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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Schutt Sports Coaches of the Year

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North
Jim O'Leary
St. John's Preparatory, Danvers, MA
1997: 11-0, Div. 1 Super Bowl Champions
Record at School: 96-38-2, 14 seasons

On a drizzly and cold Thanksgiving morning, the earliest onlookers could be found claiming their seats as early as 6:30. Eventually, 10,000 interested followers would turn up in their coats and blankets to watch one of the most hyped contests in Massachusetts football history.

In a state without a true playoff, tradtional rivals St. John's Prep and Xaverian, both undefeated and ranked one-two as they had been all through the year, were meeting on St. John's turf. The countdown to the event, forgetting all other games for the schedule, had been hyped by Boston media for weeks.

Xaverian had won the match-up three years running, but St. John's would score late and converted a two-point conversion to win 15-14. Even a tie would have sent St. John's to a mythical Super Bowl (they would beat an earlier season opponent, New Bedford, 25-0), but St. John's went for two and got it in blustery conditions.

The season marked a return to power for the Eagles, a 5-5 finisher in 1996 (Prep lost three games in the last 20 seconds) and a team that has watched Xaverian advance to the Super Bowl from the five-team league for three years in a row.

While O'Leary and his staff could not determine half way through the season whether they were just that good of a team or if opponents weren't executing against them, he believes it was bonding, rare for a private school environment, that made the team truly special.

St. John's is indeed unique, as students of the 1,050 enrollment boys-only non-boarding school come from 54 different towns. Tradition runs steep on and off the field. The Harvard Review has ranked the school the top academic prep school in the country.

In 14 seasons, eight of O'Leary's players have gone on to become captains at Harvard. Six players signed Division I or I-AA scholarships in the spring of 1998.

South
Mike Smith
Hampton HS, Hampton, VA
1997: 13-0, 3A Div. 5 Champions
Record at School: 286-39-2, 27 seasons

As witnessed by his record, success is no stranger to the city program of Mike Smith at Virginia's Hampton High School. But in all his years coaching in a region that has produced Lawrence Taylor, Bruce Smith, Dwight Stephenson, Terry Kirby and Chris Slade, among others, Smith had never seen anybody like Ronald Curry.

Smith is still reveling in the memory of all-everything Curry, the most decorated football player in state history. A multi-talent who eventually chose North Carolina over Virginia and Florida State, Curry was a four-time all state quarterback, three-time all state safety and kick returner for Hampton.

"That's hard to beat," said Smith of Curry, who didn't play defense as a freshman, but did every year after in leading Hampton to back-to-back-to-back state championships for the first time. "There will probably never be another Ronald Curry. I don't think there ever was before, and I don't think there'll be one after."

Since a late controversial loss to end Curry's freshman year, Hampton has run the tables, winning 40 straight games. Smith says the key isn't the athletes, which Hampton gets its share of, but the ethic of the program passed down that remains special. "We get really fine athletes, kids that are blue collar-type workers. They'll roll their shirt sleeves up and go out, and don't mind practing three and a half hours or getting up early."

Such ethic has been essential in maintaining a program that averages over 10 wins a year with 10 combined state championships and three runner-up finishes during Smith's tenure.

Smith and his staff of two full-time assistants (including one with 25 years at the program and another, who played under Smith, with 18) give tremendous credit to the 1997 seniors for having the motivation to keep working hard, and not resting on the program's past successes.

"It was demanding, we were demanding, and to the credit of these guys, that took a lot of discipline on their behalf," Smith said.

Southeast
Dennis Dunn
Evangel Christian HS, Shreveport, LA
1997: 15-0, 3A State Champions
Record at School: 77-8, 6 seasons

Rationally, any team replacing nine starters on one side of the ball probably wouldn't constitute a state championship team. Right?

Wrong, and vehemently so. Dennis Dunn's 1996 team had won the state championship in a powerful fashion, mowing down opponents right and left behind offensive firepower. Gone was talent and experience at virtually every skill position, including quarterback. A new line also needed to be built.

Any worries about lack of experience were unfounded. Youth was served. A stingy defense gave Evangel plentiful opportunities, and the passing attack keyed by the unique 9-yard shotgun did just fine with a sophomore quarterback, thank you: Brock Berlin threw for 4,654 yards and 54 touchdowns as ECA outscored opponents by an average of 46-8 per contest.

