Meet Art DaCosta! He coaches Track and Cross Country at North Hall. Coach Art was born in Connecticut and moved to Florida when he was 5. He went to college at The University of Florida and then transferred to Florida Atlantic University. He started coaching with his old high school coach for 4 years at MacArthur High School. Coach Art then went into the Army for 4 years. He coached for 20 years until he retired. Eventually, he became a community coach at North Hall and has been coaching here for 15 years.
Thank you, Coach Art, for sharing with us!
Q. Tell me a little about your family.
A. “My father did paint and body work. My mother worked at a bank. I have one brother. I have a sister who passed away at the age of five. My brother lives in Texas. His first wife passed away from cancer, he remarried. and I have two wonderful nephews and one of them is married and I have two wonderful grand nephews.”
Q. Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
A. “Probably still coaching at North Hall, until they put me in a pine box.”
Q. What is the most beautiful place you have ever been?
A. “Smoky Mountains.”
Q. What is some advice you would like to leave to people?
A. “Live life to the fullest. You never know what’s gonna happen the next day.”
Q. Who would you like to play in a movie?
A. “Iron Man.”
Q. Who is the most interesting person you have met in our community?
A. “Irma Logs. She has lived in the Gainesville area since World War II, she was like six years old. So she knows a lot about the community, and she can tell you about anything, all the things that have changed.”
Q. What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
A. “I like Wild Wing Cafe. I spend the most time there, but there’s other restaurants that have better, you know, steaks and things like that, but that’s probably the one I eat the most. “
Q. If you could choose anyone that is alive today, with whom would you love to have lunch? And where locally would you meet for this lunch?
A. “I would probably want to take my dad. Wild Wing Cafe, he wouldn’t eat the wings.”
Q. What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
A. “I love the fall and winter weather. When I was growing up in South Florida, I really didn’t have any seasonal changes. I love the mountains. I like the lake, all right. I’m not sure what my favorite thing is. Lots of good restaurants and good people.”
Q. What is something on your bucket list?
A. “I don’t have a bucket list. Maybe a long time ago I had a bucket list. Running marathons was something that I kind of wanted to do and I did plenty of them. I did a lot of them”
Q. What’s your favorite movie?
A. “The Princess Bride”
Q. What’s your favorite band?
A. “I don’t really have a favorite band. I’d say my go-to band is Tom Petty.”
