sport they wanted and I coached softball, baseball, football, lacrosse for them for over 15 years.
At about the same time I was first approached to coach women’s football my youngest daughter had signed up and played a short stint of Pop Warner football but was discouraged that there was not a “girls” team and then lost interest. I thought, wouldn’t it be awesome if my granddaughter ever decided to play football that I could help bring that forum about for her, or any other little girl, or young woman that decided to pursue that dream?
That has been my mission for 13 years: to make women’s football a legitimate sport, to bring credibility and recognition to these gridiron heroes who dare to dream, dare to reach.
The Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016 galvanized us as a team. Out of chaos and destruction, we became ANARCHY……truly our finest moment is yet to come, I can say I have walked in the shadows of giants….and they wear Green, Silver, and Black.
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