The nine-yard shotgun, says Dunn, evolved out of need. When Dunn took over a program that was then just three years old, 135 lb. linemen were trying to fend off 200 lb. defenders the best they could.

Like past years, the defense of former Northeast (La.) defensive coordinator Ron Alexander befuddled foes. "Our defense has lived in the shadows of our offense, but they've been the key to our success over the years. They're aggressive. They fly to the football. As Coach Alexander says, 'When they get to the ball, it's a happenin,' " Dunn said.

Success has been "a happenin'" since Dunn arrived at Evangel from 5A Woodlawn High School. Dunn, a devout Christian, welcomed the opportunity and hasn't looked back. "Really, I felt like I was being called into the ministry, and I was. But He let me continue to use the same venue that I was in. That's what we're about at Evangel. We're a Christian school, and not in name only."

Midwest
Thomas McDaniels
McKinley HS, Canton, OH
1997: 14-0, Div. 1A State Champions
Record at School: 134-42, 8 seasons

In one of the toughest leagues in the country, where names like Massillon and St. Ignatius loom on the schedule year-after-year, it's impossible to be perfect.

Well, highly improbable. Then there is the occasional case such as that of the 1997 Canton-McKinley Bulldogs of Thom McDaniels, who had made the finals once in 14 seasons, the semi-finals a couple of more. In 1997, McDaniel's team, led by junior son Ben, a gutty 160-pound 6-1, and depth at skill positions, beat the best Ohio could offer. Among the casualties, Massillon and St. Ignatius­twice. A preseason No. 1 pick by USA Today, the Bulldogs held the mythical ranking all season long.

The greatest team McKinley faithful had witnessed in the recent era included six players McDaniels deemed the best he had ever coached in 26 years in the profession, but McDaniels said depth was a critical factor in winning 14 games.

"We believe in that. If you're number two and you're close, we are going to play you game night. We're going to reward kids by giving them game night playing time," he said, pointing out McKinley played four tailbacks, four fullbacks and five wide receivers.

McDaniels still talks like he's coaching the team, but actually, financial and family considerations led him to accept an administrative post in the district after the season. Coaching still burns deep. After official "retirement," he's sure he'll return somewhere.

"It came down to a very practical, realistic decision. I wasn't ready to get out of coaching. I'm not ready now. I'm going through withdrawal. But I'll do this, I'll work hard at it, but in about three or four years, I'm going back to coaching. Guaranteed."

West
Bob Ladouceur
De La Salle HS, Concord, CA
1997: 12-0, N. Coast Sec. 4A Champs
Record at School: 212-14-1, 19 seasons

Win, win, until you can't win anymore. That's all Bob Ladouceur's Spartans have done.

Without a doubt one of the hottest programs in high school football history, De La Salle broke the mark in 1997 that people have been talking about for awhile. Amid a flurry of national media coverage, the Spartans broke the national record of 73 consecutive wins. De La Salle would go on to win 12 games, finishing the season again as sectional champions and extending the national mark to 76 games.

In a program that he literally built from the ground up, lobbying for the resources for a weight room and equipment, changing attitudes and installing a work ethic and disciplined veer offense, Ladouceur has registered 13 perfect regular campaigns, 11 undefeated seasons overall. The school is 110-1 in the 90s.

Trivial things such as headsets and an army of assistants don't appeal to Ladouceur. When an opposing picked up his frequency in a game 10 years ago, the stoic but intense Ladouceur threw his headgear to the ground. His staff hasn't worn them since. His assistants number just three, and include a full-time, on-campus trainer.

Through it all, Ladouceur hasn't had the biggest kids. But ethic and adherence to a strength program has often made the Spartans stronger and faster. In the last six years, De La Salle offseason training has enjoyed a 100 percent attendance rate.

Ladouceur made it pretty simple when it laid down the law then, and the results are ongoing. "If you want to be third string the rest of your life, fine. Don't show up."

"Wanna be" Spartans have showed up, time-after-time, and because of it, De La Salle is in the record books and will look to extend The Streak further in 1998.






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