National HS Coach of the Year - Grace Under Fire

Northwestern’s (Miami) Billy Rolle
by: Mike Kuchar
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They say there are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them. But about this time last year, circumstances surrounding Miami’s Northwestern High School, one of the nation’s most respected football programs, certainly seemed hopeless. Antwan Easterling, one of the nation's most sought after running backs, was 19 years old at the time and had consensual sex with a 14 year-old freshman in one of the school’s bathrooms. Despite the fact that it was considered a crime by Florida state law, what’s worse is that Easterling’s coaches and even his principal knew it. Yet they let him play in Northwestern’s state title run last season. The title was appealed and lost; but the repercussions nearly crippled the once proud program. There was a grand jury investigation; the principal and athletic director along with 19 other school officials were dismissed; and Easterling, despite hundreds of scholarship offers, ended up at Southern Mississippi.

Flash forward a year later. Miami-Northwestern, the top ranked prep school in the country, blasted Orlando Boone High School 41-0 in the Class 6A State Championship at the Florida Citrus Bowl. It was the 30th straight win and fourth state title for the Bulls. Amazing, especially considering that there was a chance that Northwestern wouldn’t even have a football season. Why the sudden turnaround? A lot had to do with the hiring of Billy Rolle, a gentle giant that was selected to guide young men who were desperately in need of direction.

“There was a lot of uncertainty about what the season was going to hold and who was going to lead this team,” said new principal Charles Hankerson. “Once we hired Billy, he brought a stable calm environment to football and culture. He kept reassuring the players that they would be fine and that he wasn’t going to change a whole lot. He allowed them to pretty much exhale and not be confused about what was going on around them.”

Despite the hundreds of resumes that poured into the school with football rich tradition that boasts alumni like Nate Webster, Marvin ‘Snoop’ Minnis, Marvin Jones and Vernon Carey, there was only one candidate who was fit for the job. Rolle was a part of three state championships for Northwestern starting in 1995 as the defensive coordinator then as the head coach during the 1997 and 1998 seasons. But surprisingly, it wasn’t his success on the gridiron that made him a natural fit for the head job. Instead, it was his reputation off the field that made him the best man for the job.

“I was looking for a coach who could work with kids and who understood the bigger picture was trying to help these young boys turn into men,” said Hankerson. He hired Rolle right before the summer started, when he was selected to be principal. “We didn’t need a football coach by basing things on the field with wins and losses. I wanted to hire someone who understood the value of producing quality young men. We would be books first, character second and football third.

Rolle heeded the mantra of Hankerson by incorporating mandatory study halls for football players whose grade point average sunk below C level (2.0). They were asked to sit in a classroom for three hours a week, including three-hour 9 a.m. Saturday sessions following Friday night games, in order to be able to compete. It was something that Rolle and Hankerson felt was necessary due to the fact that Northwestern had been graded as an F or a D school on Florida standardized testing for the past six years by the state of Florida.

But it wasn’t a taskmaster approach that drew the players to Rolle. Instead, it was more of a ‘big brother’ influence that eventually won over the hearts of the Bulls’ faithful. Rolle was a familiar face around town; he had played and coached in the program. In fact, many of the current players’ brothers, and in some cases fathers, had been coached by Rolle. So, selling the players on his name wasn’t an issue; they had heard about his reputation. It was his Joe Torre style of leading by managing, and not micro-managing, that proved most effective.

“I promised them that I wouldn’t change a thing. I wanted to assure them that I had complete confidence in them,” said Rolle. “It really wasn’t tough keeping them focused once we got going. I think they wanted to prove that the situation would not keep them down. We had a very good senior class and a lot of them were captains as juniors which was rare. So it was a big challenge for them; I just facilitated it. People laugh but I called myself more of a manager than a coach. The program kind of just ran itself.”

But sometimes as a coach, it’s hard to sit back and observe surroundings by taking yourself out of the picture. Many coaches are controlling by nature and it takes a ton of restraint just to let things shape its course. For Rolle, it was a delicate balance, in a delicate time, finding when to step in and grab the reigns and when to let things happen. But he mastered the technique. “Billy was smart enough to understand that this was a senior dominated team,” said Hankerson. “He had enough keen insight to know that if he pushed too hard they might rebel against him. Yet he was shrewd enough to say, ‘look, I need you guys to lead this team.’ He put a ton of onus on the players. After we got going they let their guards down and allowed him to lead them. And it took off.”

Of course it didn’t hurt that during his first meeting with the players, Rolle recited, without use of paper reference, the entire Northwestern High School fight song. He raised his right hand, shaped like horns, in the air and started to recite words that were created in the 50’s when the school first opened. To Rolle, it was a rite of passage from one Bull generation to the next. “I wanted them to know that I knew what was going on and I wanted to show them that I had pride in the program despite everything,” said Rolle. “I think they got really excited at that; their eyes got pretty big.”

But the adversity continued to mount on Rolle’s squad. Wherever they went, the Bulls would hear about last year’s atrocity and how despite what they did on the field, they would always be an inadequate program--a group of reckless teenagers who had no regard for responsibility or character. “Every time they turned around they had someone else talking about them,” said Rolle. “And it got boring because everyone was saying the same types of things. There were so many speeches about ‘don’t do this, don’t do that, you can’t do that, if you do this, this is what will happen to you.’ There was just a ton of negative energy. These kids were tired of hearing it. They weren’t five years old and they knew how to act. There were so many times where radio and TV wanted to come to the school and it got kind of sickening. Bottom line was our kids manned up and did what they needed to do to continue to be a program.” Before Rolle even got there, the seniors conducted practice in the summer. They worked hard in the weight room. They stood together knowing that the season, their season, was close and they had no time to pout. They had to go out and get ready. They shook themselves off and kept going.

They were hungry for the season to begin. Northwestern High, which started the season ranked #2 in the country, rolled over rival Carol City High School 42-0. Then they squashed Homestead High School 28-18 in order to set up a national showdown with top ranked Southlake Carroll High School of Texas. In front of 31,896 fans in Gerald J. Ford Stadium, home of the SMU Mustangs, the Bulls defeated Carroll 29-21. The win broke the Dragon’s 49 game winning streak and pretty much secured Northwestern as the best football team in the country. “That win over Carroll really cemented us as a program,” Rolle would later say. “It was more of a matter of pride within our kids that they could get through anything.”

Perhaps Rolle’s quarterback, senior Jacory Harris – whose father was the only holdover from last season’s staff – said it best after the victory. “We’ve been through so much before, but this win took a burden off our shoulders,” said Harris. “All the bad things the media said about us, about how we were such a poor team. They can see now we’re a team that plays as one and stays focused.” The focus and dominance continued throughout the season as the Bulls were really never even tested. They outscored their remaining thirteen opponents 628-143. Even during the state championship against Boone, after a scoreless first quarter, the Bulls took total control of the game for a 41-0 victory.

What’s more important is that the success from the school’s football team has carried over to change the entire culture of the school. Hankerson said attendance at Northwestern has already improved, up from 88 percent last year to 93 percent this year. Since school began in September, Hankerson says he can count on one hand the number of suspensions he has had to dole out. Rolle’s team had been trouble free the entire season. Even the FCAT scores have accelerated. The drastic turnaround has been noticed by basically everyone affiliated with the school. “You cannot put enough accolades on the character of this football team and how they presented themselves on and off the field, especially in Texas,” said Northwestern alumni president Larry Williams. He was one of those more prominent boosters who courted Rolle for the head job. “They played with class and dignity. We even got emails from Texas saying how great our young men were.”

Apparently the demeanor of one man has transformed the state of a program and the culture of a school. But of course, if you asked Billy Rolle about his influence on his players, he would deny it. He’s just that type of guy.

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